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"You can achieve whatever you want,"
says Professor Jose M. Castro, Ph.D. when asked a piece of
advice for Latino students at Ohio State. Dr. Castro is a
living example of his advice as he has been granted full professorship
at OSU, beginning in the Autumn 2003 quarter. Born and raised
in El Salvador, Dr. Castro received his undergraduate degree
in El Salvador in 1974, his Masters from Ohio University in
1976 and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1980.
All three of his degrees are in Chemical Engineering. Before
Dr. Castro began his time at OSU, he spent time teaching in
Argentina (1981-84), working at the research division of GenCorp
in Akron Ohio as a chemical engineer (1984-96) and with the
Electronic Materials Division of AlliedSignal, a company in
Lacrosse, Wisconsin (1996-98).
Coincidentally, Dr. Castro was first attracted
to Ohio State when his daughter, currently a senior in the
Fisher College of Business, decided to attend OSU where she
could play varsity tennis. He applied and was offered a position
as an associate professor in the Department of Industrial,
Welding, and Systems Engineering and in 1998, Dr. Castro and
his family, including his son, now a junior in mechanical
engineering at OSU, moved to Columbus. Although he misses
his family and the beautiful beaches of El Salvador, Dr. Castro
is happy at OSU. "I like Ohio State… The administration
is very supportive of diversity and as a big school, it has
everything… (Also) our family is pretty big into sports,"
he says, adding that he is a regular attendant of Ohio State
football games.
Since Dr. Castro has been at OSU, he has
received several awards including the Lanley Interdiciplinary
Research Award, for his close work with the Department of
Chemical Engineering, the Lanley Research Award, for his independent
work, and the Charles E. MacQuigg Outstanding Teaching Award,
for which is particularly proud, as he was nominated by his
students. His research focuses on Plastics and Composites,
particularly in relation with the automobile industry. He
has received several grants from the National Science foundation,
a great honor which contributed to his receipt of full professorship.
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