Harvey Mudd College Magazine, fall/winter 2012 by Harvey Mudd College

B UL L E T IN

Fall/Winter 2012

INSIDE

The Multifaceted faceted Mudder

4 Alumnus Trustee Establishes Endowed Faculty Chair

6 Malcolm Lewis ’67 Remembered

13 How Taylor Swift Came to Claremont

31 SPECIAL INSERT 2011–2012 Annual Repor t

Keenan Gilson

IMPRESSIONS

A Memory That’ll Last Forever-ever-ever Sophomores Travis Beckman and Yeahmoon Hong (see Page 13), both longtime fans, spearheaded the online voting that brought country-pop superstar Taylor Swift to Claremont. Swift performed songs from her new album “Red” at an intimate acoustic concert for students from Harvey Mudd College and its four sister Claremont Colleges on Oct. 15 at Bridges Auditorium. She sang Grammy Award-winning hits, shared personal stories and candidly answered questions from students. The concert was the grand prize in the online voting competition “Taylor Swift on Campus,” won by Harvey Mudd College, and was recorded for the Nov. 11 “VH1 Storytellers.”

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Fall/Winter 2012 Volume 11, No. 1

Madeline Hartley ’16, Pres. Klawe and Natasha Allen ’16.

A Vibrant Community Attracts Attention

ne of my first tasks at the beginning of each academic year is to request a photo roster of our incoming students so that I can memorize their names and faces—all 199 of them, this year. It was great fun during Orientation to greet each student by name, often much to their— and their parents’—surprise. But, I’m not alone in doing this. I join many Orientation leaders, student mentors, faculty and staff who work hard to help our first-year students feel at home. This kind of community is what makes Harvey Mudd College so special. This fall, we lost one of our most loyal advocates, Malcolm Lewis ’67, former chair of the board of trustees, who died Oct. 13. Despite this tragic loss, as we paused to celebrate Malcolm’s life and tremendous impact, we were reminded of what a wonderful representation he was of our community. Malcolm not only generously contributed time, wisdom and resources that enriched and strengthened the College, but he modeled true leadership through his character: gentle, warm and wise, as well as direct, firm and passionate. Malcolm not only believed in the mission of Harvey Mudd College, he lived it (Page 6). It is the commitment to fulfilling HMC’s mission that drives all we do—as individuals and as a community. As you read about our recent accomplishments in this issue, which includes the 2011–2012 Annual Report (Page 31), I hope you will be proud of all we are accomplishing together. In fact, many of these accomplishments have drawn increased attention from the local and national media, boosting the visibility and recognition of HMC’s strong reputation. Positive media attention better positions the College to have an even greater impact on how STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) is being taught nationally. More organizations have sought our participation on national issues—even beyond our strong research and Clinic Program— which has led to increased opportunities such as my participation in the White House Forum on Women and the Economy and opportunities to help organize conferences on mathematics education with Bill Gates and other national thought leaders. Most recently, HMC was given the opportunity to create, through partnership, a new national online mentoring program for undergraduates—women in particular—who are considering a degree in the STEM fields (Page 5). As I began this letter with students, I want to end with students, because they are the most impressive part of Harvey Mudd College. You will be delighted to read about the 10 students profiled in this issue, because they embody the attributes of creativity, leadership and teamwork. While fully engaged in rigorous academic work, they still find time to engage in leadership and outreach activities outside of the classroom, on campus and in the community. These are only some of the many HMC students who demonstrate the College’s commitment to developing the whole person and to supporting personal growth, and I am personally proud of each one of our students. So, as you read these pages, I hope you are as proud of our community as I am. And, whenever you have the opportunity, I invite you to visit campus and see for yourself all that’s going on— including the steady progress on the construction of the new teaching and learning building (Page 7)—and interact with our amazing faculty, staff and students.

Maria Klawe President, Harvey Mudd College

The HMC Bulletin is produced three times per year by the Office of Communications and Marketing Vice President for College Advancement Dan Macaluso Assistant Vice President of Communications and Marketing Timothy L. Hussey, APR Director of Communications, Senior Editor Stephanie L. Graham Art Director Janice Gilson Graphic Design Susan Landesmann John Sizing / JSPD Contributing Writers Judy Augsburger, Rich Smith, Koren Wetmore Proofreader Kelly Lauer Contributing Photographers Keenan Gilson, Jeanine Hill The Harvey Mudd College Magazine (SSN 0276-0797) is published by Harvey Mudd College, Office of Communications, 301 Platt Boulevard, Claremont, CA 91711 www.hmc.edu Nonprofit Organization Postage Paid at Claremont, CA 91711 Postmaster: Send address changes to Micki Brose, Harvey Mudd College, Advancement Services, 301 Platt Boulevard, Claremont, CA 91711 Copyright © 2012 Harvey Mudd College. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in the HMC Bulletin are those of the individual authors and subjects and do not necessarily reflect the views of the College administration, faculty or students. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced without the express written consent of the editor.

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The Harvey Mudd College Bulletin staff welcomes your input: communications@hmc.edu or HMC Bulletin Harvey Mudd College 301 Platt Boulevard Claremont, CA 91711

Fall/Winter 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE

Sheena Patel ’14, page 15

14 The Multifaceted Mudder Meet 10 multi-dimensional, seriously interesting Mudders. Katerina Hilleke ’13, page 17

Christian Stevens ’14, page 20

Jordan Librande ’13, page 21

DEPARTMENTS

Elly Schofield ’13, page 18

4 Campus Current Benediktsson ’01-Karwa Endowed Faculty Chair in Mathematics; HMC & Piazza Launch WitsOn; Rankings; Malcolm Lewis Remembered; T Trustee Update; Nelson Speaker Margaret Wertheim Fac ulty News Staff News

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Student News

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26 Class Notes Alumni Profiles: Brian Stock ’09 and Jeanine Renne ’88

31 2011–2012 Annual Report This magazine was printed in the USA by an FSC-certified printer that emits 0% VOC emissions, using 30% postconsumer recycled paper and soybased inks. By sustainably printing in this method, we have saved… 7,304 Lbs. of wood, which is equivalent to 24 trees that supply enough oxygen for 12 people annually. 11,382 Gallons of water, which is enough water for 660 eight-minute showers. 7 million BTUs of energy, which is enough energy to power the average household for 29 days.

Student Resear ch

24 Mudderings Alumni Events; Family Weekend; Alumni Weekend; New Alumni Website

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2,312 Lbs. of emissions, which is the amount of carbon consumed by 26 tree seedlings grown for 10 years. 665 Lbs. of solid waste, which would fill 121 garbage cans.

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College News

Mathematics Department Receives Alumni Gift BENEDIKTSSON-KARWA FACULTY CHAIR AWARDED TO FRANCIS SU own work the central role that mathematics plays in any scientific or technical field. Their generosity osity will leave a lasting impact on the mathematics program and many generations of Mudders.” Su’s work has been recognized by the Mathematical Association of America with the Henryy L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching byy a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member (2004) and the Merten M. Hasse Prize for outstanding mathematical exposition (2001). He has been awarded three National Science Foundation grants that utilize methods from combinatorics, topology and geometryy to study problems in mathematical economics and the social sciences; in particular, problems related to voting and fair allocation. In addition to his teaching and research activities, Su served as vice-president of the MatheJohn Benediktsson ’01 and Rajashree Karwa matical Association of America and is the creator of the award-winning Math Fun Facts website. During his early years of employment, John Benediktsson ’01 Benediktsson and Karwa are both engineers and have prosaid that he realized some of his success was due to his “Mudd ductive careers in the financial industry. Benediktsson graduated education, the fantastic professors and the close friendships with from HMC with an engineering degree and an interest in classmates.” He decided to reconnect with the College and, in computers and economics. Karwa holds a bachelor’s degree in 2008, accepted the offer to join the board of trustees where he computer engineering with honors from Cummins College of could contribute to the management of the College. He serves Engineering, India. on the Investment and Board Affairs committees. “Mathematics is a foundation for success in science and His involvement has grown, and recently, Benediktsson and technology fields,” said Benediktsson. “I’ve found math to be his wife, Rajashree Karwa, established the Benediktsson-Karwa useful for understanding data and gaining a competitive edge in Endowed Faculty Chair. Mathematics Professor Francis Su is mastering its implications. I’ve seen repeatedly the professional the first to be named to the chair. advantages that a solid math background can provide, particu“ Harvey Mudd College, math forms an essential part “At larly in the field of finance.” of the Core curriculum and is a critical component Benediktsson has been involved in running several electronto the curriculums of every major offered,” said ic trading firms, managing their technical growth from Benediktsson. “Rajashree and I believe that supsmall startups to mature, successful enterprises. Prior to porting ting the math department supports every working king in finance, he spent several years as a senior department to the benefit of all students.” engineer for a media technology firm. These days, “I’m very honored to hold the Benediktssonhe describes himself as an “engineer, entrepreneur, Karwa wa professorship,” said Su, a member of the trader technologist and angel investor.” trader, HMC faculty since 1996 and acting chair of “I’m delighted that John and Rajashree’s generosity the Department of Mathematics. “I’m especially will support Francis’ work specifically and our DepartFrancis Su pleased because I know John and Rajashree to be ment of Mathematics generally,” said Jeffrey Groves, vice wonderful people. They greatly value the work of the president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. College in the lives of students, and they have exhibited in their

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Mathematics is Focus of Two Grants

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College News

WitsOn Connects Students and Mentors HMC & PIAZZA LAUNCH FIRST ONLINE COMMUNITY MENTORSHIP PROGRAM STEM students across the country had a captive audience of leading decision makers ready to answer their every question this fall. What’s the path to a satisfying career and happy family? How do you know if you’re smart enough to make it in your field? What is day-to-day life like as a science professor? Conversations springing from these questions and many more populated the WitsOn (Women in Technology Sharing Online) portal. Five hundred mentors (all women) from 60 different companies and universities and 10,000 STEM undergraduates signed up to participate during the online discussion, which ran from Oct. 1 to Nov. 9. WitsOn connected U.S. and Canadian undergraduates pursuing STEM degrees with female mentors from industry and academia who spoke from personal experience about issues of particular concern to young women, including topics such as career, family, faith and community. “WitsOn was a wonderful opportunity to take some of the things we’ve learned at Harvey Mudd College and extend them to the world at large,” said President Maria Klawe, who cosponsored the initiative with Piazza, the social learning network that created the WitsOn program, and who served as a lead mentor. “We’ve seen that mentors help young people to envision successful outcomes for themselves.” Mentors, who responded to questions by text and video, included California Institute of Technology chemist Jackie Barton, Cisco Chief Technology and Strategy Officer Padma

Warrior and President Klawe. HMC female faculty members and alumnae working in various STEM fields also served as mentors. Nadia Abuelezam ’10, an AIDS researcher, was one of the mentors. “As a young doctoral student, I felt that I had things to both offer and learn,” she said. “The discussions on the balance between family and work life were especially interesting. I found it valuable to know that other women in similar fields were experiencing the same things I’m struggling with. It made me feel empowered and supported.” Enthusiasm for the program reached the highest levels. HMC and WitsOn were included in the launch of the Equal Futures Partnership, a U.N. and White House initiative that comprises new programs aimed at expanding women’s political and economic participation. President Klawe joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, dignitaries from 12 United Nations member nations and leaders from nine other U.S.-based organizations on Sept. 24 in New York to launch the Equal Futures Partnership. The initiative is supported by partnerships with U.N. Women, the World Bank and leading businesses and nonprofit organizations, including Intel and the Clinton Global Initiative. “The Equal Futures Partnership resonates deeply with our efforts at Harvey Mudd College, where the latest first-year class is almost evenly split between men and women,” said Klawe. Another WitsOn program is planned for the spring or next fall.

How Others See Us Harvey Mudd College alumni earn the second highest mid-career salaries ($135,000) of all U.S. college and university graduates, according to PayScale’s 2012–2013 College Salary Report. HMC rose to No. 1 in the category “Best Engineering Colleges by Salary Potential,” up from last year’s No. 2 spot. HMC also ranked No. 1 in the category “Best Liberal Arts Colleges by Salary Potential.” Other rankings of note: 2013 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges No. 12 (tied with Davidson College) among the nation’s liberal arts colleges Forbes’ 2012 America’s Top Colleges No. 28 among colleges overall No. 15 (of 20), Most Entrepreneurial College (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” highlighted HMC in its reporting about Forbes’ rankings)

The Best 377 Colleges (Princeton Review’s 2013 college guide) No. 6 in the “Professors Get High Marks” category, and No. 9, “Students Study the Most” A “Best Value College,” one of 150 private and public colleges recognized for “stellar academics with a modest price tag” No. 1 for selectivity. HMC had the highest incoming student SAT/ACT percentile range scores (25th-75th), and the highest percentage of first years who ranked in the top 10 percent in their high school class (95 percent) No. 2 undergraduate engineering college, (special recognition in the Engineering Colleges’ “Best in the Specialties” listings, ranking No. 4 in Computer Engineering and No. 2 in Electrical/Electronic/Communications Engineering.)

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College News

Malcolm Lewis ’67 Remembered FIRST ALUMNUS TRUSTEE AND FIRST ALUMNUS CHAIR OF THE BOARD Harvey Mudd College mourns the loss of Malcolm Lewis ’67, who died on Oct. 13, 2012. He was 66. Lewis was deeply involved in the life of the College. As an alumnus and member and chair of the board of trustees, Lewis generously contributed time, wisdom, resources and leadership that enriched and strengthened the College. Lewis became the first alumnus elected to the HMC Board of Trustees in 1973 and served on the board continuously for the next 39 years. In January 2012, he was elected chair of the board, the first alumnus to serve in this position. Lewis founded Constructive Technologies Group Inc., a consulting firm that provides support to building owners and designers to optimize the performance of new and existing buildings. Committed to sustainable building design, Lewis was active professionally in the development of the LEED green building rating system and oversaw more than 150 LEED-certified projects. Lewis also brought his passion for environmental stewardship to the HMC campus and was the Malcolm Lewis ’67 driving force behind the LEED certification of Sontag Residence Hall, Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons and the new teaching and learning building. Lewis was committed just as deeply to undergraduate engineering education. He and his wife, Cindy, established the Patton and Claire Lewis Fellowship program to provide the opportunity for students to be mentored by professional engineers within academia and industry while gaining practical experience. The fellowship is named in honor of his mother, Claire, and his father, Patton Lewis, a former HMC faculty member and professional engineer. The fellowship program emphasizes ethics, which Malcolm Lewis described as very intentional: “It’s important to suffuse your work with values and ethical constructs that guide your decisions. We live in an era where technology has sometimes run amok, and engineering should serve a higher pantheon of solving human problems. We have an obligation to apply our talents to meeting society’s needs.”

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Trustee Update Wayne Drinkward ’73 was unanimously approved to assume the board chair position, succeeding Malcolm Lewis ’67. Drinkward joined the board in 2005 and has been chair of the Physical Plant and Campus Planning Committee since 2009. President and CEO of Hoffman Construction Company, the Pacific Northwest’s largest locally-owned construction company, Drinkward has been instrumental in the planning of the teaching and learning building as well as the oversight of its construction. He is active with many industry and community service organizations, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Three others also recently joined the board of trustees. Annie Tran Kao ’02 is a structural engineer with the Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc., a manufacturer of construction building products. She has worked as a project engineer for Ficcadenti, Waggoner & Castle Structural Engineers in Orange County, Calif., and has performed seismic evaluations of structures as an intern with Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco. Deborah Rieman has more than 30 years experience in the computer software, networking and communications industries, serving as a technologist, marketing executive, chief executive and corporate director. She began her career as an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Now she manages a private investment fund and serves on the boards of Corning Inc., Keynote Systems, LogLogic Inc. and SmartPak Inc. Erin Smith is a retired banker and entrepreneur. In her early career, she focused on commercial and private banking, working at Chase Manhattan and Citibank in New York and London. She later helped launch multiple Internet startups— including Tribeca Tables Software Development—with her husband, Leonard Barshack.

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College News

An Unlikely Yarn about the World’s Biggest Art+Science Project NELSON SERIES SPEAKER MARGARET WERTHEIM Raising awareness about global warming and the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef has been a seven-year mission for science writer Margaret Wertheim. During the Dr. Bruce J. Nelson ’74 Distinguished Speaker Series this fall, Wertheim shared the story of her and her sister’s crusade.

Rubbish The lovely yarn coral reef has a “satanic twin,” a “toxic reef” made from castoff plastic material. It serves as a reminder of the Pacific garbage patch, a floating landfill northeast of Hawaii, twice the size of Texas and 30 feet deep. The sisters collected their plastic waste for four years and have displayed it in an effort to provide motivation for changes in behavior and practices.

Reefs The escalating magnitude and frequency of the “bleaching” of the Great Barrier Reef is the impetus of the Australia native’s project. Toxic runoff, excessive tourReason ism, ocean acidification and increasing water Crocheting is the “logically necessary mediMargaret Wertheim temperatures all contribute to the devastation of um” to use to replicate corals because yarn is flexthe coral reefs and ecosystems to which they belong. ible enough to create a hyperbolic surface. Hyperbolic Wertheim and her sister, Christine, crocheted their first heads geometry has negative curvature—the geometric equivalent of a of coral in 2005. A year later, with contributions from (mostly) negative number. Wertheim uses a simple stitching algorithm to women, a 6,000-square-foot gallery was filled with a colorful, curl- teach participants how to produce a hyperbolic crochet coral head. ing creation. The project’s growth mimicked the way that a natu- As the crocheters play with the algorithms, they invent new shapes ral reef proliferates, spawning satellite reefs in other communities. and patterns that contribute to the “ever-evolving taxonomy of In 2010, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History made an crochet coral species.” The project is now approaching the level of exhibit of the yarn reef, comprising the contributions of 900 par- complexity of the real reefs. ticipants. Six thousand people have crocheted components of yarn coral reefs, and three million viewers have seen the artwork at mu—Adapted from an article by Tamara Savage ’15, seum exhibitions in Los Angeles, Sydney, Croatia and London. October 2012 Muddraker

Construction Milestone With the placement of the final BubbleDeck panels on the roof this fall, HMC reached a key milestone in the construction of the teaching and learning building. The structure is now as tall and large, with respect to volume, as it will get. “The shoring is starting to come, so you can get a good sense of the spaces,” said David Dower, assistant vice president of planning and construction. “And the folks that ‘got on the ball’ did indeed have their signatures cast in concrete.” The outdoor classroom on the third floor has begun to take shape with the installation of the trellis system. Interior work has begun on the admission office space and the basement-level classrooms. An aerial view (taken in August) provides perspective.

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Faculty News

Meet the New Faculty SEVEN SCHOLARS BRING DISTINGUISHED BACKGROUNDS AND ExPERTISE

Christopher Clark

Ken Fandell

Clark studies underwater robotics, often performing his research in locations such as the Mediterranean Sea and the fjords of Norway. He was recently a visiting faculty member at Princeton University.

Fandell, an internationally known artist, specializes in witty, conceptual art. His work has been included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporaryy Art in Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He previously served as associate professor and chair of the Department of Photography hotography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and as a visiting artist at the University of Chicago.

Associate professor of engineering B.A.Sc., Queen’s University; M.A.Sc., University of T Toronto; Ph.D., Stanford University

Associate professor of art B.F The School of the Art Institute of B.F.A., Chicago, M.F.A., M.F University of Illinois at Chicago

Clark

Colleen M. Lewis

Assistant professor of computer science B.S., M.S., Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley

Lewis specializes in computer science education research and focuses on issues of teaching, learning and equity in computer science education.

Lewis

Benjamin Wiedermann

Assistant professor of computer science B.A., Boston University; Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin

Katherine M. Van Heuvelen

Assistant professor of chemistry B.A., St. Olaf College; Ph.D., University of WisconsinMadison

Van Heuvelen is an inorganic chemist who studies transition metals complexes using spectroscopic techniques.

V Heuvelen Van

Arriving in fall 2013

Charles Doret (not shown)

Assistant professor of physics B.A., Williams College: A.M., Ph.D., Harvard University

Kash Gokli

Professor of manufacturing practice B.S., Gujarat University; M.S. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Gokli has more than 30 years experience in manufacturing, engineering, product development, quality management and process improvement. Gokli previously served as senior vice president of total quality management and vice president of manufacturing for Amano USA Holdings and Amano Cincinnati Inc., which are subsidiaries of Amano Japan, a global manufacturer of time and attendance, parking, building access and floor care products.

Gokli

Fandell

Wiedermann

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Wiedermann specializes in programming language design and implementation.

Doret is an experimental physicist who traps atomic ions for studying quantum information processing. He will join the HMC faculty after serving ving as a postdoctoral fellow in the Quantum Information Systems group at Georgia Tech R Research Institute.

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Faculty News

Faculty Updates ReseARCH, AwARds, ACTiViTies

Physics

Imagine a spring that relaxes or tightens its hold depending on how far it is stretched. Such an adaptive device might be possible according to breakthrough biophysics research conducted by Assistant Professor of Physics Sharon Gerbode during her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. Gerbode and collaborators Joshua Sharon Gerbode Puzey, Andrew McCormick and L. Mahadevan studied how the cucumber tendril coils into its characteristic corkscrew shape as it hoists the climbing plant toward sunlight. They not only discovered the internal mechanism that drives tendril coiling but also an interesting twist: tendrils that were compliant when pulled slightly but much stiffer if pulled farther. Their findings are detailed in “How the cucumber tendril coils and overwinds,” a paper co-authored by Gerbode and published in the Aug. 31, 2012, issue of Science. In July, Gerbode received a Cottrell College Science Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement in support of materials science research. The two-year, $35,000 grant will fund efforts to create more efficient solar cells.

Computer Science

Department Chair Ran LibeskindHadas received the 2012 Distinguished Alumni Educator Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The award honors computer science alumni who have made outstanding contributions to computer science education and excel at motivating computer science students. He also was featured in the Aug. 2, 2012, article, “Math and SciRan Libeskind-Hadas ence Fields Battle Persistent Gender Gap,” in which he shared the importance of allowing students to choose how they want to apply the skills they are acquiring. Assistant Professor of Computer Science Colleen Lewis received the Chair’s Award at the International Computing Education Research Conference (ICER) in October. The award recognizes the best research paper presented at the conference. Her paper, “Tracking Program State: A Key Challenge in Learning to Program,” includes the case study of a middle-school

student’s experience debugging a computer program he had written. Lewis conducted her research in 2009 while pursuing graduate studies at UC Berkeley.

Mathematics

Professor of Mathematics Alfonso Castro was awarded a Simons Foundation Collaboration Grant for Mathematicians to support research involving equations fundamental to every area of science. The five-year, $35,000 grant will fund expenses for Castro’s project, “Solvability of semilinear equations with discrete spectrum.” “Understanding the temperature distribution in a star, for example, requires balancing heat diffusion, generation and radiation. In recent years, I have fully classified the radial solutions to this problem,” Castro said. Mississippi State University and the University of Alabama dedicated their ninth Differential Equations and Computational Simulations Conference to Castro in celebration of his outstanding contributions to differential equations research.

Biology

Elizabeth Glater, assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to support undergraduate neuroscience research. The $49,952 grant will fund a yearlong project that will examine the mechanisms by which genes influence behavior. “In humans, differences in genes can cause or modify susceptibility to neurological disorders. However, many common inherited Elizabeth Glater diseases have an unknown and likely complex genetic basis,” said Glater. “This research will provide insight into how genes evolve and the biological mechanisms by which the nervous system produces behavior.”

Chemistry

In an effort to open the dialogue between science and faith, Associate Professor of Chemistry David Vosburg has published an online study guide for the documentary film “From the Dust: Conversations in Creation.” Vosburg’s guide presents a sixweek study for group discussion of mankind’s origin in light of theology, biological evolution, and humanity’s search for its continued on Page 10

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Faculty News

Innovator, Gordon Prize Recipient CLIVE DYM RETIRES

Clive Dym activated and enriched HMC’s engineering design program.

Dym is a prolific writer, including 12 books (two slated for publication in 2013) and has lectured widely. Along with the Gordon Prize, his honors include the American Society for Engineering Education’s Archie Higdon Distinguished Educator Award (2006) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award (2004). VIDEO

This December, engineering design pioneer Clive Dym concluded his 21-year tenure at HMC with a career-capping achievement—the National Academy of Engineering’s 2012 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. Dym, the Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design and director of the Center for Design Education, shared “engineering’s Nobel Prize” with colleagues Mack Gilkeson and Richard Phillips. Dym launched HMC’s first-year design course, which applies conceptual design methods to real problems posed by nonprofit clients and is now a fundamental part of the engineering program. In 1997, Dym started the Mudd Design Workshops that have attracted design educators, researchers and practitioners seeking to address issues in engineering design education. Before arriving at HMC, Dym had established himself as an internationally renowned scholar in applied mechanics and acoustics, and a pioneer in applying artificial intelligence to the modeling of engineering design tasks. Yet, he was irresistibly drawn to teaching. “I enjoy the act of teaching and working with and mentoring students, and I love the flexibility of being able to write about what I want when I want,” Dym said. “For me, academic life always has been more than a job; it’s a vocation, a calling and very much a part of who I am.”

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place in the universe. Vosburg served on panels at the film’s May premiere and during its screening at a science-faith conference in July. He also hosted a screening and discussion at a faculty conference and led a student group through the film and the guide this summer. The National Science Foundation awarded $437,962 to the Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists (IONiC), a group co-founded by chemistry Professor Adam Johnson. The four-year grant will fund a multi-institutional, collaborative project that will introduce inorganic chemistry faculty to the latest research and guide them through the development of new teaching materials. The materials produced will be disseminated to the global teaching community through VIPEr (Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource), IONiC’s website and social networking hub. The project will feature four summertime faculty development workshops, that “will capture the most exciting and cutting-edge research taking place in the field of inorganic chemistry and make it available in ready-to-use modules

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that can be dropped into an existing undergraduate course,” said Johnson.

Engineering

Underwater robots are now tracking sharks and transmitting data to marine scientists, thanks to a team of researchers led by engineering Professor Christopher Clark; California State University, Long Beach biological science Professor Christopher Lowe; and University of Delaware biological science Professor Mark Moline. More than 10 student researchers have contributed to the project, including HMC physics major Chris Gage ’13. KABC-TV-7 aired a report on the project Monday, Sept. 24. The new shark-tracking technology allows scientists to follow sharks across longer distances and for longer time periods, as well as report on the sharks’ environment, providing information about the factors that may influence their migration patterns.

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Staff News

Strength in Diversity SUMUN PENDAKUR APPOINTED ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR INSTITUTIONAL DIVERSITY Award-winning student advocate Sumun Pendakur recently joined Harvey Mudd College as the associate dean for institutional diversity. Recently, as director for Asian Pacific American Student Services at the University of Southern California, she helped develop Project Remix, which addresses the issues and experiences of Sumun Pendakur those from bi-racial and multiracial backgrounds. In 2010, Pendakur won the Student Affairs Administrators’ NASPA Gold Excellence Award for her work on the project. At HMC, Pendakur will collaborate with Associate Dean for Diversity Darryl Yong ’96, Assistant Dean Angelica Ybarra and all members of the campus community to support “unsurpassed excellence and diversity at all levels.”

structures that are supposed to be about enlightenment, I think you grow a lot. I didn’t figure out that I wanted to be in student affairs until a few years later when I realized I would have loved someone to have been an ally and advocate for me on my journey. How have those experiences shaped you as a mentor and educational leader?

My experiences have taught me a lot about listening and about knowing that students are in different places on their own developmental journeys. It can be difficult to survive in traditional educational institutions because there are so many normative patterns of behavior and expectations. A lot of that comes around class as well as social and cultural capital. Some students have access to that, and some don’t due to a variety of historical circumstances. Helping students figure out more about themselves and the world around them as well as how to make an impact in the world is very exciting to me. Also helping students to really articulate what it means to be a student of color, a queer student, a working-class student—any of these constructs have meaning, and they impact our lived experiences. Those are all identities that, to me, are sources of strength. But for some people, they could be seen as a barrier or a weakness. What do you hope to achieve at HMC?

First job:

I think we have a tremendous opportunity here at Mudd. We need to create more pathways to better recruit Glad I did it, but wouldn’t do it again: A lot of my educational experience was and retain African-American and other Took an 11-city tour in India, plus Singapore in just 30 days. Planes, forged out of a combination of fantasstudents of color, first-generation coltrains, automobiles and rickshaws. tic teachers and also conflict, particulege students, low-income students and Absolutely exhausting, but totally worth it. larly in college, when I was really comother students who traditionally get left ing into my own as a student activist out of the education pipeline, particuand finding my voice as a person of color, as a feminist and as a larly in STEM fields. We also need to look at how our students political being. I came up against the administration when we on campus interact and learn from one another. That goes for were struggling for ethnic studies at my undergraduate alma ma- faculty and staff, too. Also, regarding the culture on campus, ter, particularly Asian-American studies, and tried to find a place when people think about Harvey Mudd, do they think this is a to say, “our stories and our history are part of this American great place for people of diverse backgrounds to go and to get tapestry, so why aren’t we represented?” a top-notch education? And, if that’s not the case, what do we In that environment, where you question the educational do about it? What was your educational experience like, particularly as an Asian-American woman?

Personal shopper at a grocery store

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Student Research

Hummer vs. Human STUDENT INVESTIGATES HUMMINGBIRD HUMMINGBIRD-HUMAN INTERACTION

Big App-etite

“I found it interesting to think about what exactly we’re doing to this species,” said Wheeler. “By inviting them into our suburbs, how much are we changing their populations and what effect are we having overall?” “[This hummingbird study] is a very important project studying ecologies of the little microenvironments that we live in but that taken together as a whole form a global picture of how fragile the environment really is,” said Haskell, who is director of HMC’s Center for Environmental Studies, which funded the project. Wheeler did her research during HMC’s Summer Research Program, which engages students in 10 weeks of full-time research. VIDEO

Mathematics and computational biology major Megan Wheeler ’13 spent five weeks this summer observing hummingbird populations in Claremont, Calif. The project is the first in a series of studies that may offer insight into potential human impacts upon the birds, starting with how the use of feeders and plants to attract hummingbirds may be affecting the birds’ population and behavior. Wheeler spent several weeks reviewing past research conducted on the subject and consulting key faculty members across The Claremont Colleges, including professors Stephen Adolph and Richard Haskell (biology). She then selected eight natural sites and 16 urban sites to study, keeping half of each type as control sites. She posted and maintained feeders at the other half and conducted timed point counts at each site over the course of five weeks. Megan Wheeler ’13

www.hmc.edu/newsandevents/hummingbird-ecology-2012.html

It seemed obvious to Chet Corcos ’13: the dining hall menus were online, why not put them in a convenient app? The summer after his first year, he set out to create such an app—and failed miserably. “Although Apple’s developer tools are fantastic, they were completely foreign to me, and I did not have much programming experience.” Corcos learned some objective-c (the programming language for Apple products) during his sophomore year then with the help of computer science Professor Zach Dodds and Jacob Bandes-Storch ’14, a recent Apple intern, he was able to gain a better understanding of Apple’s developer tools. The 5C Menu app, available for Android and iPhone devices, displays dining hall A new app by Chet Corcos ’13 lets students preview the menus of Hoch-Shanahan and other 5-C dining halls. menus from each undergraduate campus, and app reviewers seem pleased. This summer, Corcos worked at startup Aura Labs develop“A quick and easy way to check out the menus across the ing an iPhone app for them. He is working on another app in campuses...and speedy access to our dining halls!” said John ’79. his free time as well as starting a software contracting business “It’s about time someone did this! Thank you!” said with friends. Patrick354556.

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FALL/WINTER 2012

CAMPUS CURRENT

Student News

The Swift Strategy THE “TAYL “T ” OF TWO FRIENDS ON A qUEST Enthusiastic Taylor Swift fans Travis Beckman ’15 and Yeahmoon Hong ’15 describe how they used social media to gather votes from fellow students at HMC and the other Claremont Colleges in order to win Swift’s online voting competition—an exclusive concert and $10,000 (see inside front cover). Beckman: “I follow Taylor Swift on Twitter and, in August, she posted about the concert competition so I went immediately to Facebook and started an event the same day. We set about inviting everyone.” Hong: “Facebook was the ultimate networking site, amazing for quickly networking friends, friends of friends, family mem- Sophomores Travis Beckman and Yeahmoon Hong rallied votes from Mudders and others at The Claremont Colleges for the Swift contest. bers and faculty. In fact, I heard that several Mudd faculty were also voting in the Taylor On Hong: “I thought it was so awesome that we were able to gather Campus Contest. It was an excellent way of bringing solidarity together and sing with Taylor Swift! My favorite part of the conto a common cause among people who didn’t even know each cert was when we lifted and waved our hands as we sang ‘Weeeother.” eeeeee are never ever ever getting back together!’ There was so much energy in the room, and we were all singing together and Beckman: “Once I saw that the competition normalized the having fun!” voting by school population, I realized HMC had a shot. I was posting once a day on Facebook trying to get people to vote. It Beckman: “The concert was truly the most amazing night of my wasn’t some big orchestrated thing—it was just two fans who got life. Taylor knew my name, gave me hug, and kissed me on the

“When I saw we won, I ran out of my suite at 7 a.m. and screamed, ‘Taylor Swift’s coming to Mudd!’” — TRAV i S B E C kM AN ’1 5

cheek, and I nearly fainted. I will never forget being able to share that moment with everyone there. I’ve been telling everyone that between the Kings winning their first Stanley Cup and Taylor Swift coming to Mudd, this year has been surreal and just indescribably incredible.” VIDEO

the word out. I checked the webpage every day and then every hour in the lead-up to the announcement of the winning school. I was hitting refresh over and over, and when I saw we won, I ran out of my suite at 7 a.m. and screamed, ‘Taylor Swift’s coming to Mudd!’”

www.vh1.com/music/tuner/2012-11-11/vh1-storytellers-taylor-swift-full-episode/

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Harvey Mudd College

Fascinating

the

Written by Stephanie L. Graham and Koren Wetmore

Mudder MuLtiFacEtED

Mudders are a fascinating, diverse bunch. To quote the HMC admission Viewbook, they are “multi-dimensional, polyvalent, seriously interesting” people who happen to really, really love math, science, engineering, humanities, social sciences and the arts. Meet 10 students at various stages in their academic careers and learn how they are managing the delicate work-life balance, a crucial skill for effective leadership and a fulfilling life.

DiVERsE

LEaDERs cREatiVE 14

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“

Sheena Patel ’14 ARMED WITH KNOWLEDGE FROM RESEARCH undertaken during her first and second years, Sheena Patel ’14 traveled this summer with physics professors James Eckert and Patricia atricia Sparks to South Korea, to attend the International Conference on Magnetism. Patel, the only undergraduate in attendance, attracted the attention of a number of leaders in the field of magnetism. The HMC research team is studying magnetic multilayers, the lynchpin of magnetic device technology. Patel is investigating thin-film multilayers of cobalt and nickel, materials that interact magnetically with each other and with externally applied magnetic fields. These magnetic materials are used in magnetic device technology, such as hard drives (read/write heads) and position sensors, and give rise to devices that are often more stable and require less power than equivalent devices dependent on the electronic properties of materials. The field of magnetic device technology is a rapidly expanding area of research with many unanswered questions that range from fundamental physics to the economics of bringing novel new devices to market. Enter the HMC team. Equipped with state-of-the-art systems, they are well positioned to add to this discussion. In particular, Patel has been making a series of measurements involving olving the Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance. These measurements provide a window into how magnetic materials behave when combined in separate layers or when mixed together. Patel presented two posters that showed the effect of cobalt vs. nickel layer thickness on magnetic interactions of the two materials. Her presentations were very well received and generated significant discussion. Dan Dahlberg, director of the Magnetic Microscopy Center at the University of Minnesota, was impressed with Patel’s research and presentation. “She was clearly equal, in my opinion, to the graduate students and post docs in her session, a real testament to her abilities and the quality of her work and training. The quality of the students at Mudd is excellent, and the research opportunities for students in the Magnetism Group at Harvey Mudd College are truly uly outstanding and unique My balance tip: Find at among undergraduate physics least one thing that you programs.” love outside of your work, Eric Fullerton ’84, Univerand force yourself to make sity of San Diego professor, room in your schedule for it. director of the Center for Magnetic agnetic Recording Research and one of top researchers in the field, collaborates with the HMC magnetic group. “Emerging spin-electronic (spintronic) devices provide a pathway to low-power memories and electronics but require new nanostructured materials. Sheena’s study of the magnetoresistance and the Hall effect provide new insight into these prototype spintronic materials. The results are world class. They are well beyond what one might expect from an undergraduate and reflect the environment for cutting edge

“It was cool to see how

interested

research at HMC,” he says. “It was cool to see how w interested physicists at the conference were on the effects we were seeing,” says Patel. “These are measurements that haven’t been seen before, and we believe they are significant. The measurements we have taken so far are very interesting, but we have not even scratched the surface of the mechanisms behind them.” Patel keeps her busy academic life in perspective by finding time away from it—on the tennis court. She’s been playing tennis since childhood and is a member of the ClaremontMudd-Scripps women’s tennis team. “Sports and teams can be really eally important and carry over into other activities, so I make the time for tennis. I can’t give up my time on the court.”

physicists were on the effects we were seeing. These are measur measurements that haven’t been seen before.”

”

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Harvey Mudd College

“

I was thrown into deep water, but

learned how to swim.

”

Andrew Turner ’14 EVEN AS A SEVENTH GRADER, ANDREW TURNER ’14 knew that Harvey Mudd College was the right place for him. In high school, he excelled in mathematics and physics and augmented his knowledge by taking classes at the University of Missouri near his hometown of Ashland. His father, a scientist and musician, taught Turner music theory to augment piano lessons, band and choir activities. When it came time to select his academic focus, Turner went straight for the rigor and became a physics and mathematics double major, managing a schedule overload (more than 18 units) every semester. During uring his first-year summer, he focused on physics, interning at Los Alamos National Laboratories where he worked on modeling the fluid and thermodynamics of laser chemical vapor deposition. “I learned a ton of numerical My balance tip: analysis and partial differential equaCombine work and tions with the help of a great team. play. It’s good for I was thrown into deep water, but I time management learned how to swim,” he says. and sanity. This past summer, as the recipient of a Fletcher Jones Fellowship through the 16

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Claremont Center for the Mathematical Sciences, he focused on math, exploring, with Pomona College Professor Stephan Garcia, the new subject of supercharacter theory, a powerful algebraic mechanism which his team used to study certain exponential sums that arise in number theory. Turner is coauthor of the paper “Supercharacters, exponential sums, and the uncertainty tainty principle,” which has been submitted for publication, and he is working with Garcia and his team on another. Next summer, Turner is debating a math or physics internship versus a teaching assistant position at the Harvard Summer Science Program. He attended the camp in 2009 and studied the position of a near-earth asteroid, writing code to determine the asteroid’s orbital elements. Despite his hectic academic schedule, Turner still plays piano and sings (he’s a member of the Claremont Chamber Choir). Regarding science and music, he’s still deciding which he’ll Regarding pursue as a profession and which as a hobby. For now, Turner said, obtaining a Ph.D. in mathematics or physics sounds like a good plan, but only after spending some time traveling, perhaps in Norway, Finland or New Zealand.

Katerina Hilleke ’13 WHEN SHE’S NOT MAKING MOLECULES, CHEMISTRY major Katerina Hilleke ’13 can be found dancing, playing gamelan music or sipping tea. These activities help her refuel and creatively face cognitive challenges such as synthesizing potential new antibiotics based upon the chemical structure of their natural counterparts. “I’m continually astounded by what chemistry can do. There are reactions so endothermic they will freeze a beaker to a stool, or you can mix two solids and get a liquid. It’s magical,” Hilleke says. The 2012–2013 Astronaut Scholar is particularly fascinated with synthesis and discovering how to “assemble a particular chemical structure in a clever way.” In fact, Hilleke spent 18 months exploring ways to synthesize beilschmiedic acid C, a natural antibacterial product found in the bark of the Beilschmiedia anacardioides tree species in Cameroon. Although she has yet to achieve her goal, she hopes to be the first chemist to make the beilschmiedic acid C compound, which may lead to enhanced antibiotics. Hilleke helps others better understand chemistry by serving as a facilitator with the Academic Excellence Program and as a tutor for students in the Group Theory, Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy course. She also has helped organize Science Day for the Science Bus program. A member of the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company, Hilleke has been dancing since age 5. She trained first in ballet, rising through the ranks of a local ballet company and performing as a company member during high school. At HMC, she opted for a My balance tips: Know humanities concentration in dance. when to stop and take That decision opened up new a deep breath. don’t do opportunities she might not schoolwork after dinner have otherwise experienced. on Fridays. A Pre-Columbian Dance class led to a performance with the Aztec dance group Los Danzantes Del Sol, and a course covering the music and dance of Bali has introduced her to gamelan—a traditional orchestra from the islands of Java and Bali, Indonesia—and the chance to perform gamelan music and Balinese dance. More than just an extracurricular experience, dance is her joy and her secret to a balanced life. “My dance classes are important for my mental health,” she says. “They require a different kind of concentration, and I have found that my stress levels go down after dance class.”

“

I’m continually astounded by what chemistry can do. There are reactions so endothermic they will freeze a beaker to a stool, or you can mix two solids and get a liquid.

It’s magical.

”

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Harvey Mudd College

Elly Schofield ’13 At the 2012 TEDxClaremontColleges event, Elly Schofield ’13 presented her ideas on how to revamp the nation’s math curriculum to motivate and support the next generation of problem solvers. It’s a subject she approaches with great passion, having come from a family that loves math. Her relatives include math teachers, scientists and others who always encouraged her to pursue the discipline. Yet it is her twin sister, Xanda, whom she credits for inspiring her to excel. “She’s brilliant, and I’m competitive,” Schofield says. “So, I’ve been driven always to push myself hard to learn and perform well in math and science.” In her years at Harvey Mudd College, the mathematics major has lived up to the self-appointed challenge. In 2011, she developed and taught interactive math lessons to third graders at a local elementary school. She served as a math tutor for HMC’s Homework Hotline, an over-the-phone tutoring service for students in grades 4–12, and as co-president/treasurer of the HMC Math Club/SIAM student chapter.

“

She’s brilliant, and I’m competitive ... I’ve been driven always to push myself hard to learn and perform well.

”

Her leadership also goes beyond math to embrace other areas of college life. She works as a tutor in the HMC Writing Center, serves as a proctor in the Linde dorm, leads ASHMC as co-vicepresident and is co-founder of the DUCK! improvisation club. The club arose in 2010 as an answer to the yearning felt by Schofield and friend Max Zhvanetsky ’13 for their high school improvisational comedy days. They proposed a charter and budget, received ASHMC approval and launched the club with a flurry of emails and weekly meetings. Unlike the 5-C’s Without a Box improviMy balance tip: sation troupe, DUCK! requires no audition Set clear and strict to participate. About 20 students attend priority sets and the club’s meetings, and members present hold carefully to biweekly performances. that priority order. A fan of the arts, Schofield also enjoys acting in scripted plays, drawing, singing, dancing and juggling. “HMC is a place that essentially requires wellrounded individuals,” she says. “My peers and professors encourage me to learn about fields outside of mathematics and appreciate me for the skills I show outside the expected skill set my major would suggest.” Her future plans employ a similarly rounded approach. Schofield’s aspirations include reforming mathematics education, working as a project manager for a Silicon Valley tech company, pursuing a career in graphic facilitation and attending graduate school. 18

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Xanda Schofield ’13

“ ‘Of course We want the mindset to be,

women in computer science.’

”

With a female to male ratio in computer science envied by colleges nationwide, Harvey Mudd College is proving that gender is not a factor in educating the next STEM leaders. Computer science and mathematics major Xanda Schofield ’13 supports this movement and is rallying her classmates to the cause. She founded the Women of the ACM (W-ACM) club to help provide student support and activities beyond the classroom. “We focus on the skills that students don’t necessarily learn in their computer science classes,” says Xanda. So far, the club has sponsored workshops that focus on the Unix command line and website creation. Next will be community service activities such as tutoring, so kids start thinking earlier about computer science as a possible career. She’s been pleased to see women from throughout The Claremont Colleges attend My balance tips: meetings, as well as a few men. She says, “We Realize the priority want the mindset to be, ‘Of course women in is for you to learn, computer science.’” ask for help and Xanda came up with the idea for W-ACM don’t panic. while attending a Grace Hopper Women in Computing Conference, an event that celebrates female computer scientists and promotes the computer science field. This year, HMC sent the largest group ever—58 students, the most for any college at the event. “We’re kind of celebrities there,” says Xanda. For the past five years, HMC has taken 20–35 female students to the conference and, during this time, has seen an increase in its female computer science majors (from less than 10 percent of CS majors to more than 40 percent). Xanda was practically born with a computer keyboard at her fingertips. Her father, Kevin, an HMC trustee, is a longtime Microsoft employee. While her twin sister, Elly, chose to major in mathematics, Xanda decided that both math and computer science suited her best. “The nice thing about the convergence between computer science and math is it gives you a lot of tools to analyze what a computer can and cannot do,” she says. “Once you can show that a computer can solve a problem—in the same way that mathematicians can show that a problem can be solved—somebody will find a solution. I think there’s a certain magic to that.” Xanda’s been able to explore both areas of her major through separate research projects. Last year, she worked with computer science Professor Robert Keller on his open-source software, ImproVisor, a music notation program designed to help jazz musicians compose and hear solos similar to ones that might be improvised. She contributed to work that will help musicians memorize common chord progressions and co-authored a paper that has been submitted to the MIT Computer Music Journal. Now project manager on a Mathematics Clinic for sponsor Shell Oil, Xanda is working with team members to improve the efficiency of drilling systems. While she has been active in other activities during her time at HMC, including grading for the Complexity Theory class, moderating students-l and singing in HMC’s a capella group, computer science remains her passion. She has answered this calling decisively by accepting an offer to join the search team at Yelp after graduation. FALL/WINTER 2012

Harvey Mudd College

Christian Stevens ’14 HOCKEY HAS AFFORDED Christian Stevens ’14 many opportunities. The sport unleashed his physical capabilities, placed him on a professional team and funded his college education. Stevens hit the ice at age 10—inspired byy a family friend and the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team—and glided through three schools and states before hitting a crossroad. “Mudd was always my No. 1 college choice, but was not an option for me. I had to play hockey in college to have a chance of affording it and, unfortunately, Mudd doesn’t have a hockey team,” Stevens says. His skills, however, caught the attention of the Canadian major junior hockey league, which lured him with the promise of an educational package. In 2007, Stevens signed on with the Kitchener Rangers and secured a full, four-year college scholarship. He played two years with the Ontario Hockey League. My balance tip: The experience revealed Spend time with the strengths and limits of his friends who help body and cultivated a hunger keep you on the for academic challenge. right track. “I learned that I didn’t love hockey as much as I thought. I was unbelievably bored, and my brain felt like it was atrophying. I wanted to learn things.” His professional sports career behind him, Stevens began his pursuit of a joint biology and chemistry major at Harvey Mudd College. At HMC, Stevens has participated in research in both

disciplines. He built a pressure sensor system for a “biomechanics of walking” bioengineering project, which gave him hands-on lessons in electrical engineering and computer science. He presented the results from his team’s research at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Last summer, he worked on a chemistry research project in the lab of Associate Professor of Chemistryy and Biology Karl Haushalter. The team explored ed a gene therapy approach for treating HIV. “I have always had a deep interest in virology, and

“ molecular

I have found what I want to do:

to have a professor at a small school doing real work on HIV was unbelievable,” Stevens says. “In his lab, I have found what I want to do for the rest of my life: molecular biology research.” Stevens’ tevens’ contributions at HMC include serving ving as a campus tour guide, dorm mentor, Science Bus tutor and board of trustees student liaison on the Educational Planning Committee. His spare time is spent playing basketball, volleyball and hockey A member of the 5-C Hockey Club, he serves as hockey. defenseman for the Claremont Centaurs roller hockey team, which is coached by HMC engineering Professor Pat Little.

Brianna Posadas ’13 BRIANNA POSADAS ’13 has a passion for growing things. Whether plants or people, they thrive under the engineering major’s care. She discovered her calling after an engineering class exposed her to the concept of vertical farming, a form of sustainable agriculture that turns skyscrapers into greenhouses. 20

“That really excited me,” she says. “I want to bring fresh food into areas that typically don’t get it, while reducing carbon emissions normally produced from transporting food all over the country.” A junior-year Clinic project introduced her to “seed chipping,” a technology that analyzes a seed’s DNA to determine

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”

biology research.

if it will yield abundant crops. Such methods can reduce land and resource waste, she says, by guiding farmers to plant only those seeds that will do well. For her senior Clinic project, she is exploring ways to use chitosan to remove radioactive contaminants from soldiers exposed in the field.

Jordan Librande ’13 THE PIANO THAT THA JORDAN LIBRANDE ’13 ALTERnately enjoyed and resented has been a constant since he was first set in front of the keys at age three. He has found peace with the piano, now a comforting refuge from his studies. The opportunity to continue pursuing his interest in music was one reason Librande selected HMC. An honor student from the Bay area who loved mathematics, Librande knew HMC was the right place for him after visiting during Admitted Student W Weekend. “I liked the culture, the tight community, the fact that it was a small school inside a large one [The Claremont Colleges]. You can choose to fully experience all of it or just parts,” he says. In addition to classes in his major, computer science and mathematics, Librande takes piano classes, music theory and music history. After being persuaded by friends during his first Combining computer science with mathematics suits his year, he also tried out for The Claremont Colleges Ballroom interests. “I’ve really grown to love the fields at the intersecDance Team and has been a team member ever since. His childtion of computer science and mathematics: image processing, hood Taekwondo training (black belt) came in algorithms, artificial intelligence—things that rely handy Librande said the movements in both sports handy. My balance tip: don’t on both subjects.” This year, he took an artificial are similar: sharp poses and balance, in particular. feel bad about being intelligence class at Pomona College, where he wrote As he moves from the cha cha to “Gangnam Style,” late to class because a program to analyze movie review text to determine Librande is multitasking (socializing, playing and you’re having an if it is positive or negative. exercising), a strategy that’s served him well at amazing conversaOff his experience at Mudd, Librande says it’s HMC. tion about how much been very positive, especially HMC’s mixed-year There’s definitely never a dull moment for cooler sports would suites, where seniors and first-years are housed Librande, who has been taking 18 or 19 units each be with rocket packs together. “I love that nearly all Mudders live on semester until now, his senior year (15 units this and wing suits. campus for four years. That’s made a huge impact on fall semester). Last year, he was part of a computer me,” he says. science team that explored observationally cooperative multiT round out his college experience, Librande takes advanTo threading eading (OCM), research led by professors Christopher Stone tage of trips off campus (he’s gone to concerts, amusement parks and Melissa O’Neil. OCM is a new programming model for and musicals) and enjoys as many hours as possible with friends shared memory concurrency, designed to make correct multiplaying video games, including favorites Super Smash Brothers, threaded programs easier to write. “Our goal was to make paralRock Band and League of Legends. These activities help him to Rock lel programming easier,” says Librande. stay optimistic, he says. “Then, the rest of life is easier.”

This work directly relates to her other main interest: helping people. Posadas came to campus as a Summer Institute scholar. The program, which prepares first-year students for academic and personal success, was so positive that she wanted to help give others the same experience. So, she served the next two summers as an SI mentor and, in 2012, became the program’s head mentor. She also volunteers with

Uncommon Good, a local organization committed to breaking eaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. The work has included mentoring students and coordinating events such as a recent service project, which brought SI scholars and local teens together to clear land for a sustainable farming project in Pomona, Calif. As president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, she worked with Uncommon Good to bring

students to campus for tours and talks with faculty. Posadas worked with SHPE and Chicano Latino Student Affairs to bring astronaut José Hernández to HMC last spring for the César Chávez Celebration. She also has served as an English tutor for dining services and facilities staff and helped one staff member prepare for her citizenship test. Her free time is spent longboarding—a ding—a skill she learned at HMC—learning hip-hop and FALL/WINTER 2012

Balance tips: stay organized and set priorities. If two interests conflict, choose one. You can’t do it all.

Latin dance and attempting to freeline skate. She also loves reptiles and has a pet bearded dragon named Charlie. One day, she hopes to resume playing the French horn and secure a job in agricultural engineering.

Harvey Mudd College

Priya Donti ’15

“

It’s great

to be in an environment where people are hardworking but not cutthroat.

”

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THREE actors stand in a row, AND A REFEREE prompts the audience to suggest a relationship, a location and a time period. “Begin!” the referee says, and the first two actors act out a scene using the suggested relationship as a prompt. Then, the referee commands, “Pan right” or “Pan left,” and the third actor replaces one of the first two. Actor No. 3 repeats the last line of the prior scene and begins a new scene using one of the other two topics. The referee calls “Pan left” or “Pan right” throughout the game, and the actors switch, each unique pair of actors revisiting the same scene they acted out before. This game is a popular one for the students who are members of DUCK!, HMC’s improvisational club. Priya Donti ’15, who joined the club this year, says, “It demonstrates the difficulties and rewards of being in a situation where you’re not sure what’s going on.” My balance tips: Be The exercise is not a problem, though, happy, make time for for Donti, who is learning to master the people and close conclassroom as well as the stage. The North nections and have fun! Andover, Mass., native is already making It’s so important for a name for herself. She received the Jean emotional well-being. and Joseph Platt Freshman Prize, which honors first-year students who exhibit academic excellence and who contribute substantially to the College community. Both academics and extracurricular activities play substantial roles in her life. Just a sophomore, Donti has yet to choose a major, but has wasted no time investigating her options. She learned more about computer science by participating in a summer research project led by Professor Elizabeth Sweedyk and supported by a recent National Science Foundation grant. The program challenges HMC computer science students to develop educational games based upon learning objectives set by real-world customers: middle-school social studies teachers. Their students test the games and provide feedback. “We take games made during the previous two semesters, modify them and user-test them. We then incorporate suggestions,” says Donti. “One of my favorites is a game about energy and energy transfer, a Mario-Brothers-style game with a dragon protagonist.” This summer she hopes to continue her investigation of computer science or one of her other top academic interests, chemistry and mathematics. “I’m particularly interested in environmental applications, such as research in fuels, energy, etc. Labs and team research are also super fun.” This theme of many interests is also prevalent in Donti’s pastimes. She’s worked as a tutor for much of her life, beginning with her mother’s Kumon tutoring franchise. She now tutors for the HMC Writing Center, Homework Hotline and Science Bus, the latter of which she co-leads. Donti, a classically trained singer, has performed on the Claremont Concert Choir and is a member of Midnight Echo, an a capella group. She also is a member of Engineers for a Sustainable World/Mudders Organizing for Sustainability Solutions. One of her strategies for balancing it all is to focus on enjoying each activity and maintaining close connections, which, she says, is easy at Mudd. “It’s great to be in an environment where people are hardworking but not cutthroat.”

Chris Gage ’13 Not many students get to catch a shark and call it schoolwork, but Chris Gage ’13 did so while working on a summer research project. The physics major spent two summers—2011 and 2012— working with computer engineering Professor Chris Clark on a proof-of-concept project to determine whether sharks could be tracked using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Gage wrote code for an acoustical communication system that allowed two torpedo-shaped AUVs to talk to each other and a boat-based computer. To test the system, the research team needed a shark. Gage joined them for four days in Seaplane Lagoon, near the Port of Los Angeles, where he helped catch, tag and release a one-meterlong Leopard shark. The AUV system successfully tracked the shark, proving as effective as the current method of humans in boats using directional sonar receivers to follow tagged sharks. It also has the potential to allow scientists to follow sharks for longer time periods, across farther distances. “It was extremely satisfying to see all my hard work on the communications system come to fruition,” says Gage. “The work I did was really enjoyable, and it combined a number of my academic passions, mostly electronics and a little bit of computer science.” Gage’s other great passion is track and field. Now in his fourth season as a Claremont-MuddScripps athlete, he is the defending conference champion for the hammer throw. Last spring, Gage earned First Team All-SCIAC honors for winning the hammer throw event. The physical nature of the sport not only keeps him fit, but also offers a nice break from his studies. Hiking is also a favorite pastime, and Gage has served as the PreOrientation hike leader for the past three years.

He organized the 2012 hike in Sequoia National Park, where he pilot tested a new group that ventured out daily from a base camp. Gage credits the flexibility of his major and the collaboration among The Claremont Colleges for allowing him to pursue diverse interests. “My major allows me to get a good grounding in physics, while being free to pursue other academic interests such as electrical engineering and computer science. Collaboration among CMC, HMC and Scripps allows me to compete on an incredibly good team and meet people from the other schools.” He hopes to work in electrical engineering, especially with sensors or instrumentation, and possibly to pursue graduate studies.

“

My major allows me to get a good grounding in physics, while

being free

to pursue other academic interests such as electrical engineering and computer science.

”

Balance tip: Naps, lots of

naps. Sleep definitely helps to focus the mind.

FALL/WINTER 2012

Harvey Mudd College

MUDDERINGS Alumni and Family News and Events

Josephine Lau and Hung Pham ’91 enjoyed the sights in Monterey Bay, Calif., during HMC’s fall whale-watching and aquarium-viewing excursion.

Alumni and Family Connections

In recent months, alumni and families around the country have gathered with faculty, staff and students for activities that ranged from welcoming the newest members of our community to seeking close encounters with marine life. Summer send-off parties were hosted in five cities, and we sincerely thank our parent hosts: Michael and Lisa Storrie-Lombardi P14, Kevin Schofield P13, Colin and Lynn Bodell P14, and Michael and Wendy Wheeler P13. In September, alumni and parents around the world enjoyed 7-College Happy Hours, HMC’s annual pyrotechnics event at the Hollywood Bowl, and a day of whale watching and aquarium-viewing in Monterey Bay, Calif., planned and hosted by Alumni Association Board of Governors member Ron Lloyd ’80. Other fall events included the annual Mt. Baldy Hike led by Professor David Money Harris, regional events featuring President Klawe, Professor Erika Dyson and Dean of Students Maggie Browning, and an international Claremont Colleges weekend in Hong Kong. Exciting plans for spring include regional events in San Diego, San Francisco, Orange County, Boston, Seattle and New Orleans. If you’re interested in receiving invitations to activities in your area, make sure we know where you are! Send email to alumni@hmc.edu to update your postal and email addresses. Find a complete listing of events at hmc.edu/alumni or hmc.edu/parents.

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Alumni and friends made the annual trek to Mt. Baldy’s summit, this year led by engineering Professor David Money Harris, co-author of San Bernardino Mountain Trails: 100 Hikes in Southern California.

We’d Love Your Input For upcoming Bulletin issues, we invite you to share your stories about… Biology. Tell us about your work in this field. Were you an HMC biology major? We’d love to hear from you. Clinic. What memories do you have of your Clinic experience? Tell us about the triumphs and the challenges.

MUDDERINGS

Upcoming Events in 2013

The latest information is available at hmc.edu/alumni or hmc.edu/parents. The Claremont Colleges Reception, Joint Mathematics Meetings Jan. 10, San Diego, Calif. 73rd Alumni Association Board of Governors Meeting Jan. 26, HMC campus

Alumni-Student Career Forum Jan. 26, HMC campus Alumni Association Cookout with First-year Students Jan. 26, HMC campus Etiquette Dinner Jan. 31, HMC campus Family Weekend Feb. 1–2 Alumni Weekend May 3–5 Presentation Days May 6 and 8 Projects Day, Clinic Presentations May 7

Coming Soon: New Alumni Website Watch your mail and email for information about HMC’s new alumni online community, going live in 2013! An updated design and expanded functionality will include alumni profiles, an online directory, the ability to view and submit class notes and social media integration.

Commencement May 19

The 50th anniversary of the Class of 1963 is one of many HMC milestones to celebrate.

Show Your Pride! Alumni Weekend, May 3-5, 2013 Alumni Weekend is the perfect time to celebrate some of what made your HMC experience unique: the dorms and the Clinic Program. Three dorms have reached milestone years—West, 55, South, 45, and Linde, 20—and the Clinic Program is 50. Celebrations for these events have been added to the weekend’s traditional programming, which includes the Alumni Association Awards Ceremony and reunion events for the 50th Reunion Class of 1963, and all of the reunion classes: 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008. Online registration opens Jan. 7. Encourage your classmates and friends to attend, and join us in honoring the unique experiences that define Harvey Mudd College. Find more information online at hmc.edu/alumni-weekend.

Bridging the Future Family Weekend, Feb. 1–2, 2013 Bridging the gap between students and their families, Family Weekend is a time to explore the campus that current students now call home. In addition to visiting their Mudder(s), families will enjoy programming that includes a performance by HMC’s Shakespeare class, a 50th anniversary celebration of our renowned Clinic Program and a session on internship and career planning presented by the director of career services. Visit the Family Weekend website at hmc.edu/parents to register online and to find a schedule and hotel information. The Brooks family

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CLASS NOTES 1959

1973

1966

1974

Peter Loeb works with coauthors using nonstandard analysis to extend the theory of topological ends. At the American Mathematical Society meeting in January 2013, he, along with George McNulty ’67 and Jerry Tunnell ’72, will be recognized in the inaugural class of Fellows.

REUNION YEAR Robert McOwen has written and published an e-textbook (www. centerofmath.org/textbooks/diff_eq/index.html) on differential equations and linear algebra. It is being used for all sections of the course at Northeastern University, where he is professor of mathematics.

Ken Orloff visited campus this fall to present an Engineering At the Mathematical Association of America’s Mathfest in Seminar on “The Art and Science of Aviation Accident Reconstruction.” August, Dan Kalman was part of the cast for “MAA the Musical 2.” He For the past 28 years, Ken, a graduate of the HMC Bates Aeronautics also received a Trevor Evans Award, with coauthor Nathan Carter, for the Program, and his staff have provided consulting services to plaintiffs and year’s best MAA math article in the guise of a Harry Potter parody, entitled defendants in litigation resulting from aircraft accidents. “Harvey Plotter and the Circle of Irrationality.”

1968

REUNION YEAR Frank Greitzer retired May 31 from his position as chief scientist for cognitive informatics at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he led R&D in applied cognitive science/mathematical modeling. He established PsyberAnalytix LLC (www.PsyberAnalytix.com) to focus on similar R&D for clients in government, academia and industry. His second grandson was born June 1 to his daughter, Jill. Frank and his wife of 35 years, Sue, also recently celebrated the marriage of their son, David.

1969

Henry Brady continues as dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and recently received the 2012 Political Methodology Career Achievement Award of the American Political Science Association for his work on statistical methodology, survey research and other more mathematical parts of political science. He also co-authored the book The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy.

1970

Jack Cuzick, a 2010 HMC Outstanding Alumni Award winner, received the 2012 Award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention Research for his work in helping to prevent breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate cancers. Given by the American Association for Cancer Research and the Prevent Cancer Foundation, the award recognizes researchers who stimulate new directions in cancer prevention.

William Hager has four ongoing research projects: two funded by NSF (lightning and imaging) and one each by the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, both related to optimal control and optimization.

1972

Jerry Tunnell, associate professor of mathematics, Rutgers University, and Floyd Spencer, owner, Sfhire Consulting, completed a cross-country bicycle trip Sept. 25-29 from Highland Park, N.J., to Syracuse, N.Y. Ted Cox, professor of mathematics, Syracuse University, accompanied them during the last part of the journey. Jerry’s bicycle trek is a national election-year tradition. He’s already planning a New Jersey to New York bicycle trek in 2016.

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For the last 10 years, Tony Noe has been contributing to and editing the large collection of integer sequences at http://oeis.org, which contains more than 200,000 sequences of integers. Tony and Beverly Orth, married 37 years, have two daughters, Kate and Alison. Tony continues to sell his thin film coating design software worldwide. Beverly Orth (shown above, left) has begun a graduate program in creative writing at Portland State University. She is also a full-time consultant for Mercer.

1975

Linda (Jaderberg) St-Cyr is a senior analytical engineer at Ebara International Cryogenics Division. She still collects and sells minerals (www.MiddleEarthMinerals.com).

1977

Richard Brandt, who worked for 11 years freelancing and writing books, launched the online publication and email newsletter Green Computing Report. His two most recent books are The Google Guys and One Click, available in 15 languages. He’s working on a book tentatively titled Seven Entrepreneurs.

1982

Mark Anderson is connecting 1990s-era Furbies to the Internet for a piece (working title: “Fly By Wire: A Post-Furby Metamorphosis”) as part of an upcoming group show at Barrister’s Gallery in New Orleans. Find show details at automatanola.wordpress.com.

1988

REUNION YEAR In the almost 25 years since graduation, Julia Freer Goldstein has taken a convoluted career path. She is now a technical/scientific writer, working part-time for SLAC editing scientific documents and as a freelance commercial writer. Julia writes about many topics, from accelerator physics to semiconductor components. Both Julia’s boys are now in high school, and Alex, 16, wants to apply to HMC having heard stories about her college days.

ALUMNI PROFILE

A two-year sojourn in Ibanda, Uganda, gave Brian Stock ’09 (shown in red shirt) a renewed perspective on life.

THE GIFT OF GROWTH Written by STEVEN K. WAGNER

hen Brian Stock ’09, saw an opportunity to join the Peace Corps in Uganda, he jumped at the chance. It proved to be a gift. Stock, an HMC mathematical biology major, taught math and computers at 1,100-student Bigyera Secondary School in Ibanda from February 2010 through March 2012. The fit was a natural one. “Almost everyone had never seen a computer,” Stock told those gathered to hear his talk at HMC this fall. “The first lesson was, ‘This is a keyboard; you use it for typing.’” Academics aside, he also organized boys’ and girls’ clubs, served as a camp counselor, assisted with various after-school activities, secured funding for and directed a camp, informally taught hygiene and reproductive health, helped literature students complete a book, learned to skin a goat, dressed a turkey and even rafted the Nile River. He also learned to speak the native language and came to recognize some important relational challenges: that a divide often exists between residents of the rural Ugandan community and visitors from the West. It’s a gap he helped bridge by his willingness to roll up his shirt sleeves and spend long hours helping out as needed.

1989

Tim Wendler spoke about “Utilizing the Mudd Experience in a Career Managing Environmental Cleanups and Clients” at a fall HMC Engineering Seminar. He is a national environmental investigation/ cleanup client account manager for Chevron at Parsons Corporation. Outside of work, he enjoys preserving natural open space as President of the Arroyos and Foothills Conservancy.

1993

In doing so, Stock progressively gained the trust of locals while achieving a number of personal goals. “I wanted travel, adventure and an opportunity to challenge myself,” said Stock. “By overcoming challenges, you grow as a person. I didn’t have water or power, so there weren’t a lot of distractions. “I also wanted to experience a new culture by living and working there—I was constantly learning new things. And, I wanted to try teaching.” Certainly, Stock’s Harvey Mudd College experience prepared him well to teach math. It also prepared him for other aspects of his Peace Corps journey. “I had to do lots of different things in Uganda: manage people, assist with various projects and work with a range of people,” he said. “My time here [at HMC] helped prepare me for all of that, especially my Clinic project, study abroad semester and my experience being a proctor.” Stock plans to take a year off before entering graduate school. He hopes to eventually become an ecologist.

at Fairplex and as Technology Advisory Committee chair and Steering Committee member of the Career and Technical Education Center.

1998

REUNION YEAR Dylan Helliwell and Tarah Helliwell have a second child, Baird, born June 25, 2011. He joins brother, Hiram. Dylan was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor at Seattle University.

REUNION YEAR Thomas Y. Hsieh is director-elect of the Los Angeles County Fair Association Board. He’s been an active Fair official serving in a variety of capacities, including as board vice chair of The Learning Centers

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CLASS NOTES continued from Page 27

1999

Nathan Jakubiak says he loves being a dad to his active, two-year-old son and newborn daughter. For 12 years, he has worked at Parasoft, where he is development manager for a product called SOAtest, an automated tool for testing SOA and web applications.

After earning a graduate degree in library science, Andromeda Yelton began work for the e-book startup Unglue It, a crowdfunding platform that finances the re-release of published books as e-books under a Creative Commons license. She also helps librarians learn how to code. “I’ve found Maria Klawe’s advocacy of the CS Core deeply inspiring in this regard; the issues of supporting and retaining librarians in that pipeline have a lot in common with the issues Mudd has been addressing.”

2001

Karl Mahlburg is a tenure-track assistant professor at Louisiana State University, where he coaches the Putnam Exam team. He was recently awarded his first individual NSF research grant. He has written several papers on bootstrap percolation, lying at the intersection of number theory and combinatorial probability.

2002

Michael Schubmehl is building statistical models for a high- frequency trading firm in Chicago. He and his wife, Stephanie, recently welcomed their first child, a daughter. Nordia (Wendy) Thomas is an assistant professor of finance at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She has a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an M.Sc. in financial mathematics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her research interests are transaction taxes, commodities and asset pricing. “I am single with no children and wonder why in my trek across America I—a child of the tropics—seem to be moving further and further north.”

2003

REUNION YEAR Avani (Gadani) Wildani is finishing a computer science Ph.D. in machine learning and storage systems at UC Santa Cruz and is looking for CS faculty jobs. In between chasing after his 1-year-old daughter, Nayeli, David Uminsky recently completed his NSF and UC President’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in the mathematics department at UCLA. Before leaving, he was

Harvey Mudd College

awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research for his contributions to vortex dynamics and pattern formation in self assembly processes. He now holds a tenure-track position in the mathematics department at the University of San Francisco, where he’s researching machine learning and problems in “Big Data.”

2004

Kevin Andrew entered the Dominican Order in August 2010 and is studying at Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology to become a Roman Catholic priest.

Will Chang earned a Ph.D. in computer science from UC San Diego and moved to South Korea, where he works as a software engineer. Next is Vancouver, where he’ll start a postdoc at the University of British Columbia. Jessica Nelson received her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of South Carolina in 2011. She is now a visiting professor of mathematics at Newberry College in South Carolina.

2005

Ruben Arenas, a mathematics professor at East Los Angeles College, was awarded tenure in July. His love of learning has compelled him to study linguistics and ancient Egyptian at UCLA and to travel to Sogang University in Seoul to study the Korean language. Other travels have included Morocco, Spain, France, Japan and various U.S. locales to visit Mudd friends. Akemi Kashiwada and Brian Tagiku are married and live in Silicon Valley. Brian completed his Ph.D. and now works at Google. Akemi teaches at Crystal Springs Uplands School.

2006

Julijana Gjorgjieva graduated from the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, UK, with a Ph.D. from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. She is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University, working on the visual system, particularly on computations occurring in the retina. Tracy Powell will soon complete her M.S. in mathematics at UC Irvine. She works fulltime as a product development manager and customer support manager at Drawloop Technologies. Liam Robinson is co-founder of www.study-date.com, a social network designed to make it easy for students to schedule study dates and larger study groups and for faculty to schedule office hours. continued on Page 30

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ALUMNI PROFILE

Jeanine Renne ’88 is helping Russian rock band White Fort build a following in the United States.

RENNE’S RUSSIAN REUNION Written by KOREN WETMORE

er memory resonates like a scene from a romance novel: A the former Soviet Union led by the late political science Professor Emeritus handsome Russian musician waves goodbye as a reluctant, young Nat Davis. Renne and Yakushenko exchanged addresses and a few letters American girl boards a train, catching what she believes will be her before losing touch. Twenty-five years later, Renne reconnected with him last glimpse of the charming Siberian. through Facebook. Flash forward 25 years and—by sheer gumption and verve—that girl, She discovered that a few weeks after their train station farewell, Jeanine Renne ’88, has become founder of Cool Hat Records, which just Yakushenko and his college friend, Matveyev, had entered and won the so happens to manage that Russian man’s band. “Best New Band” award at a national music festival. The duo went on White Fort (www.whitefort.net), a two-man band composed of to become international performers. They composed soundtracks for violinist Artyom Yakushenko and guitarist Yuriy Matveyev, describes its Russian films and television shows, recorded albums, learned English music as a “unique hybrid of rock, jazz and folk propelled by a Russian and released their first U.S. albums (under the name “Two Siberians”). ethnic pulse and rocket fuel.” The band has released 12 albums (three in The two men had parted ways, however, and had no plans to regroup the United States) and took first place in the instrumental category of the until Renne convinced them to give their art another try. Last year, she 2011 International Songwriting Competition. became White Fort’s manager and launched Cool Hat Records LLC to Heart flutters aside, Renne’s Russian connection is now one of produce and promote the duo’s music. friendship and support with an eye toward promoting music she loves. They released the album “Two Kings,” distributing it online through “I never forgot how stunningly beautiful this 16-year-old kid played Tunecore. Renne built an English website for the band, drafted a White the violin on the banks of the Angara River—he was that good,” she Fort Wikipedia entry and created their Facebook page. She also entered said. “Then he teamed up with Yuriy, and they were that good, squared. them into the international songwriting competition that led to their 2011 I just couldn’t bear the thought of people here never hearing music first-place award. so beautiful.” Recognizing a tour was the next logical step, Renne booked a HMC students were treated to White Fort’s music Oct. 24 during a show at a Russian nightclub in April 2012. The concert was a hit, Wednesday Nighter event on campus. The concert was one of 30 stops and Yakushenko, Matveyev and Renne have been encouraged by on a tour to promote the group’s forthcoming album, “6/8.” the response they have received since, including a standing ovation Renne met band member Yakushenko during a 1986 student trip to from Mudders.

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CLASS NOTES continued from Page 28

2007

In addition to continued work on his Ph.D. in fluid dynamics, Victor Camacho has been modeling, rock climbing in his home state of Utah, tutoring for his company High Performance Tutoring (www.highperformancetutoring.com) and remodeling his home. Eugene Quan works for the quantitative trading firm Headlands Technologies in his hometown of San Francisco.

2008

2009

This summer, Nadia Abuelezam attended a conference at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, where she worked with leading mathematical modeling researchers. She also attended the Treatment as Prevention and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Evidence Summit in London and the AIDS 2012 conference in Washington, D.C., where she “bumped into” President Bill Clinton, who gave the latter conference’s closing address.

REUNION YEAR David Gross and Aurora Pribram-Jones ’09 were married in the redwoods of San Mateo County, Calif., in September, shortly after he returned from the Chebfun and Beyond workshop at Oxford. David uses Chebfun at eSolar to develop optical performance models for solar power plant technology. Aurora is a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow in theoretical quantum chemistry at UC Irvine.

Oksana A. Sergeeva and Nathan A. Jones were married June 16 in San Diego. More than 20 Mudders were in attendance. Oksana and Nate’s respective first-year roommates in the South Fishbowls, Nadia Abuelezam and Nathanael Hauser, were part of the bridal party. Oksana is pursuing her Ph.D. in biology at MIT and Nate is pursuing his Ph.D. in physics at Harvard. They live in Cambridge, Mass.

Andy Leverentz and Angela Berti married on July 28 and honeymooned in Italy. Claremont alumni in attendance were: Andrew Pienkos, Kathleen States (Scripps), Eric Baxter, Mike Buchanan, Mike Tauraso, Justin Soprano, Maddalena Jackson, Chris Roberts, Mike Roberts, Karen Rustad (Scripps), Jason Fennell, Tracy Backes, Tony Hutain and Howard Yu.

Marc S. Davidson and Ariana (Friedman) Davidson PZ ’10 finished their master’s degrees at the University of Southern California, got married and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Marc is now a senior engineer at Western Digital, and Ariana works as a counselor pursuing a license in clinical social work. Their wedding guests included alumni from six Claremont Colleges: Kevin Oelze ’09, Matthew Lawson ’09, Arthur Vasek ’11, Heather Audesirk ’11, Hendrik Orem ’09, Kyle Marsh ’09, David Lapayowker ’09, Eric Mullen ’12, Jay Markello ’08, Kelly Markello ’08, Ian Martyn CGU ’10, Derek Schaible POM ’11, Liz Flannery ’09, Martin Field ’09, Sabreen Lakhani ’11, Brittni Stenmo PZ ’10, Helen Highberger CMC ’11, Bob Chen, Robin Dobashi SCR ’10, Alan Davidson ’06, Nancy Eisenmenger ’09, Kate Porter PZ ’10 and Karen Rustad SCR ’09 (not pictured).

A graduate student at Cornell University, Will Tipton has written a book on heads up, no limit hold ’em, with a very game theory-oriented approach (www.dandbpoker.com/product/expert-heads-up-no-limitholdem-volume-1). Corina K. Tom and Thomas W. Donze were married in Milan, N.H., on July 7. Peter Wang and Zack Rubin were in the wedding party and many other Mudders attended. Marielle Wardell is co-owner of Smart Energy Distributors Inc., a small beverage company based in Oakland, Calif. The company sells and markets the healthy alternative energy drink, Smart Energy Shots. She is pursuing an M.B.A. at Santa Clara University, where she plans to concentrate in food and agribusiness. Marielle also teaches math workshops and tutors students through the San Francisco-based agency Tutorpedia.

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2010

HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE

2011 - 2012

AC A DE M IC Y E A R

A NN UA L R EPORT FALL/WINTER 2012

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message

from t he boa r d ch a ir

BUILDING UPON OUR SUCCESSES

Serving this fine institution and community is a privilege. As the functional and energy-efficient facility to come. The building will new board chair, I am honored to follow in the footsteps of significantly enhance faculty and student interaction as well as my friend, fellow alumnus and former chair Malcolm Lewis ’67, interdisciplinary collaboration, which remain hallmarks of the who died—much too early—in October. He and the late HMC experience. Upon completion in July 2013, the building Founding President Joseph Platt leave a legacy of integrity, com- will double the teaching and learning spaces available to faculty passion and vision. These men believed in and lived out the and students, supporting Core curriculum enhancements and Harvey Mudd College mission, and we honor them—and all many new programs. who helped to build this great institution—by carrying that I encourage you to read and reflect upon these and other mission forward into the future. accomplishments and to realize the role you play in supporting As a construction professional, I have come to understand such successes. Your gifts and faithful commitment help to that anything we build requires total commitment and continue our mission and make a lasting difference, not only consistency of performance. Harvey Mudd College’s 2011–2012 on campus, but also for the countless communities that benefit academic year reflected this kind of faithful effort and reaped from the people and programs associated with this outstanding the resulting rewards. academic community. One of the major highlights of the academic year was the 2012 Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering Education presented Wayne Drinkward ’73 by the National Academy of Engineering to professors Clive Dym, Chair, Harvey Mudd College Board of Trustees Mack Gilkeson and Richard Phillips. Media outlets nationwide recognized HMC’s engineering program, specifically design instruction and the Clinic Program, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2013. A concerted effort has been made to spread the word about HMC’s accomplishments, including those of faculty, students In Memoriam and alumni. As a result, there has been unprecedented attention upon HMC and its programs, in particular computer science. President Klawe’s enthusiasm for the College, her pasHMC celebrates the contributions of D. Kenneth Baker, the College’s second sion for STEM education, her expertise in academia, and her president, who passed away Jan. 29, tireless commitment to telling HMC’s story is helping the 2012. Baker became the second presiCollege gain the visibility it deserves. In addition, this increased dent of HMC in 1976 following Founding President Joseph B. attention continues to create even more opportunities to spread Platt, who served for two decades. During his 12 years at the the word about this outstanding College and the difference it’s helm, Baker was instrumental in increasing the College’s enrollmaking in STEM education and industry. ment, facilities and prestige, and in guiding the College as techniOne of my favorite projects—the new teaching and learncal innovations and social changes occurred. ing building under construction on campus—has risen from its foundation, offering a glimpse of the magnificent, multi-

d. kenneth baker

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admission c l a s s o f 2 0 16

M O R E I N q U I R I E S , M O R E A P P L I CAt I O N S

The increased visibility that Harvey Mudd College is receiving is

having an effect upon the inquiries, applications and visitors to the College. There were more than 8,300 campus visits during 2011–2012, an average of 30 guests per day. HMC had a record 3,591 applications, a 14 percent increase over last year’s previous record applicant pool. To help manage the increase in applications, the admission staff now utilizes an online reading system, which allows for better collaboration and more robust evaluation. Admission was offered to 642 students for an overall admit rate of 17 percent, and the proportion of women in the entering ntering Class of 2016 was the second highest in HMC history. C L A S S O f 2 0 16 D E M O G R A P H I C S

Members of the Class of 2016, clockwise, from left: Natasha Allen and Ana Villa Meza; Alexander Alves; Julie Chang and her parents, Richard and LiFen Chang P16; Jonathan Finnell, Benjamin Teng and Maury Quijada.

CALIfORNIA wESt

42.2% 6% 10% 6.5% 6.5% 11% 6.5% 10.6%

CALIfORNIA wESt NORtHwESt SOUtHwESt MIDwESt

(A K, CO, HI, MT, N V, U T, W Y )

20 SOUtHwESt 13 MIDwESt 13

NORtHwESt

(ID, OR, WA) (A Z, NM, OK, T X)

(I A, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, W I) NORtHEASt 22 (CT, DC, DE, M A, ME, MD, NH, NJ, N Y, PA, R I, V T)

NORtHEASt

SOUtH 13 (A L, A R, FL, GA, K Y, L A, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, V I, W V )

SOUtH

INtERNAtIONAL 21 (Includes: China=7; India=4; Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand=2 each)

INtERNAtIONAL

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INNOVATION L e a der ship & I m pac t

Gordon Prize winners J. Richard Phillips, Clive Dym and M. Mack Gilkeson

HMC Strategic Vision in Action — Innovation, Leadership and Impact

G ordon P ri z e H ighligh t s engineering program What attracted trailblazing professors M. Mack Gilkeson and the late Jack Alford to then-newly opened Harvey Mudd College was, among other things, the school’s expressed willingness to gamble on innovative approaches to teaching. In short order, they convinced HMC to wager on the Clinic Program, which the pair asserted would permit them not merely to inculcate engineering and math skills but, as importantly, to teach students how to lead and make an impact. “Clinic was controversial at its outset because it was very much counter to the then-prevailing thinking about engineering curricula,” said Gilkeson, now professor of engineering emeritus. It turned out to be a winning wager. The most recent payoff arrived in January 2012 in the form of the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. Conferred by the prestigious National Academy of Engineers, the prize carried with it an award of $500,000—half earmarked for Gilkeson and colleagues J. Richard Phillips and Clive Dym and the remainder for HMC to support the continued development, refinement and dissemination of the engineering program. Said Phillips, professor of engineering emeritus, who served as Clinic director for 17 years, “Our approach to instruction was that we were on the student’s side, working to solve problems together.” “In engineering education, project-based experiential learning is a big thing now, thanks to what we’ve been able to accomplish with the Clinic Program,” said Dym, Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design and director of the Center for Design Education. Projects undertaken in the Clinic are sponsored by companies, and those endeavors sometimes reap commercially viable

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“

Ou r a pproach to i ns t r uc t ion wa s th at w e w er e on t he s t u den t ’s side , wor k i ng to solv e

”

pr obl e m s t o ge t h er . — J . R i ch A R D P h i l l i ps

fruit, as was the case in October 2011, when tech company Laserfiche expanded its records management system with the addition of a mobile product employing Clinic-developed code. Such real-world experiences help the Clinic Program achieve its ultimate aim: the creation of well-rounded engineers, designers and technology specialists who graduate equipped to persuasively convey innovative ideas to collaborators, business managers, clients, investors and government officials. Randall Saaf ’98 is one of them. After graduation, he drew upon his Clinic training to found successful software companies Media Defender and Jirbo. “Clinic was a very important part of my Harvey Mudd education. It prepared me for entrepreneurship,” he commented in a recent survey of alumni.

Experiential

& I n t er discipl i n a r y L e a r ni ng

Opportunities are expanding for undergraduate researchers to participate in summer research, such as HIV/AIDS gene therapy, machine-learning methods and the science of walking (below).

HMC Strategic Vision in Action — Experiential and Interdisciplinary Learning

$ 3 . 6 - million G ran t E x pands H M C S ummer R esearch P rogram

Just as the 2011–12 academic year ended, Harvey Mudd

College (together with the other undergraduate Claremont Colleges) learned it was to share $3.6 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to help the schools jointly offer more experiential and interdisciplinary learning opportunities. Among the intended plans for a portion of the grant is the creation of a cross-campus, collaborative and interdisciplinary summer research program. With a shared academic schedule and a strong tradition of cross-registration, The Claremont Colleges are building new, substantive and synergistic collaborations across their institutions. HMC’s own Summer Research Program— where students spend 10 weeks engaging in full-time, hands-on work—is seen as a primary building block in the endeavor. Established in 1960 with a handful of chemistry students, HMC’s Summer Research Program now attracts more than 200 students and 45 faculty members. A sampling of recent HMC summer research projects demonstrates the substance and variety that will be offered through an integrated 5-C Summer Undergraduate Research Program: HIV/AIDS Gene Therapy. Students test the use of RNA interference to genetically modify cells to combat HIV/AIDS. Their research may lead to the development of a gene therapy that would suppress HIV replication by genetically altering the cells that HIV normally infects, making them resistant to the virus. The Science of Walking. Research is underway on the neural control and mechanics of human locomotion. By measuring variables such as electrical activity in the muscles and force distribution in the feet, students gather data that might lead to advances in prosthetics, robotics and even footwear design.

Making Molecules. Green chemistry is being employed by students to synthesize natural medicinal compounds from plants. Researchers also are developing fluorescent molecules that act as chemical probes, potential tools for biological studies and medical diagnosis. Helping Robots See. Computer science researchers are exploring various computer-vision-based algorithms and machinelearning methods to help an ARDrone quad-rotor helicopter autonomously navigate its environment. Their research could benefit robots used in search and rescue operations, transportation and in helping the visually impaired. “The creation of an integrated summer undergraduate research program across the five Claremont Colleges is very significant, as it will build on the existing interactions between research groups on the different campuses,” said Robert Drewell, associate professor of biology at HMC, the lead institution for executing the grant. “This HHMI funding represents an exciting opportunity for The Claremont Colleges to be at the very forefront of curricular innovation at the intersection of biology, computer science and mathematics.”

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EXCELLENCE & di v er si t y

A challenge course involving high ropes enhances the social and leadership skills of Summer Institute participants.

HMC Strategic Vision in Action — Excellence and Diversity

S ummer I ns t i t u t e M ellon gran t bene f i t s incoming s t uden t s

Perhaps nothing on that day in November 2011 could have made SI scholars are inclined to agree. Garrett Menghini ’13 said, Brianna Posadas ’13 happier than the news that Harvey Mudd “SI made a tremendous difference for me. It did a really good job College’s Summer Institute (SI) Program had won a $600,000 of bringing me out of my shell.” grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Vijay Ramakrishnan ’14, an international student from Posadas, who participated in the SI Program two years earlier, Singapore, said the SI program helped him navigate with had hoped that the means would materialize to permit outreach confidence his transition to college. “It’s not only an academically to more students so they, too, could experience SI. The program, enriching experience, but it also helps to build a sense of she said, “helped me through all my years here by introducing community,” he said. me to people I might not have bonded with otherwise.” To Carolina Reyes ’14, SI meant personal and group empowThe Mellon grant represents an important boost to the erment. “I completed the program wanting to make other people annual SI Program, which is offered free to incoming first-year feel welcome on campus.” students and includes room, board, a $1,500 stipend and a second stipend of up to $5,000 to enable participation the following year in summer research or Summer Math. While fully inclusive, SI reaches out, in particular, to women, IT ’ S NOT ONLY AN first-generation college students, students of color and others typically underrepresented in science, math and engineering. ACADEMICALLY The program immerses SI scholars in activities that enhance social and leadership skills. Adventurous fun is an integral part ENRICHING EXPERI of the mix. For example, there usually is an overnight trip to the San Jacinto Mountains for a “challenge course” involving use of ENCE , BUT IT ALSO low and high ropes. Academics play a major role as well. New in 2011 was HELPS TO BUILD A Writing 1, an introductory course on academic writing. Said Wendy Menefee-Libey, director of learning programs, “One SENSE OF COMMUNITY. student told me that Writ 1 was like Pilates for the brain.” HMC’s new Office of Institutional Diversity Associate Dean — V I J AY R A M A K R I S H N A N ’ 14 Sumun Pendakur (Page 11) thinks the analogy applies to all of SI because the program stretches and strengthens every facet of the person—mind, body and soul.

“

”

Harvey Mudd College

FALL/WINTER 2012

WHOLE-PERSON de v el opm e n t

HMC Strategic Vision in Action — Whole-person Development

S por t s score poin t s f or personal gro w t h and balance

Ancient Greek philosophers believed development of the body was every bit as important as development of the mind. However, HMC’s approach to athletics goes beyond this philosophy. HMC also seeks to nurture in students the qualities of leadership, confidence, community and more. “Swimming helped me become the person I am today,” said Jenni Rinker ’11. In November 2011, she was inducted to the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) Wall of Fame, an honor accorded to alumni with a final grade-point average of at least 3.0 and to those with first-team All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) honors. Rinker, an SCIAC record-holder in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, also garnered All-American status in multiple swim events and was HMC Athlete of the Year in 2007–2008. “In my senior year, I had to learn to be a leader because, instead of the way it was in the three years before where everyone was older than me and I looked up to them, now it was everyone looking up to me and the other seniors on the team,” she said. Rinker follows in the legendary footsteps of Patrick Hagiwara ’68, who was inducted to the CMS Alumni Athletic Hall of Fame. An engineering major, Hagiwara played on SCIAC Championship basketball teams in 1966 and 1967 (the

three-time letterwinner also played baseball). “Being part of a successful basketball team did wonders for my self-esteem,” he said. “Basketball provided the foundation for my ideas about teamwork and competition. “I learned that good teamwork is more than just filling your role and ‘doing your job,’” Hagiwara said. “It’s also about helping others do their job. And competition is about the ability to adjust to changes.” Hagiwara found sports to be an important diversion from the daily grind of study. So did Wall of Fame inductee and crosscountry runner Kramer Straube ’11. “My HMC experience would have been much more onedimensional without sports,” said Straube. “Being able to compete in cross country gave me a good physical outlet that allowed me to both stay physically fit and meet other people at the other colleges that I would have been much less likely to meet in other ways. “Without the experiences in cross country, I would have not been as outgoing and would have had a less well-balanced experience at HMC.” In addition to Rinker and Straube, cross-country runner Georgi Dinolov ’11 was honored as a Wall of Famer. During 2011–2012, 47 HMC students participated in CMS athletics.

Sports provided a solid foundation for the careers of Patrick Hagiwara ’68 and Jenni Rinker ’11, both Claremont-Mudd-Scripps honorees.

FALL/WINTER 2012

Harvey Mudd College

Global Engagement & I n for m ed C on t r ibu t ions to So c ie t y

HMC’s community engagement activities include the Women Engineers and Scientists of Tomorrow conference, the Sacred SISTAHS math and science conference and Science Day.

HMC Strategic Vision in Action — Global Engagement and Informed Contributions to Society

H M C goes t he dis tance t o mee t communi t y needs

Impressionable young minds encountered action-packed tales and experiments from the worlds of science and mathematics during HMC’s annual Science Day. The event is sponsored by Science Bus, a community engagement program started at HMC in 2006. The Science Bus coordinates volunteers from across The Claremont Colleges who visit local elementary schools and show how cool science can be. This past Science Day, youngsters witnessed the extraction of a strawberry’s DNA, the launch of rockets propelled by AlkaSeltzer and the construction of model cars from straws and Lifesavers candy. Such exercises excite young students about science and mathematics, and HMC students get involved as community volunteers. Science Bus is just one of HMC’s vehicles for community engagement. In March 2012, HMC’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) hosted some 200 high school girls for the Women Engineers and Scientists of Tomorrow (WEST) conference about careers in engineering, mathematics and science. “Our main goal was to encourage attendees to pursue an education in these fields after high school,” said Martha Cuenca ’13, SWE co-president. “Our intent was that, if they did not have a strong background in math and science, they would grow to see these subjects in a positive light.” HMC’s Upward Bound is another program that strives to make an enduring difference. The 44-year-old program surpassed its goals for the 2010–2011 academic year, helping even more area high school students successfully transition to college. Eighty-five percent of program alumni tracked from 2005 to 2010 have either graduated or are still enrolled in college. In fact, Upward Bound Director Angie Covarrubias Aguilar is herself

Harvey Mudd College

FALL/WINTER 2012

“

MY DESIRE IS THAT

THESE YOUNG W OMEN W ILL BEGIN TO IMAGINE THEMSEL V ES IN OUR POSITIONS IN THE FUTURE .

— T A LI T H I A W ILLI A M S

”

an alumna of the program. The federally funded program helps low-income and potential first-generation college students improve their chances of getting into and graduating from a post secondary institution. Another avenue for connecting HMC with the community is the Sacred SISTAHS math and science conference, oriented mainly for African-American girls in middle school and high school. The April 2012 event—jointly sponsored by Sacred SISTAHS (Sisters in Solidarity Teaching and Healing our Spirits), HMC’s Mathematics Department, California State University, Los Angeles and Transcendence Children and Family Services of Pomona—introduced attendees to successful academic and professional role models. Explained keynote speaker Talithia Williams, assistant professor of mathematics, “My desire is that these young women will begin to imagine themselves in our positions in the future.”

I m prov e m e n t

of I nfr a st ruc t u r e & R esou rces

Boora Architects’ rendering provides a preview of the finished teaching and learning building, the first academic institution in the nation to utilize BubbleDeck. Community members signed BubbleDeck balls that are now incorporated into the building.

HMC Strategic Vision in Action- Improvement of Infrastructure and Resources

Dy namic building soon w ill be a campus f ocal poin t During fall 2011, Mudders bid a final farewell to ThomasGarrett Hall, the College’s first classroom building. In its place will be a sustainability-compliant, 70,000-square-foot academic building. Construction of this triumph of ultra-modern design and engineering is proceeding on schedule. The teaching and learning building will support and enhance HMC’s unique blend of collaborative, interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Intended to serve as the new focal point of the campus, the building will double the College’s existing teaching and learning space. Classrooms, lecture halls, faculty offices and public

“

w e a n t icipat e t he ne w bu il di ng serv ing a s a n at ion a l model f or s us t a i n a bl e c a m pus design

”

a n d c ons t ruc t ion. — PRESIDENT MARIA K L AWE

spaces will be flexible and technologically advanced, capable of supporting the widest range of pedagogies and learning styles. The design of the spaces was a community effort. Stakeholders, including students and alumni, had a hand in the process. Joined by faculty and staff, they drafted recommendations to help the architects fashion a structure that will unite the HMC community, foster better faculty-student interaction, help HMC attract and retain the best personnel and enrollees, and provide a home for creativity-nurturing digital media and related technologies. A novel feature of the new building is its cutting-edge, environmentally friendly floor slab system, which employs 90,000 hollow plastic spheres (each about the size of a soccer ball). These orbs are placed in prefabricated concrete sections, which are engineered to carry the load (instead of transferring it to beams and girders, as convention dictates). Because the slabs were made with 35 percent less concrete than traditional floors, the CO2 emissions during their manufacture and transportation were reduced. This slab system—known as BubbleDeck—is the first of its kind in the United States and provides an exceptional degree of strength, freedom and flexibility in architectural design. “We anticipate the new building serving as a national model for sustainable campus design and construction,” said President Maria Klawe. Construction is scheduled to be completed by summer 2013. “Our students and faculty deserve world-class facilities, and that is why we are expanding our space and resources with this project.”

FALL/WINTER 2012

Harvey Mudd College

mor e n e ws . . . 2 0 11 – 2 0 1 2

Innovation, Leadership AND Impact New to HMC Board of Trustees: Kevin Schofield P13 P13, Microsoft Research; Erin Smith, retired banker and entrepreneur HMC Alumni Association Awards – Outstanding Alumni Award: 1 George “Pinky” Nelson ’72, Robert Bell ’72 and Edwin “Ned” Freed ’82. Lifetime Recognition Award: Richmond “Dick” Hoch ’63, William Hartman ’62, Dick Olson ’62 and Chris Schwarzenbach, emeritus trustee. Honorary Alumni: Noel Keller, former registrar, and Clive Dym, Fletcher Jones Professor of Engineering Design. Order of the Wart: Maya Chalich Fredrickson, former Advancement senior director 2011–2012 Rankings: No. 1 Engineering College; No. 18 for Best Liberal Arts College (US News & World Report); Top 10 Serviceoriented College (Washington Monthly); graduates earn highest salaries of all liberal arts college graduates (PayScale); One of Nation’s Best Colleges (Princeton Review); No. 26 Best Value Liberal Arts College (Princeton Review); No. 1 for educational ROI (Bloomberg Business Week/Payscale) 2 Kerry

Karukstis, Ray and Mary Ingwersen Professor of Chemistry and chair of the faculty, named a 2012 Council on Undergraduate Research Fellow Sharon Gerbode, assistant professor of physics, publishes Columbine flower study in prestigious journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Susan Martonosi, associate professor of mathematics, receives 2012 Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning Faculty Member

Harvey Mudd College

Mathemagician Art Benjamin, professor of mathematics, featured on National Public Radio and in book, Fascinating Mathematical People Elizabeth Glater, assistant professor of biology, awarded a National Science Foundation grant to examine how genes influence behavior Paul Steinberg, associate professor of political science and environmental policy, co-writes and co-edits Comparative Environmental Politics: Theory, Practice and Prospects 3 Bill Nye the Science Guy is keynote speaker at 54th Commencement, addressing 177 graduates

Jeffrey D. Groves, professor of literature and vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, receives HMC’s 2012 Henry T. Mudd Prize 4 Trustee

R. Michael Shanahan awarded an HMC honorary doctor of engineering, science and humane letters degree

Experiential AND Interdisciplinary Learning Student team wins third place in 2012 International Environmental Design Contest Elissa Leonard ’12 wins Biomedical Engineering Society 2011 Undergraduate Student Award

Excellence AND Diversity Students receive prestigious national awards: Biomedical Engineering Society 2011 Undergraduate Student Award; Astronaut Scholarship; 2011 BrainTrack Computer Science Scholarship; National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships; Goldwater Scholarships; Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards 2012; Association for Women in Mathematics’ 2012 Alice T. Schafer Prize for Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman Students place fourth in the regional competition, ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Students best previous year’s scores in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition Senior team wins Finalist status at 2012 International Mathematical Contest in Modeling and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling Students’ Android app “Growunity” wins first place at StartUp Weekend Orange County Elizabeth Glater, assistant professor of biology, receives SOMAS-URM grant (Support of Mentors and their Students from Underrepresented Minorities) to support summer undergraduate neuroscience research

5 Clinic

President Maria Klawe and Hayden Hatch ’12 featured in Apr. 23 CNN Money story, “Missing: Minority scientists and engineers”

Summer research involves 200 students, 45 faculty, 59 projects

6 Talithia Williams, assistant professor of mathematics, elected to serve on the board of directors, Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science

teams in computer science, engineering, mathematics and physics complete 39 projects for 34 organizations.

FALL/WINTER 2012

& achie v e m en ts HMC : s t r a t e g i c v i s i o n i n a c t i o n

Dagan Karp, assistant professor of mathematics, appointed to diversity committee, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Irene Barela, administrative coordinator for Annual Giving (15 years at HMC), receives 2012 Mary G. Binder Prize

whole-person development Palmer Mebane ’12 wins first place at 2011 U.S. Puzzle Championship and goes on to become World Puzzle Champion Veerasak “Jeep” Srisuknimit ’12 receives Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study unicycling culture in five countries 7

HMC team wins first place, 2012 National Backgammon Collegiate Team Championships Mudders contribute to championship teams in Ultimate and men’s indoor soccer All-American swimmer Vincent Pai ’12 receives HMC Athlete of the Year Award Two Mudders, Rafer Dannenhauer ’13 and 8 Meg O’Keefe ’14, participate in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, held for first time on the West Coast

Global Engagement AND Informed Contributions E4 Water Drill Team works with Aid Africa to test an HMC-designed manual water drill bit in Northern Uganda

9 Former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz and four other distinguished leaders participate in 2012 Annenberg Leadership and Management Speaker Series

HMC Green Engineering Award goes to startup Green Box Electronic Recyclers Inc. Study abroad program expands with 41 students—more than ever—traveling to 12 countries Adrian Hightower, assistant professor of engineering, is guest judge on Discovery Channel’s “Unchained Reaction” Mudders Making a Difference coordinates Food Rescue Program to assist local congregation’s support program Middle schoolers study math on campus during inaugural Claremont-Long Beach Math Collaborative During 2011–2012, President Maria Klawe featured frequently in the national press (including Forbes, Bloomberg/Business Week, NPR and The New York Times) and at prominent events (including White House Forum on Women and the Economy and 10 The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands) discussing HMC’s role in STEM education and women in computer science

Improvement of Infrastructure AND Resources Five scholars join the faculty: Chris Clark, engineering; Vivien Hamilton, humanities, social sciences and the arts/history; Lelia Hawkins, chemistry; Elizabeth Glater, biology; Sharon Gerbode, biology Community commemorates Thomas-Garrett building and breaks ground for new teaching and learning building 11 The teaching and learning building is nation’s first academic building to use the patented floor slab system BubbleDeck

Henry Luce Foundation grants $200,000 for computer science, engineering and physics scholarships Department of Chemistry faculty pledges $60,000 and The John Stauffer Charitable Trust donates $150,000 to support HMC’s undergraduate chemistry summer research

Book translated to Chinese: Science and Religion, 1450-1900: From Copernicus to Darwin by Richard G. Olson ’62, professor of history, who retires after 35 years at HMC

HMC celebrates International Year of Chemistry by hosting distinguished chemists as part of the Dr. Bruce J. Nelson ’74 Distinguished Speaker Series

FALL/WINTER 2012

Harvey Mudd College

r e v iew a d va n c e m e n t

O N LY PA R T O F T H E S T O RY

By Dan Macaluso, vice president for advancement

Here’s my dilemma: There’s so much more to convey than these

two pages can hold. I’ll do my best to highlight some of the key activities and results of the 2011–2012 fiscal year, but the real progress is apparent when you walk the campus and see the physical spaces being transformed, when the news prominently mentions HMC as a national leader, when you interact with faculty and learn of their latest accomplishments, and when you meet HMC students and are reminded of the quality of intellect and strength of character that defines our community. So, while this column details some impressive results from the 2011–2012 fiscal year, remember that it is only part of the story. Overall fundraising for the 2011–2012 fiscal year resulted in $11,085,851 in cash gifts received. This includes payments on previous pledges, but does not include pledges to be paid in future years. In addition, this number does not include Clinic or government support, which totaled just under $4 million. In coordination with our ongoing annual giving efforts, we provided opportunities this year for giving to two special projects: one for annual gifts in support of the new teaching and learning building—recognized with individualized “warts” from the original Thomas-Garrett Hall—and the second a project that successfully leveraged a $500,000 matching gift to create a $1 million endowed summer research fund in chemistry. Foundation support also remains strong, funding programs such as scholarships, faculty and student research, and the College’s Summer Institute, which provides residential programs to select entering first-year students to inspire confidence during their transition to HMC. Alumni and Parent Relations continues to provide more and better opportunities for alumni, parents and other key constituents to stay connected and to reconnect with the

College. The Advancement office’s close and productive partnership with the Alumni Association Board of Governors continues to enhance many of the College’s ongoing activities and to foster new and creative ways to engage alumni and parents. This past year, a variety of alumni, parent and prospective student events and gatherings—including summer sendoffs, a Shakespeare festival, Hollywood Bowl pyrotechnics, networking events, sporting, camping and hiking events, viewings of the solar eclipse and the transit of Venus, and even a Grunion Run— were held along the West Coast and across the country with broad participation from alumni and parents. The two major on-campus events—Family Weekend in February and Alumni Weekend in April—also continue to grow in attendance, with Family Weekend drawing 450 guests (10 percent more than last year). Alumni Weekend attracted more than 750 guests, and there were slight increases in both total attendance and alumni attendance. Other campus events included an alumni-sponsored event in August commemorating the 50-year-old Thomas-Garrett Hall, which was razed to make way for the new teaching and learning building. Faculty, staff and alumni recounted their ThomasGarrett experiences—warts and all—and then helped remove warts with a pneumatic drill. Following this event, in late September, many of our past and present trustees and alumni board members gathered for a campus-wide event to celebrate the groundbreaking for the new building, which is scheduled to open before the fall 2013 semester. Furthermore, HMC continued the tradition of conducting two annual public lecture series: The Dr. Bruce J. Nelson ’74 Distinguished Speaker Series, honoring the International Year of Chemistry and celebrating chemistry’s contributions to humankind, and The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Leadership and Management Speaker Series, which

philan t hropic gi v ing * by f iscal y ear Annual Mudd Fundd

2011–12 $4,287,554

2010–11 $3,835,195

2009–10 $4,333,308

2008–09 $4,322,728

2007–08 $4,484,741

Designated/Restricted Endowment $2,108,095 $4,741,254 $1,982,768 $1,194,608 $1,019,472 Non-Endowment $4,512,517 $14,515,862 $3,300,100 $15,005,674 $2,118,999 Bequests $177,685 $264,010 $435,813 $1,000,000 $153,811 Total Philanthropic Giving $11,085,851 $23,356,321 $10,051,989 $21,523,009 $7,777,023 * Totals do not include corporate contracts for Clinic or government funding.

Harvey Mudd College

FALL/WINTER 2012

“

[ou r ] c l ose a n d pr oduc t i v e pa r tn er ship w i t h t he

brings business leaders to campus to engage a lum ni a sso ci at ion boa r d the HMC community in important thought and discussion about the role of leadership in of g ov er nor s con t i n u es the world. Communications and marketing continues to enh a nce m a n y of t he to be a priority, and this year, HMC’s visibility in the media increased markedly, with highcol l ege’s ong oi ng ac t i v it ies. profile national coverage that helped double our media mentions and nearly triple our social — dan MaCaluso media edia presence. Articles about our innovative computer science and engineering programs in The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg/Business Week as Forbes F editor Randall Lane defended the ranking by highand USA U Today, as well as features on CNN, PBS and NPR lighting ighting HMC’s entrepreneurial focus, small size and excellent provided excellent national visibility and spread across social me- student outcomes. HMC received an additional boost from its No. dia ia platforms to provide a larger presence there as well. Beyond 15 ranking (out of 20) on the Forbes.com Most Entrepreneurial the attention surrounding our faculty members’ creative work Colleges list. and our much-publicized, top PayScale ranking for alumni The College enters this new fiscal year with great appreciation salaries, much of the heightened visibility comes from coverage for f those who have helped strengthen Harvey Mudd College. There off our Computer Science Department, which has a curriculum is also great excitement about continuing this work—together. that is now recognized as a model program for attracting women With W the unwavering dedication of our trustees; the highly valued to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) collaboration with the Alumni Association Board of Governors; fields. The department’s student-focused strategy is benefitting the value-driven partnerships with industry leaders through institutions beyond HMC, and President Klawe has emerged career services, research and Clinic; the tireless dedication of our as a national thought leader on gender in STEM education. faculty faculty and staff; and the energy and leadership of our students HMC’s spot on Forbes’ annual rankings (No. 28) sparked banter and their parents, my next report is certain to bring continuing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” giving us great national visibility great news.

”

S O u R c E S O F g i v i N g 2 0 11 –12

i N D i v i D uA L g i v i N g 2 0 11 –12

Individuals $7,148,002

48%

Government $2,292,671

T O TA L : $ 14 ,7 8 4 ,10 2

23%

33% Foundations $2,851,284

19%

other 16% organizations $107,330

Trustees $1,647,879

alumni $2,382,049

Faculty & staff $64,412 Corporations $2,384,815

16%

other Individuals $2,605,792

36%

Parents $447,870

T O TA L : $ 7,14 8 , 0 0 2

Trustees = non-alumni on-alumni and non-parent; Parents P = non-alumni; Faculty and Staff = non-alumni and non-parent Faculty

FALL/WINTER 2012

Harvey Mudd College

r e v iew fin a nci a l

S T E A DY and s t rong By Andrew Dorantes, vice president for administration and finance and treasurer

Harvey Mudd College and its Business Affairs Office have

been buzzing with activity during the construction of the teaching and learning building. Global markets have been active as well, though not in a positive way. Though global markets have recently experienced volatility and negative returns, the College remains steady in its goal of providing a superior education for its students. Following are highlights of the 2011–2012 fiscal year. The College ended the fiscal year with assets in excess of $373 million. This total is composed primarily of investments of $280 million and of land, buildings and equipment assets of $63 million. With the ongoing construction of the teaching and learning building, the College had an increase in plant facilities expenditures. Liabilities of $33 million consist primarily of long-term bonds payable and of payables to annuitants and trust beneficiaries. During the 2011–12 fiscal year, total net assets decreased by $3.8 million. This decrease in net assets resulted from a decrease in the value of the investment pool from both realized and unrealized losses in the value of investments, partially offset by gifts to the teaching and learning building and to various endowments. As of June 30, 2012, net assets totaled $340 million, comprising three net asset categories: unrestricted (those over which the College has full discretion) of $106 million; temporarily restricted (those given to the College for a specific purpose) of $123 million; and permanently restricted (those given to the College to be held in perpetuity) of $111 million. Total revenues were $69 million for fiscal year 2011–2012, compared to $57 million for fiscal year 2010–2011. This was due to increases in net student revenues and gifts. Total expenses for 2011–2012 were approximately $52 million. For the year ending June 30, 2012, the College experienced an operating surplus of approximately $159,000 after a number of transfers to high priority areas, as approved by the Board of Trustees Budget and Financial Planning Committee, including $500,000 of additional support for the Renewal and Replacement Reserve fund, $275,000 for enhancements to the College’s financial aid program and $70,000 of additional support for administrative needs. The key factors influencing the positive operating surplus were lower financial aid needs than anticipated, additional grant and Clinic revenues and savings from unfilled administrative positions. The endowment produced a negative return of 3.59 percent for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012. The investment performance was impacted by volatility in global financial markets. The S&P 500 index return was 5.45 percent and the Barclays Aggregate Bond index return was 7.48 percent. The

Harvey Mudd College

FALL/WINTER 2012

“

T h e C ol l ege r e m a i ns st e a dy i n its g oa l of prov idi ng a su per ior educ at ion

”

for i ts s t u den ts. —ANDREW DORANTES

MSCI EAFE index, a benchmark used to measure a portion of the international stock market, reported a negative return of (13.83) percent for the same period. Market value of the endowment was $226 million at year end, representing an equivalent of $290,230 per student. Endowment payout provided 21 percent of the College’s operating revenues during the fiscal year. The College employs a formula that governs the annual payout of endowment earnings to support operations. Endowment payout will decline in fiscal year 2012–2013 as a result of recent declines in the endowment. The formula is designed to balance the need for endowment resources to support current activities with the equally important goal of preserving the value of endowment funds for the future. As you are probably aware, there continues to be uncertainty in global financial markets, which has impacted the College’s investment returns. HMC has been monitoring the economy, the volatile stock market and their effect on the College’s investment pool and operating budget. The College’s administration and trustees have prepared and will continue to prepare for various scenarios that may occur as a result of economic uncertainty. The College eagerly awaits the completion of the teaching and learning building. We are excited for what this facility will do to enhance the already outstanding educational experience at Harvey Mudd College.

t o ta l r e v e n u e s s tat e m e n t o f aC t I v I t I e s Year Ended June 30 (in thousands)

2012

42%

revenue Tuition, fees, room and board

$42,345

$40,231

Less financial aid

(13,005)

(12,814)

29,340

27,417

3,284

3,965

22,725

11,341

1,347

929

Net student revenues Federal grants Private gifts and grants Private Contracts Endowment payout

11,373

11,919

Other revenue

1,043

1,339

Total revenue

69,113

56,910

Instruction

21,504

20,072

Research

3,065

3,327

916

1,004

Academic support

5,773

5,237

Student services

5,535

5,287

Institutional support

8,381

8,503

Auxiliary enterprises

6,921

6,520

Total expenses

52,095

49,950

Excess revenues over expenses

17,018

6,960

(20,141)

28,746

(719)

1,112

$(3,842)

$36,818

Federal grant 5%

Private gifts & grants

Pooled investment (losses) Other changes in net assets Change in net assets

Endowment payout

16%

Private contracts

33%

expenses

Public service

Other revenue 2%

Net student revenue

2011

t o ta l e x p e n s e s

Instruction

41%

Institutional support

Research 6%

16% Auxiliary enterprises

13%

Public Service

Academic support Student 11% services

11% t o ta l e n d o w m e n t m a r k e t va l u e (in thousands) $275,000 $250,000

$249,256

$243,125 $225,509

$225,000

$194,705

$200,000

$208,454

$175,000

The College’s audited financial statements can be found on the website: www.hmc.edu/about/administrativeoffices/bao1/ financialaffairs1/financialstatement.html

$150,000 6.30.08

6.30.09

6.30.10

6.30.11

6.30.12

HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE BULLETIN 301 Platt Boulevard • Claremont, CA 91711 • hmc.edu/magazine

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Claremont, CA Permit No. 35

2013 Annenberg Leadership and Management Speaker Series Colin Bodell

Indra K. Nooyi

tuesday, march 5

tuesday, april 2

COL IN BODEL L P15 Vice President of Website Application Platform and Builder Tools amazon.com

INDR A K . NOOY I Chair and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer PepsiCo

Michael Angiulo Roger W. Ferguson Jr.

tuesday, april 9 MICH A EL A NGIULO ’93 Corporate Vice President, Windows Hardware

tuesday, april 23

and PC Ecosystem Microsoft Corp.

President and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer

ROGER W. FERGUSON JR .

TIAA-CREF

Harvey Mudd College and the Annenberg Foundation recognize that the world’s most pressing problems will be solved with technical expertise and ethical leadership. The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Fund for Leadership Development allows HMC to engage the issue of leadership by bringing distinguished leaders and authorities to campus. With the sharing of ideas and knowledge, the seeds of future leadership are sown. The dinner lecture series is free of charge and open to the public. Advance reservations are required. Inquiries may be directed to stewardship@hmc.edu or to Carrie La Duc at 909.607.3132.