Luis Colón retires, leaving behind a legacy defined by mentorship as much as research

BUFFALO, N.Y. — You can learn a lot about Luis Colón’s career by spending time in his University at Buffalo workspace.

On a bookshelf sits his fifth-grade science textbook, which contains a silver sulfide experiment with a spoon and egg that sparked his fascination with chemistry.

Hanging on the wall is a patent on silica hybrids — research that helped lay the groundwork for this specialized material to be widely used in chemical analysis.

But to truly understand the SUNY Distinguished Professor’s career, you have to look elsewhere.

Go to the back wall of his lab, where students sign their names after earning graduate degrees. You may even have to scan his inbox and social media feeds, where those students regularly share updates about their careers in industry and academia.

“Seeing my students being successful tops everything,” says Colón, PhD, who is also the A. Conger Goodyear Professor.

Now, after 33 years in the UB Department of Chemistry, Colón is retiring this semester — leaving behind a career defined as much by the students he mentored as by the research he conducted.

In addition to advising over 50 graduate students, Colón has worked to tap the talents of his native Puerto Rico. He recruited over 30 students from the U.S. territory who went on to earn advanced degrees in chemistry from UB, and brought more than 100 Hispanic-American students to campus as part of a summer research program model that’s been replicated at other universities.

Colón’s mentorship of students and efforts to increase representation in the sciences have earned him the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the Obama Administration, as well as the Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. 

Last year, he received the President’s Medal from UB President Satish K. Tripathi.

“Through his commitment to discovery, mentorship and expanding opportunity, Professor Colón represents the very best of the University at Buffalo and our mission,” Tripathi says. “His impact is measured not only in his pioneering research, but in the students whose lives and careers he has guided. As he has empowered emerging scientists to lead, he has profoundly enriched our university, his field and the broader scientific community.”

A. Scott Weber, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, adds that Colón “exemplifies the very best qualities of what a faculty member should be.”

“He is an exemplary scholar and university citizen who is deeply committed to the success of the next generation of scholars and his colleagues across UB,” Weber says. “Luis has made a significant and lasting impact on UB and on countless faculty and students he has supported. We are so grateful for all that he has contributed and wish him all the best in his well-earned retirement.”

Colón always had academic mentors who pushed him to go further.

First, there was the fifth-grade science teacher who first showed him that the sulfur in an egg can turn a silver spoon black. Then there was a ninth-grade teacher who refused to sign paperwork that would have sent him to vocational school, steering him instead toward an academic high school. 

In college, a professor recognized his knack for chemistry and urged him to change his major. Even after graduation, his supervisor at an industrial pharmaceutical plant supported his decision to pursue a PhD on the U.S. mainland.

Their encouragement was a large reason why Colón ultimately earned a chemistry PhD from the University of Massachusetts Lowell despite a less conventional path. He hadn’t had opportunities to conduct research as an undergraduate student and then spent five years working in industry before returning to school. 

So, when Colón arrived at UB for his first faculty job in 1993, he felt compelled to mentor students who had followed a less traditional path like he did. 

“I wanted to develop students who had the potential but not the opportunity to realize it,” Colón says. “And it so happens that many of those students are Hispanic.”

It’s unclear how many Puerto Rican college graduates pursue advanced degrees on the mainland. But among high school graduates who enroll in four-year colleges, only about 4% leave the island to attend school elsewhere, with the majority from elite private schools.

That’s less than most other U.S. territories, and far lower than Alaska and Hawaii, where roughly half of new college students attend institutions outside their home states.

To change this, Colón began by giving lectures at his alma mater, the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey (UPR Cayey). This allowed him to tell students there to consider applying to graduate school at UB. 

He later formed a partnership with UPR Cayey to provide their students with the chance to conduct research at UB over the summer break — programs often funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. Several of these students would go on to attend UB for graduate school. 

This work has been appreciated by university leadership, including Graham Hammill, senior vice provost for faculty affairs and dean of the Graduate School.

“Luis has been a mentor to countless students, a role model for fellow faculty members and one of the most respected and admired members of the UB community,” Hammill says. “His exemplary work, from groundbreaking research in chemistry and separation science to fostering a new generation of scientists, will leave a lasting legacy that endures even as he embarks on a well-deserved retirement.”

For one of Colón’s former students, Brandon Salazar, seeing a fellow Puerto Rican become a professor on the mainland was inspiring.

“Our talks about life were even more inspiring,” says Salazar, who received his PhD in 2023 and is now an engineer and scientist at Solstice Advanced Materials. “We talked about our views of life and family, what success means to us, and how to better the world for the next generation. Those talks were as important as anything I did in the lab.”

Jose Rivera, who received a PhD in 2008 and is now analytical network strategy lead at Organon, says Colón gave him the best advice he’s ever received. It came after he received an offer for a postdoc position in Michigan, while his wife, another former student of Colón’s, Glorimar Vicente, was working in Chicago.

“He told me, ‘This is a great opportunity, but it does not beat being close to your family. I am sure you will find another great opportunity in Chicago,’” Rivera recalls. “He was right after all.”  

The percentage of STEM bachelor’s degrees going to Hispanics rose throughout the 2010s. But still, Hispanics make up just 9% of science and engineering professions, despite accounting for 18% of the total U.S. workforce, according to the National Science Foundation.

Additionally, the 2023 Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action and federal funding cuts are assumed to hamper efforts to increase the representation of underrepresented groups. 

Colón says he’s not dismayed. He points to reporting that the number of Hispanic students enrolled in four-year universities increased in the fall of 2024 from the year before. 

“Some of the progress that’s been made may be pushed back, but not entirely,” he says. “I’m really convinced of that.”

The limitation had long bothered Colón.

His lab used silica — an inorganic compound that is the main component of sand — in separation science, but the material’s label warned that it was unstable at pH levels below 3 or above 7.

“I thought, ‘Why don’t we infuse the silica particle with an organic component to improve the hydrolytic stability?’” he says.

The resulting organic-inorganic silica hybrids proved stable at far more extreme pH levels, below 2 and above 11. Colón published several influential studies and filed patents on the materials throughout the 1990s, at a time when such technology was not yet commercially available for liquid chromatography.

A few years later, Waters Corp. became the first company to introduce similar materials. 

“It wasn't exactly what we had, but it was similar and it did not come out until after we had published it,” Colón says.

Colón held the patent, but any litigation would have been costly and prolonged. Instead, he says, there was an agreement of not pursuing litigation and the company supported his research for several years.

He hadn’t considered founding a startup to commercialize the technology himself, noting that faculty entrepreneurship was not encouraged in the same way it is today.

Still, he is content with his legacy in the field. His influence on the technique was recognized in 2024 when he received the Joseph J. Kirkland Award in Chromatography from the American Chemical Society, the organization’s most prestigious honor in separation science.

“I'm very satisfied that there are techniques being used today that I can point to and say, ‘I contributed to that,’” he says. “That's very satisfying.”

It began as pressure in the chest. 

Colón would feel it whenever he went out for a long brisk walk. After meeting with his physician and undergoing several tests, Colón had bypass surgery in August 2022.

His recovery went well — within a month he was walking two miles. But it gave him time to reflect on how he wanted to end his career.

“It made me think: I’ve done a lot. When am I going to stop?” he says. “I said, ‘This is the right time.’ And once you feel that, I think it's time.”

Colón’s decision has brought out an outpouring of reactions from former students, including those now at UB, like Valerie Frerichs, a 2000 PhD graduate who is now director of the UB Chemistry Instrument Center.

“Luis's dedication to generating knowledge and his commitment to mentoring the next generation of scholars has left an indelible mark on both the academic community and the many students, like myself, who were fortunate enough to learn under his advisement,” Frerichs says. “It will undoubtedly require the efforts of multiple new analytical chemistry faculty members to address the void left by his absence.”

 Colón is content knowing that recent hires in the department will continue his work. Emanuela Gionfriddo, PhD, associate professor, has expertise in separation science. Luis De Jesús Báez, PhD, assistant professor, is a UPR Cayey alumnus who participated in the UB summer research program. Both prioritize mentoring students. 

“It’s like the planets are aligning,” Colón says. 

He plans to continue to do some consulting work, but is most excited to have the opportunity to travel with his wife. He also wants time for his other hobbies, like gardening and glass blowing. He may even attend his first Buffalo Bills game. 

He also has a special project in mind: documenting the scientific legacy of Hispanics in Western New York. He notes that many Puerto Ricans settled in Cheektowaga in the 20th century to work at the General Mills plant, and some of their children went on to become scientists and engineers. 

Although his transition to emeritus status took effect March 1, Colón will still be around campus for the next few months to, fittingly, advise his final PhD student. 

Once he departs, someone else will take over his office. He assumes the student signatures in the lab will be painted over.

Colón says he’s perfectly fine with that. Besides, signing the wall was only one part of the graduation tradition. His lab also gifts all departing graduate students with a clock.

“They come and leave their mark,” Colón says, “but when they leave, they start a new time.”