Recently in Alumni Category

Cheyenne Brindle, *Ph. D.*

By Alan Shusterman on October 20, 2009 6:38 AM | No Comments
Cheyenne (Reed '02) has made the leap from chemistry graduate student to post-doc. She earned her degree from the Chemistry Department at Stanford University under Prof. Barry Trost, and plans, after a brief vacation in Hawaii, to head off to Harvard University to work with Prof. Eric Jacobsen.

Congralations!

Dio Siegel '97 churns out "long horn" molecules

By Alan Shusterman on August 12, 2009 5:20 PM | No Comments
After completing a PhD in 2003 at Harvard with Prof. Andrew Myers ("Synthesis of (-)-Tetracycline." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 8292-8293) and a postdoc from 2003-07 with Prof. Samuel Danishefsky at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center ("Total Synthesis of Garsubellin A." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 1048-1049), Dio has settled down at the University of Texas-Austin's chemistry department. In just two years he has collected a group of hard-working students where they work on projects spanning development of new reactions, natural product synthesis, and molecular pharmacology. Dio has also attracted the roving eye of the Sexy Science blog where he is profile #13. (PS his cousin points out in the blog's comments section: Dio is married.)

Stefan Minasian '03 & Molly Dodge '04 to wed in August

By Alan Shusterman on July 21, 2009 10:45 PM | No Comments
Stefan and I have been exchanging emails this week in order to arrange the details concerning his upcoming Reed chemistry seminar (Oct 1 - title to be announced, but it concerns "isolating and characterizing metal-metal bonded complexes of the actinides") when he let a bit of personal news slip in: "I'm getting married August 22nd to my long-time girlfriend Molly Dodge (also a Reedie), so forgive me if I'm slow to respond to emails in the next few weeks." If you'd like to pass along some good wishes, send them to Stefan at sminasian@calmail.berkeley.edu.

Allison Stelling '04 in JACS '07

By Alan Shusterman on July 21, 2009 10:07 PM | No Comments
Just before the news pages went into hibernation, I received notice of a paper published by Allison in the November 22, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Allison is a graduate student in the Tonge lab at SUNY-Stony Brook and was the lead author on the article,  Ultrafast Structural Dynamics in BLUF Domains: Transient Infrared Spectroscopy of AppA and Its Mutants (JACS, 2007, 129(50), 15556-15564).

Alumni News for Winter '09 Reed Magazine

By Alan Shusterman on May 28, 2009 7:24 PM | No Comments
Bits and pieces gathered from different parts of the Winter '09 issue of the Reed magazine:

  • In December Ron Sato '68 coordinated the Feeding Frenzy on campus, where alumni bring and served nourishment to exam-crazed students on the Sunday night before finals.
  • "Breaking Depression's Icy Grip" p. 37 described the upbringing and career of Kenneth Koe '45. Koe  was part of the research team at Pfizer that developed Zoloft, one of the most prescribed SSRIs. He visited campus in August 2008 to receive the Vollum Award for Distinguished Accomplishment in Science and Technology.
  • Arlene Blum '66  visited Reed in November 2008 to present a lecture, "Breaking Trail: Mountains and Molecules." Arlene traced her evolution from beginning climber and chemistry student at Reed to expeditionary leader and environmental scientist.
  • Steve Carlson '93 joined Fish & Richardson P.C. as a principal in their Silicon Valley office, where he focuses on patent litigation.
  • Luke Kanies '96 and Cindy Ellig Kanies '96 welcomed identical twins, Vivian and Lilian, on August 29, 2008 (see p. 47 for family photo)
In Memoriam ...

  • Beverly Joyce Young Sandmann '53, died on February 1, 2007, in Carlsbad, California. Beverly worked as a lab technician, mother, and homemaker, and was always very proud to be a Reed graduate.
  • Roderic Maurice Kauai Dale '70 died on November 4, 2008, in Portland. Rod would eventually earn a Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale and go on to hold executive positions at several biotechnology companies, including two that he started himself, Biotix and Oligos.

Oliver Laeyendecker '90

By Alan Shusterman on May 19, 2009 10:53 PM | No Comments
The graduation ceremony for the class of 2009 was held yesterday on the front lawn. It was, as always, a pleasure to share in the happiness of our graduates and their families and to offer our congratulations. Its also a joy to hear back from graduates like Ollie, who wrote to us in early April:

I've been accepted into the PhD program in Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I will start in the fall and try to balance work with study. I still think that the Reed Chemistry program prepared [me] really well for the research I currently do. Thank you for setting me up for success.

Kate Aubrecht '92 moves to Saint Anselm

By Alan Shusterman on May 19, 2009 10:22 PM | 1 Comment
Kate Aubrecht, one of my very first thesis students, sent me some photos and news back in July 2007. Little did I know that our news blog would stop publication that same summer until a new computer system could be brought online. Here are her emails, almost two years later:

As many of you know, I am joining the faculty of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH this August. Barney, Thea, and I will all get to live in the same house all week. My new work email is kaubrecht@anselm.edu. We welcomed Thea (Althea Linden Grubbs-Aubrecht)in March. I interviewed at Saint Anselm in February. Although I will miss Holy Cross, single parenting during the week would be really hard. Barney got the good news of a positive tenure decision at Dartmouth this spring. Eventful year here. Bianca Sclavi '92 should get photo credit for the close-up of Thea. She was visiting from Paris for a FASEB conference in Vermont and then visited us for the weekend.

KateAubrechtoutside.church07small.jpg
TheaAubrechtcloseup07small.jpg

Kevan Shokat '86 Elected to NAS

By Alan Shusterman on May 8, 2009 5:39 PM | No Comments
72 new members have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Among them is Kevan Shokat, Reed '86, currently a professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UC San Francisco.

Since this is the time of year when seniors are filing their finished theses, it is interesting to go back and look at Kevan's. The Reed library catalog describes this document as "49 leaves" carrying the title, "Synthesis of a precursor of PRCPCP, a non-hydrolyzable analog of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP)". Ron McClard served as Kevan's thesis advisor.

Chemistry alumni win NSF graduate research fellowships

By Alan Shusterman on April 10, 2009 7:27 PM | No Comments
The National Science Foundation has begun releasing the names of the 2009 winners of its prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships in science. The first installment includes five Reedies, two of whom are Reed chemists: Justin Jasper '05 and Joe Kliegman '06.

Justin's award will support environmental engineering studies at UC Berkeley, while Joe's award was made for life sciences-biophysics studies at UC San Francisco. Other Reed awardees include: Adam Goldstein '06, David Rasmussen '07, and Leila Rieder '06.

Seth Bush '94 - Science Educator

By Alan Shusterman on January 27, 2009 11:32 PM | No Comments
The Education Forum in the Dec 19, 2008 issue of Science magazine presented an article titled, "THE PIPELINE: Science Faculty with Education Specialties" (p. 1795) by Seth and three colleagues in the California State University (CSU) system. The authors had conducted surveys of CSU science faculty to learn about their career dynamics and their relationship to science education.

Seth is currently an assistant professor in the chemistry department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. On his About Me page, he describes himself as "a doting father" with a "crazy hard wired need to show off my kids".
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