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Chemistry professor recognized for mentoring efforts
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
Webster's defines "mentor" as "a trusted counselor or guide; tutor; coach."
Luis Colón's students use those words—and many others—to describe the UB associate professor of chemistry.
Luis Colón (fourth from left)
keeps an open-door policy for his students, shown here in the
ColónLab in the Natural Sciences Complex. Colón recently
received a national mentoring award for his efforts.
PHOTO: SUE
WUETCHER
"To me, Luis (he would rather have us call him Luis than Dr. Colón) is part of my adopted family here in chilly Buffalo," says Héctor Colón-Cruz, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences. "Being a member of his (research) group has provided me with a friend who is also a great example of excellence and compromise. He always has words of support when work is difficult, and I can always count on him when I need his wisdom for my professional and personal conflicts."
Colón's achievements as a teacher and mentor have been recognized beyond the "ColónLab"—his research lab in the Department of Chemistry. Colón recently was honored with a Faculty Mentor of the Year Award from the Compact for Faculty Diversity, a national initiative to produce more minority Ph.D.s and encourage them to seek faculty positions.
The award was made during the compact's 10th Annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, held recently in Miami under the auspices of the Southern Regional Education Board. Colón-Cruz, who attended the conference as one of five students affiliated with the SUNY Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program, nominated Colón for the award.
AGEP is a National Science Foundation initiative to increase significantly the number of underrepresented minority students pursuing doctoral degrees and academic careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The University at Stony Brook is the senior partner in the SUNY AGEP, along with UB, Binghamton University and the University at Albany.
"As a mentor, Luis always has good advice when you need it and he works hard to make his students better scientists and better professionals," says Colón-Cruz. "He is always willing to help students in their professional and personal conflicts, even if they are not in his research group. I have seen students from our research group and other research groups asking him for advice on different aspects—academic- and non academic-related issues—and he always takes time to listen and to talk to us," he says.
"His former students are always looking for ways to collaborate with him, which tells me that they are as grateful as I am for the opportunity to work with him."
Colón says his philosophy is simple: He treats graduate students as if they were colleagues.
"They work here, they do research. They really are the ones doing the experiments; I give them the ideas. Students are the center of this operation," says Colón, whose research involves chemical analysis and chemical separations.
He says one of the reasons he was interested in becoming a faculty mentor was the lack of interaction between faculty and students that he observed while he was a graduate student. He also notes that many junior faculty members, giving in to the pressures created by the quest to earn tenure, tend to forget about the importance of making time for students.
"I have always kept an open-door policy for students," Colón says. "When they come into my office with a problem, I put things aside to talk to them."
And it's not just about the science.
"My door is open for personal talk, too," he says. "It does make a difference. I have a relationship with my students, and the students reciprocate. When they see you're open to them, you don't have to ask them to run the extra mile (in the research lab)," he says.
"We are friends," he points out, "but they understand that they have certain responsibilities (in the lab) that have to be met."
Colón fondly recalls one UB student from another chemistry research group who was going to leave the graduate program before earning his master's degree. One of Colón's students suggested that he speak with Colón about his situation.
Colón says he encouraged the student not to leave the program and to try to join another research group. A day later, the student came back and told Colón he wanted to join his group—making the decision without speaking with any other faculty members.
"That really, really touched me," Colón says, adding he is still in touch with the former student, who now works in the field, thanks to his UB degree.
Colón, who received his bachelor's degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey and a doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, has established a "pipeline" between UB and UPR-Cayey, helping to recruit UPR-Cayey graduates into the UB chemistry graduate program. Colón-Cruz is one of his success stories.
"I had the opportunity to meet Luis during one of his many visits to UPR-Cayey to give lectures and workshops, and recruit students to UB," Colón-Cruz says. "Seeing his enthusiasm for research, his overall knowledge and his own success made me decide to apply to the Graduate School at UB.
"It is significant to me that he still visits his old university, showing that he has not forgotten his roots and providing an example that anyone who works hard enough can better themselves," he says.
Myron (Mick) Thompson, associate provost who oversees UB's participation in the AGEP program, points out that AGEP "embraces all graduate levels," not just doctoral-level studies, noting that many graduate students who enter UB in master's programs stay on for their Ph.D.s.
The Department of Chemistry "has made an extraordinary effort to reach out and diversify its population," Thompson says, and has used AGEP funds to assist in that effort by supplementing fellowships and providing funds for student recruitment and conference travel.
"Chemistry has taken advantage of AGEP," he says, noting that Colón and Huw Davies, director of graduate studies of the department, have been "instrumental in that process."