Robert Pagels, Top Senior at the University of Delaware

2012 May 10

Robert Pagels has been selected as the recipient of the Alexander J. Taylor Sr. award as the outstanding man of the University of Delaware's 2012 graduating class.

The awards are given annually by the UD Alumni Association to recognize the senior man and woman who most exemplify leadership, academic success and community service.

Pagels, who is from Hampstead, Md, is graduating with an honors bachelor's of chemical engineering degree and a minor in biochemical engineering. He will be attending Princeton University after graduation to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. A dean's list student every semester, Pagels has maintained a 4.0 GPA and was one of a select group of students in the Class of 2012 to be awarded a Eugene du Pont Memorial Distinguished Scholarship. Pagels has also shown leadership out of the classroom in addition to excelling academically. He served as sophomore representative, treasurer and is the current president of the local American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) student chapter and is the Chemical Engineering Student Representative with the Engineering Educational Activities Committee. In addition, he served as a consultant to the Chemical Engineering Advisory Board. Through these positions he has often represented the student population of the department when important donors, alumni, visiting professors and prospective professors visit. In the summer after his freshmen year, wanting to do something meaningful and different, Pagels found and introduced himself online to an Indian woman who had 30 orphan children between 6 and 12 years of age living in her home. With the help of professors and friends, he organized a trip to Tiruvannamalai, India, and spent a month helping in the orphanage. He organized paperwork, filled out necessary government forms, put together a library and worked with the children on their English when they returned from school. After his time in India, Pagels continued community service work on a more local level as vice president of Alpha Lambda Delta, an honors society with a focus on community service. Katharine Kerrane, senior associate director in the Honors Program, said, "With Robby's overall brilliance, scientific expertise and curiosity about the world, he clearly will have an extremely successful career. The fact that he wants to put his talents to use in developing practical solutions to medical problems and wants to teach the next generation of scientists is in the best tradition of Taylor Award winners -- successful alumni who are dedicated to giving back to society."

Alexander J. Taylor Sr. (1875-1940) entered Delaware College in 1889 and graduated in 1893 as class valedictorian, with a baccalaureate degree in civil engineering. Mr. Taylor was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1927, reelected in 1932 and again in 1938. He served on the Grounds and Buildings Committee and Executive Committee and was chairman of the Finance Committee.