An Iowa State associate professor will receive a mentor award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science Mentor award.

Derrick Rollins, an associate professor of chemical engineering and statistics, said he is very honored to be chosen for the award.

“It’s quite an honor,” he said. “You can’t win an award unless a large number of people have felt that you have played a large part in their lives.”

Rollins said this is expressed in a way that ” … causes people to notice a difference in the way that you have related to them.”

The mentor award honors individuals who demonstrate extraordinary leadership to increase participation in science and engineering by under-represented groups, especially women of all racial and ethnic groups.

Rollins has mentored 74 graduate and undergraduate students since he began at Iowa State in 1990, but he said mentoring takes place beyond the actual numbers.

“I think it’s hard to say what the number has been,” he said. “As faculty, we mentor people on a daily basis.”

Rollins has had a lot of people come into his office to ask for advice and help.

“Mentoring, as a faculty member, is something you do as a way of life,” he said.

Kenneth Jolls, a colleague of Rollins and a professor in chemical engineering, put together the nomination package for the award.

Jolls said Rollins kept an “impressive” scrapbook which showed all of his recognitions since he has been at Iowa State.

“He has an enormous amount of local and national recognition,” Jolls said. “He has a large number of students and many minority women that he has guided.”

Jolls nominated Rollins for the award last year, and was “amazed” when he did not win. He did most of the work for the package last year.

The nomination package included a “fairly elaborate” nomination letter, written by Jolls and several letters of recommendation from students and colleagues.

Jolls said the package also included a list of people that Rollins had mentored, as well as a collection of newspaper clippings about Rollins and a list of distinctive qualities that distinguished him and made him a good candidate.

Rollins said, “My first reaction was that it really amazed me at how much work he put into the nomination package.”

Rollins was very touched by the letters of recommendation that appeared in the package.

“It brings tears to my eyes,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t know what people think until they write it down.

“When I sat down and read the letters of recommendation, they had a very special meaning to me. I was very touched,” Rollins said.

Kristine Bendixen, a graduate student in chemical engineering, was one student who wrote a letter of recommendation for Rollins.

Bendixen has had Rollins for a mentor since the spring of 1993.

“I consider him a good friend and a good teacher,” Bendixen said. “I was very pleased,” when she learned Rollins had won the award.

“He’s just a very giving individual. It’s nice to see that recognized, especially on a national scale.”

Rollins, who is also a chair of the African American Studies program and the adviser to the president’s cabinet on diversity, will receive the award at the AAAS annual meeting in Seattle next February.