New Rider chemistry fellowship honors 3 former faculty members

Rider University has announced the launch of a new endowed research fellowship for chemistry students in honor of three of Rider’s most successful and passionate professors.

The Endowed Chemistry Research Fellowship in Honor of Professors Burnham, Kent and Sheats is intended to support summer and extra-curricular unpaid or partially paid internships and research opportunities and to extend those research opportunities to all students while alleviating financial hardship.

The fellowship was established in part thanks to a $20,000 gift to the University by Jason Hong, who studied organic chemistry with Professor Gerald Kent as a senior in high school in the early 1990s.

“Professor Kent was very enthusiastic,” Hong said. “He was in his 60s, teaching a class he had taught for 30 years. It’s rare to find someone with that enthusiasm for any subject. It’s indicative of much he enjoyed sharing the course material with his students.”

Hong said that Kent’s class started his own interest in chemistry, and he hopes the fellowship will motivate students to want to compete for extracurricular experience. “Having opportunities to practice chemistry beyond what you do in the classroom is enlightening,” he added.

The Endowed Chemistry Research Fellowship in Honor of Professors Burnham, Kent and Sheats builds on initial fellowship opportunities created in honor of Professors Sheats and Burnham that were created in 2011 and 2014, respectively. These two fellowships were combined because of their shared mission; then, with the addition of the gift from Hong, it became clear to University leadership that one fellowship in honor of all three faculty members was in order.

Recipients of the fellowship will be selected by a committee of members of the chemistry faculty. An applicant must be a full-time chemistry or biochemistry student, have achieved academic merit and be pursuing a recognized research opportunity as approved by the chemistry faculty.

“We’re fully committed to providing the best science education we can, and such financial support will ensure we can do so,” said Dr. Jonathan Millen, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Rider University. “We want to attract the best students to study in our science programs. We want to provide affordable options for those top students, and we want to make Rider the destination of choice for students who have options. The fellowship does just that.”

The fellowship will honor the late Professor Bruce Burnham, the late Professor Emeritus Gerald Kent and retired Professor Emeritus John Sheats. Each of these esteemed faculty members demonstrated the highest level of mentorship to their students during their combined 86 years of service to Rider University. Burnham and Kent are remembered for their tireless commitment to nurturing student talent. 

Burnham joined the Rider faculty in 1998 and taught for 16 years. A lauded researcher, he was also an active mentor and co-led Rider’s participation in the American Chemical Society’s Project SEED, which mentors underrepresented students from local high schools. Burnham was also very active in the affairs of the Trenton Section of the American Chemical Society.

Kent was a noted researcher and inspired teacher for 32 years who played a foundational role in establishing the new science division at Rider. In 1980, he was awarded the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award that recognizes faculty teaching excellence at Rider. 

Sheats, who retired in 2008 after 38 years of service to Rider, was instrumental in establishing Project SEED at Rider and continues to maintain relationships with his students. He was honored for his contributions to chemistry and the American Chemical Society (ACS) by being named a 2010 ACS Fellow.

For more information on the Endowed Chemistry Research Fellowship in Honor of Professors Burnham, Kent and Sheats, please call Associate Director of Scholarship Stewardship Rebecca Mamrosh at 609-896-5295 or [email protected].