Alumni News from Reed Magazine, December ’11

What better way for Reed Magazine to celebrate Reed’s centennial than by printing a 100-year look back in the form of The New (OLDE) Reed Almanac. A compendium of the places where chemists reared their heads in the Reed Almanac follows, but first, these timeless words from President William T. Foster’s first convocation speech:

It lifts us above the transient interests that tend to warp and confine our daily living; it beckons our thoughts to a future, the significance of which we but dimly foresee; it presages generation after generation of human aspiration and service. The light of this morning shines upon those untold centuries when we, who greet this day with the fine enthusiasm of youth, will be but names in the faded archives of a venerable institution. That we should be remembered is of no moment; this only is needful, that our sense of the future committed to our care and our devotion to worthy ideals should create for Reed College a deathless spirit.”

MelissaGalloway2012.jpgAmong various feature articles we learned that Paul Whittredge ’12 won the first ever 5K Odyssey Run in 17 minutes 5 seconds (last month Paul broke Reed’s two-mile record). The proceeds for this event went to charity (p. 5) … a photo of visiting chemistry professor Melissa Galloway (analytical and environmental chemistry) sparkled among other new faculty faces (p. 9) … a feature article (The Small Chill) described the energy-saving inventions of Jeff Koplow ’90. His primary invention, a better way to cool electronic devices, could eventually trim 7 percent off the U.S.’s total electric bill (p. 18).

The Almanac proper consisted of an alphabetical listing of “the ideas, episodes, people, and traditions that have shaped Reed in the last 100 years”. Entries of special chemical interest included:

  • Chemistry (p. 32)
  • Dean of the Faculty (this position has been filled by two chemists, Marsh Cronyn ’40 [1982-88] and currently Pat McDougal [2011-], p. 34)
  • Nitrogen (paradoxically, none of the “founders” listed in the magazine were chemistry majors, p. 40)
  • Rain (if this material is indeed “liquid sunshine” as the magazine states, what does this make ice? Solid sunshine? p. 43)
  • Scott, Arthur (p. 44)

Side by side with the Almanac was a 100+ year timeline commemorating Reed through the Ages. Chemistry, of course, was there from the beginning:

  • 1911 – first classes
  • 1912 – laying of cornerstone for Arts and Science Building (Eliot Hall, 1923 photo of top floor chemistry lab)
  • 1945 – graduation of Kenneth Koe '45, co-develop of Zoloft
  • 1948 – Prof. Arthur Scott builds first Reed nuclear reactor
  • 1949 – old chemistry building constructed (Belluschi design)
  • 1958 – the era of computational chemistry dawns on campus with construction of DIMWIT by Prof. John Hancock. Many parts came from pinball machines.
  • 1963 – graduation of Barbara Ehrenreich '63, author of "Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America" (Henry Holt, 2009)
  • 1967 – Reed reactor goes critical
  • 1992 – new chemistry building constructed (Arthur Scott Laboratory of Chemistry)
  • 2010 – seeds for first environmental chemistry majors planted and watered

The Class Notes section passed along these chemical tidbits: Christopher Mathews '58 is closing his research lab at Oregon State U. next year … Chantal Sudbrack '97 recently attended the wedding of classmate Diana Burkhart '97 and Joe Palardy … Federico Espinosa '08, after finishing a stint teaching chemistry for the Peace Corps in Guinea and Liberia, has started a new teaching job at the Unversity of Bordeaux II … Emily Justusson '08 just finished her first year of medical school at OHSU … and several Reedies (Caleb Arata '11, Kristopher McNeill '92, Julia Chamberlain '04, Mike Campbell '02, Vito Spadavecchio '08, Danielle Draper '13, Rhiana Meade '12, and Profs. Juliane Fry and Alan Shusterman) crossed paths at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Denver, Colorado.

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