Alumni 1995 Newsletter
Sorry that the newsletter is going out a bit late. I was doing "research" on the spectacular geology and biology of Glacier National Park.
ISP is preparing to welcome its largest incoming class, 44 students in September, 1995. This promises to tax the resources of ISP, which saw a small but enthusiastic class of only 26 in 1994. The increase in enrollment probably results from several factors and is part of a general increase experienced by the University. By objective measures, the quality of the incoming students is up slightly, too. Across the University, the average combined SAT score is up 16 points from last year. In order to prepare for the larger class, we will have an extra tutor for first year students, divide the computer applications class into two sections, buy a new SUN Sparc5 computer, and, unfortunately, move math to a room outside the Center for at least fall quarter.
The entire building (well, not the dungeon) was repainted this summer in shades of white, beige and tan that go by fanciful names. I lost the vote to have my office painted blue ("Blue is a good color for bedrooms," they told me), but Diane can now give tours with pride.
As always, there is curricular work to be done, but we accomplished several things in 94-95. A computer science double major is now in place and the first students are working through the 12 (ouch) additional courses that it requires.
Last year C replaced Pascal in A01 and this year our new A01 professor, Bob Welland, will take the final step, to C++, leaving me at least three languages behind. The biology curriculum has been slightly revised so that the first year course uses a molecular and cellular book and prepares ISPs better for biology courses outside ISP. This is important since biology now represents the single largest area of interest for ISPs.
Rob Linsenmeier
ral@isp.nwu.edu
NU Science News
Sad News
The University decided that the Lindheimer Observatory would be demolished over the summer, although as of this writing the landmark, in the literal sense of the word, is still standing. Constructed in 1964, Lindheimer housed the largest teaching telescope in the country. The 40" and 16" telescopes are being taken to Lowell Observatory in Arizona. University officials felt that the costs of asbestos removal, new air handlers and replacement of the peeling lead-based exterior paint could not be justified in light of the limited use of Lindheimer and the poor viewing conditions caused by lake haze and Chicago lights. The Department of Physics and Astronomy retains the Dearborn Observatory, but does not plan to use the telescope and its Civil War era lens for routine teaching.
Happy News
Excerpted from The Daily Northwestern January 13, 1995. Article by Jaimee Silverstein, Daily staff writer.
The Center for Structural Biology, a state-of-the-art communal laboratory on the fourth floor of the Materials and Life Sciences Building, may soon be a reality.
Northwestern has donated $4.5 million to the center, which will work closely with the Advanced Photon Source in the Argonne National Laboratory. The center, set to open in June 1996, will use [Argonne's] high-tech, X-ray defraction equipment.
NU's proximity to Argonne was a major factor in the center's creation, said Jon Widom, associate professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology and center coordinator.
"First, by having all the equipment and researchers close together, collaborative work will be made a lot easier," Widom said. "Secondly, the center will attract new, special faculty."
NU researchers will have privileged access to tools that will help them understand molecular shapes and functions involved in processes such as photosynthesis, the coiling of DNA and the regulation of genes, Widom said.
The X-ray beam line at the Argonne lab, scheduled for completion in the spring, will be one of the most brilliant light sources in the world as well as being one of the best places to study molecules and their structures, Widom said.
Excerpted from the CAS Correspondent (faculty newsletter) June, 1995:
Three physics and astronomy professors have participated in Fermilab's recent discovery of the "top" quark, one of six building blocks of matter.
David Buchholz, Bruno Gobbi, and Heidi Schellman (ISP physics Prof.) are involved in the experiment that began in the early 80's. As in similar Fermilab experiments, about 400 physicists from all over the world work on this $50-million detector.
Quarks, the smallest known particles, are found in protons in sets of three. Scientists have discovered six quarks in all: up, down, charm, strange, bottom, and top. Until recently, the top quark, the heaviest such particle, says Buchholz, remained elusive. It was "missing" because it required very intense particle beams and energies that have only become available recently at Fermilab.
According to Gobbi, "the search for the top quark was at the top of the agenda" in this Fermilab experiment. In the process, the Fermilab accelerator collides protons with antiprotons around 200,000 times/second, and physicists examine the debris.
Schellman's main contribution to the project has been the computer processing of the data. Three interactions per second are selected from the many thousand collisions; then data about them are recorded onto tape. Over the past year, data for close to 50 million interactions [have] been written onto tape.
"We are currently using 98 workstations 24 hours every day, and are having a very hard time keeping up with our colleagues who run the experiment," Schellman says. She hopes to finish...this run, begun in 1992, by the end of 1995.
Once data [have] been processed, another group searches records for interactions that looks as if they come from top quarks. So far, they have found about 20.
"[The top quark] was only one of many topics we're looking for," says Buchholz. "But it's one of the most exciting discoveries."
Awards for sponsored research at Northwestern were up 8.8% in FY94 to $168.9 million. This is more than double the national increase in research support of 3.8%. The support includes money from industry as well as federal agencies. 27.5% of the support is for physical sciences and engineering and 21.6% is for basic life sciences.
Truly Remarkable News - 9/2/95
Northwestern 17
Notre Dame 15
Go Wildcats!!
ISP Honors
Honors won by graduating seniors are noted below, but returning ISPs have achieved honors as well. Don Hagler (EC92) won a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship to help support his senior year. Susan Leem, Steve Rose, Jimmy Hougland, Sunil Patel and Paul Strasma (EC94) were selected to be Pew Scholars. Untold numbers of students are working in other research positions this summer. Two ISP faculty members, Craig Bina of Geology and Heidi Schellman of Physics were promoted to Associate Professor and the director was promoted to Professor. Peter Dallos, ISP Neurobiology Professor who holds two chaired professorships (he stacks them on top of each other) won major awards from both the Association for Research in Otolaryngology and the American Speech and Hearing Association.
The 1995 Graduating Class
Seventeen students graduated with ISP degrees in 1995 and many have accepted fellowship offers at excellent schools. Several students are noteworthy for achievements beyond their degrees. Peter Schroeder (ISP, Physics, Astronomy) will study astrophysics at UC Berkeley, supported by his own NSF fellowship. Peter was one of only two graduating seniors honored at the CAS convocation with a Student Achievement award. He has already done important work in Astrophysics with Prof. Mel Ulmer and is first author on a paper in the J. Astrophysics. Chris Toomajian (ISP, Biology) declined an NSF Fellowship (!) in order to take a Howard Hughes Fellowship to study molecular genetics at UChicago. Chris did research in anthropology and molecular biology while an undergraduate. Steve Pracko became one of the rare students to complete four majors (ISP, Physics, Astronomy and Math) and will study plasma physics next year at Columbia. Chris Maierle (ISP, Chemistry) didn't miss a stride after spending his junior year in England and left for the Chemistry Department at Berkeley after winning a departmental chemistry award at Northwestern. Judy Wong (ISP, Biology) graduated in three years and has elected to work with The Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic before pursuing graduate work. Several other students will go into biological sciences - Robert Wassergord (ISP, Biology) in Neuroscience at Washington University, Steve Hinton (ISP, Biology) in Neuroscience at UC Irvine, Steve Bass (ISP, Biology) in molecular biology at UTexas Southwestern Medical Center, and Beth Boskey (ISP) in Biophysics at Johns Hopkins. Mayank Shah and Telly Psaradellis (ISP, Biology) both graduated in three years and will attend medical school.
Several students completed their degrees with honors and four (Pracko, Schroeder, Toomajian, Wong) of the graduates were elected to Phi Beta Kappa (among other honorary societies).
One student who started in ISP but did not finish the ISP degree deserve mention. Amy Shankle graduated with degrees in geology and biology and will study biological oceanography at Scripps next year. Amy gets special thanks for being our senior teaching assistant for ISP A01 - Computer Applications for the last two years.
Good luck to all - keep in touch.
Student Politics at NU
In an unprecedented write-in campaign, Nick Siebers (EC93) was elected President of the Associated Student Government (ASG) in April. Nick and another candidate were dropped from the ballot for exceeding the $75 campaign spending limit. In the preliminary election Nick's 30.3% write-in total was the best of the 5 candidates on the ballot. Two days later he collected 66.6% of the vote in a runoff that gave him the presidency. Nick's campaign focused on providing a more exciting social life to NU students, including an on-campus bar and concerts by major rock groups. Christina Headrick, editor-in-chief of The Daily Northwestern, said, "A few people connected with ASG are upset, but I think the rest of the campus feels a little refreshed." Nick had no previous experience in ASG but as spring proceeded he was learning fast and thoroughly enjoying the many meetings added to his schedule.
Becky Levin (EC93), who had more experience in student government, ran in the same election for Student Services Vice President. Becky finished second in the regular election, and second in the runoff, with 40% of the vote. Becky had concrete ideas for improvements in campus security, the library, and computer services, and also hoped to make ASG leadership more cohesive. Becky will remain involved in student and national politics despite the disappointment of losing the race.
News from Alumni
Many former ISPs have contacted us over the last year. Please let us know what you are doing by emailing ISP at info@isp.nwu.edu or trying out our new fax machine (708) 491-7002.
Suzi Casement (EC85) defended her PhD thesis in Astronomy at UCLA in June and is looking for a position. Any advice from former ISPs is welcome. Her email address until she finds that position is suzi@trifid.astro.ucla.edu
Suzi married David Sanda in June. Congratulations!
Nancy E. Levinger (EC79) tells us that she is an assistant professor of chemistry on the faculty at Colorado State University. She also received a NSF Young Investigator award in 1994. Her email address is: nel@mail.chm.colostate.edu
Tim Klitz (EC87) is beginning his 5th year at U Minnesota. Continuing his interdisciplinary ways, Tim is in a program called the Center for Research in Learning, Perception and Cognition. Tim intends to look for a position in a small college where he can get undergraduates excited about research in psychology. Tim sends the following description of this work:
"My research is being completed in the Minnesota Laboratory for Low-Vision Research of Gordon Legge in the Department of Psychology. Part of my research looks at the role of physical characteristics of text in reading, specifically how fonts and combinations of fonts on a page influence our ability to read. In addition, I have been working with Dr. Legge on a computer model of eye movements in reading. With this model, we can look at how an ideal observer would move its eyes through a set of words printed on a page, and compare the results to human eye movement data for reading tasks. By simulating retinal deficiencies, we find that the so-called erratic eye movements in low-vision patients may actually be closer to ideal strategies than previously thought, bringing this modeling effort into the domain of applied psychology, specifically low-vision reading." klitz@eye.psych.umn.edu
Tim Krauskopf (EC81), who went from ISP to an MS in Computer Science at U Illinois, is the vice-president of Spyglass, Inc. based in Aurora, IL. Tim, who was described in the Chicago Tribune recently as "the technical brains of Spyglass," was a key developer of Telnet at U of I and went on to form Spyglass, which produces specialized scientific software. Spyglass now produces the commercial version of the most popular software used to negotiate the network, Mosaic.
Ken Jones (EC 78) graduated with Mathematics and Computer Science degrees rather than an ISP degree because, like some other entering ISPs, he found his "high school love of chemistry soon disappeared in ISP and I chose to continue outside the program with the math/computer curriculum." He continues, "I am currently employed by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), and am in the Systems Engineering Division headquartered in Falls Church, VA. At the present time, I am on-site in Crystal City (a stone's throw from the Pentagon) working in a top-secret environment and using some "bleeding edge" software and hardware. The work we are doing here can (and has) dramatically affect(ed) the world our children will grow up in, so being the father of 2 girls (ages 5 and 3) with one more on the way, I can safely say that I am very excited about this project, both professionally and personal">Dave Santo (EC79) is interested in regaining contact with any ISPs who remember him from Dearborn Observatory. Dave (says he still has long hair) is the proud father of two labradors. After 11 years with TRW, Inc. he has joined a different aerospace company, Computing Devices International, as a software systems engineer. d.santo@cdev.com
Charles Price (EC77) is a physicist in the detector group of the relativistic heavy-ion collider at Brookhaven National Lab. His work address is Brookhaven National Laboratory, Bldg. 510C, RHIC, P.O.Box 5000, Upton, NY 11973-5000. Email: chuck@ribn02.rhic.bnligor
We have a new email address for Mark Starr (EC86): mstarr@nyx.cs.du.edu
Stephen Bell (EC81) recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cold Spring Harbor Lab on Long Island. "During my time at Cold Spring Harbor I studied the biochemical mechanisms controlling the initiation of DNA replication at yeast origins of replication. In particular I identified a 6 protein complex that recognizes these sequences and does so in an ATP dependent manner. For me this research was particularly fun because it allowed me to harken back to the days of Molecular Biology at NU as taught by (now Dean then Professor) Larry Dumas. Larry made us work like dogs learning the concepts of DNA replication and other protein-DNA interactions and provided a truly challenging course that greatly influenced my decision to pursue Biochemistry. Most recently I have started a new position as an assistant professor in the Biology Department at MIT. Thus far I have one graduate students and a technician with a postdoc on the way. I can't say that I still use all of my ISP training every day, but the hard work that got me through ISP serves me well still." spbell@MIT.EDU
Mark Pauli (EC88) writes that he's studying physics at UW-Milwaukee. He can be reached at hmph24a@prodigy.com
We also heard from Dave Vinson (EC87) who's at UW-Madison studying psychology. Dave's email is davinson@aol.com
Thanks
We wish to thank the following ISP Alumni who have contributed to ISP in the last year. These funds provide an important source for upgrading ISP computers and other facilities:
Mark Pauli (EC88), Bradford Friedman (EC82), Jeanne Briskin (EC77), Joseph Hora (EC 81), Paul Seo (EC79), David Darwin (EC79), Renee Locey-Scherrer, Beth Rees (EC83), Heather Bogdanoff, David Matheson (EC81) and Howard Schwartz (EC82).
Special thanks are also due to CAS Dean Lawrence Dumas, who has provided a special yearly discretionary fund to ISP in addition to our regular budget.
When the College of Arts and Sciences asks for your support this fall, please remember the needs and accomplishments of our faculty and students and designate your gift to ISP. Just write "Integrated Science Program" in the memo area on your check.
Brain Teaser
The 708 area code for Evanston will be changed to 847 as of January 20, 1996 due to unexpectedly high use of tele-communications equipment. Another new area code (630) will be added for parts of DuPage, Kane, Kendall and northwestern Cook counties, while 708 will be retained by Chicago's western and southern suburbs. The first codes having middle digits of two through nine were introduced in January 1995, expanding the number of available codes from 144 to 640. Question: the maximum numbers of codes are really 200 and 1000. What numbers are probably not allowed? We welcome speculations, the best of which will be printed next year. An authoritative answer from any of you who are Bellcore employees would also be appreciated!
