Swihart recognized with Geoffrey Marshall Mentoring Award

The award is presented by the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools and represents the second time Swihart’s mentoring efforts have been recognized this academic year. He received the University at Buffalo Graduate School’s Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award in December.

“For a faculty member at a research university, the mentoring of graduate students is really the core of the job and the greatest impact that we can have. While there are other outputs like grants and journal papers, fundamentally, we are an educational institution,” Swihart says. “Producing capable and ethical graduates who contribute to the advancement of science and engineering is the most important thing we do.”

Swihart has advised over 95 graduate students — all during his time at UB — and has made a significant difference in the lives of many of them, particularly in giving students a second chance. He welcomed students into his research group who have left others and gave them a chance to start fresh. Getting a fresh start in Swihart’s group enabled students to complete their PhDs and assume productive careers in industry and academia. Swihart cherishes watching his students’ accomplishments throughout their careers.

“One of my PhD students initially had terrible luck, joining two different startups that went bankrupt. He must have learned from those experiences because he founded his own startup which is valued at over $1 billion,” Swihart says. “In another example, one of my students became a professor at San Jose State University, where he has had tremendous impact in supporting students from underrepresented groups to succeed in engineering.”

Swihart joined UB in 1998. He received his BS in chemical engineering from Rice University, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.  He is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.