Clarkson University Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Ruth E. Baltus has been named professor emeritus for exemplary service to the University. Formal recognition will take place at commencement, which is currently planned for August 15.
Throughout the past 37 years, Baltus has been an engaged researcher and excellent teacher.
Baltus joined the faculty as an assistant professor of chemical engineering in 1983 when there were only five female faculty members at Clarkson and a 23 percent female student population. She was pivotal in increasing diversity, leading University-wide initiatives to improve the climate for women students and faculty.
The scholarly work of Baltus has involved both theoretical and experimental studies of membrane separations, as well as experimental investigations of the characteristics of room temperature ionic liquids. Baltus and her students have authored many technical publications and given presentations across the United States and the world. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Petroleum Research Fund and the National Institutes of Health. In addition, she has mentored eight Ph.D., 17 M.S. and many undergraduate research students.
She has been a visiting research fellow at General Electric Corporate Research & Development Labs in Schenectady, N.Y., and a visiting researcher at Oak Ridge National Lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn. She has served on the board of the North American Membrane Society and co-organized its annual meeting in 2015.
Baltus has also been a leader within the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. As department chair from 2006-2012, she led major curricular revisions introducing electives and course content that have more appeal to female students, and was instrumental in developing a new biomolecular concentration that has been popular with undergraduate female students.
She has been integral in promoting diversity in hiring, which has resulted in the hiring of additional female tenure-track faculty members in her department, which now has more than 40 percent female faculty, exceeding the national average of 19.8 percent for chemical engineering departments (ASEE, 2017-2018).
In service, Baltus has served as her department’s graduate director, has been instrumental in leading and participating in numerous faculty searches, was an elected member of both the University’s tenure and promotions committees, and has been the faculty advisor to the Clarkson’s student chapter of the Society for Women Engineers. She was also a member of the Faculty Senate Committee on Gender Issues and the University Gender Issues Committee.
She received the Society for Women Engineers Distinguished Engineering Educator award, has been recognized by the St. Lawrence County American Association of University Women as an Agent of Change, which honors women whose work has advanced the cause of women’s rights and who has brought about significant change in the community, and has received the Lifetime Award of Merit from SUNY Oswego, her undergraduate alma mater.
Baltus has been a tireless role model for female chemical engineers at all levels: for undergraduates as an educator and SWE faculty advisor, for colleagues by weighing in on hiring and policy issues that affect female faculty, and for future female engineers and scientists through her outreach efforts, such as her longstanding participation with the Girl Scouts. Her efforts were recognized as a 2019 recipient of the American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences, an international level award.
Among additional awards, Baltus received the Distinguished Teaching Award from Clarkson and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Clarkson University Student Association.
Click here for a shareable link: https://www.clarkson.edu/news/ruth-baltus-named-professor-emeritus-clarkson-university