Todd Pagano Receives Forty Under 40 Award

Todd Pagano, an associate professor and director of Laboratory Science Technology at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, was given a Forty Under 40 award from the Rochester Business Journal for achieving professional success and making significant civic contributions to our community.

Hundreds of nominations are usually received for consideration.

The award was given today during a luncheon at the RIverside Convention Center in Rochester .

“It is great to be honored in a list of such progressive individuals and to have RIT/NTID recognized among the organizations in the Rochester area that supports its emerging leaders,” Pagano says.

“Todd has been an invaluable resource to us and most importantly, our deaf and hard-of-hearing students,” NTID President Gerry Buckley said in his letter nominating Pagano for the award. “He is well known for staying in his office well after hours so students can make appointments or drop in if they need help with something. He has a passion for his work in chemistry and working with students in his lab. He makes scientific principles come alive for his students – such as when he jumps around on desks to illustrate the maniacal properties of an atom.”

Pagano has been recognized for his work at RIT/NTID and throughout the country. He has won several awards and recently was named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Earlier this year, Pagano was a speaker at the group’s national meeting in San Diego, where he brought two of his students to make formal presentations about their research.

He has served on the Rochester chapter of the ACS’s executive board and the ACS’s Chemists with Disabilities national joint-board.

A native of Victor, N.Y., Pagano earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from State University College at Oswego and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Tufts University. He came to NTID in 2002.

“Todd is one of our brightest young stars here at RIT/NTID and he deserves the spotlight for all the great work that he does,” Buckley says.