Discovery Doesn’t Retire

Roger DeKock, a retired Calvin College chemistry and biochemistry professor, has been selected as one of just five emeritus faculty nationwide to be part of the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation’s 2016 Senior Scientist Mentor Program.

It's DeKock's second time receiving the award in the past three years. The award provides DeKock with a $20,000 grant that will support undergraduate research under his guidance.

“Many emeritus faculty no longer teach courses nor take on graduate students. Their wealth of experience and knowledge, however, makes them a unique and valuable educational resource for undergraduates,” said Mark Cardillo, executive director of the foundation.

“This program provides for the development of a relationship where these senior scientists guide the students in perhaps their first research experience to generate new knowledge.”

DeKock, whose devoted half a century of his life to exploration, both in the classroom and in the lab, says that this award will enable more students to join in the discovery and see the value of research in uncovering some aspect of God’s creation.

“Students best learn about research by doing it. It’s called research, because we don’t know what we’re doing … it’s the unknown and that can lead to frustration, but it can also lead to immense satisfaction,” said DeKock.

“They pick up on things really rapidly. Instead of being a student, they are soon co-workers, they are helping to solve this puzzle and they get as excited about it as I do.”

DeKock says the majority of the $20,000 will fund one or two students each of the next two summers doing 10 weeks of summer research.

The funding will also allow for the student(s) to work a few hours a week during the academic year to keep the research moving. DeKock says he is committed to meeting with the students every day during the summer and at least once a week during the academic year.

DeKock and his student(s) will be using this grant to continue his research into the electronic structure of atoms. In short, they are trying to understand at a deeper level the behavior of electrons in atoms. DeKock says they are coming up with qualitative concepts to help understand the chemical reactivity of one atom relative to another. Those insights he says, will be beneficial to chemists as they do their work.

And, in the meantime, the discovery continues, as DeKock and his student(s) are on an adventure, waiting for that “aha moment” that changes everything.