Only in Lawrence: Distinguished professor has blazed a bright trail in pharmaceutical chemistry

Pharmaceutical chemistry professor Ron Borchardt is set to retire from KU after more than 44 years.

On May 4, Ron Borchardt taught his final class at Kansas University. For more than 44 years, the 71-year-old pharmacy professor has made it a priority to stay in Lawrence, although his influence has extended far beyond northeastern Kansas.

Thinking back to a fashion trend of the 1990s, Liz Topp said she wishes she had a bracelet marked “WWRTBD” to remind her of her mentor. What would Ron T. Borchardt do?

“I often think ‘what would Ron do?’ ‘How would he make this decision?’ ‘What would be the right thing to do?” Topp said. “I trained under him and I draw on that experience all the time without even thinking about it.”

Pharmaceutical chemistry professor Ron Borchardt is set to retire from KU after more than 44 years.

Topp said Borchardt hired her to work in Kansas University’s department of pharmaceutical chemistry in 1986. Back then he was the department’s head, a position Topp now holds at Purdue University in Indiana.

“He’s the reason I think of being a department head the way I do,” Topp added. “I learned how to do it from him.”

Dhiren Thakker recalls flying into Kansas City in 1975, taking the red-eye flight to save money. He was heading to Lawrence to study under Borchardt.

Planning on hiring a ride to Lawrence, Thakker exited the plane, only to see Borchardt waiting for him at the gate.

“When I saw him I said ‘Oh my god, he looks so young. Is this guy going to be my professor?'” Thakker said. “But at the same time I was struck by how thoughtful and how caring he was. He took me to his house and said I could stay there and look for an apartment the next day.”

Thakker said he was the first student to earn a doctorate under Borchardt. And among the many things he learned from his teacher, humanity and empathy top the list.

Among other things, Thakker is now the Howard Q. Ferguson Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He said he is proud to call Borchardt both a friend and a colleague.

Ken Audus first met Borchardt when he was in graduate school at KU Medical Center in the early 1980s. Borchardt was speaking at a seminar and the two struck up a conversation.

“He invited me to interview for a post-doc position, and I joined his group,” Audus said. “And then he invited me to apply for a faculty position a year and a half after that, and I’ve been here ever since.”

Now, Audus is dean of KU’s School of Pharmacy. He affectionately refers to Borchardt as a “giant in the world of pharmaceutical sciences.”

The professor

A Wisconsin native, Borchardt was first drawn to the pharmaceutical sciences when he realized it offered him the opportunity to mix chemistry and biology.

Borchardt earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. After graduation, he moved to Lawrence to attend graduate school under the guidance of Ed Smissman at KU.

Completing graduate school, Borchardt and his wife, Pam, moved to Maryland, where he could complete his postdoctoral work. But when it came to finding work after school, the couple were quick to return to Kansas.

“We both fell in love with Lawrence during the short time we were here as grad students,” Borchardt said. “It’s just a wonderful place to live, and the university has been a wonderful place to work.”

For 44 years Borchardt studied, taught and mentored at KU.

Topp, describing Borchardt as loyal to the core, said he always had the school’s best interest in mind. Sometimes that meant upsetting individuals.

“He always put the department’s needs first,” she said. “It was clear he was there to advance the department, not his own interests.”

Borchardt said his loyalties are based in the university’s long and rich history of excellence.

“Excellence in research and education in basic sciences and pharmaceutical sciences,” he said. “It’s in the top two or three basic sciences schools of pharmacy in the country, maybe the world, and hopefully I contributed to that excellence.”

Borchardt taught in the departments of pharmaceutical chemistry, molecular biosciences and medical chemistry, and he has served as an administrator for the department of pharmaceutical chemistry, the School of Pharmacy and the Center for Biomedical Research, among other leadership positions.

Among his many contributions to the field, Audus said, Borchardt spent time developing a cell-culture model he used to mimic the lining of the stomach, allowing scientists to study the absorption of orally administered drugs into the blood.

“That model is used extensively in the industry now for screening drugs for oral consumption,” Audus said. “It’s extremely important.”

In addition, Topp said Borchardt was on the forefront of developing biologics, products used to treat afflictions ranging from arthritis to breast cancer.

“Twenty or 30 years ago these products were pretty much a dream some scientist had,” she said, and Borchardt was “on the front end of helping to develop this new class of product.”

Despite many accomplishments in his field, Borchardt attributes much of his success to others.

“I’ve had these wonderful people who have worked with me over the years,” he said. “Unfortunately, professors often get all the credit, but at the end of the day it’s those students, visiting scientists and post-docs that worked in my lab days and nights and weekends that generated all the data that made me look good.”

This year, Borchardt’s last as a professor, a group of current and former students and colleagues joined together in establishing a $1.8 million pharmaceutical chemistry professorship in his name.

Calling the professorship an honor, Borchardt said he is pleased to know the money will be used either to bring new hires to the university or to retain current faculty members.

The future

Borchardt doesn’t like the word “retire.” He prefers to tell people he’s transitioning.

“That’s one of the nice things about academic life is you can continue to be professionally active, and I hope to be well into my 70s,” he said.

“My life has been like driving in the fast lane of the Autobahn, and I very much wanted to figure out how to make a transition into a slightly slower lane and enjoy my family, grandchildren and the things I perhaps missed a little bit of during my career.”

As Borchardt begins to enjoy his well-earned transition, Topp, Thakker and Audus all agree the School of Pharmacy will never be able to replace Borchardt, but those who have worked with him will carry on where he left off.

“I don’t see it as a gap; I see it as an ongoing legacy of Ron,” Thakker said. “All of the people he has touched and trained are out there continuing his legacy in some way. He has passed on the baton and many, many, many of us will continue on.”