When visiting assistant professor Danielle Cass arrived at Reed with her family in Fall 2010, one of her first thoughts was how nice it was to be back in Oregon. Danielle had earned her PhD from UO in Eugene, but she had put her Oregon way of life (mountain camping, hiking, skiing) on hold for three years while she taught chemistry at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Back in Oregon, with daughter and husband in tow, Danielle’s job was to replace Arthur Glasfeld and Ron McClard during their back-to-back sabbaticals. This included a diverse set of teaching assignments — intro chem (102), analytical chem (311) and biochem (391) — and also continuing her research investigations into the
role proteins play in regulating the maturation of RNAs (particularly, controlling the alternative splicing of pre-mRNAs). Then, as luck would have it, one more Cass needed to be gently ushered into this world (see Welcome to Lucia Aminda Cass Reed ’32, Oct 7, 2011).
As anyone on the fourth floor will testify, Danielle’s enthusiasm for chemistry is contagious, so we had been asking ourselves, “where does all that energy go?” We just learned the answer. Danielle has accepted a teaching position for next fall at the University of Portland. Congratulations!
