"I've thoroughly enjoyed my life and work here over the years as a scholar in an interdisciplinary community of scholars both in History and Women's Studies. I feel that the research on (philanthropist Margaret Olivia) Sage, which is being honored today with this wonderful award, represents my best work, and so I’m thrilled that it's being recognized in this way."

Ruth Crocker was educated in Southampton, England. She attended Oxford University on a scholarship, married right out of college, and came to the U.S. where her husband Malcolm J. Crocker was working in Huntsville, Ala. on the Apollo Space Program. Crocker completed an M.A. and Ph.D. in American history at Purdue University under the direction of Southern historian Harold D. Woodman. She and her family came to Auburn in 1983. Crocker received tenure in the Department of History in 1992 and was promoted to full professor in 2004. She was among a group of faculty who helped develop Auburn's Women's Studies Program. After it received permanent funding, she served two terms as director. Crocker has published two books and 15 articles and book chapters and given many conference papers. Her first book, Social Work and Social Order was published by University of Illinois Press in 1992. The second, a feminist biography of philanthropist Margaret Olivia (Mrs. Russell) Sage, was published by Indiana University Press in 2006, paperback edition 2008. She subsequently completed a digital version which is part of the Auburn University Libraries Digital Collection.

"It was only through the successful collaborations that I have had with my students and faculty friends that I have achieved anything at all in the research arena. This creative research award is important to me because I know that I share it with them. It is our award, and that means a lot to me."

Christopher Roberts began his career at Auburn University as an assistant professor in 1994. He served as the chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and the George E. and Dorothy Stafford Uthlaut Professor of Chemical Engineering from 2003 to 2012. In July 2012, Roberts was appointed dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. Roberts has a strong record of scholarly achievement in the areas of nanotechnology, nanomaterials synthesis and processing, synthetic fuels, catalysis, supercritical fluids, gas-expanded liquid technologies, and molecular thermodynamics. He has published 120 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, given more than 350 technical presentations at national and international conferences, and has three U.S. patents. He has been the principal investigator or significant co-principal investigator on more than $16 million in extramurally funded research contracts and grants. Roberts currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals Fuel Processing Technology and Fluid Phase Equilibria. He has received the SEC Academic Consortium Faculty Achievement Award, the Auburn University Excellence in Innovation Award, and has twice received the Auburn Engineering Senior Research Award. He is currently directing the research of seven PhD students and several undergraduate students.