Alumni 1998 Newsletter
What are ISP students up to these days?
Jen Marshall (ec96) will be working on a NASA summer research project in NU's Astrophysics Department. She'll be working on spectroscopy.
Melissa Pulfer (ec95) was named as an Erwin Macey Scholar in the life sciences for summer, 1998. Melissa will receive a research stipend to work with Prof. Robert Linsenmeier on her project "Study of the variability of choroidal blood flow."
Brent Fisher (ec96) and Jenny Wilson (ec96) were inducted into the Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society based on their achievements in scholarship, leadership and service.
Emily Van Ark (ec95) will be presenting a poster talk at the American Geophysical Union's Spring Meeting in Boston and will be doing summer research at the Geophysical Institute at U Alaska-Fairbanks.
Josh Veatch (ec97) will be doing a summer internship in biomedical research at NIH working in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda.
Matthew Smith (ec96) will study abroad at St. Edmund's College in Oxford, England for the 98-99 academic year.
David Smith (ec97) will spend the summer at Rice University in Houston studying molecular properties of nanoclusters at the Rice Quantum Institute. this is part of the NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates Program.
Brian White (ec96) will spend the summer at UAlaska-Fairbanks working on a geophysical and/or space science project. Brian recently ran in the Boston Marathon and did almost as well as he did in the Chicago Marathon. No hills in Chicago.
Ethan Siegel (ec96) will be working on a NASA project at Northwestern over the summer.
Michael Campos (ec96) will do a summer internship at the Santa Fe Institute, which is the center of complexity research.
Brian Patt (ec95) won one of the Marcy Awards given annually to the three seniors who had the best record in Division I classes in their junior year.
Evan Crutcher (ec96) will spend the summer as a teacher/counselor/RA in the National High School Institute's Leadership Division. NHSI is a 5-week NU experience for high school students, and the Leadership Division is patterned after NU's own Undergraduate Leadership Program, from which Evan will soon graduate.
YuShan Chuang (ec95) will be doing an internship at Microsoft this summer.
Anu Sawkar (ec96) was awarded a Silbur Fellowship from the National Cancer Society. This summer she will be doing research at the MetroHealth Medical Center doing brain tumor research. she will be studying MAPK signal transduction pathway in malignant and "normal brain" cells.
Where are our graduates going next year?
Jim Chisholm (ec94) will graduate with a triple major (ISP/Physics/Astronomy). He's taking a year off, getting married, then going to graduate school at the University of chicago in Physics, starting Fall, 1999.
Steve Lin (ec94) will attend graduate school this fall in biochemistry at Washington University.
Anthony Asta (ec93) will graduate with degrees in ISP and Math and plans to attend business school after a year or two of work experience.
Dennis Ma (ec94) will graduate with degrees in ISP, Biological Sciences (concentration in Molecular/Cell Biology), Biomedical Engineering (subspecialty in Biotechnology) and a minor in Economics. With all this magnificent training, Dennis plans to attend law school at Cornell University.
Rob McElrath (ec94) will pursue a PhD in high-energy physics at UW-Madison. He'll be doing his research at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Rob will graduate with majors in ISP, Math and Physics.
Jimmy Hougland (ec94) will graduate with degrees in ISP and Chemistry and will attend gradu school at the University of Chicago in the fall of 1998.
Jim Schwartz (ec94) has a position at a we4b programming firm in Chicago. He plans to return to school for an advanced degree in history, possibly history of science. Jim will graduate with degrees in ISP, Geological Sciences and History.
Carolyn Woodroofe (ec94) graduating with degrees in ISP and Chemistry will be spending a year studying and doing research in Germany on a DAAD Scholarship and will start grad school at MIT in the fall of 1999.
Andrew Su (ec94) was awarded a NSF Fellowship Honorable Mention.
Winston Tse (ec94 ISP and Chemistry) and Andrew Su (ec94 ISP, CIS and Chemistry) will both join the Scripps Research Institute Graduate Program in Chemistry at LoJalla , Ca. Andrew will work in a structural biology lab, hopefully in a joint project with a computational theoretician.
Steve Rose (ec95) graduating with an ISP degree and a Computing/Information Systems degree, will work for GEMS (General Electric Medical Systems) near Milwaukee. Steve had some interesting insights during his job search. He said that although there's always been an interest in the scientific work for (natural) science people who know computer science, he's found that there's a small but totally unsatisfied need for computer science majors that know about natural science. Steve feels that iit is very worthwhile to consider a double major in ISP and CS. He found there is an unmet need for people with this particular combined training and companies are willing to pay more than the already high salaries for this knowledge. Steve feels ISP was helpful in his MRI software job search because of the math background, the exposure to quantum mechanics and biology.
Three of our graduates are graduating in three years, each with two degrees.
Briana Burton (ec95) with degrees in ISP and Biological Sciences, will spend another summer in Finland doing research before she starts graduate school at MIT's Dept. of Biology. Briana was also awarded with a NSF Fellowship Honorable Mention.
Grace Choi (ec95), with degrees in ISP and Chemistry, will attend NU Medical School.
Jacob Lai (ec95) with degrees in ISP and Chemistry, will be taking a year off before starting grad school in Chemistry at Stanford.
Alumni tidbits for ISP Newsletter '98
John (Francis) Stracke (ec86) writes that he started grad school at the University of Chicago but wound up getting distracted by the computer lab next door. He's now at Netscape working on Web content management and participating in the IETF standardization effort for content management protocols. He recently moved to Santa Clara, met and married Cynthia. (francis@thibault.org)
Sam Kalat (ec90) writes that the is a video game programmer with Red Storm Entertainment in Morrisville, NC. He's also finishing a master's degree in biophysics at UNC part-time. (sam.kalat.redstorm.com)
Sam also gave us an update on Nick Matlis (ec90). Nick is working on his PhD in a femtosecond spectroscopy lab and can be reached at matlis@physics.utexas.edu
Guiseppe Terracina (ec90) sent us his current email address. He's working at Schering-Plough Research Institute in New Jersey. giuseppe.terracina@spcorp.com
Kurt Ahrens (ec87) wants us to know that he received his PhD from the Molecular and Cell Biology Dept. (specializing in neuroscience) at UCBerkeley in May 1998. "After turning in my dissertation I embarked on a trip around the world with my wife of two years, Eva Finney. We traveled for 3.5 months, visiting Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Greece, Turkey, England, Wales, Scotland, France, Switzerland and Belgium...We are now settling into our new jobs at UC-SanDiego (we are both still doing neuroscience, but I am in the physics department and Eva is in the psychology department). If anyone would like to discuss my work, my trip, or anything else, just send email." kurt@physics.ucsd.edu
Nancy Levinger (ec79) is on the faculty at Colorado State University in the chemistry department. She graduated from ISP in 1983 with a double major in ISP and physics but has shown that a training in ISP has allowed her to move to chemistry. Nancy gave a seminar in Northwestern's chemistry department in February, 1998. (levinger@lamar.colostate.edu)
Andrew Krylow (ec 78) was killed in a car accident in January, 1998. Andrew is from Chicago and graduated with degrees in ISP and Physics. He went on to receive an MS in Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago and came back to NU for his PhD. He was an outstanding student and a fine person. It is a tragic loss for all who know him.
Tom Langdo (ec 92) stopped by to say hi. He's at MIT studying semiconductors in Materials Science and would like to hear from anyone, anytime. (tlangdo@mit.edu) Said he's in contact with Judy Wong (ec92) who is returning from the Peace Corps and thinking of graduate school.
Suzi Casement (ec85) writes that she's "made the leap to industry" and is at TRW. She's living in Fountain Valley, CA and can be reached at suzanne.casement@trw.com
Jason Jarzembowski (ec90) writes that he's living in Madison, Wisconsin and should receive his PhD in Pathology this summer and then in the fall will head to a medical school to be named later. He was elected to Sigma Xi last spring. In '97 he married Erika (CAS '93) whom he didn't meet until the last week of his last quarter of his last year at NU.
Tasos Papaioannou (ec93) writes that he's in the graduate physics program at Wisconsin-Madison. He said it's quite different than what he's used to at ISP. For instance, the physics class he's TA-ing has 540 registered students. He can be reached at apapaioannou@students.wisc.edu
Thad Stappenbeck (ec83) writes that he's completed an MD/PhD degree at Northwestern Medical School. He's currently in the midst of a patholoy residency at Washington University in St. Louis. stappenb@pharmdec.wustl.edu
The Smallfields - Jarvis (ec90) and Julie (ec92) - bought a new house in Columbus, Ohio. They seem as happy as ever although in September Julie wrote that she'll be a happier camper when her qualifier is over.
Rick Orlina (ec84) wrote that he recently drew on some of the things he learned in the neurobiology course, "not what you'd normally expect from a physics major with an MBA."
Rick can be reached at Rick_Orlina@alumni.stanford.org
Paul Katz (ec78) sent us an update. He's now an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Georgia State University in Atlanta. "I moved here in December with my wife, Sarah Pallas, who also is now an Associate Professor in the same department. We have a 4 year old son." biopsk@panther.gsu.edu
Joseph Hora (ec81) is at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge. "I am currently the Instrument Scientist for the IRAC (Infrared Array Camera), a mid-infrared camera that will fly on NASA's SIRTF (Space InfraRed Telescope Facility) that will be launched in December 2001. jhora@cfa0.harvard.edu
Amy Shankle (ec91) is a now a third year PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC-San Diego studying biological oceanography. Specifically, phytoplankton growth rates during blooms. ashankle@ucsd.edu
David Matheson's (ec81) new book "The Smart Organization - Creating Value through Strategic R&D" was recently published by Harvard Business School Press.
Mike Mesleh (ec93) writes that he's happy as a clam working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in the SF/Oakland area. He's cloning DNA into proteins and using a technique called 3-d NMR to map the activity and dynamics of proteins. He says "it is very interesting work and I have been super jazzed about science." He's applying to graduate schools but in the meantime he can be reached at mesleh@foxie.llnl.gov
Chris Gandhi (ec93) who is now doing graduate work in Neurobiology at UC Berkeley was awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship.
Thank you so much
We wish to thank the following ISP alumni and friends who have contributed to ISP this past year. These funds provide an important source of upgrading ISP computers and other facilities:
Bradford Friedman (ec82), David Matheson (ec81), Paul Kenji Seo (ec79), Joseph Hora (ec81), Marcus Rafiee (ec80), Christopher Vargas (ec78), Chad Miller (ec85), Nancy Pergament (ec84), Bradford Sandor (ec79), David Darwin (ec79), Jonathan Gelman (ec82), Randal Hoke (ec76), Philip Kaldon (ec76), Rebecca Levin (ec93), Sara Walters (ec78) and Robert Maki (ec81).
Special thanks are also due to Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Dean Eric J. Sundquist who has provided a special yearly discretionary fund to ISP in addition to our regular budget.
When the College asks for your support this fall, please remember the needs and accomplishments of our faculty and students and designate your give to ISP.
Alumni tidbits for ISP Newsletter '98
John (Francis) Stracke (ec86) writes that he started grad school at the University of Chicago but wound up getting distracted by the computer lab next door. He's now at Netscape working on Web content management and participating in the IETF standardization effort for content management protocols. He recently moved to Santa Clara, met and married Cynthia. (francis@thibault.org)
Sam Kalat (ec90) writes that the is a video game programmer with Red Storm Entertainment in Morrisville, NC. He's also finishing a master's degree in biophysics at UNC part-time. (sam.kalat.redstorm.com)
Sam also gave us an update on Nick Matlis (ec90). Nick is working on his PhD in a femtosecond spectroscopy lab and can be reached at matlis@physics.utexas.edu
Guiseppe Terracina (ec90) sent us his current email address. He's working at Schering-Plough Research Institute in New Jersey. giuseppe.terracina@spcorp.com
Kurt Ahrens (ec87) wants us to know that he received his PhD from the Molecular and Cell Biology Dept. (specializing in neuroscience) at UCBerkeley in May 1998. "After turning in my dissertation I embarked on a trip around the world with my wife of two years, Eva Finney. We traveled for 3.5 months, visiting Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Greece, Turkey, England, Wales, Scotland, France, Switzerland and Belgium...We are now settling into our new jobs at UC-SanDiego (we are both still doing neuroscience, but I am in the physics department and Eva is in the psychology department). If anyone would like to discuss my work, my trip, or anything else, just send email." kurt@physics.ucsd.edu
Nancy Levinger (ec79) is on the faculty at Colorado State University imiconductors in Materials Science and would like to hear from anyone, anytime. (tlangdo@mit.edu) Said he's in contact with Judy Wong (ec92) who is returning from the Peace Corps and thinking of graduate school.
Suzi Casement (ec85) writes that she's "made the leap to industry" and is at TRW. She's living in Fountain Valley, CA and can be reached at suzanne.casement@trw.com
Jason Jarzembowski (ec90) writes that he's living in Madison, Wisconsin and should receive his PhD in Pathology this summer and then in the fall will head to a medical school to be named later. He was elected to Sigma Xi last spring. In '97 he married Erika (CAS '93) whom he didn't meet until the last week of his last quarter of his last year at NU.
Tasos Papaioannou (ec93) writes that he's in the graduate physics program at Wisconsin-Madison. He said it's quite different than what he's used to at ISP. For instance, the physics class he's TA-ing has 540 registered students. He can be reached at apapaioannou@students.wisc.edu
Thad Stappenbeck (ec83) writes that he's completed an MD/PhD degree at Northwestern Medical School. He's currently in the midst of a patholoy residency at Washington University in St. Louis. stappenb@pharmdec.wustl.edu
The Smallfields - Jarvis (ec90) and Julie (ec92) - bought a new house in Columbus, Ohio. They seem as happy as ever although in September Julie wrote that she'll be a happier camper when her qualifier is over.
Rick Orlina (ec84) wrote that he recently drew on some of the things he learned in the neurobiology course, "not what you'd normally expect from a physics major with an MBA."
Rick can be reached at Rick_Orlina@alumni.stanford.org
Paul Katz (ec78) sent us an update. He's now an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Georgia State University in Atlanta. "I moved here in December with my wife, Sarah Pallas, who also is now an Associate Professor in the same department. We have a 4 year old son." biopsk@panther.gsu.edu
Joseph Hora (ec81) is at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge. "I am currently the Instrument Scientist for the IRAC (Infrared Array Camera), a mid-infrared camera that will fly on NASA's SIRTF (Space InfraRed Telescope Facility) that will be launched in December 2001. jhora@cfa0.harvard.edu
Amy Shankle (ec91) is a now a third year PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC-San Diego studying biological oceanography. Specifically, phytoplankton growth rates during blooms. ashankle@ucsd.edu
David Matheson's (ec81) new book "The Smart Organization - Creating Value through Strategic R&D" was recently published by Harvard Business School Press.
Mike Mesleh (ec93) writes that he's happy as a clam working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in the SF/Oakland area. He's cloning DNA into proteins and using a technique called 3-d NMR to map the activity and dynamics of proteins. He says "it is very interesting work and I have been super jazzed about science." He's applying to graduate schools but in the meantime he can be reached at mesleh@foxie.llnl.gov
