News from CAM Alumni - Spring 1997Bruce Driver (Ph.D.'86) visited Cornell and CAM this week (7/7/97). It was great to see Bruce. He and his family (Linda, Sarah and Daniel) are doing well in San Diego. Bruce will be at MSRI, Berkeley for the Fall 1997 semester.Fredrick J. "Rick" Wicklin (Ph.D.'93) has accepted a position at the SAS Institute in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. He will be creating mathematical software for data visualization.
News from Pieter Swart (Ph.D.'91): "Yesterday at dawn (Sunday 8 June 1997 at 5:28 am)
was born. At birth he weighed 9lbs 11 ounces (4.4 kilograms) and was 21.5 inches (55 cm) long. Alex appears to be as healthy as can be, picked up quickly on the nursing thing and is now rapidly exploring his new world. Aletta is doing really well after an exhausting but uncomplicated labor. Dad (who caught the baby) is overwhelmed, relieved and mighty proud of them both." Congratulations Pieter and Aletta. Dave Bond (Ph.D. '95) is the proud father of James Kalen Bond, born on Friday, March 7, 1997. Mother (Sandy) and 2 sisters are doing fine. Rob Manning (Ph.D. '94) visited Dave and his family in Indianapolis last July. Rob is currently a postdoc at Maryland and is currently searching for a job for 97-98. Rob has been working on elastic rod models for DNA and is also continuing some thesis-related work with his Cornell advisor, Greg Ezra. Paul Plassman (Ph.D. '90) and Beth Munson (Ph.D. '81) visited us last year. Beth was recruiting for Bell Labs and Paul was here to give an invited lecture. Paul is still at Argonne Labs and is doing well although he says Chicago is not a great place for gardening. Helen McConnaughey (Ph.D.'82) has been at NASA for over 11 years now and is now Chief of the Propulsion Test Division at Marshall Space Flight Center. This is a big leap from the direction of Helen's work during her Ph.D. days in combustion theory. Helen and her husband, Paul (Chief of Computational and Fluid Dynamics Branch at Marshall) have three daughters ages 6, 8 and 10. Beth and Gary Munson's (Ph.D.'81) son, Sean, has attended two sessions of "Space Academy" at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Both times, Beth and Gary have been able to get together with Helen and Paul. Cindy Anfinson's (M.S. '89) son, Sean, is 7 now and also wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. Cindy and her husband, Fred, are still in the San Diego area. Cindy teaches at a local college. Clare Chu (Ph.D. '88) is at Cisco Systems in San Jose, California and has two cute kids named Anthony and Lorenza. Thanks for the pictures of your kids, Cindy and Clare. We haven't heard too much from the Washington,D.C. contingent (Kevin Hockett, Ph.D.'86), (Jon Len, Ph.D.'87), (John Dailey, M.S.'89) lately. Last we heard, Kevin was enjoying his free time playing guitar in a local band. Kevin and Margie have two kids, Ian and Aimee. Jon Len and John Dailey and family, (Ana and Erika), get together with Kevin and his family quite frequently. You guys are welcome to visit us in Ithaca again any time. (You must be running low on New York State wine.) 5/97 - John Dailey writes: "I was visiting CAM's web page and was pleased to see the Alumni news. You all have put together a good site. I thought I would send you an update. Kevin (and family) and Jon and I are getting together for a cookout at my house this weekend (yes, we still hangout together). Recently, both Erika and I earned Black Belts in karate. I am now a karate instructor at a local club (I do this for "relaxation"). Oh, Erika will be 10 next week. At work, until recently I was Chief, Office for Systems Plans, which includes Systems Architecture, Compusec (computer security), and Systems Integration, at the Defense Intelligence Agency. A few months ago I jumped at a rotational opportunity and now I am on a two year assignment as the Lt. General Eugene Tighe Professor of Technology at the Joint Military Intelligence College (which is in Washington, DC). Besides teaching graduate courses on emerging technologies and their impacts and challenges for intelligence operations, I am overseeing a number of Master's theses on a variety of topics. It is an enjoyable change of pace from my previous duties and though I will return to my old position one day, that day is still blissfully far in the future. Ana is doing well and says hello. Yes, we are getting low (very low) on NY wine. So we do need a visit." Kevin Hocket writes: "Ian has taken up trumpet and wants to learn to play bass. Aimee, meanwhile, shows signs of being a junior thespian. Quite the sense of high drama that one. Margy has started working at home developing software products for the consulting firm she's worked for the last 5 or 6 years. Meanwhile, your's truly continues to do the usual GW gig. Anyway, things continue apace, if a bit routine." Kevin and his family may visit Ithaca this summer and we look forward to seeing them again. We are still waiting to hear from Jon Len...
Brad Bond (Ph.D.'92) and his wife, Kathryn, recently built a new home near Boston. Unfortunately Brad hasn't had a lot of time to enjoy it since he has been spending large amounts of time in Florida working on a large project. Brad usually works from home for VARIMETRIX Corp., but the company is based in Florida and the project is due in July. Bob Vanderbei (Ph.D.'81) is Director of the EMS Program at Princeton. Bob was married in May 1985 and had twin girls in April 1995. Bob's interest in soaring has continued and is the chief flight instructor of the Central Jersey Soaring Club (since 1990). Rob Ghrist (Ph.D.'95) holds a joint NSF Postdoc & R.H. Bing Instructorship at the University of Texas. He and his wife are enjoying Texas. Dave Housman (Ph.D.'83) is an Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department at Allegheny College. Some of you may remember that Dave married Jeanne Bowen (Director of Cornell's Fellowship Office a number of years ago). They now have four children: Kate (10), Genni (7), Stephen (3), and Laura (1). Jianguo Liu (Ph.D.'94) writes that he has moved to Denton Texas, which is 35 miles north of Dallas. He is teaching in the Math Dept., at the University of North Texas. Glen Swindle (Ph.D.'88) has returned to Cornell as an Associate Professor in the School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering. Glen said he doesn't remember the Ithaca spring weather being this bad. Salvador Malo (Ph.D.'94) visited CAM during this past Fall and gave a talk describing "A Career at McKinsey for a Technical Degree Holder". It was great to see Salvador and everyone enjoyed the pizza lunch provided by McKinsey. Katy Simonson (Ph.D.'96) is going to be in town soon for a few hours and we are looking forward to seeing her. Katy is at North Carolina State and has had a busy year. In addition to surviving her new job, she also survived a hurricane shortly after arriving in North Carolina. Gerry Shea (Ph.D.'75) writes that he has been with Exxon Research and Engineering for 15 years and is now an Engineering Associate in Statistics and Quality Technology. Most recently, he has been helping U.S. refineries implement the Clean Air Act. They are working to improve both product (reformulated gasoline) and process (manufacture, handling, and storage). Keep up the good work Gerry! Gerry's wife, Beverly, is a private piano teacher and President of the Piano Teachers Congress of New York. His daughter, Robin, graduated this year from Michigan State and is working on a D.V.M. and a Ph.D. in microbiology. His son, Peter, is a senior in high school and will be attending college this Fall. T.V. Raman (Ph.D.'94) is working at Adobe Systems which moved from Mountain View to San Jose, CA, last September. T.V. says Aster, his guide dog, is doing well also. Florin Avram (Ph.D.'86) is at Utah State this year and likes to refer to himself as the "migrating mathematician". Patty Hough (Ph.D.'96) is enjoying her job at Sandia Labs and keeps in close touch with her friends in CAM. Mark Hanisch (Ph.D.'91) and his wife, Ruth Ann, had a baby last fall and is currently living near Geneva. Sharon Lubkin (Ph.D.'92) is finishing up 4 years at the University of Washington working with Jim Murray. She will be an Assistant Professor in Biomathematics at North Carolina State University beginning this August. Sharon has a wonderful son, Nathan LaSala, 18 months. Toby Driscoll (Ph.D.'96) is a NSF Postdoc at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He and his wife, Jen, are in love with Colorado. The Boulder paper was markedly upset that Ithaca, not Boulder, was named the country's "most enlightened city". We have just learned that Toby received a second prize in the recent Leslie Fox Prize in Numerical Analysis. Congratulations Toby! Larry Bales (Ph.D.'82) has spent the last several years working on computer hardware and software which is currently being used for radiation therapy treatment planning with CT and MRI scanner data in human and animal cancer clinics in New York City, Boston and North Carolina (see http://www.icomnet.com/~ici1031/mri.html). This "real" world application of the computer skills which he learned at universities is especially significant to him since both his parents died from cancer. Gal Berkooz (Ph.D.'91) founded Beam Technologies, Inc. in 1993. Beam is a software development company which is currently working in the area of Web based collaborative engineering. Beam has developed high end applications for flow control, partial differential equation based optimization, fluid structure interaction and combustion. Beam is located in Ithaca and has provided employment for several CAM students and spouses at various times. Gal and his wife, Corry , have a baby Hana.
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Dolores Pendell |