This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
“My emphasis is on teaching,” says J. Ronald “Bud” Martin ’66, associate professor of chemical engineering. “I enjoy it the most of all faculty duties. I like contact with students. You develop a rapport with students [that] makes it fun to come to work.”
Martin worked in industry doing research for five years after getting his doctorate from Princeton. “My reason for going to graduate school was to teach. But I soon discovered that teaching other places is not like here. This is the only place I wanted to teach. Here the primary emphasis is on teaching.”
Martin, whose area of interest is polymers, teaches the introductory chemical engineering course as well as thermodynamics and a specialized technical course in polymers. For the last four years he has also taught a Values and Science/Technology (VAST) seminar for nonengineering students on the sociological and ethical implications of plastics. The class visits a landfill and discusses recycling and disposal of plastics among other issues.
Martin has also involved students in his research as EXCEL Scholars. Brian Shapella ’99 worked with Martin as an EXCEL Scholar and was advised by him for his honors thesis. Shapella’s topic was the use of polymers to reduce drag when liquids are pumped through a pipe, such as the Alaskan oil pipeline or a fire hose.
“Prof. Martin was great to work with,” says Shapella, now a graduate student in biotechnology at Lehigh University. “He taught me how to think critically on my own, and to look beyond the here and now and detail of a specific problem, to look at the whole picture. He had a huge influence on the type of person I’ve become.”
Chemical engineering graduate Lissette (Zamora) Smead ’89 says Martin was “always very supportive. He was a great adviser. He encouraged me to continue with a history class I wanted to drop from my schedule. In the end, I did well in it. He’s the only professor I still keep in touch with.”
Smead, senior supply planner for ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Houston, is responsible for supply and operations planning for their polypropylene business. “Now that I’ve transferred to ExxonMobil’s Polymer Division, we have even more in common. I’ve looked up information in my old textbook from his course.”
J. Ronald Martin (right), professor of chemical engineering, works with student in materials lab.