Class Notes Archive 1931-2014
Class Notes are searchable back to our spring 2000 issue. You can browse the notes by decade (click on a decade to view its class notes):
Class notes from the 1980s
| 1984Bonnie Bassler, professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, was recently featured on the PBS program Nova. Bassler’s bacteria communication research has opened up the possibility of new strategies for combating important world health problems. She won a 2002 MacArthur Fellowship (popularly known as the “genius” award) and was chosen as the 2004 Inventor of the Year by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association. (appeared in the Spring 2007 issue) • Bo Eason continues his acting career in Hollywood where he also gives inspirational speeches. He lives with his wife, Dawn, and two children, Eloise and newborn Axel. (appeared in the Spring 2007 issue) • At press time, Danny Watt was planning a 90-mile bike ride in Massachusetts to benefit Best Buddies, a nonprofit organization that helps provide jobs and friendships for people with intellectual disabilities. Watt is riding in the “Volvo Best Buddies Challenge: Hyannis Port” in May in honor of his oldest son, Aaron, who has Cri du Chat syndrome, a disorder that causes developmental disabilities. Watt is part of the Patriot Pedalers, a 20-person team that expects to raise more than $50,000. Watt lives in Lexington, Mass., and works as a fundraiser for the MIT Hillel Foundation. (appeared in the Summer 2007 issue) • The Elk Grove City Council voted unanimously to appoint Susan Burns Cochran to the position of city attorney. She had been the assistant city attorney for Santa Clara. (appeared in the Winter 2008 issue) • Anne Downs accepted a position with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s pest management and licensing branch as an environmental scientist. She now lives in Cool with her husband, daughter and many animals. (appeared in the Winter 2008 issue) • Harris Lewin, Ph.D., animal geneticist, director of the Institute for Genomic Biology and a professor and Gutgsell Endowed Chair holder in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Illinois, has been named to the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. Lewin is the only American among the seven newly appointed foreign members. (appeared in the Spring 2008 issue) • James Nolan was promoted to full professor of sociology at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. Nolan’s interests include comparative law, culture and technology. His new book, Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement, will soon be published. (appeared in the Spring 2008 issue) • Philip Smith owns the Atlanta firm Global Staffing Associates, which specializes in health care staffing and consulting nationwide. He and his wife live in Atlanta with their two children. (appeared in the Spring 2008 issue) • Darren Bean, an assistant professor with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and director of ultrasound for the University of Wisconsin Hospital’s emergency department, died in May at age 36 when his Med Flight helicopter crashed near La Crosse, Wis. He had also served as the Madison Fire Department’s medical director since January 2007. Dr. Bean dedicated his career to improving the success rate of emergency calls and pioneered cardiocerebral resuscitation, or CCR. (appeared in the Summer 2008 issue) • Diane Mason and Daniel Rockey ’91 joined Bullivant Houser Bailey PC, a business and complex litigation law firm in San Francisco. Mason is part of the intellectual property practice group where she helps clients with trademark procurement and protection, unfair competition and Internet issues. She formerly worked as an intellectual property attorney with Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Rockey focuses on technology, securities, unfair business practices, intellectual property and antitrust litigation. He was formerly special counsel with Heller Ehrman LLP’s Menlo Park office. (appeared in the Spring 2009 issue) • David Jessup, M.P.V.M, a research associate for the Institute for Marine Science at UC Santa Cruz and the Wildlife Health Center at UC Davis, received an Alumni Achievement Award from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine for contributions to wildlife and conservation medicine. He is a senior wildlife veterinarian for the California Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response and one of the founders of modern free-ranging wildlife medicine in North America. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Dave Roche and his wife, Nancy, own the landscape architect firm Roche+Roche, which was featured in the summer edition of California Home + Design as one of California’s 10 landscape firms to watch. In conjunction with GouldEvansBaumThornley Architects, Roche+Roche also won the PCBC Gold Nugget Award for Outstanding Adaptive Re-use for their Ma(i)sonry Napa Valley project. (appeared in the Fall 2009 issue) • Ten chemical engineering classmates celebrated their 25-year reunion with their families in July at Rancho Palos Verdes, and honored the memory of fellow classmate Patrick Murphy, who died last spring after a battle with leukemia (see In Memoriam, page 38). Five of the graduates—Julie (Clifton) Smalling, Carolyn Macola, Dawn Marie (Wilson) Cook, Louie Arias and Bob Kiss—and their families continued the celebration on a cruise to Ensenada. (appeared in the Winter 2010 issue) • Patrick Murphy died of leukemia in April at age 54. He spent much of his life serving others—as an infantryman and paratrooper in the Army, as a volunteer firefighter and as a humanitarian with Doctors Without Borders. He enjoyed traveling, sailing and scuba diving. He is survived by his son, Paul; mother, Patricia; and siblings William, Ann, John, Maureen Jenkins, Kathleen Weaver, Mary Waldorf and Jean Atkins. (appeared in the Winter 2010 issue) • Gary Kachanoski, Ph.D., has been selected to become president and vice chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland in July. An internationally known soils scientist, he is currently a professor and former vice president of research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. (appeared in the Spring 2010 issue) • Maggie Morgan ’84 by David Owen Occupation: Costume designer for film and theatre: assistant professor at UC Davis. Assistant costume designer on such films as Apollo 13, A Bronx Tale, Casino, Wag the Dog, Men in Black and The Grinch. Drama queen: Maggie Morgan came to UC Davis intent on studying under influential California artists like Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson. However, it was a theatre class that would become her favorite, providing opportunities for collaboration and rekindling a childhood interest in the dramatic arts. Drama professor William Kleb was the first to recommend costume design as a way of merging her two passions. “It was a good mix,” Morgan says. “Drama is just in my blood.” Fashioning the world on film: As a costume designer, Morgan works with directors, actors and production designers to develop the look and feel of a play or film. She has worked with budgets small and large, requiring in some cases thrift store bargains or in others hundreds of made-to-order costumes. “You just do whatever is appropriate for the film and for the character,” she says. “Whatever works.” An offer she couldn’t refuse: Morgan had just finished an M.F.A. at Yale when she received her first film assignment as an assistant costume designer on A Bronx Tale and soon found herself rubbing elbows with a well-known director and crew of wiseguys. “It was cool to be working on a film that Robert De Niro was directing. Also, there were ex-cons, mobsters who were working as extras. Casino was the same way. Needless to say, that makes for an interesting day at work.” “I really love the process of developing he character with the actor. That’s the fun part: getting their input, and then just seeing it all come alive. (appeared in the Spring 2006 issue) • David Benning, Cred. ’85, a programmer for the ANR Analytical Lab at UC Davis, recently had his flute piece, Dancing Night Wind, published by Echelon Music. Steve Hammer joined the Joint U.S.–China Collaboration on Clean Energy as the executive director of its Energy Smart Cities Initiative, where he trains and assists Chinese mayors on urban sustainability issues. He continues to teach at Columbia University’s school of international and public affairs, and he is a consultant for the World Bank on energy policy matters. He is the co-editor of a book on cities and climate change that Cambridge University Press plans to release in late 2010. (appeared in the Fall 2010 issue) • John Bloom wrote There You Have It: The Life, Legacy, and Legend of Howard Cosell (University of Massachusetts Press), a biography of lawyer-turned-sports journalist Howard Cosell. Bloom is an associate professor of history at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. (appeared in the Spring 2011 issue) • Sundeep Dugar, Ph.D., received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Cal Aggie Association in February. The president and chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical research company Sphaera Pharma, Dugar is a co-inventor of two anticholesterol drugs. He also is a trustee of the UC Davis Foundation and a founding member of the College of Letters and Science Deans’ Advisory Council. He helped establish and fund the chemistry department’s R. Bryan Miller Symposium. He is one of three people to hold the UC Davis title of senior fellow of mathematical and physical science. He lives in San José. (appeared in the Spring 2011 issue) • Inga Ballard is an actress/singer who performed in a recent production of Two Gentlemen Of Verona at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. In 2010, she toured the United Arab Emirates with the Duke Ellington Big Band. She has worked in regional theaters around the country as well as the first two national tours of Ragtime. When not on the road, she is a voice-over and commercial actress. Some of her clients include Walmart, PBS, McDonalds, Verizon and Accu Chek. She has also appeared on Law & Order CI and All My Children. (appeared in the Spring 2012 issue) |