On Tuesday, longtime Mississippi State University professor Rebecca Toghiani passed away after serving the university for 24 years as a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Jason Keith, professor and director of the Department of Chemical Engineering, said in an email that Toghiani mentored students both in chemical engineering and in life.
“Becky’s class was never the easiest, yet it was highly rated among our students,” Keith said. “She served the department, college and the university with passion.”
Toghiani’s accomplishments include the Bagley College of Engineering Career Award, being named Professor of the Year, the Outstanding Faculty Woman Award and the John Grisham Master Teacher Award.
Keith said Toghiani’s research greatly furthered the mission of the School of Chemical Engineering.
“Her research grants spanned a range of chemical engineering subjects. These include the thermodynamics of mixtures, where she developed a state of the art facility for VLE measurement,” he said. “She expanded our collective expertise in solubilities in inorganic systems, including double-salt chemistry, high ionic strength solution chemistry, computational chemistry, density functional theory and legacy nuclear waste remediation.”
Leon Carrubba, senior chemical engineering major, took two of Toghiani’s classes his freshman and junior years and said “Dr. R,” as her students called her, took an early retirement due to illness about a year and a half ago but still guest lectured occasionally.
“She definitely expected a lot of us, but she pushed us. She was really engaging in and out of the classroom. When I took her class junior year, I was having a hard time with the class, and she was always willing to meet with us after class and talk about our lives and make sure everything was going well,” Carubba said. “She was really good about making sure we understood what was going on in the classroom and the bigger picture of why we were at school.”
Toghiani’s visitation will be Friday from 4-7 p.m. at the Welch Funeral Home, as well as Saturday from 9-10 a.m. followed by a 10 a.m. service at First United Methodist Church in Starkville.
Donations to create a scholarship fund in Toghiani’s name for the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering can be sent to the MSU Foundation via check with “in memory of Dr. Rebecca Toghiani” on the memo line, or contributions may be made online at msufoundation.com.
