It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Robert W. Schurko of the Chemistry Department at Florida State University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Rob battled pancreatic cancer for the past several months. He passed away on Friday February 20th surrounded by family and friends. Rob faced his illness with bravery and dignity, and continued teaching, advocating for the MagLab and working on research projects as long as his health permitted.
Rob was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He received his BSc (1992) and MSc (1994) degrees in Chemistry from the University of Manitoba, working with Professor Ted Schaefer on ultra high-resolution solution NMR spectroscopy to study the structure and dynamics of substituted aromatic molecules. Following his MSc studies, he obtained a PhD in Chemistry at Dalhousie University (1998) under the supervision of Professor Roderick Wasylishen. Rob’s PhD thesis was entitled “Characterization of NMR interactions in solids by direct and indirect observation of quadrupolar nuclei”. Rod’s lab introduced Rob to solid-state NMR spectroscopy of exotic nuclei and quadrupolar nuclei, which would become the central focus of his career. He subsequently completed postdoctoral research at SUNY Stony Brook from 1998 to 1999 with Professor Clare Grey, where he learned about the application of solid-state NMR spectroscopy to inorganic materials. He joined Professor Lucio Frydman’s lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago as a postdoctoral fellow from 1999 to 2000 where he studied the dynamics of solids by lineshape analysis of solid-state NMR spectra of quadrupolar nuclei. Lucio would remain a lifelong friend and collaborator.
Rob began his independent academic career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Windsor in the year 2000. Rob was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005, then to the rank of full Professor in 2009. In Windsor he established an internationally recognized research program in solid-state NMR spectroscopy. A key focus of Rob’s lab was the development of sensitivity-enhancement techniques to enable the acquisition of solid-state NMR spectra of unreceptive isotopes. His group pioneered pulse sequences such as WURST-CPMG and BRAIN-CP, which have expanded the range of nuclei and materials accessible to solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Another focus of Rob’s lab was the use of experimental measurements and theoretical calculations of anisotropic NMR interaction tensors to determine the atomic and electronic structure of organic and inorganic materials. These techniques and methods were used for the study of inorganic compounds, main group compounds, solid pharmaceuticals, and metal-organic frameworks.
In 2019 he joined Florida State University as a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and became Director of the NMR & MRI User Program at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in 2020. Rob was energized by his move to the MagLab and FSU, gaining access to high-field NMR equipment and enabling new collaborations. Rob was excited for the opportunity to work closely with MagLab staff and faculty including Ivan Hung (Rob’s first PhD student), Zhehong Gan, Joanna Long, Fred Mentink-Vigier, Thierry Dubroca, Tomas Orlando, Peter Gor’kov, Bill Brey and Sungsool Wi. His research at the MagLab continued to focus on the development of methods to enable solid-state NMR studies of unreceptive nuclei found in catalysts and pharmaceuticals, with notable examples of nuclei studied by his group over the past few years including chlorine-35, cobalt-59, ruthenium-99, rhodium-103, and platinum-195.
Rob was an exceptionally dedicated teacher and mentor. His teaching was recognized by numerous institutional awards including the inaugural Faculty of Science Roger Thibert Award for Teaching Excellence at University of Windsor. In the words of Lucio Frydman, Rob was a “teacher of teachers”. He was known for preparing clear pedagogical materials to better explain solid-state NMR spectroscopy concepts to students. Rob remained dedicated to educating students, deciding to continue teaching a graduate course on NMR spectroscopy over the past few months, despite his cancer diagnosis. Rob instilled a passion for magnetic resonance in the students he mentored. A large majority of his former group members have continued to work on applications of magnetic resonance in both academic and industrial settings.
Rob’s contributions to magnetic resonance were recognized by several honors, including the Regitze R. Vold memorial lecture at the 2023 Alpine Conference and he was elected a fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in 2024-2025. In 2025 he was inducted into the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida. He was to be awarded the Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS) Award for Outstanding Achievements in Magnetic Resonance in Fall 2026. In addition to his research accomplishments, he was widely recognized for his service to the magnetic resonance community through his leadership at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
Rob was known for his keen sense of humor and for being a great storyteller. He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, current and former group members, colleagues, collaborators, and past mentors. Rob was truly and deeply admired and loved by everyone who knew him.
This letter was written with contributions from the following people:
Current Group Members - Sophie Boglaev, Mia Cohen, Dominic Chantra, Georgia Fredriksson, Shubha Gunaga, Sean Holmes, Peyton Osborn, Jazmine Sanchez, Robert Smith, Sara Termos.
Group Alumni - Adam Altenhof, James Cohan, Zachary Dowdell, Carl Fleischer, Hiyam Hamaed, Kris Harris, Marcel Hildebrand, David Hirsh, Ivan Hung, Michael Jaroszewicz, Karen Johnston, Jimmy Kimball, Michael Laschuk, Kirill Levin, Andy Lo, Bryan Lucier, Luke O’Dell, Chris O’Keefe, Austin Peach, Aaron Rossini, Andre Sutrisno, Joel Tang, Stanislav Veinberg, Cameron Vojvodin, Cory Widdifield, Mathew Willans.
Former Mentors - Clare Grey, Lucio Frydman, Roderick E. Wasylishen.
Former Labmates - Scott Kroeker, David Bryce, Mattias Edén, Mike Lumsden, Dan McElheny, Gang Wu.
FSU Chemistry and Biochemistry and Maglab Colleagues (current and former) - Kathleen Amm, Lydia Babcock-Adams, Ali Bangura, Mark Bird, Nolan Blackford, Christian Bleiholder, Ashley Blue, Greg Boebinger, Russell Bowers, Bill Brey, Julia Bush, Troy Brumm, Mun Chan, Irinel Chiorescu, Lance Cooley, Daniel Davis, Thierry Dubroca, Malathy Elumalai, Popov Nikita, Zhehong Gan, Laura Greene, Kristina Hakansson, Kenneth Hanson, Stephen Hill, Yan-Yan Hu, Justin Kennemur, Jason Kitchen, Jurek Krzystek, Bryan Kudisch, Ilya Litvak, Fanny Liu, Joanna Long, Frederic Mentink-Vigier, Biwu Ma, Hedi Mattoussi, Banghao Chen, Brian Miller, Kim Mozolic, Tomas Orlando, Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy (Rams), Steven Ranner, Michael Roper, Jens Rosenberg, Edan Schultz, Faith Scott, Chris Segal, Michael Shatruk, Robert Silvers, Dmitry Smirnov, Geoffrey Strouse, Neil Sullivan, Anke & Jack Toth, Amrit Venkatesh, Johan van Tol, Tim Murphy, Yijue (Collette) Xu, Wei Yang, Edward Kalkreuter, Robert Lazenby, Benjamin Smith, Ulf and Bianca Trociewitz, Matthew E. Merritt, Sungsool Wi.
University of Windsor Colleagues - Nedhal Al-Nidawy, Chris Bonham, Chris Caputo, Philip Dutton, S. Holger Eichhorn, Bob Hodge, Andrew Hubberstey, Jim Green, Lana Lee, Una Lee, Kimberly Lefebvre, Tina Lepine, Joe Lichaa, Sinisa Jezdic, Charles “Chuck” L. B. Macdonald, Jason Masuda, Bulent Mutus, Siyaram Pandey, Chitra Rangan, Jeremy Rawson, Matt Revington, Simon Rondeau-Gagné, Robert Rumfeldt, Ronan San Juan, Keith Taylor, Otis Vacratsis, Nick Vukotic, Jichang Wang, Dan Xiao.
Collaborators - Jochen Autschbach, Glen Briand, Darren Brouwer, Tomislav Friščić, Yining Huang, Robbie Iuliucci, Len MacGillivray, Len Mueller, Tatyana Polenova, George Shimizu, Robin Stein, Jochem Struppe, Brent Watson, Jennifer Watson, Joseph Zadrozny.