DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI

2023
FOUNDERS DAY
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS:
CLIFTON SANDERS

Sanders arrived in Salt Lake City from Baltimore via the University of Michigan in 1977. During his appearance as the featured speaker at the Hugo Rossi Lecture Series on March 15, Sanders detailed what it was like to be one of very few Black residents in Utah when he arrived. Even so, his experience in U Chemistry was generally a positive experience. Sanders recently retired as the Provost for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer of Salt Lake Community College, where he oversaw the education of more than 61,000 students annually.

A saxophonist like his father, Sanders has been called “a musician trapped in a scientist’s body.” “I look at playing music almost as a research program, just like a scientist would,” Sanders says. “There are little experiments you do and in the craft you figure out … how to make it work.” Recently, he’s back with his sax, appearing locally with the George Brown Quintet known for its unpretentious, “killin’ straight ahead” jazz.

2020
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI:
RICK TYKWINSKI

When Rick Tykwinski, PhD ’94, now Professor of Chemistry, University of Alberta, is asked what his graduate-student self would be most surprised about with his current career, he says, “That I got this far.” Many students, he continues, expected graduate school to be all about the laboratory (“how many molecules do I need to graduate?”). As he looks back, however, the lab was only a small part of it.

“I’ve always been able to solve problems,” he says, “but I never considered myself to be overly creative, especially as a graduate student. I was very fortunate at all points in my undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral education to have had mentors that allowed me to be independent and develop my creativity, giving me just enough creativity to get by.”

Tykwinski accepted a position in Canada in 1997 then left to chair Organic Chemistry in Erlangen, Germany before returning to Alberta where he is currently chair of the Department of Chemistry.

2020
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI:
RAYMOND PRICE

Price graduated from the University of Utah magna cum laude in 1983 and then from Harvard Medical School. He has co-directed or directed the graduate surgical education program in the state for hundreds of surgical residents and medical and physician assistant students.

His areas of interest include advanced laparoscopy, surgical oncology, as well as endocrine and trauma surgery. He has spent his career expanding the role of surgery in public health, and has participated in or led surgical expeditions to Asia, Latin America, and Africa. He co-founded The Center for Global Surgery at the U. He also currently directs graduate surgical education at Intermountain Medical Center.

He has served with the World Health Organization and is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, books and chapters in books.

Price and his wife have maintained their home in the Beehive State with their seven daughters and one son.

Amy Barrios, BS'95, currently Professor in Medicinal Chemistry and the Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Affairs at the University of Utah

Mitchell Johnson, PhD'00 (with Joel Miller), currently is the Executive Vice President at General Plastics Manufacturing Company

Zlatko Bačić, PhD'81 (with Jack Simons), currently professor at the Department of Chemistry, New York University

Roger Leach, PhD'84 (with Joel Harris), recently retired from DuPont where he was the Technical Senior Manager and Leader of the Science & Innovation Core Analytical Sciences organization <