Professor Leaves Over Chemistry Decision
By Matt Murphy, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
May 10–BOSTON — Count Al Gore, the former vice president and now global-warming activist, as an admirer of UMass Lowell professor John Warner.
Gore, in a recent conversation with Chancellor-select Marty Meehan about visiting the Lowell campus, spoke highly of the work Warner is doing in the field of green chemistry.
Too bad Warner won’t be around to talk shop if Gore ever does make the trip to Lowell.
The renowned professor, who tried to bring his unique, environmental program from UMass Boston to UMass Lowell, has resigned after the university failed to make room in its curriculum for his graduate-degree program.
The Faculty Senate on Monday gave preliminary approval to a proposed green-chemistry doctorate program, but one that Warner said he would not feel “comfortable being associated with.”
The approved green-chemistry doctorate program would be folded into the existing organic-chemistry program as a specialty option for students, a track Warner said “falls far outside of a format and definition” he could
endorse.
Warner, the pre-eminent green-chemistry scholar in the country, submitted his letter of resignation to interim Chancellor David MacKenzie Tuesday morning.
Reached in his office yesterday, Warner declined to comment beyond the words in his letter.
“I have no graduate program, I have no graduate students, and I cannot teach the courses that I have demonstrated proficiency at teaching,” Warner wrote. “This sadly leaves me with no alternative but to tender my resignation.”
UMass Lowell has touted its “green chemistry” program as one of the unique ways the university has positioned itself to be a leader in the regional economy, capitalizing on the push for more environmentally friendly business practices.
“I’m surprised and very concerned about professor Warner’s letter,” Meehan said yesterday. “I’m going to meet with him as soon as possible to discuss his plans, because I want to retain scientists like him at UMass Lowell.
“He literally wrote the book on green chemistry,” Meehan said.
Green chemistry is an environmentally sound approach to manufacturing that limits or eliminates the use of toxic chemicals to reduce toxic waste.
Warner, a professor of plastics engineering and director of the Center for Green Chemistry, was persuaded to come to Lowell from UMass Boston in 2004 by former Chancellor William Hogan to develop an interdisciplinary graduate program.
It would have been only the second “green chemistry” doctorate program in the country, after UMass Boston.
Fourteen graduate students followed Warner to UMass Lowell to study under him. Eight have since transferred back to UMass Boston, four joined the chemistry department, and two left school.
The chemistry department has three times rejected Warner’s attempt to join the chemistry faculty and his graduate program has been stalled in faculty governance despite 12 attempts to revise his plan to the faculty’s liking, Warner wrote.
UMass Lowell Associate Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney said she felt “terrible” about Warner leaving, but stands behind the chemistry department’s “green chemistry” program.
“With any of these new programs, this is an emerging and cutting-edge field. It’s challenging to find the right fit for these programs,” Moloney said. “This effort reflects solid thinking to come up with a program in the green chemistry that will push out this area.”
Moloney said there was a difficulty in reconciling Warner’s innovative view for the future of the field, with the academic rigor and reality of higher education.
Meehan said he was disappointed.
In his three years at UMass Lowell, Warner has brought over $2 million in funding to the university for green chemistry research.
“That’s exactly the type of research scientist I’m looking for,” Meehan said. “If he were to stay over the next three years, I felt he could easily bring in an additional $5 million in sponsored research. By pursuing foundation money on top of that, there’s no telling how much we could bring in.”
Warner said he is unsure what his next move will be, but Moloney suggested that Warner is being recruited by private industry.
The former Polaroid scientist left the corporate world in 1988 to begin teaching, becoming one of the country’s foremost experts on green chemistry. He co-wrote the original “green chemistry” text.
He was also one of nine people recognized with the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, honored at the White House by President Bush with a ceremony for the country’s top science educators.
The UMass Lowell chemistry department has not been without its problems in recent years. It was put on alert for its low graduation rate, which some critics have suggested is due to the attitude of professors in the department and a high student-failure rate.
The chemistry department has graduated fewer than five undergraduates a year over the past five years, and did not hand out a single bachelor’s degree in 2003 and 2004, according to a source within the university.
Similarly, the graduate chemistry program produced fewer than five doctorates per year over the past five years.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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