![\"potter1\"](\"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/potter1.jpg\")
<\/a>H<\/span>ow influential is any one faculty member in helping to shape the next generation of engineering leaders? In the case of Dr. Donald Potter, professor emeritus of Metallurgy and Materials Science, the answer was resoundingly clear when a tightly knit group of former graduate students returned to Storrs over the summer for a reunion with their beloved graduate school advisor and mentor.<\/p>\nThe reunion was organized by triple-alumna Dr. Janet Callahan<\/span><\/a><\/span> (B.S. Chemical Engineering \u201984; M.S. Metallurgy \u201986; Ph.D. Materials Science \u201890), now a professor and Associate Dean of Engineering at Boise State University. \u201cWe had a surprise retirement party about 10 years ago for Dr. Potter,\u201d she relates, \u201cBut he just kept on teaching. When we heard he was really going to stop teaching, we decided it was time for another reunion.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Dr. Callahan says the group spent an evening catching up with one another and sharing stories, the likes of: \u201cDo you remember rolling the end station down the hall to the ion implanter in Hayden\u2019s lab?\u201d They also remembered staying up all night in the lab on occasion to take advantage of a good source beam. Dr. Callahan explains that retired lab manager Jim Koch would somehow get a difficult source, such as yttrium, up and running with a decent current and when that happened, \u201cYou just stayed in the lab as long as the source held out.\u201d<\/p>\n