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Colón, Alexandridis recognized as mentors
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Luis Colón
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Paschalis Alexandridis
NBC Latino talks to Luis Colón about mentoring Latino scientists.
Luis Colón and Paschalis Alexandridis are the inaugural recipients of a new award administered by the Graduate School to recognize UB faculty for their support and development of graduate students through their mentoring activities.
The Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award is being given annually to a member of the graduate faculty who has demonstrated “truly outstanding and sustained support and development of graduate students from course completion through research and subsequent career placement,” according to John T. Ho, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the graduate school.
The annual winner also will be submitted as UB’s nominee for that academic year’s Geoffrey Marshall Mentoring Award administered every spring by the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools.
Colón, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry, has long been involved in advancing diversity and mentoring students in the chemical sciences at UB. For many years, he has arranged for Hispanic undergraduates from his native Puerto Rico to have a summer research experience in the Department of Chemistry. Many of these students have gone on to pursue graduate study.
He also has mentored additional UB undergraduates, many from underrepresented groups, including those with disabilities.
Colón is a member of the advisory committee to the Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship Program, which supports underrepresented students in graduate programs at UB; he also serves as a research mentor for Schomburg Fellows. He has worked with the NSF-SUNY Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and the SUNY Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, which aims to produce more PhDs among underrepresented groups.
Colón has received numerous awards in recognition of his mentoring, among them the 2009 AAAS Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Faculty Mentor of the Year Award in 2004 from the Compact for Faculty Diversity, a national initiative to produce more minority PhDs.
A UB faculty member since 1993, Colón is an analytical chemist whose research focuses on chemical analysis at the micro/nano scales, the development of new materials for chemical separations, environmental chemistry and bioanalytical chemistry, especially developing new methodology to analyze biological samples, such as saliva and tears and their potential use in clinical diagnostics.
Alexandridis, UB Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, also serves as acting associate dean for research and graduate education in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and director of graduate studies in the chemical and biological department.
He is a double SUNY Chancellor’s Award winner, having been the recipient of the award for excellence in scholarship and creative activities in 2011 and the award for excellence in teaching in 2006.
His outstanding teaching also has been recognized with a 2002 Certificate of Recognition from the UB Career Planning and Placement Office, and the 1999 American Society for Engineering Education Dow Outstanding New Faculty Award.
Alexandridis joined the UB faculty as an assistant professor in 1997 and was named a UB Distinguished Professor in 2009. He has served on the Faculty Senate and the University Faculty Senate Graduate and Research Committee.
His research aims to create and manipulate molecular organization at the nano-scale and organization at the micron-scale of nano-objects. His expertise has a wide range of applications in pharmaceuticals, coatings, inks and thermoplastic elastomers.
He holds six patents and has published two books, as well as dozens of articles in peer publications. Last fall, he was named the recipient of the Jacob F. Schoellkopf Award, given annually by the Western New York section of the American Chemical Society in recognition of outstanding work and service in the fields of chemistry or chemical engineering.
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