ROBERT L. HORTON
Present Position
Chief Technology Officer and Technical Vice President, Home Run Specialty Chemicals, Inc.
Chapter Affiliation
Rice University-Texas Medical Center
Background Information
Resume
Biography
Statement
The interdisciplinary nature of Sigma Xi provides a fertile environment for the free exchange of ideas not only across disciplines but also across those “perceived gaps” that we are all trying to minimize. Those “gaps” are perceived to exist among academic, governmental, professional societal, industrial, and independent research organizations and groups. As a Full Member of Sigma Xi since 1972, I strongly believe our duty is to promote the importance of this exchange among our peers, transcending those “gaps” in order to keep alive the desire of learning beyond the narrow scope of our disciplines and to foster the next generation of researchers.
I was an Assistant Professor at LSU from 1971 - 1975; therefore, during my graduate research years, post-doctoral training, and a few years at LSU, I have learned a little about academia. In the ~44-year period thereafter, I re-trained on-the-job as a Petroleum Engineer and worked mostly as an industrial researcher in new product and new technology development in the Petroleum Industry. Thereby, I learned a bit more about industrial research.
Unfortunately, many scientists do not take advantage of the free exchange of ideas across disciplines by joining only their own professional societies. I have become much more keenly aware of these needs since I was invited by the Board of Directors (BoD) of the Rice University / Texas Medical Center Chapter in 2009 to run for election to the office of Chapter Qualifications and Membership Committee Chair. Continuing in that role since 2009, I have become keenly aware of the need to keep our membership standards at least as high as they were in 1972 when the University of California Berkeley Chapter elected me and to actively support membership-expansion initiatives like the Sigma Xi Affiliates Program and the Sigma Xi Explorers Program. Over the years I have worked very hard among the technical communities in the Greater Houston Area and at our Rice University and Texas Medical Center campuses to keep our chapter viable. If elected to the Committee on Nominations, I will use my experience to assist the Committee and its Chair as needed and I will work towards promoting the relevance of scientific endeavors both in all our campuses and in the community at large.
I am currently donating a flow-assurance-related Provisional Patent Application to Rice University. While the Chapter has an excellent relationship with the Texas Medical Center, its relationship with Rice University could, it is hoped, be improved. Accordingly, as a Rice alum I have been dispatched by the Board of Directors of the Rice University / Texas Medical Center Chapter of Sigma Xi in an attempt to improve the liaison between the Sigma Xi Chapter and Rice University. This, it is hoped, may be accomplished especially by my working to support the Rice Brine Chemistry Consortium, the Rice Hydrocarbon Thermodynamics & Flow Assurance Consortium, the Rice OEDK (Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen), Engineering Dean Chapman, OEDK Executive Director Kavalewitz, and Professors Vargas, and Oden.
Sigma Xi and Other Activities:
1964-2013 American Chemical Society (ACS)
1972-present Sigma Xi (Research Society of North America)
1978-1980 Society of Mining Engineers (SME)
1978-2019 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)
1978-1982 Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM)
1978-1986 Gas Processors Association (GPA)
1978-1986 GPA Phase Equilibrium Steering Committee
1995-2013 American Association of Drilling and Completion Engineers (AADE)
1995-1999 Rice Alumni Volunteers for Admissions to Rice University (RAVA)
1995-2013 NACE International
2009-present Qualifications & Membership Committee Chairman of the Rice University / Texas Medical Center Chapter of Sigma Xi
2009-present Member of the Board of Directors of the Rice University-Texas Medical Center Chapter of Sigma Xi