Backers Pushing to Keep Prof at UML

By Matt Murphy, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

May 12–LOWELL — Green chemistry will continue at UMass Lowell, with or without the discipline’s founding scholar — professor John Warner.

But the disgruntled professor, who resigned this week over philosophical differences with the university’s Chemistry Department, has a growing number of people rallying to his side, including incoming Chancellor Marty Meehan.

Meehan had a lengthy conversation with Warner Thursday in an effort to convince the green chemistry professor not the leave the university.

“We had a long conversation about things he would like to do. I want to make sure he’s still connected in some capacity to the university and that we work collaboratively,” Meehan said.

Warner, regarded by many as the pre-eminent green chemistry professor in the country, submitted his letter of resignation to interim Chancellor David MacKenzie Monday. (Warner plans to leave Aug. 31.)

He is reportedly looking at establishing his own non-profit green chemistry institute at Bradford College in Haverhill.

Green

chemistry, a relatively new field, stresses an environmentally sound approach to manufacturing that limits or eliminates the use of toxic chemicals to reduce toxic waste.

In the letter, Warner wrote that he felt he had no choice but to resign after the chemistry department thwarted his attempts to establish the “green chemistry” doctorate program he had been promised at UMass Lowell three years ago.

“John Warner is a visionary, and has a view of chemistry for what it can be and what its potential is that has excited a lot of people,” MacKenzie said. “His view of chemistry is controversial among the chemistry world, sort of on the revolutionary side. Whenever someone comes up with a new paradigm, there is often resistance from those who have approached it differently in the past.”

Chemistry Department Chairman Eugene Berry said he had no comment about Warner’s decision to resign or factors that contributed to the falling out.

The Faculty Senate finalized its own green chemistry doctorate program this week that will be rolled into the organic chemistry department, and has a focus that Warner said he did not feel comfortable being associated with.

MacKenzie described the schism as a philosophical difference between old-school and new-school chemists and the way they believe the subject should be taught.

In two letters written to UMass Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Kate Harrington, University of Wisconsin chemistry professor Charles Casey and Carnegie Mellon University professor Terrence Collins stood up for Warner and his program.

The letters indicate that Berry refused to meet with either professor on a visit to UMass Lowell to provide feedback on Warner’s proposed doctorate program. Casey and Collins also wrote about concerns on campus that green chemistry might be nothing more than a “fad.”

“Green chemistry is an extremely important development in science and that you are fortunate indeed to have one of the original leaders on your campus,” they wrote in one letter obtained by The Sun.

The UMass Lowell green chemistry degree will be only the second doctorate in the country offered in the subject. MacKenzie said for every ardent supporter of Warner’s new approach to the field, there are college faculty across the country still leery of his methods.

“If (green chemistry) is real, and I believe it is, then it is bigger than John. We have other green chemists on campus and now we have a Ph.D. in green chemistry. It will continue on campus, if he ultimately decides to leave, he has had an impact. That program might not have happened without John Warner,” MacKenzie said.

But Meehan called Warner’s decision to leave UMass Lowell “surprising” and “concerning.”

Warner was recruited to UMass Lowell after he established the first green chemistry doctorate program in the country at UMass Boston.

State Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, who has been instrumental in recent years securing funding for the university — including $80 million for the new nano/bio manufacturing center — called Warner’s departure “unacceptable.”

“UMass Lowell cannot allow this to happen. If you ever heard him speak to young students, he’s one of the most motivational scientists who gets young people excited about science,” Panagiotakos said.

“They need to get back to the academic table and try to find some common ground here that will allow this scientist’s work to continue and bloom at UMass Lowell,” the senator said.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

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