On August 21 and 22, 2025 colleagues, friends, former students and professors came together at the Faculty Club and Hart House to celebrate the career of Professor Emeritus Roger Newman. The symposium and dinner recognized his many contributions to the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry at U of T, as a leader in the field of corrosion science. The symposium was an opportunity to reflect on his decades of outstanding research accomplishments and attracted an international audience of the leading scientists in the corrosion field.
Professor Newman retired earlier this year after a distinguished career spanning decades at Brookhaven National Laboratories, The University of Manchester, and the University of Toronto. From 2004 to 2019, he served as the NSERC/UNENE Senior Industrial Research Chair in Corrosion Control and Materials Performance, completing three consecutive five-year terms. He later continued this important work as the UNENE Research Chair, advancing fundamental understanding of corrosion phenomena in nuclear systems—particularly stress corrosion cracking.
Suraj Persaud, a former PhD student of Prof. Newman and current UNENE Research Chair in Corrosion Control and Materials Performance, reflected on the impact of Newman’s mentorship and scholarship:
“Prof. Newman had a tremendous impact as a leading scientist in the corrosion field and as an industrial leader in his UNENE Chair program. Over several decades of mentorship, guidance in his dynamic research program has directly impacted many scientists and engineers, including several world-recognized corrosion scientists. This symposium was an opportunity to highlight Prof. Newman’s outstanding career and mentorship and was one of the top corrosion symposiums ever held in Canada.”
See more moments from the symposium and dinner in our photo gallery.