Dr. Robert (Bob) Rosen passed away on May 16 at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ.1 For the past 21 years, he was an Associate Director at the Center for Advanced Food Technology at Rutgers University, where he helped direct numerous research projects on the potential role of foods, herbs, and various dietary supplement ingredients in cancer prevention. His primary research included the chemopreventive effects of garlic (Allium sativum); other research interests included the determination of organics in food, the bioactivity and health benefits of food phytochemicals, and nutraceutical discovery. 2
Dr. Rosen obtained his PhD from the Rutgers University Food Science Department with a major in Food Chemistry.2 Before coming to Rutgers he worked at the FMC Corporation. His academic accomplishments include over 60 referred publications in journals and books.
Dr. Rosen received the Rutgers Merit Award 1987, Rutgers President’s Award 1989, and Research Excellence Award 1993. Bob is listed in Who’s Who in Science and Technology and Who’s Who in the East. He was an honorary member of Phi Lambda Upsilon, the National Chemistry Society, and a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists. Bob was affiliated with the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, American Chemical Society, and the Institute for Food Technologists. He was a visiting scientist for the Wakunaga Corporation (makers of Kyolic® garlic preparations) and spent time in Japan working with company scientists.
Bob was a caring, unique individual always wanting to do the right thing with fairness and concern for others. He was a walking encyclopedia with enormous knowledge of herbs, plants, and agricultural facts. The field of herbs and health was his passion.
He was an enthusiastic teacher who consistently stimulated the curiosity of his students. His love of what mass spectrometry could do to aid understanding of the effects of plant chemicals on health was evident in his manner of teaching and mentoring graduate students. Bob was also a fantastic collaborator—always excited to get involved in new projects, always there to help another, always there to provide support to those faculty and students with whom he worked. To his friends and colleagues, and to the natural products world, Bob Rosen will be missed.
A fellowship fund named for Dr. Robert Rosen has been established at the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University. Donations can be sent to Ms. Miriam Gonzalez, Center for Advanced Food Technology, Rutgers University, Cook Campus, 63 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.
—Article submitted by the Center For Advanced Food Technology, Rutgers University
References
1. Dr. Robert Thomas Rosen Ph.D. Times, Trenton. May 21, 2005. Available at: http://www.legacy.com/TRENTON/LegacySubPage2.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=3566898. Accessed September 14, 2005.
2. Robert Thomas Rosen, Ph.D. CAFT Directors Web site. Available at: http://foodsci.rutgers.edu/caft/Personnel/people/Rosen.htm.Accessed September 14, 2005.