UA Chemistry Professor Wins Prestigious Burnum Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Robin D. Rogers, established scientist and chemistry professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Alabama , has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award.

On Tuesday, April 6, at 4:30 p.m., Rogers will be presented with the award during a ceremony in Morgan Hall auditorium, after which he will present a lecture entitled “A Burnum Legacy: Red Chemistry, Green Chemistry, and My Road from Alabama to Alabama.”

The Burnum Award is one of the highest honors the Capstone bestows on its faculty. It is presented annually to a professor who is judged by a faculty selection committee to have demonstrated superior scholarly or artistic achievements and profound dedication to the art of teaching.

Rogers has served on the UA faculty since 1996. He holds bachelor and doctoral degrees in chemistry from the University. Before returning to UA as a professor of chemistry, Rogers served on the faculty at Northern Illinois University, where he was named a Presidential Research Professor.

“This is an incredible honor, and I feel humbled by the University’s decision to bestow it upon me,” Rogers said of the Burnum Award. “I grew up in Alabama, bleeding red and white and had always wanted to come back here as a professor. When I did return in 1996, I wanted to do the best I could to further my department, college, and University by challenging myself, my students and all around me to be not only the ‘best that Alabama can be’ but the ‘best.’

“It is because of the University’s investments and willingness to listen, that we could build our programs to the point where such an award would be possible,” he continued. “Thus, I think it only appropriate to point out that this award is really not to me, but to the faculty, students, staff and administration that have facilitated and supported these efforts.”

Nominators praised Rogers’ research accomplishments. “I am most familiar with Dr. Rogers’ work in the area of crystal engineering and in green chemistry,” said Dr. Allan S. Myerson, professor of engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology. “His work is of high quality, has appeared in first-rate journals and has had an international impact.”

According to Dr. Richard A. Bartsch, chairman of the chemistry and biochemistry department at Texas Tech University, “Robin is a world-class chemist with an amazing level of accomplishment.”

Rogers has published more than 525 papers on various topics and is one of the most frequently cited researchers in the world. He holds three patents, has edited seven books and, with students and colleagues, has given more than 500 presentations at regional, national and international conferences. The Rogers Research Group at UA, a collection of students and scientists, is funded by numerous federal grants, including grants from the Air Force, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.

In 2001, Rogers received an American Chemical Society Newsmaker Award, and he was named a UA College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Board Fellow in 2002. Two of Rogers’ students have also won national awards in the past two years. In 2002, Ann E. Visser received an American Institute of Chemical Engineers Separations Division Graduate Student Award in Solvent Extraction, and in 2003, Richard P. Swatloski won the ACS Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Student Award in Green Chemistry.

In her nomination, Visser wrote, “Dr. Rogers instilled in me the self-confidence necessary to achieve my goal of completing my Ph.D. research. From the first day I started in his research group, I was motivated to do my research, but what I needed was someone to teach me how to be professional and successful. In this, Dr. Rogers made the most lasting impression on me … he taught me how to succeed as a scientist.”

Rogers founded and currently serves as the editor-in-chief of Crystal Growth and Design, an ACS journal. In addition, he is on the International Advisory Board for Green Chemistry and has had his research cited in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Chemical & Engineering News and Science News, among other leading newspapers and journals.

Not all of Rogers’ contributions to UA have been in the classroom or the research lab — he also enjoyed a stint as a tuba player in the UA Million Dollar Band. “The band has always been a wonderful way to be a part of the University community,” he said. “I joined the Northern Illinois University marching band when I joined the faculty there and stayed in it as long as I was up there. When I returned to UA, Kathryn Scott allowed me to join the Million Dollar Band once more, and I think that was also a memorable experience.”

The award was established by Dr. and Mrs. John F. Burnum of Tuscaloosa to recognize and promote excellence in research, scholarship and teaching. Burnum Award honoree names are permanently displayed on a bronze plaque in the lobby of UA’s Rose Administration Building.