The Santos Go Award
In January of 1967, Santos Go became the first doctoral student to enroll in the PSE program when, to focus more fully on polymers, he transfered from the Chemistry Department at the Univ. of Oregon. Santos had earlier received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Mapua Institute of Technology in the Phillipines (he actually was a citizen of Taiwan, noted on his UMass application as "Free China").
Santos immediately established a precedent that many later PSE doctoral students would strive to match, the passing of the cumulative exams consecutively. His thesis project was conducted under the supervision of Prof. R. W. Lenz, with Profs. Frank Karasz and Fraser Price filling out the thesis committee. In 1972, Santos' thesis, entitled "Crystallization-Induced Reaction of Copolyesters", was accepted, and he was awarded one of the first PSE Ph.D. degrees. Santos subsequently assumed a position with Plastics Technology Department of Owens-Illinois (Toledo, Ohio), and within ten years his prodigious efforts had led to the award of more than 20 U.S. patents to his employer.
Tragically, in March of 1983, Santos died of leukemia. An endowment fund was quickly established through concerted efforts of the PSE department, the Owens-Illinois Company, the Go family, and former PSE classmates. The fund initiated the "Santos Go Memorial Merit Scholarship", to be awarded each year to the most outstanding second year PSE student as judged by scholarly accomplishments accrued during the previous academic year. Factors weighed in selecting the scholarship's recipient include cumulative exam performance, grades, and research initiative.
Many in the PSE department retain poignant memories of Santos, as his graduate career incorporated so many pioneering steps. In 1971, Santos faced deportation as his student visa expired just months before he would complete his thesis. The late Congressman Silvio O. Conte, who would subsequently do so much for the PSE department, personally interceded with the U.S Immigration Service, and a special visa extension was issued.
We all remember Santos Go as a man of great integrity and
committment in his research, his studies, and in his life. It is fitting
that, even in death, he inspired a fund to reward these same qualities
in others.
Recipients of the Santos Go Memorial Scholarship:
1983
- Peter Kim
1984 - Charles Bauer
1985 - Joseph Machado
1986 - David Martin
1987 - Howard Schild
1988 - Timothy Bee and Michael Graf
1989 - Christian Lietzau
1990 - Wanda Walczak
1991 - Mark Timmins and Hun-Jan Tao
1992 - James Fishburn
1993 - Jim Watkins and Chester Liu
1994 - Wei Chen
1995 - Edward Kung
1996 - Heather Hayes and Gustavo Carri
1997 - Kristi Kiick and Chris Stafford
1998 - Arun Raman
1999 - Kathryn Wright
2000 - Chris Stanley and Dymytro Nykypanchuk
2001 - Y. Lin
2002 - Xiaochuan Hu and G. Cardoen
2003 - Qingling Zhang
2004 - Edwin Chan and Elizabeth Glogowski
2005 - John Harner
2006 - Wei Chen
2006 - Elizabeth Cooper
2007 - Shilpi Sanghi and Xinyu Wei
2008 - Hitash Thaker
2009 - Samantha McRae
2010 - Sahas Rathi
2011 - Kyle Bryson
2012 - Sedef Piril Ertem
