URI QuadAngles Fall 2014

QUADANGLES FALL 2014

Question 4 Matters

The engineering bond = critical growth | 14

The Offshore Wind Race Will RI be the fi st? | 22

Your Harvest Table

What to eat (and the science of why) | 26

World Cup Run Geoff Cameron played soccer’s biggest stage in Brazil.

Why he always comes home to URI | 19

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NINTH ANNUAL

distinguished achievement awards gala The ninth annual Distinguished Achievement Awards and Gala will be held at the Newport Marriott in Newport, R.I. on Saturday, October 25, 2014.

The event honors alumni and friends of URI who have brought distinction to themselves and the University through their professional achievements, outstanding leadership and community service. advance.uri.edu/programming

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PRESIDENT’S AWARDS Wesley R. Card ’70, Retired CEO and Director, The Jones Group, Inc.

Paul Hastings ’84, President and CEO, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals

Thomas D. Cerio III ’76, Senior Vice President, Time Warner, Inc.

Diane Pennica, Ph.D. ’77, Retired Senior Scientist, Genentech

Corporate Award Hasbro, Inc., Brian Goldner, President and CEO; and Alfred J. Verrecchia ’67, M.B.A. ’72, Chairman of the Board

DEANS’ AWARDS Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education Gary J. Burkholder Jr. ’92, M.A. ’95, Ph.D. ’00, Chief Academic Office , Laureate University Partnerships, USA

College of Arts and Sciences Lori J. Merola ’83, Vice President, Fidelity Institutional, a division of Fidelity Investments Ann Spruill ’76, Director, Harbor Funds

College of Business Administration

College of the Environment and Life Sciences Perry Raso ’02, M.S. ’06, Owner, Matunuck Oyster Bar and Matunuck Oyster Farm Edward Ueber, M.S. ’76, Owner and Farmer, Bluebird Oaks Organic Peach Farm

College of Human Science and Services Caroline Tennant Kaull ’66, President, Townsend Aid for the Aged Janet Raymond ’79, Senior Vice President, Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce

College of Nursing

Thomas J. Chisholm ’68, CEO, Chisholm Ventures, LLC

Rebecca Burke ’76, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, Kent County Hospital

Kenneth E. Knox ’70, Regional Director (New England), Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company

Elaine Parker ’74, M.S. ’79, Ph.D. ’97 Retired Associate Professor of Nursing, UMass Graduate School of Nursing

College of Engineering

College of Pharmacy

Daniel Urish, Ph.D. ’78, Consultant and Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering, URI

Anthony Palmieri III ’71, M.S. ’73, Associate Scholar, Pharmaceutics, University of Florida College of Pharmacy

William J. Murray ’78, President, Teknor Apex Co.

Jean-Marie Pflomm ’96, Editor, The Medical Letter

Graduate School of Oceanography Amy S. Bower, Ph.D. ’88, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Christopher T.H. Pell, M.M.A. ’80, Retired Executive Director, The Preservation Society of Newport County

RISING STAR AWARD Wilson K. Okello, M.S. ’12, First Year Adviser and Resident Director, Miami University-Ohio 00 QUAD ANGLES MONTH YEAR | URI.EDU/QUADANGLES

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QUADANGLES

FALL 2014 | VOLUME 22, NO. 1

Departments

2 FEEDBACK 4 ALUMNIWRITE

Norman Mailer: A Double Life

5 PRESIDENT’SVIEW

Features

12 Long Ride Home

Despite devastating war injuries, Terry Rajsombath ’16 is racing toward a life full of meaning.

6 NEWS&VIEWS 10 PRESSBOX 30 ALUMNICALENDAR 31 CLASSACTS

News from your classmates

33 CLOSEUP

Polly Davis Stiles ’64

37 CLOSEUP

Tinh Huynh ’11

40 BACKPAGE

WRIU’s 75 years of perfect pitch

More Online

uri.edu/quadangles

See the whole print issue and more!

Follow the orange arrow icons to see exclusive online content.

Share stories with friends and family.

Post your comments.

Move-in Day

Remember what that was like?

Bike and Build

The mission: cycle across the country, building homes along the way.

Cover: Salvador, Brazil, June 29. Former Ram Geoff Cameron trains with the US Men’s National Team at Estádio de Pituaçu before the 2–1 loss to Belgium that ended Team USA’s 2014 World Cup bid.

14 Engineering the Future

URI’s engineering labs desperately need a reboot—and they’re on R.I.’s November ballot.

19 Goal Oriented

URI’s soccer golden boy tells us what it was really like in Brazil—and why his hair has a Twitter page.

22 Catching the Wind

14

Rhode Island may well become the fi st state to harness offshore wind. How a vast research collaboration is making it possible.

26 Sage Advice

It’s the best eating season of the year. Don’t waste it.

28 Punk Daddies

Turns out tribute bands can make a living, and punk rockers make fine family men.

26

COVER PHOTO: JOHN TODD/ISIPHOTOS.COM. CONTENTS: TERRY RAJSOMBATH; BALLINGER; ISTOCKPHOTOS.COM

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FEEDBACK

Bits and Pieces They’re here: the class of 2018 20,900 people applied for a place at URI, the most ever 3,650 got one 1,110 average SAT score 48 percent from Rhode Island

1 set of triplets 20 pairs of twins 58 freshmen named Michael, the most popular male name 38 freshmen named Emily, the most popular female name

1 freshman on America’s Got Talent, Pharm.D. student Hannah Ritchie, whose dance troupe made it to the show’s quarter-finals. She competed against: ↓ ↓ ↓

He’s Magic Shaggy Ram Story The days when URI had a live mascot are the gift that keeps on giving.

Jim Lynch ’59 writes to share: “The summer I was 14, I worked odd jobs on the Highland Farm in Scituate, R.I. One of the residents was the URI ram mascot, which the farm owner housed gratis. I called him Toughie. He was the most magnifi ent ram I have ever seen, but he would attack any human being or farm animal on scent.

“One late-August day, the farmer told me that we would be getting Toughie back to campus, an event he celebrated with early-morning whiskey. Corralling Toughie was a problem, but after an hour or so, we got ropes on both horns.

“The truck would not start, so the farmer, still celebrating, decided to use his pristine 1949 Packard sedan. We removed the rear bench seat and stuffed Toughie into the rear. I think I still have the bruises from that exchange. As we headed to URI, Toughie destroyed the marvelous wood paneling on the rear doors. He calmed down when he discovered that the upholstery on the bench seat contained straw.

“I admired Toughie’s spirit and was sad to leave him. Little did I know that I would enter URI as a freshman in the fall of 1955. It was a pleasure to see him, now strutting his stuff as the URI mascot known as Ramses, although I pitied his handlers.

One told me they had to keep him near the end zone, away from people. I told them that they needed Packard straw to calm him down.”

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Mat Franco ’10’s run on America’s Got Talent had us glued to our TV screens this summer. The marketing alum started studying magic at 4 and gave his fi st Vegas performance at 12.

He wowed URI audiences as a student here with his blend of college humor and shocking illusion, and went on to found a talent agency for college performers. This June, he made it into our living rooms with a card-trick story tailor-made for America’s Got Talent. At press time, he was in the semi-finals. Ameri a finds him as enchanting as e do.

PHOTOS: JOE GIBLIN; COURTESY JIM LYNCH; ISTOCKPHOTOS.COM

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You Tell Us quadangles@ uri.edu WRIU’s most famous alum, Jim Norman ‘57, was one of many to answer our call for stories celebrating the station’s 75th anniversary:

QUADANGLES A quarterly publication of the University of Rhode Island Alumni Association, 73 Upper College Road, Kingston, RI 02881. p: 401.874.2242 e: quadangles@uri.edu

Executive Editor Michele A. Nota ’87, M.S. ’06, Executive Director, URI Alumni Relations; Secretary, Alumni Association Executive Board

Editor in Chief

Pippa Jack

“Sometime during the early ‘50s, the station had an

Art Director Kim Robertson unannounced visit from a U.S. Navy offi er and two shore

Contributing Editors Barbara Caron patrolmen, each with an axe in hand.

Melanie Coon “In those days, the station was licensed as a closed Shane Donaldson ’99 Dave Lavallee ’79, M.P.A. ’87 circuit AM station broadcasting only to campus buildings Todd McLeish wired for reception. However, unbeknownst to all but a few, Cindy Sabato some enterprising station “engineers”

Contributing Designers Johnson Ma had strung a wire around the entire Quad, Bo Pickard Verna Thurber using the trees as anchors. We were Calling alumni Photographer Nora Lewis broadcasting to a wide area with an do-gooders!

Editorial Board Linda A. Acciardo ’77, Director, illegal signal.

URI Communications and Marketing We are looking “It seems that one day, when a plane Tracey A. Manni, Director of was coming in for a landing at Quonset, for stories for a Communications, URI Foundation the pilot was getting our music broadcast URI Alumni Kathleen DiPietro, Executive Assistant winter article on instead of official adio transmissions.

Relations Staff Robert Ferrell ’07, Specialist philanthropy. Kathleen Gianquitti ’71, M.S. ’82, “The offi er informed the student Assistant Director station manager that the wire was to be Shana Greene ’95, M.S.’97, Assistant Director taken down immediately, and as long as Darthula Mathews ’13, Program Assistant Mary Ann Mazzone, Office Assistant he had assurance it would stay down, Amy Paulsen, Web/Print Editor he’d chalk it up to a student prank. Under Kate Serafini Maccarone ’08, Specialist close Navy supervision, the wire was removed Gina Simonelli ’01, M.S.’03, Assistant Director posthaste. The axes, as it turned out, were not needed.

Alumni Association Louise H. Thorson M.B.A.’85, President

Executive Board Susan R. Johnson ’82, President-Elect “A few years later, we made the transition to FM and Joseph M. Confessore ’96, Past President were permitted to broadcast to a fairly wide audience.”

Daniel G. Lowney ’75, Vice President Jim, the legendary “Voice of the Rams” and member of the Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame and the Rhode Island Broadcasters Hall of Fame, spent three decades behind the microphone, covered 1,286 consecutive Rhody football and men’s basketball games, and anchored the sports information offi e at URI for decades. Thanks to him and everyone else who shared WRIU stories. Find more on the Back Page, and keep sending them for an online extra.

Thomas F. Shevlin ’68, Vice President Patrick J. Cronin ’91, Treasurer

Alumni Association

Councilors-at-Large

Laurel L. Bowerman ’77, M.B.A. ’84 Matthew Finan ’11 Colleen Gouveia M.B.A.’98 Tyrene A. Jones ’10 Brina R. Masi ’01 Gregory S. Perry ’88 Karen E. Regine ’81 Darran A. Simon ’98 Christos S. Xenophontos ’84, M.S.’85

Alumni Association Representatives

Look Back in Time URI’s library has put its treasure trove of historical images online. So far, more than 1,000 digitized photographs are accessible through Shared Shelf Commons, with more to come. The address to lose yourself at: sscommons.org (Find URI’s collection in the drop-down menus)

PHOTO: SSCOMMONS.ORG

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Arts & Sciences

Business Administration Feinstein Continuing Education

Engineering Environment and Life Sciences

Human Science & Services

Nursing

Pharmacy Graduate School of Oceanography

Faculty Senate

Student Senate

Student Alumni Association

URI Foundation

Catherine Gagnon ’98, M.M.’03 Jordan D. Kanter ’99, M.S.’00 Bianca S. Rodriguez-Slater ’10 Anthony J. Rafanelli ’78, M.S.’85, Ph.D. ’95 Catherine Weaver ’82, B.L.A.’96 Christine S. Pelton ’84 Silifat “Laitan” Mustapha ’97 Henrique “Henry” Pedro ’76 Veronica M. Berounsky Ph.D. ’90 Andrea L. Yates ’94, Ph.D.’06 Joseph Maynard ’16 Kevin L. Drumm ’15 Thomas J. Silvia ’83

The URI Alumni Association informs and engages current and future alumni as committed partners of the University, its mission and traditions.

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ALUMNIWRITE Gary Gilmore was in the news at the end of 1976.

The Utah double murderer had not merely acquiesced in his death sentence.

Speaking to the judge at a subsequent hearing, he said, “You sentenced me to die. Unless it’s a joke or something, I want to go ahead and do it.” His determination created consternation among those opposed to capital punishment, and cultish fascination among his admirers. He received over 40,000 letters during his final months, and his ace was everywhere, including the cover of Newsweek, under the caption “Death Wish.” Mailer, like half the nation, was following the story. He recalled being struck by how handsome Gilmore was in photographs. “It was an arresting face, particularly that one shot, the famous one, of the long face,” he said. Legal maneuvers followed for months, and Gilmore tried twice to commit suicide. One of these attempts led to a memorable radio report: “Dr. L. Grant Christensen said Gilmore can leave the hospital and return to Death Row if he continues to improve.” His fi st suicide attempt was in tandem with that of a young woman, Nicole Baker Barrett. “Nicole and I have known and loved each other for thousands of years,” Gilmore said. She was young, beautiful and devoted to him. The story kept getting more engrossing.

On the day of Gilmore’s execution, January 17, 1977, Mailer saw Larry Schiller on the evening news. “I could see he was going through something,” Mailer said. Two days later, Mailer’s secretary told him that Schiller had called and “wants you to do some writing for him.”

Schiller had already done interviews with many of those involved, including over 30 hours with Gilmore, to whom he paid $60,000 for exclusive access. In February, he sent Mailer an interview that he had done with Gilmore. Mailer said to himself, “This may be the best single interview of its sort I’ve ever read.” On March 4, he and Schiller signed a contract with Warner Books for a book on “the life and death of Gary Gilmore.”

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This excerpt from chapter 11 of J. Michael Lennon M.A. ’69, Ph.D. ’79’s biography, Norman Mailer: A Double Life, appears here with the permission of its publisher, Simon & Schuster. It describes the origins of Mailer’s 1979 Pulitzer-Prize winning narrative, The Executioner’s Song.

J. Michael Lennon and Norman Mailer in Provincetown, Mass.

PHOTOS: BOOK COVER COURTESY SIMON & SCHUSTER; “LENNON & MAILER P-TOWN” BY CHRISTINA PABST

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PRESIDENT’SVIEW ed ave welcom ynn and I h L e r their m fo ti s u th p on cam s the six d rk a re e m th ll a fa g ) eted 18 (!

18! This class of 20 hen we gre class of 20 st 2009, w u bers of the g Welcome m u e A m in s A were s to URI. ited as we a new clas gly variable just as exc re e w e w t surprisin , u n b o , ti ys ta a n . w e 3 ori some e Island, s of 201 dictable in nd in Rhod of the clas re A p . rs s e u re b p a m m fe e m ity li on ca of univers pe arrives eak The cycles ss, new ho la c riously. w e e s lar. Just sp n t a h , in particu e take th With eac ll . w , fa rs o s) e is tt le o th th g o m n in timism QuadA state’s ope and op is issue of pe” is the e rticle in th for great h where “Ho a n e o ation of th s th a u d g re a fi have ical con t (and re h ys the g h f ri p o e W e At URI we y it th a s not only l to the eering R e ve in g a g n n tr a E r h f c O o l t. il you can taugh that w with Dean ict, where lion bond ineering is tr il g is n d -m e 5 e y 2 g a 1 d w $ le ing that know lso the about the cant build ring, but a rovidence’s va e P e d e in in n g r o n d te E n n f n ce -aba College o g educatio ring a long cation. new nursin ise of resto m ursing edu ro n p bly, the e ry th proposed tu n m o ce fr ts g eral Assem 1 n n 2 ti e r G rs fo u d b b n u e la h p gional hode Is dence City sense ho d the Provi ed into a re ort of the R n p a p rm , u e fo s s te e n it a th l for Comm . We value will be tr are gratefu e possible Properties I b R t te o U ta n t S a ld s e u u o th tion, All of cts w both of d College, rd of Educa nging proje n a a o h la B Is -c e e e d th m o a r, h heart of and R e two g Governo tion, in the University ta which thes S n t u r w o e ro h w it B o w P h , wit treet Council rtnerships er South S thened pa vated form o n pital city. re ive ca e r our streng th u ingly posit idor in o space in rr re a co h n s o l verwhelm ti il o ca e u th d e . y, l d b which w a n d o edic gb rage engineerin coming a m and encou g, ity for the what is be ciative of, n u re p m t last sprin p n a m ve co ry e s ve e s g o e ls in ra s a a u G b re l l a ca We ’s annua rt of the lo ode Island ommerce and suppo tical to Rh mber of C ri a c h s C rt key a o ce d p response n n p e o r Provid ed the b ionals su it s te c s a y fe re ll G ro a p i e if g c At th eerin nnelly spe ple. Engin an energy, O Scott Do ts and peo c u d ecurity, cle ro rs p Textron CE e y, yb g c , lo e o gineering. s n n h c fe t in te medical en ch as de io u s b y d n m a o investmen n y, g eco hnolo the state’s ies, biotec resources sectors of technolog e n ri a signifi ant m , d e g s n u ri c tu fo c s fa manu URI ha de Island essful Rho university, h cc u rc s a a e t s a e g th oost the ublic Recognizin e to help b t. rs flagship p n u ’s e co m te p ic ta g lo s te e the tra As th nomic deve yed on a s dustry, and Island’s eco we have sta cademia, in I, a R URI n U e e l e on Rhode th fu s tw y s e b a succe sioned ridges b is b to m d in il tial m s u b te co d y la trans e exponen ct stud jobs, an will provid omic impa g my, create n n o co n ri e e co e n e in A g ’s state of En rial sector. w College trepreneu ugh f that a ne e li e b growing en r project thro u o inforced gineering n re e n e o it th ti e a e p d e o Foun We h rs” to s economy. mmunity. all cylinde the state’s tire URI co n e unning on e on “r returns to s th is ll g e o h p spirin to the ht says itment is in en you go m h Dean Wrig m w petitive d co m n is co la h l Is te a rea Rhode tion, and ta in s le p r ve u m li o land. o co e h iv s to it 4 to g f you w r Rhode Is ire those o n Question issance fo p a o s n s in e re y o ic ls te a m will cono you to vo foster an e 4. We urge otential to p e November th s a h area that edge in an son, ul fall sea a wonderf u yo g in h Wis

Students attending summer Orientation at the Kingston Campus.

ooley

David M. D

PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS

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NEWS&VIEWS

$19 Million to Fight Cancer, Expand Neuroscience The University of Rhode Island has received $18.8 million in federal funding to continue an initiative that has successfully expanded biomedical research capacity at nearly all of Rhode Island’s universities and colleges.

This next phase of funding will focus on the interrelated research areas of cancer, neuroscience and molecular toxicology.

It will support 27 projects, including using nanoparticles to deliver anti-cancer drugs to lung cancer patients and examining the effectiveness of using plant materials to combat stomach cancer.

Since 2001, the Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE ) has been funded by the National Institutes of Health with $42 million in grants to URI as the lead institution, partnering with Brown University, Rhode Island College, Providence College, Bryant University, Roger Williams University, and Salve Regina University.

The Community College of Rhode Island is an affilia e of the network, and its students participate in research opportunities at URI.

The program has financial y supported and mentored more than 100 faculty members, established a $4 million research equipment facility at URI’s College of Pharmacy for Rhode Island’s biomedical researchers to carry out cutting-edge research, and provided more than 1,000 students and postdoctoral fellows with research training in faculty laboratories.

“Students from this program have gone on to obtain post-graduate degrees and many are employed at universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical and engineering companies,” says Zahir Shaikh, URI professor of pharmacology and toxicology and principal investigator on the project.

Shaikh and Program Coordinator David Rowley, URI professor of biomedical sciences at the College of Pharmacy, explain how the recent grant renewal allows the network to expand. “We have changed the culture at our partner undergraduate institutions,” says Shaikh. “All of these institutions are now hiring new science faculty in such areas as biology, chemistry and psychology with biomedically-related

Zahir Shaikh

David Rowley

research experiences in order to benefit from the RI-INBRE program. They have also augmented their research support staff to facilitate increased research activity by their faculty.”

RI-INBRE-supported researchers so far have obtained an additional $47 million in independent funding to further increase biomedical research capacity. “We are now putting the focus on disease states, like cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases,” Shaikh says.

“Neuroscience and cancer are not just priorities for us at URI,” Rowley says. “They are research priorities for Rhode Island and the nation. This will continue to be a capacity building grant, and it will catalyze the growth and competitiveness of investigators.”

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2014

HONORS COLLOQUIUM

CYBERSECURITY & PRIVACY Tuesday evenings, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 9–Dec. 2, 2014 Edwards Auditorium, URI Kingston Campus

David Cipoletta, Cory Jalbert and Geoffrey McElroy

Self-Driving Race Car Takes First Place A car with a mind of its own may sound like science fiction, but Uni ersity of Rhode Island computer engineering students are proving it’s a reality. Three URI students designed and built an autonomous model race car that took fi st place in a national competition and gave them the opportunity to represent the United States against 19 other countries at the world championships in South Korea in August.

Geoffrey McElroy ’14, Cory Jalbert ’14 and David Cipoletta ’14 were classmates in a senior computer engineering course and chose to enter the competition as a grading option. Professor Qing Yang says the competition “is a good opportunity to inspire students to do real design. The best way to learn is by doing.”

The team programmed a 32-bit microprocessor to interface with a camera, motor, battery, wheels and sensors. They added intelligence by creating algorithms that learned from previous mistakes and kept the car on the hilly and curvy 100-foot racetrack.

“Even if the track had been constantly changing, the car would have been able to adapt and handle it,” says Jalbert.

At the annual Freescale Cup in Rochester, N.Y., in April, their foot-tall car completed the course in 17.7 seconds, faster than 27 other teams, earning them the chance to compete in the ultimate battle: the world championships.

“It was amazing,” says McElroy. “It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.”

This isn’t the fi st year that Yang has encouraged students to enter the competition, and it’s not the fi st year the team met with success. Last year’s team placed second in the nation, narrowly losing to a team from the University of California at Berkeley.

uri.edu/hc Our dependence on modern technology is not without its downsides. Cyber threats pose serious economic and national security challenges.

Moreover, corporations and government agencies track our online activities, purchases, and even our location.

Join us in examining cybersecurity and the loss of personal privacy in the digital age.

For more information on colloquium events contact Deborah Gardiner at 401.874.2381 or debg@uri.edu.

PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; COURTESY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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Battle of the Bugs An invasion is taking our trees, and one URI scientist might have the solution.

European Winter moth caterpillars arrived in Canada around 1950 and made their way to Rhode Island 10 years ago.

With no known predators, they’ve taken up residence in numbers large enough to defoliate trees and pose a threat to apple and blueberry growers.

Heather Faubert ’81, coordinator of the University’s Plant Protection Clinic, is working with colleagues to rear and release a parasitic fl , Cyzenis Albicans, which reduced the winter moth population in Nova Scotia in the 1950s. The flies lay eggs on t ee leaves, the caterpillars eat the eggs, and fly lar ae grow inside their hosts, killing them.

Her effort faces a conundrum. “You need large populations of the moths for the flies o do their job,” Faubert explains, “but it takes several years for the fly population o establish itself.” So she’s spent the last several years scouting for moth infestations.

Faubert released 1,600 parasitic flie at Goddard Park in East Greenwich in 2011, followed by releases in Bristol and Jamestown in 2013, and this spring in South Kingstown, Cumberland and Jamestown again. She’ll target more sites in

European Winter moth caterpillars

coming years. “Hopefully within about fi e years, the flies will ake care of the problem,” she says.

Meanwhile, as moths become more prolific, Rhode Island home wners are taking notice, flooding the phone lines at tate agencies and the URI Master Gardener Hotline. Until the flies ake hold, there’s little to be done. For prized landscape trees that aren’t near forest edges, Faubert advises using spinosad insecticides. For apple and blueberry growers, who are hard hit because the moth eggs begin hatching in the middle of April, when there is little food other than fl wer buds, she suggests spraying insecticides early in the season.

Cyzenis Albicans

Heather Faubert

Amos Ogbonnaya with URI President David M. Dooley.

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PHOTOS: ISTOCKPHOTOS.COM; COURTESY HEATHER FAUBERT; RICHARD CASAGRANDE; MICHAEL SALERNO

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Focus on Job Training Merging two offi es, URI has created the Center for Career and Experiential Education to help faculty, students, and alumni access the training needed for today’s job seekers. The former offi es of Experiential Learning and Community Engagement, and Career Services and Employer Relations, have come together to foster state, public and private industry partnerships related to employment, internships, and career development.

The Center’s fi st director is Kimberly Washor ’96, who previously served as director of Experiential Learning and Community Engagement, and is the University’s liaison to the Governor’s Workforce Board, Department of Labor and Training, Rhode Island Student Loan Authority and URI Business Engagement Center.

Jayne Richmond, dean of the University College for Academic Success, says Washor “has been a driving force in the Kimberly Washor internship offi e since 2003, building it from a local internship program into one with more than 20,000 local and national Job one for Washor in her new post is infusing the URI opportunities for URI students.” freshman experience with career prep that includes early exposure Washor has also been an important participant in the development to internships. “My goal is to provide a thread of career education of bRIdge.jobs, a new program of the Rhode Island Student Loan throughout the curriculum,” she explains, “so students are able Authority and its College Planning Center of Rhode Island, which to actualize what it is they hope to become based on a greater focuses on connecting employers and students in Rhode Island. understanding of who they truly are.”

So the World May Live as One Lawyer Amos Ogbonnaya has taken to heart and taken home the methods he learned at URI’s Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies’ International Nonviolence Summer Institute. Last year, he twice dissuaded would-be revenge attackers in his town of Okota in Southeastern Nigeria.

“Shortly after I returned from URI in June 2013,” Ogbonnaya, 47, reported in an email, “violence erupted between my community and a neighboring community over a jointly owned community market.

“An urgent meeting of all village heads and community chiefs was summoned, to take up the weighty decision of whether to go to war with our neighboring community for destroying our section of the market.”

He spoke out, suggesting a delegation visit the chief of the hostile community to

seek explanations. Many saw his recommendation as cowardice, and the chief turned it down. To avert further escalation, Ogbonnaya quickly petitioned the state government for an all-stakeholders conference. Once the king and chiefs of both communities met, an accord was reached.

Not only were his compatriots surprised at the success of his strategy, but also, “They were shocked by my change of attitude and approach, because in the past I would be the one to mobilize the youths for war,” he wrote.

Ogbonnaya was so impressed with the conflict esolution strategies he had learned that he returned here this past summer to learn how to train others.

He was one of 70 participants from 17 countries who attended the increasingly

popular Summer Institute this year, either to learn Kingian Nonviolence techniques or to become certified o teach them. It’s one of the only university-based programs in the world offering similar conflict esolution training. In 12 years, more than 600 people from 35 countries—including some of the most violent in the world—have become certified nonvio ence trainers at URI, taking the program back to the places it’s most needed.

“They journey here from sometimes life-threatening circumstances,” says Paul Bueno de Mesquita, a professor of psychology and director of the Center.

“We are having an important global impact preparing leaders who create signifi ant change.”

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PRESSBOX

Greenwood Goes to the Majors

June 23 was a big night for former Rams. On the same night that Rhody alumnus Geoff Cameron started for Team USA in the World Cup against Ghana, Nick Greenwood made his Major League Baseball debut for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Pitching on ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball, Greenwood entered the game against the New York Mets as a relief pitcher in the top of the fourth inning and pitched 3.1 innings, allowing one run on two hits while striking out three batters en route to the victory. Greenwood fanned seven-time all-star David Wright for his fi st career strikeout.

The Southington, Conn., native exited the game in the top of the eighth inning, heading back to the dugout while nearly all of the 42,808 fans at Busch Stadium rose to their feet to give the rookie an ovation.

St. Louis would hold on for a 6-2 victory, securing Greenwood the fi st win by a Cardinals relief pitcher making his big league debut since 1988 (John Costello).

Greenwood is the fi st Ram to play in a major league game since Norm Gigon did so in 1967, and is URI’s fifth pla er to reach the majors overall.

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Track and Field Trio Shine

Nick Danner ’16 (top) and Mahlik Handley ’16 (near right) both had strong performances at the USA Track & Field Junior Outdoor Championships July 5–6 in Eugene, Oregon.

Handley—competing in the event for the second straight year—finished ourth out of 27 in the hammer throw, topping 62m with four of his fi e throws. Handley’s scoring mark of 64.39m came on his fifth th ow of the day. Charlie Ionata of Wake Forest won the title with a throw of 67.7m. Handley finishe sixth in 2013.

Danner placed sixth out of 14 in the javelin. He was fourth following the preliminaries, thanks to his best throw of the night, 62.34m. He moved on to the finals, but had ouls on two of his final th ee attempts. Curtis Thompson, competing unattached, won the event with a throw of 65.83m.

Danner qualified or the event with his career-best throw of 67.52m at the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championship in May. He won the A-10 title, outdistancing the rest of the field by more than 6 meters.

On the women’s side, Crystal Bourque ’11 (right)—a former All-American who is now an assistant coach for the Rams—won the hammer throw at the USATF New England Championship on June 29 at Regis College in Weston, Mass. Bourque, who was competing unattached, registered

a personal-best throw of 64.35m. The mark currently stands as this year’s 18th best distance in the women’s hammer, according to Track & Field News.

Bourque is training and competing with hopes of qualifying for the 2016 U.S. Olympic trials. A former Rhode Island team captain, she became the program’s second-ever All-American with her performance in the hammer throw at the 2011 NCAA Championship.

In 2010, she won the event at both the New England and ECAC championships.

Game Day Display When the Rhode Island men’s and women’s basketball teams open the 2014–15 season at the Thomas M. Ryan Center this fall, student-athletes, fans and opponents will experience a new game-day atmosphere. New integrated displays include two Daktronics LED video boards and an LED ribbon wrap throughout the arena bowl.

“We are excited about the new technology,” says Thorr Bjorn, URI Director of Athletics. “The Ryan Center is truly one of the best basketball facilities in the country.”

PHOTOS: JEFF CURRY-USA TODAY SPORTS; MICHAEL SCOTT; COURTESY URI ATHLETICS

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The new set-up will provide high quality imagery to every seat in the arena. A main video board will be 17 feet high and 38 feet wide, nearly tripling the old display area. Separate windows will show a variety of graphics and animations, stats and sponsor messages. There’ll also be a new auxiliary video board, and 590 feet of two-foot-high ribbon wrap providing 320-degree coverage.

“Our goal is to continually enhance the fan experience for all concerts, shows and community events,” says Leah Becki, general manager of the Ryan Center.

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Long Ride Home Terry Rajsombath survived a devastating injury in Afghanistan to walk swiftly into a new life

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“You don’t have time to be scared.

You just move.’’

SITTING IN A CLASSROOM at the University of Rhode Island, he found his mind wandering to the ridge in Afghanistan where he nearly died. Once again, he heard the crackle of gunfi e and felt a burning pain in his hip. The sky was blue.

It’s an image that comes back to Terry Rajsombath ’16 so often he now realizes it will be with him forever—and he says that’s not a bad thing. His brush with death inspired the 27-year-old URI student and Purple Heart recipient to push himself even more—in and out of the classroom.

“I’m going to climb Mount Everest some day,’’ he says. “I don’t know when, but I’ll do it. It’s on my bucket list.’’

The bullet he took that day outside a dusty town in Lagham Province ricocheted through his body and shattered his left hip, leaving him unable to run—forever. But he can walk, and he does with great purpose.

Two years ago, he competed in the Amica Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island, swimming 1.2 miles, bicycling 56 miles and walking 13.1 miles, relying on his crutches for support. That was a warm up for a bigger and more grueling race in August—the Ironman North American Championship in Quebec, where he swam 2.4 miles, bicycled 112 miles and walked a staggering 26.2 miles. [Race results and photos are at uri.edu/quadangles.]

There’s a reason “discipline’’ is tattooed on his arm. Despite his bad hip and busy life, he trained over the summer, putting in 80 miles on his stationary bike every ­Sunday and swimming hundreds of laps at a pool. His 5-foot-7-inch frame of pure muscle is proof of his persistence. But fitness wasn’t his only reason for ­competing.

“I did it for Grace,’’ he says. Grace is a little girl who has neurofib omatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors, often cancerous, to form on nerve tissue. She is also a sponsor child with the Children’s Tumor Foundation, the charity Rajsombath

PHOTOS: LEFT, FINISHER PIX.COM; ABOVE, TERRY RAJSOMBATH

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raised money for in the race. “I don’t want to let these kids down,’’ he says. “If I can help find a cu e, that’s great.”

A child of Laotian immigrants, ­Rajsombath grew up in Providence and Johnston. After high school, he worked as a mechanic, but quit after three years to go after his dream of being a soldier, or as he puts it, a “grunt.’’ In 2009, he enlisted in the Connecticut National Guard and was soon living in Najil, a volatile region in northeastern Afghanistan. “They called my area IED Valley,’’ he says.

He learned quickly about the precariousness of life. “I’d wake up in the morning and be amazed at the beauty of the country and then remember, ‘Oh yeah, people are trying to kill us.’ ’’ Rocket-propelled grenades fl w out of nowhere. Mortars whizzed overhead. “You don’t have time to be scared. You just move.’’

The morning of July 3, 2010, he awoke in an odd mood. He’d been in Afghanistan for six months and was about to take a twoweek leave to teach English at an orphanage in Peru. He had celebrated his 24th birthday the day before. “I thought everything was too good to be true.’’

The mission was supposed to be short.

Patrol a nearby town and be back to Najil by noon. He grabbed his Mark 48 and headed out. Midway down the road, shots rang out.

Everyone scrambled for cover in the ambush. Terry was pinned down under a small ridge.

The bullet hit him from behind and tore into his thigh. Razor-sharp pieces of shrapnel exploded in his hip. The pain was so intense he couldn’t even scream. His ­finge s clawed the hard stone in agony. “It was like someone stabbed me in the thigh with a red-hot dagger and then went in with his hand and started tearing up my muscles.’’ He decided not to die, not there, not on a rock in Afghanistan far away from “the ones I love, in a country fil ed with so much hate.’’

Using his machine gun as a crutch, he picked himself up. He rolled down one ridge, then threw himself off another, landing belly-fi st in a puddle of water. “Dude, stay with me!’’ his buddies shouted as they dragged him to safety. He spent 10 months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., enduring 12 operations, mostly to remove shrapnel. A chunk of his hip was gone. Doctors told him he would never run again and that he would need a hip replacement someday. He was devastated. His days on the battlefield ere over.

That reality forced him to create a new life, with no self-pity. “I went through some existential stuff,’’ he says, “then moved on.’’

And with gusto. Besides taking on Ironman races, he hiked to the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu and witnessed the dancing lights of the Aurora Borealis. He started reading philosophy—Nietzsche and ­Kierkegaard—and turned a room in his ­Cranston apartment into a photography studio. One day, he’d like to learn how to make ­pastries and play ­Pachelbel’s Canon in D on the guitar.

Being on a college campus after his near-death experience has its challenges.

He’s final y getting his college degree, but he’s an older student who keeps to himself and rarely shares his story with classmates.

“I’m a loner,’’ he says. “But if anyone asks, I’ll tell them.’’ After graduating with a degree in health studies, he hopes to work for a nonprofit that helps di sidents in North Korea—that is, when he isn’t moving mountains.

“I want a job that has a little bit of danger and a lot of meaning,’’ he says. “My life isn’t bad. I can’t complain. I’m alive.’’

—Elizabeth Rau VIDEO | URI.EDU/QUADANGLES

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Engineering the Future

While the Rhode Island General Assembly’s spring 2014 passage of a $125-million bond initiative for engineering was excellent news for URI, it’s not a done deal. Rhode Islanders must still “Vote Yes on 4.”

Here’s why we think you should.

Let’s say you graduated from URI 50 years ago, in 1964, with a degree in mechanical engineering. And let’s say you had not been back to campus until your 50th reunion, this past May. You would probably be surprised to see that the classrooms and the laboratories where you spent so many hours appeared almost unchanged. You might even wonder if the Engineering Quad had been specially preserved as a kind of tribute to the faculty and students of days gone by.

The good news is that when you return for your 55th reunion in 2019, the University hopes you will find a n w, state-of-the-art College of Engineering facility. There is only

one more hurdle to leap before ground can be broken on a building that will bring together seven of the University’s eight engineering disciplines in one spectacular space, and transform the way engineering is taught.

On November 4, Rhode Island voters— including many readers of QuadAngles—will weigh in on what the General Assembly has already endorsed: a $125-million bond for URI’s new engineering facility. Passage of this historic bond initiative will allow the University to upgrade outdated classrooms and laboratories to match the outstanding caliber of teaching, research, innovation, and discovery at the College of Engineering.

A major force behind the change is Dean of the College of Engineering Raymond Wright. He’s quick to cite examples of how engineers have changed the course of history. “What one thing, if you leave it at home, would you go back for?” he asks a visitor. “Your phone!” It is no secret that most major technological changes in

our history have involved engineers. “Innovation is what we teach here,” Wright says.

The dean’s career has arced from electrical to mechanical and final y, here at URI, civil engineering, with a specialty in surface water systems, wet weather pollutant sources and their impact on receiving waters, and storm-water monitoring and modeling. Bliss Hall has been his home for his entire 33-year URI career. As he energetically describes what will be a transformational moment in the history of the College, he uses a model resting on a conference table in Bliss to point out the finer details of the proposed complex, and explains that upon its completion, Bliss will serve as the gateway to the new facility.

This past academic year has been unique for Wright, the fi st time he has not taught.

For a man who loves interacting with students, and especially “bringing the experience of the real world into the classroom,” not teaching was tough. Ramping up the bond

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initiative was Wright’s top priority. In fact, it has become a matter of urgency for URI. Provost Donald DeHayes boils it down to this: “Our engineering programs are outstanding. We hear this from students, from faculty, and from the employers who hire our graduates year after year. Our facilities, however, are substantially out of date and limit both teaching and research.”

The November 4 referendum will determine the outcome of a seven-year journey that began when Wright was appointed interim dean. His fi st step was a thorough evaluation of engineering programs, identifying key research themes that leveraged existing strengths, including the natural collaborations among disciplines that had been bubbling up for years. The only boundary became engineering—not the narrower, constricting boundaries of the specific disciplines How can structures that were built between 1958 and 1962 to accommodate

RENDERING: BALLINGER

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39% Projected increase in enrollment if new building approved

Increase in enrollment since 2003

18%

2013 College of Engineering graduates employed or furthering their education

40%

Patents awarded to Engineering faculty in last decade

$142M

90%

Increase in classroom and research space in new building

$67,500

70

Rhode Island gross product generated by College of Engineering annually

Class of 2014 engineering students from Rhode Island

4,000+

70%

URI engineering alumni living in the Ocean State

Average engineering graduate starting salary ($52,000 to $83,000 nationally)

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At left, Akinyemi “Yemi” Akinsinde ’08, M.S.’11.

Below, chemical engineering and French graduate Kayla Belanger ’14 works with nanoparticles in Associate Professor Geoffrey Bothun’s lab in Crawford Hall.

NUWC and URI: A Productive Partnership “The Naval Undersea War Center is the place to go if you like underwater technology,” says Dean Emeritus Thomas Kim, who has spent the last 21 years as director of NUWC’s internship program, forging connections with military personnel and Navy officials and advising tudents.

Each year more than 300 applicants from around the country apply for a coveted spot.

After careful review by Kim, his staff and the Navy, 30 to 80 earn internships. Once on the base, interns find themse ves immersed in crafting technology for America’s next-generation warships and submarines.

Six years ago, the Navy tasked intern Akinyemi “Yemi” Akinsinde ’08 M.S.’11, now an engineer at the base, with reducing drag on torpedoes. For a URI college senior more accustomed to classrooms, the Navy’s lab outfit ed with water tanks and advanced instrumentation proved an engineer’s playground.

“It was fun,” he says. “After classes at URI I would just drive down here and lose myself in this building.”

It was exactly the kind of experience Kim envisioned when he bid on the Navy contract.

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400 engineering students evolve to match this new multidisciplinary subject, and the 1,500 students who come here to study it?

Wright concedes it’s a difficult p oposition; the second leg of the College’s journey focused on facilities.

Ballinger, of Philadelphia, was one of the fi st firms in the ountry to merge architecture and engineering into a professional practice. Major research institutions across the country have hired the firm o develop creative solutions to space challenges on their campuses.

Ballinger conducted a comprehensive review of each of URI’s current engineering structures to determine their value. The firm oncluded that many of the buildings, which were mostly designed as classroom space, are not appropriate for the engineering of today and the future.

“We don’t have enough circuit breakers to support our experiments,” Wright says, “let alone a nanofabrication cleanroom.”

Kirk will be renovated, but Ballinger’s analysis indicates other buildings on the Engineering Quadrangle—the flat- oofed cinderblock structures currently bursting at the seams with students and equipment they weren’t built to hold—can’t be cost-effectively renovated.

They’ll be replaced by a new, state-of-the-art, 195,000-square-foot teaching and research facility near Bliss, including a planned “Capstone and Corporate Engineering” wing where students and researchers can tackle real-world problems alongside corporate partners.

The dean pauses for a moment. “It’s actually amazing—a testament to our programs—that we are as successful as we are in attracting great students. Enrollment is high. The academic index of our entering students is as high as it’s ever been. There are good reasons why students come here—we give them great traditional engineering programs like electrical, civil, and mechanical, plus unique programs like pharmaceutical, chemical, biomedical, and ocean

“The students we are hand picking from URI Engineering are going to be the future leaders of this organization.

They are culturally aware, and know how to innovate.”

Angus Taylor, President and CEO, Hexagon Metrology

engineering, which is one of only eight in the entire country. Our student-to-student mentoring program is unrivaled. The International Engineering Program is 27 years strong and remains one of the most innovative programs in the country, the expression of our vision of the global engineer: multilingual, multicultural, and highly adaptable.”

The proof, of course, is in the hiring—and when they graduate, engineering majors get jobs. More than 750 Rhode Island companies employ URI engineering alumni. A lever for hiring is the College’s year-long Capstone CONT’D ON PAGE 18

PHOTOS: DAVID STOEHRA, NUWC; NORA LEWIS

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Arun Shukla: Explosive Talent

Alfred Rodriguez ’12 M.S. ’14: Inspiring Journey

Dorothy Rasco ’81: The Final Frontier

Most engineers try to keep things together.

Shukla, a professor of Mechanical Engineering, breaks them apart. He shoots bullets, sets off blasts and strikes things with mighty force in the name of science.

For 26 years, Shukla has operated a lab at the University of Rhode Island that tests how materials fracture under unusual circumstances. His extreme research brings national acclaim: He has appeared on the Discovery Channel and NBC’s nationally broadcast Today Show. Reporters turn to him to explain bridge collapses, and generals ask him to find bet er ways to defend against bullets and bombs.

With space at a premium when he arrived at URI, Shukla found himself setting up a laboratory in the attic of Bliss Hall, where hammocks and mini-fridges implied another use.

But three years later, when visiting Air Force offi ers toured his one-room lab, they liked what they saw. Grants soon followed, enabling the facility to move and expand to three rooms. Over the years, his lab has produced more than 300 research papers, at least nine university professors, and more than 80 graduate students.

Today, Shukla, who is routinely recruited by other institutions but is committed to URI and Rhode Island, says: “We struggle for additional electrical outlets. Often the power cuts out in the lab.” That constrains research dollars raised and the number of students served. “To do modern research,” he adds, “we need modern labs.”

Sent from the Dominican Republic by his mother to live with relatives in Rhode Island, Rodriguez repeated the ninth grade due to language barriers. Yet, he went on to graduate as valedictorian of the Providence Academy of International Studies and was admitted to URI, where he started in the Talent Development Program before entering the College of Engineering.

Charles “Chuck” Watson, who heads up minority recruitment and retention for the College, was with Rodriguez every step of the way—from freshman year struggles, when Rodriguez questioned his ability to compete at URI, through a transformation that saw him rise through the ranks of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), which he eventually served as president.

Watson says the key for Rodriguez was a network of support that included the URI Engineering fraternity, SHPE, peer mentoring, and the “earning and learning” program that funds undergraduates to work alongside graduate students and faculty in labs.

After interning at Gilbane, Inc. and graduating magna cum laude, Rodriguez landed a full-time job there. This year, he earned his master’s from URI. Rodriguez’ trajectory is a testament to URI’s integrated approach to mentoring, academic support, and professional development, Watson says—and a new facility would help create more opportunities for students like him.

When the last space shuttle landed on July 21, 2011, the job for civil engineering alumna Rasco began. Rasco, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for space technology, headed the agency’s Space Shuttle Transition and Retirement Offi e, overseeing the orderly, two-year wind-down of the country’s space shuttle program while ensuring that work on the next-generation space program advances.

Rasco says she leaned on her URI engineering degree every step of the way in leading her team of 1,200 engineers, rocket scientists, lawyers, contract specialists, environmental experts and security personnel. “To be a successful engineer you have to be able to communicate,” she says.

“You need to understand the basics that you learn from college from professors and textbooks, but it is also about being able to articulate the requirements. I think URI gave me that ability.”

Rasco began at NASA in 1985, fi st as an engineer designing physical facilities. She later ran a division that outfit ed the space shuttle’s mid-deck cabin before serving as business manager for the entire space shuttle program. Leading the two-year, $400-million project brought her NASA career full circle.

“I am proud to say I am a shuttle hugger,” she says. “These are my babies and are national assets to the country.”

PHOTOS: PAYAM FAHR; URI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING; COURTESY DOROTHY RASCO/NASA

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Areas of Excellence and Impact ADVANCED MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS

To design and build the infrastructure modern society relies on, our experts are breaking new ground in structural mechanics, material design and colloid engineering.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY AND OFFSHORE POWER

America spends billions of dollars every year on energy.

Finding innovative ways to harness energy from our sun, ocean and even highways is the mission of a team of URI engineers.

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Our researchers improve lives every day by crafting new medical diagnostic methods and devices. It’s our way of making the world a healthier place.

CLEAN WATER

Water keeps the human race alive and our engineers are racing to ensure every man, woman and child has access to clean, safe water.

CYBERSECURITY

With computers controlling everything from the nation’s power grid to airplane navigation, computer networks must be secure. URI researchers aim to stop a digital strike that could bring the nation to its knees.

NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

URI’s nanotechnology reasearchers deliver big change in small packages, improving the ways we fight disease, c ean up oil spills and much more.

SENSORS AND INSTRUMENTATION

In a world overfl wing with data, URI’s research helps make sense of it all—and leverages knowledge to keep us safe.

PATENTS

Innovative ideas by our faculty and students are routinely patented—120 in the last 30 years alone.

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Dean of the College of Engineering Raymond Wright reviews a model of the proposed design.

Project. Representatives of participating companies serve as mentors. They ask open-ended questions of teams of seniors, who are charged with developing, and formally presenting, real-world solutions to real-world problems.

Richard Schloesser, former president and CEO of Toray Plastics (America), says the program “has been a boon for Toray’s professional pipeline. We have hired people on the spot after hearing their presentations.”

Another top employer for budding URI engineers is the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) in Newport, R.I., where the U.S. Navy develops its most advanced and classified unde water technologies. The College won a littleknown contract with the Navy that placed URI in charge of recruiting and screening students from around the country for paid internships there.

Well over one thousand URI students have participated in the program, and one in four engineers at the warfare center hold a URI degree.

Wright points out that for the Navy, as for businesses, a strong workforce requires a constant fl w of new minds. “When I meet CEOs and presidents of companies, I ask what the College can do for them,” he says. For the last seven years, he has reviewed the résumés of every graduating engineer. He is proud to note that 85 percent have had at least one engineering internship: “The companies come back every year. They are confident in our tudents’ abilities.”

VIDEO | URI.EDU/QUADANGLES

So, in fact, is there a crisis? Are new facilities needed? Ballinger’s Terry Steelman, who has worked on similar projects across the country, says the answer is an unequivocal yes.

“URI is at a crossroads now. The College cannot just maintain these facilities or you will lose ground. In order to advance, be cutting-edge, you have to build.”

Wright explains that teaching and research requirements have changed drastically over the decades. “Everything is more collaborative now.

The best student experience comes when classroom and lab combine. Our current facilities simply don’t allow that.”

The moment this became crystal clear was when two relatively new faculty members came to Wright within weeks of each other and said they were leaving for institutions with greater capacity and more advanced laboratory facilities.

“Faculty do come here from much better resourced schools with much better labs,” he says. Wright is all too aware, however, that after their start-up packages end—typically after three years—many young faculty feel their professional development is restricted by URI’s facilities. And then it is difficult o resist offers from institutions where their growth trajectory is clear.

The third leg of the journey, then, after the bond passes and the facilities are built, will be to raise an additional $25 to $30 million for competitive start-up packages to attract young faculty to URI—and keep them. This “future fund” will also pay for core laboratories and research equipment.

Toray has already pledged $2 million toward the proposed construction of the new facilities with an eye to helping URI attract the highest caliber engineering candidates. Wright is grateful: “Parents comment all the time that other schools they visit are far ahead of URI in terms of facilities. The promise of the new complex will go a long way toward convincing parents that their students will thrive at URI.” Ever optimistic, Wright is already looking ahead to 2019, when he hopes the building will be completed. “What gets me up in the morning?” he asks. “When I retire as dean, I hope this building will be done. Then I can look ahead and see where engineering will grow for the next 50 years.”

That done, the dean says, “I can go back to teaching.”

—Melanie Coon

PHOTO: NORA LEWIS

8/14/14 2:45 PM

Goal Oriented When Ram Geoff Cameron got a nod from MLS’s Houston Dynamo during his senior year, it kicked off a seven-year run that would take him, by way of England, all the way to Brazil and his childhood dream: the World Cup. There, he proved himself a versatile member of the US Men’s National Team 2014 defense roster.

So what now, after the Attleboro, Mass., native has played on one of the world’s biggest sporting stages?

Naturally, he’s set his sights on the 2018 World Cup. But he finds tim to hang with family, go shark fishing with ollege buddies (“Catch and release, relax”) and answer questions—thousands of them, including plenty at URI head coach Gareth Elliott’s summer soccer camp. In fact, he skipped a seat at the ESPYs to do just that. Here, he tells us why.

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When was the fi st time you pulled on a USA jersey?

My fi st cap was in Tampa in 2010, against El Salvador, during the last few minutes of the game.

That had been a dream of mine since I was a little kid. I get chills thinking about it.

Describe the time leading up to the World Cup. You have to make sure you’re focused for every single match.

If you have a couple bad games, you’re not gonna be called in for the next one.

Were you guys aware of the immense support here?

We were getting tons of messages from friends and family. We’d try to stay away from distractions, but seeing all those pictures of people celebrating in U.S. colors— that was inspiring.

What was the World Cup like?

It’s hard to explain. The glamour, the attention, the pride that you feel for your country—it was super, super cool. I mean, the whole country of Brazil basically shut down for a month.

So much was said about the “Group of Death.” How did it feel to get to the Round of 16?

Yeah, no one thought we were gonna get a point from Portugal or three points from Ghana. Just the fact that we went down there and turned a lot of heads… When you see players from England tweeting

* Associate Professor Rachel DiC

ioccio

“I’ve become a U.S. soccer fan,” that’s pretty crazy. People respect us as a soccer nation now.

What is it like being part of that?

It’s huge. American sports are all fighting against one another—we have baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer.

In many other countries, it’s just soccer.

That’s where their most talented athletes are, and that’s who we’re competing against.

Tell us about the factors that led to the team’s success.

You’ve seen it in movies like Miracle— when teams just come together.

Individually, they may not be the most talented players, but if they work hard and support each other, they create this team chemistry and unbreakable bond. We had that, so it was easy to stay on the same page.

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The URI men’s soccer team celebrates after beating Rutgers in a penalty kick shootout in the fi st round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament. Cameron (facing camera) assisted on URI’s only goal in the 1-1 draw, then scored in the shootout.

Hope Wholey with Cameron at the Goal 4 Rams Camp in South Kingstown this July.

You played well in the opener against Ghana, but were criticized for your play against Portugal. How do you deal with that?

I knew I made a crucial mistake on that fi st goal, and I held my hand up to say it.

People tried to criticize me for the second goal, but I think they don’t really understand the game. We lost a ball in the midfield, it was mistake after mistake and, because I’m a defender, I was the last person to try to prevent the shot. It’s a team game though, and things happen.

You just have to block out the negativity, and try not to let it affect you.

You haven’t. Somehow you always fin your way back to campus.

When I transferred from West Virginia, who would have thought I would be the Atlantic 10 Midfielder of the ear? That eventually led to me getting drafted by Houston… This place and these people are part of the puzzle. They pushed me and kept me hungry. They still keep me grounded.

So it’s good to come back and say thank you. I love this soccer program and want it to do well. I’m proud of URI, and it’s awesome to see my coaches working with young players at camp, doing the same things they did with me. I hope one day another Ram will follow a similar path. That would be really cool, to think I might have inspired someone to think, “Hey, he did it. Maybe I can too.”

What lies ahead?

Right now, I’ve got the English Premier League season with Stoke City. For the national team, my goal is the Gold Cup, then there’s Copa America, then there’s qualifying for the next World Cup in Russia. I’m excited and anxious. I wish the World Cup was next year because you get that feeling once, and you don’t want it to be the last time.

So you aren’t buying the talk that you’ll be too old in 2018?

Nah. I’ll be 32. There were players in our group this year who are that age and they’re very, very good.

How has your career as a professional athlete changed you?

It’s shown me the importance of appreciating the things I have—and the dangers of taking things for granted. This isn’t an ordinary career. It lasts for as long as your body holds up. So you really have to take care of yourself.

I’m also living in the public eye now.

Twitter and Facebook and Instagram—all those things allow you to let people into your life and bring them on the ride with you. You share pictures because people want to see you doing everyday things. It shows that hey, I’m not any different.

It must take a little getting used to.

For sure. One thing I learned, though, is that you never forget where you grew up and where your parents are, where you learned all of the things that got you to where you are today. It’s important not to forget those things.

VIDEO | URI.EDU/QUADANGLES

PHOTOS: JOHN TODD/ISIPHOTOS.COM; COURTESY URI ATHLETICS; JODI PONTBRIAND

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One last thing: Can you explain the growing fascination with your haircut?

It’s funny, because it started happening over in England, and now people are Instagramming pictures and asking, “Where do you get this haircut?”

My barber in England calls it the G-Cam. It’s a nice little comb over, slicked back with a bit of hair product.

—In conversation, edited for length, with Jodi Pontbriand

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8/14/14 1:32 PM

Catching the

A rigorous URI-led effort has created a windfall for the state’s nascent offshore energy industry.

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8/14/14 11:19 AM

I

n 2006, Governor Donald Carcieri announced a project that was ambitious in its scope and its schedule: By 2010, the State of Rhode Island would generate 15 percent of the energy it needed from wind power. The goal’s audacity was not lost on anyone following the adventures of Jim Gordon, the Boston developer trying to build the nation’s fi st offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Covering 24 square miles, the Cape Wind project proposed to build 130 wind turbines, projecting 440 feet above the waterline, capable of producing enough electricity to meet about 75 percent of the power needs for Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island.

Siting the turbines is any offshore wind project’s most critical decision—and Cape Wind’s location had immediately gathered a diverse, politically powerful and deeppocketed enemy. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound was one reason Gordon was limping through the permitting process.

In the fi e years since Cape Wind had applied for its permits, the project had only obtained one state permit for the transmission cables and a favorable draft environmental impact statement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In the meantime, it fought off four lawsuits. Rhode Island officials ere not eager to duplicate that experience.

They haven’t. Today, Deepwater Wind’s 30-megawatt, fi e-turbine pilot wind farm three miles southeast of Block Island may well become the nation’s fi st offshore wind farm. The project is expected to connect New Shoreham to the grid, while generating 125,000 megawatts—and, by one consultant’s calculations, $100 million in economic activity and 200 jobs.

The unprecedented coming together of the University, the state and a renewable energy developer has drawn its share of admirers inside the Beltway, says U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: “It shows that your state is a good place to do business.”

22-25.Windfarm.indd 23

It began in 2007, when the state hired Applied Technology & Management to identify potential sites in Rhode Island for a wind farm with 450 megawatts of wind energy capacity. And the Offi e of Energy Resources gathered officials o discuss the report’s conclusions: 11 sites, 10 offshore, with only one site suitable for a utility scale project. URI Professor of Ocean Engineering Malcom Spaulding ’69, Ph.D. ’73 had his doubts.

“I thought that [Applied Technology] had oversold the performance of their wind models, with no data to support the analysis. To start making major decisions, you need better data than that.”

Energy Commissioner Andy Dzykewicz was not thrilled with Spaulding’s assessment. Grover Fugate, executive director of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, had a better idea.

In a private meeting among the trio, Fugate proposed ditching the out-of-state consultant’s sketchy calculations and creating a Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) for the ocean.

The CRMC had already done seven SAMPs, but this proposal would reach further: in two years, URI scientists, in concert with the CRMC, would zone 1,467 square miles of ocean in and around Rhode Island, from Connecticut to Massachusetts. In an irregular polygon stretching from 500 feet off the coast to three miles out, the SAMP team would not only map the sea floo , but the ecology of the entire area, from the flounder that est on bottom to the gulls fl ing above. The process would engage every stakeholder, and the data would form the basis of a powerful regulatory tool to manage the development of offshore renewable energy, while protecting habitats and traditional marine activities.

The result is a model for marine spatial planners all over the globe.

“Very few have reached this level of sophistication,” says Fugate, the SAMP’s project director.

Construction timetables will work around right whale migration patterns.

In a scant 18 months, Deepwater Wind secured all of its state permits, and its most important federal approval, with little opposition. Deepwater Wind reimbursed the state the $3.2 million it spent on the SAMP, but CEO Jeffrey Grybowski says it was a good investment. The SAMP delivered what every developer craves: a clear set of rules, developed under the guidance of independent scientists in a transparent process and supported by regulators.

“That’s important,” Grybowski says.

“It greatly reduced the risk for the project and has sped up the time to permit. It gave us a big competitive advantage.”

The SAMP also provided Deepwater Wind with critical baseline data. More than 200 URI senior researchers and graduate students churned out papers identifying the places best suited for catching the wind and anchoring wind turbines to the sea floo .

Their research also mapped the places best avoided: underwater archaeological sites, wildlife habitats, and high-traffic outes for other users, like the fishing indu try and the Navy.

“We have a range in Narragansett Bay, and we do a lot of testing,” says Christopher Tompsett, Senior Environmental Planner at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. “With the SAMP, we don’t have to worry about dealing with proposal after proposal. It makes life easier.”

8/14/14 11:19 AM

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

CAPE WIND 2001 Cape Wind fi es application with 17 federal and state agencies. Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound forms to oppose it.

2003–04 Opponents fi e fi st of 32 lawsuits, challenge U.S. Army Corps of Engineers favorable draft environmental statement.

2005–06 Federal permitting rules change. Cape Cod Commission demands further study.

2007–11 Trickle of wins include state and federal permits, U.S. Air Force sign-off, and state court battle over power-purchase agreement.

DEEPWATER WIND

A Tale of Two Timelines Cape Wind, with its ambitions to cover 24 square miles of Nantucket Sound, calls itself America’s fi st offshore wind farm. Will it be? Its 13-year saga is marked by regulatory stalls and lawsuits. Deepwater’s much smaller project started with state support and got most of its permits in less than two years, thanks largely to the Ocean SAMP.

2008–09 Deepwater chosen as state’s preferred offshore wind developer; signs lease option at Quonset.

2011 New RIAG Peter Kilmartin drops lawsuit. Other petitioners continue, but lose.

2010 State agency rejects power purchase agreement; legislature passes law forcing approval; Toray Plastics, Polytop Corporation, Conservation Law Foundation and RIAG Patrick Lynch petition state Supreme Court to review decision.

Simulation by Cape Wind.

Location of proposed Block Island wind farm.

Professors Kathleen Vigness-Raposa ’98, Ph.D. ’10 and Robert Kenney ’85’s work on the migratory patterns of right whales, a highly endangered species, led to an agreement between Deepwater and the Conservation Law Foundation to amend

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the construction schedule so that pile driving would not occur in the spring, when the whales pass through.

The meetings sometimes seemed endless, says Rick Bellavance, president of R.I. Party and Charter Boat Association, and it took time for the trust to build.

“In the end, the results were as acceptable to the fishing ommunity as you could get from a process like that,” he says. “Most of the fishing ommunity supports that project.”

The Ocean SAMP was official y completed in 2010, but its work goes on, bringing unpublished research out of filing abinets, identifying the gaps in the data, and forging relationships between URI academics and the other stakeholders.

For instance, oceanography professor Jeremy Collie, who usually boards research

vessels to study fish population dynamics, has now spent time on the decks of commercial fishing boats.

“That’s a benefit,” Collie says. “The fi ermen use one sampling method—the net.

We go out with a camera. That was really revealing to them and it was pretty useful in that it might change the places they fish.

Geologist John King is now working with Indian tribes throughout New England to develop best practices for assessing the presence of human habitation submerged by the sea level rise after the last Ice Age, and to train tribal historical offi ers in scientific methods “What information can be gleaned from oral history?” King asks. “Scientists are used to dismissing the oral history of tribes as having no useful content. But there’s a

PHOTOS: CAPE WIND; ANDY LIPSKY

8/14/14 11:19 AM

Peter drops ther s but

2012

2013

2012 Power-purchase agreement changes.

2014

2014 Legal challenges in U.S. District and Federal Appeals courts are dismissed; with New Bedford port still under construction, Cape Wind signs lease option at Quonset Point.

2013 Transmission cable route changes in response to opposition from town of Narragansett; state approves new landing site.

2012 Deepwater applies for state and federal permits.

2015

Andy Lipsky displays a large monkfish, one of the myriad species common near the Deepwater site.

2015 Both companies project their wind farms will be running

2014 CRMC and state DEM issue approvals; lead agency Army Corps expected to grant federal approval.

convergence with what tribes know and what scientists know. It gives you some common ground.”

If all this sounds like an unusual tale of harmony, that’s because it is. And now URI is busy exporting its model.

“Our team has been invited to provide marine spatial planning assistance all over the world,” Jennifer McCann ’94, director of U.S. Coastal Programs at the Coastal Resources Center, and the SAMP’s director of policy and outreach.

“We are trusted to give the best information and advice, and that’s why my phone continually rings.”

— Ellen Liberman

Fishing for Impacts

O

nce a month, Andy Lipsky ’03 hops a trawler out of Galilee to go fishing. Lipsk , a graduate of URI’s marine science and watershed hydrology master’s program, is heading a fi e-year effort to determine what effect the fi e-turbine Block Island wind farm might have on fisheries and other marine li e.

Although the state’s commercial fishery has shrunk, it till represents a sizeable chunk of Rhode Island’s economy, generating more than $150 million in sales and supporting nearly 5,000 jobs. The effects of the massive structures on a livelihood already threatened by climate change, overfishing and egulations is a critical state issue.

Deepwater Wind hired SeaPlan, an ocean science and policy group, to continue the data collection and analysis started by the Ocean SAMP. Lipsky, a senior partner at the Boston-based nonprofit, is orking with commercial fishermen o design studies like a survey of the lobster populations and a commercial finfish diet an ysis.

He’s done stints with NGOs, state and tribal governments, and two years at the White House developing national ocean policy, but says this gig is unique.

“This isn’t just a government-led deal. It’s a collaborative process where two ocean industries came together to figu e out how they could share ocean space,” he says. “At the last hearing members of the fishing ommunity stood up to support the project. We’ve achieved a level of cooperation that many projects don’t.”

While SeaPlan fi es its attention below the water line, Tetra Tech, an international engineering and technical consulting firm, s ans the skies for the wind farm’s potential impacts on bird and bat populations. Deepwater Wind retained the company to manage related environmental investigations and permitting.

Jennifer A. Daniels ’99, the company’s director of offshore energy and a marine resource development and aquatic technologies graduate, says “the SAMP consolidated all that data in one place and was an excellent tool,” that helped avoid “the battle of the experts” that ensues when underlying environmental science is funded by a developer.

For Daniels, the project was also a professional homecoming. Fifteen years after graduating from what was then a new major, she attends meetings with some of the same faculty who helped launch her successful marine science career. “URI set me up on a wonderful path,” she says. “It’s fun to see my professors again.” ■

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Sage Advice

The latest research bears out an old adage: Eat your colors.

A biomedical pharmacy star gives us the lowdown.

In a world gone crazy with supplements and nutritional advice, one URI pharmacy professor can give you cutting-edge advice— and it sounds just like something your grandma would say. As harvest time begins, make your meals as colorful as the vibrant reds, oranges and yellows of the New England countryside.

Navindra Seeram, associate professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy, knows that the brighter your food, the better your diet. And he should know; head of the Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory, he also oversees the Heber Youngken Jr. Medicinal Garden at the College of Pharmacy, where native thyme and mallow rub shoulders with imports like ginkgo and coffee, and small plaques tell browsers what properties the plants have. It’s a treasure trove of folklore, much of it borne out by research: we all know poppies are an analgesic, for instance, but did you know peonies regulate cardiac action?

Seeram has spent his career analyzing what he calls “nature’s pharmacy,” examining plants native to here and the Caribbean, and his research has created ripples far beyond Kingston. It’s in large part thanks to his team, for instance, that we now know just which antioxidants make blueberries so good for us. His work on maple syrup garnered headlines last year when it isolated 52 distinct beneficial ompounds, including one with anti-diabetic properties.

Antioxidants, he says, arose because they are part of a plant’s defense strategy;

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they protect it against a lifetime of exposure to the sun. They do similar things for us.

“There is a reason why humans see color,” he explains. “We co-evolved with plants, and that evolution was beneficial or both. Humans had a healthy and easily obtainable food source that was attractive to the eye. Through the consumption and digestion of fruits and vegetables, humans helped distribute the seeds of the plants.”

Go back 50,000 years, he adds, and the human diet was almost all fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables. Now, what’s on the supermarket shelves mimics that natural bounty in appearance only. “Instead of eating foods rich in natural colors and nutrients,” Seeram points out, “we have chosen processed foods in bright, colorful packages.”

The result? “Obesity is an epidemic in this country, especially among children.”

But we only need take lessons from the world around us. For instance, as birds prepare for their migrations south, they’ll soon load up on native berries on Block Island, an important last landfall along the ­Atlantic Flyway. Seeram and colleague Scott ­McWilliams, professor of ecology and wildlife biology, believe birds choose certain berries because they offer protections against the oxidative stress that occurs during long flights. Th y’re currently studying which berries various ­species eat, and why.

So with fall tailgating and the feasts and parties of the holiday season ahead of us, Seeram urges us to get back to basics: “On your ­harvest plate, if there isn’t plenty of color, there is something wrong.”

— Dave Lavallee PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS

8/14/14 3:05 PM

What to Eat Now (and Always)

So what should we be eating? Seeram says that’s easy: Think simple, and start with a plant.

WHAT:

WHY:

CONSIDER:

Tomatoes

Rich in carotenoids, including lycopene, which acts against macular degeneration

Use fresh to brighten salads or cook, which actually increases the lycopene

Red and purple berries

Anthocyanins bestow the attractive colors and are linked to brain and heart health

Great as is, or mix into baked goods (heat does not destroy the pigments)

Cranberries

A host of antioxidants boost cardiovascular health and help fight infections

Don’t sweat added sugar; they’re still healthy (and too bitter to enjoy otherwise)

Yellow and green veggies

One stop shop for vitamins, minerals, fibe , calcium, and beneficial ompounds

Use raw, steamed, or sautéed, and be sure to introduce to kids early

Plant-based drinks (coffee, tea, cocoa, even red wine)

Packed with antioxidants, especially green tea

Don’t add sugar, artificial s eeteners or creamers if you want to keep them healthy

Peanuts, tree nuts

Contain fats essential to cell membranes that our bodies don’t make, plus protein

Vastly improved substitute for chips or cheese puffs

Honey, maple syrup and molasses

Unrefined s eeteners contain natural compounds besides sugar

Beyond pies, they bring rich, bold fla ors to salad dressings, purées and marinades

This simple Thanksgiving side dish is a family recipe of Navindra Seerams’s wife, Veronica. Showcasing many of the couple’s favorite ingredients, it now graces their table frequently.

“And the kids love it,” Navindra says.

VERON

ICA SE ER

AM’S K

ALE S

ALAD 1 bunch of fresh green k Cherry a tomato es, as m le, torn Peeled any as segme you like nts of a Hot pep fresh o pers (ja r a nge

lapeno choppe , serran d, to ta o o r simila ste Pomeg r), ranate arils (a s a gar nish) Vina igrette Juice a nd z 1 tbsp m est of a fresh orange aple sy rup or 2 tbsp o honey live oil Pinch o f sea or kosher salt

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 27

26-27.Navindra.indd 27

8/14/14 3:05 PM

Punk Daddies JUGGLING FAMILY LIFE NEAR KINGSTON WITH GIGS NATIONWIDE

T

attoos and mohawks are often mentioned in the same breath as “punk band.’’ But how about backyard barbecues with the in-laws, freshly mowed lawns, and slumber parties for eight-year-olds who can pull all-nighters with the ease of rock stars?

Welcome to the surprisingly sane world of University of Rhode Island graduates Scott Begin ’02 and Joel Hanks ’02, twothirds of Badfish, a punk, eggae, ska and hip-hop tribute band that has become one of the biggest club acts in the Northeast and Midwest.

The Rhode Island-based band plays about 120 shows a year—just the right amount to earn enough to pay the rent, uh, mortgage, and make it home for kids’ birthday parties. Begin, 36, and Hanks, 34, hope to croon into their twilight years.

“People think of a touring band as a bunch of bachelors—party, party,’’ says Begin. “We did that. But life happens. We’re so happy to play and still have wonderful family lives. We’re able to make it work.’’

And, they say, their better halves are really cool about everything. “Great wives,’’ says Begin. “Great,’’ says Hanks.

Their journey began decades ago­—in South Kingstown for Hanks, Woonsocket for Begin. Hanks was a math and chess whiz at South Kingstown High School, with high enough SAT scores to win a four-year ­academic scholarship to URI. Begin went to a parochial grade school and graduated from Woonsocket High School.

As teenagers, Begin spent hours in his parents’ basement banging out Mötley Crüe on his drums, while Hanks mastered the bass. Both had a blast playing in local bands.

In 2000, their third year at URI, the c­ omputer science majors met in “Software Engineering, 305.’’ Begin recalls: “We realized we both liked music, so it was like, ‘Hey, we should get together and jam.’ ’’ They recruited a vocalist and were soon practicing in Begin’s basement, although still undecided about what to play at gigs.

They final y settled on someone else’s music: Sublime, the Long Beach-bred punk-ska band that was on the verge of becoming a national phenom when frontman Brad Nowell died of a heroin overdose

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8/14/14 1:43 PM

in 1996. Why Sublime? Good party and dance music, and, with so many different styles, never boring. Plus, just about every college fest in the ’90s blasted Sublime hits like “What I Got,’’ Doin’ Time,’’ and “­Badfish,’’ the band s namesake.

“They had loyal fans, and a lot of people never got to see them live,’’ says Begin.

“We wanted to bring a show that highlighted their great music in the best ­possible way.’’

April 13, 2001: About 250 people crowded into the Ocean Mist in Matunuck for the band’s fi st show. The response was so good they played there for a year. After graduating from URI in 2002, Begin found work as a computer programmer at CVS, and Hanks became the band’s manager.

Word spread fast and soon the band was playing as “weekend warriors’’ in sold-out clubs throughout the Northeast—enough shows so Begin could quit his day job.

“I f­igured if I was going to make a run for it, now was the time,’’ he says.

Off they went, touring the country in Begin’s Ford Explorer, pulling a trailer packed with their sound equipment. The fi st few years were rough. St. Louis one weekend, Chicago the next, then off to New Orleans. They played in sparsely attended dives, as well as packed clubs. Breaks came when they fil ed famous spots like House of Blues in Cleveland.

By 2006, Badfish was playing 152 sh ws a year, selling 100,000 tickets and grossing $1.4 million. Badfish ­merchandise was ubiquitous: T-shirts emblazoned with a scaly aquatic creature, flat hats, ey chains, onesies for the fans with kids. Spin and ­Rolling Stone wrote ­stories about the band.

“We were hot, and that made it snowball faster,’’ says Hanks.

On a West coast tour, the band—which includes vocalist Pat Downes of North Kingstown—even got to meet an original member of Sublime, drummer Bud Gaugh,

PHOTOS: CHAD MARTEL

28-29.BadFish.indd 29

who played with Badfish in San Diego.

“It was the coolest thing,’’ says Begin.

“Mind blowing,’’ says Hanks.

Five years ago, ticket sales took a slight hit. It was a recession, they say, plus ­electronic dance music became omnipresent on college campuses. “It was the new hot thing,’’ Hanks says. Oh, and Hanks’ wife had a baby. Six-week tours suddenly seemed like an eternity. “Things moved quick in that area—family life,’’ says Hanks.

In their T-shirts and baggy shorts, the duo look more like suburban dads with buzz cuts roaming the aisles of Home Depot looking for deck screws than naughty punk rockers. They bristle at the thought of getting tattoos. Piercing is out of the question.

Hanks is married to a Georgia woman and has two stepdaughters, 13 and 14, and a 6-year-old son. Begin tied the knot with a Rhode Islander and has a baby boy and an 8-year-old stepdaughter who is fond of slumber parties. Hanks lives in a colonial in a North Kingstown cul-de-sac; Begin’s family homestead is off Route 138 in South Kingstown, not far from URI. “Swing set in the backyard, barbecue—the whole nine yards,’’ says Begin.

The guys wouldn’t have it any other way.

Beats sitting in a cubicle.

“We’ve always felt pretty lucky to be able to make a living playing music,’’ says Hanks.

“For sure,’’ says Begin.

They don’t expect their adventure to end any time soon, but if the lights dim they will always have what they got in Kingston: a college degree.

—Elizabeth Rau

Above, top to bottom: Joel Hanks, Scott Begin, and Pat Downes

VIDEO | URI.EDU/QUADANGLES

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 29

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ALUMNICALENDAR September 13, 2014

October 11, 2014

October 16, 2014

November 8, 2014

Northern California 19th Annual Lobster Bake

Football Near Philly: URI vs. Villanova

Legacy Family Pregame Luncheon

Join alumni volunteers for the 19th annual lobster bake at Coyote Point Park in San Mateo for great food, a raffle and networking.

Save the date for great fall football when the Rams head down the New Jersey Turnpike to take on the Villanova Wildcats.

An evening in “The Cube” with Beth McCormick, Ph.D. ’90 The microbiology and physiological systems professor will demystify cancer and cystic fib osis research at the UMass campus.

Join fellow legacy families before heading to Meade Stadium to see the football team take on the UNH Wild Cats during Family Weekend.

December 7, 2014 Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation

An exclusive tour of the Smithsonian exhibit with featured photographer Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, director of URI’s Center for the Humanities, and Carol Huh, Freer Sackler Assistant Curator of Contemporary Asian Art. Reception to follow.

Above: A pair of photos from Matthew’s project ”An Indian from India,” which explores cultural sterotypes.

Learn more: alumni.uri.edu/calendar 30 QUADANGLES FALL 2014

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ABOVE: COURTESY ANNU PALAKUNNATHU MATTHEW | SEPIAEYE

8/14/14 2:10 PM

CLASSACTS

Patricia Perri Panciera, HS&S, of Westerly, R.I., writes: “Running for School Committee in Westerly.

Retired after 28 years teaching English. Doing some editing of novels.

Seven grandchildren: oldest is a junior at BC; second oldest a sophomore at Northeastern.”

`66 Fred N. Raisner, A&S, of Cranston, R.I., writes: “I am a member of the board of trustees of the Cranston, R.I., library system.”

THETA CHI FOREVER Alums from the classes of ’58 to ’62 met up on Cape Cod in June.

Front row: Ray Vanasse ’59, Betty Vanasse, Janet Cunningham, Maureen Sullivan, Connie Moreau Plumb ’59, Norma Prata, Jim Prata ’61, Pat Kelly Myers ‘58, Bob Piacitelli ’62, Angela Vigliotti Piacitelli ’63, Maxine Zartarian, and John Zartarian ’61 Back Row: John Cunningham ’58, Jim Sullivan ’59, Jerry Plumb ’59, Bob Myers ’59, Agnes Smith, Phil Saulnier ’61 (ROTC Hall of Fame), Judy Stone Saulnier ’61, and Ron Smith ’59

`53 Gretchen Smith Dale, HS&S, of Stowe, Vt., writes: “I moved to an independent living place in Stowe, close to my daughters. My high school sweetheart whom I lived with for eight years passed. I lived here once before, after my husband died when he was 48. My basset hound, Molly, lives with me.”

`57 Ross Michael Feinberg, A&S, of Cranston, R.I., writes: “My former roommate, Ken Tankoos, ’56 and his wife, paid us a visit last week and took us out for lunch. They came from their upstate New York home.

Ken also lives in Boca Raton, Fla. Our son, Steven, director of film and TV at the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, joined us.”

`58 James A. Warren, HS&S, of Lincoln, R.I., writes: “I’m finally retired—2 children Elisa ’91 & James ’92, both URI grads, 3 grandchildren—all good athletes. I only play golf on days that end in y!”

`59 Paul E. Levine, of West Hartford, Conn., writes: “I completed my 54th ‘tax season’ in April. I went to a large basketball luncheon in Boca Raton, Fla., in December with “Dusty” Mormando ’58, a neighbor in Fla., and Fred Hart ’57. I have been married for 54 years to Shelley Levine, who visited the campus in 1956, and attended several reunions.”

Joseph William Marriott, ENG, of Syosset, N.Y., writes: “Our youngest of three sons turns 50 this year. The eldest of six grandchildren graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in April. Mary Ann and I have been traveling: Jazz events in Bavaria and California, Machu Picchu and the rain forest in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and China were all recent trips. In June we were off to Turkey, Greece and Israel. My most fun trip was to the Chicago area to see White Sox, Brewers and Cubs games with neighbors. I am still very active in the Huntington Men’s Chorus and our local church.”

Judith Nowakowski Smith, HS&S, of Westerly, R.I., writes: “I have sold my infants’ and children’s specialty shop in Watch Hill, R.I., and I am looking forward to retirement. I owned the shop for 29 years, survived several hurricanes and floods, and have wonderful memories of the children, parents and grandparents who patronized my store.”

`65 Frank D. Carey, HS&S, of Lynn, Mass., who at the end of May became the all-time leader among Massachusetts high school baseball coaches, stepped down at the end of this, his 49th, season at North Reading High School. Carey, who attended and played for St. Mary’s in the early 1960s before attending URI, has been teaching and/or coaching at North Reading since graduation. His 1,000th varsity baseball game, a 12-6 win over Saugus, capped off an astonishing career which saw North Reading teams win 727 of those 1,000 games.

`68 Peter Phillip D’Amico, A&S, of East Greenwich, R.I., writes: “As class treasurer, I am pleased to announce that our class gift with the URI Foundation has grown to $25,040, with $776 distributed this academic year for general scholarship.”

`79 David R. Dubinsky, CBA, of Stratford, Conn., is CFO of NewView Advisors, LLC, an investment banking and private equity firm based in Connecticut.

He is also an adjunct professor at Sacred Heart University’s John F. Welch College of Business, where he teaches accounting and finance courses.

`80 George Timothy Cranston, HS&S, of North Kingstown, R.I., a historian, traces his Rhode Island roots back to 1637, when his ancestor John Cranston, a young boy of 12, left Scotland as a ward of Jeremy Clarke, traveling aboard a sailing vessel bound eventually for Rhode Island. He was sent to the “colonies” by his father, a chaplain to King Charles, as he feared retribution would be rained down upon the boy by Cromwell during the long period of turmoil in England.

He later become colonial governor; Cranston’s son Samuel married the granddaughter of Roger Williams, and eventually would become the longest standing governor in history.

Today that long standing lineage, and inherent Rhode Island sense of place, are personified by Cranston, self-proclaimed arbiter of all things ‘Swamp Yankee,’and local historian UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 31

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8/14/14 2:10 PM

A Win-Win! Your membership dues support essential programs and provide much-needed scholarships for deserving URI students.

As a dues-paying member, you will receive an official membership card along with access to these terrific benefit EXCLUSIVE INVITATIONS TO MEMBER-ONLY ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING: outstanding career

development and networking opportunities, professional sports outings, sailing excursions, behind-the-scenes theatre experiences, and family-friendly events. We also offer computer-based short courses for your professional development.

DISCOUNTS at Alumni Association-sponsored events

such as Big Chill Weekend, our annual golf tournament, and nationwide chapter events.

ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTS:

• Brooks Brothers (15% discount) • Inspire Medical Spa & Wellness Center (15% discount) • URI Bookstore (20% discount) • The University Club • Ryan Center and Boss Ice Arena PLUS special deals on hotels, theme parks, museums, movies, and more!

of Ye Old North Kingstown and South County. His popular local history newspaper column has run in the NorthEast Independent for more than 14 years, and has won two RI Press Association Spirit of Rhode Island and two PreserveRI Education Awards.

The South County Tourism Council recently awarded Cranston its South County Starlight Award for his walking tours and guided bus tours of the region, and the North Kingstown Arts Council recently honored him as the inaugural recipient of its Skog Award.

The town council of North Kingstown honored Cranston by naming him the town’s first official town historian. In 2013 PreserveRI and the RI Historic Preservation Commission honored Cranston with the Antoinette F. Downing Volunteer Service Award.

`81 John F. Brennan, ENG, of Westwood, Mass., has joined the advisory board of Bay Area Lyme Foundation. Both his professional experience and personal connection to Lyme disease will move the organization much closer to putting an end to the disease.

William M. Dolan, A&S, of Providence, R.I., has joined the Providence office of DBS as a partner. He comes to the firm from the Rhode Island office of Brown Rudnick where he served as managing director of litigation and as general counsel and chief legal officer. Dolan practices in the areas of commercial litigation, professional ethics and malpractice, bankruptcy and construction law. He also has extensive experience as an arbitrator and mediator.

`83 Deborah L. Byrne, A&S, of Coventry, R.I., has joined BankNewport as vice president and business development officer. She will be responsible for business development, commercial loan production, cross sales origination and cross team collaboration in the Coventry, Cranston and East Greenwich markets. Byrne brings more than 19 years in the banking industry to her new position. Most recently she served as a small business banker at Bank of America.

Previously, she was a branch manager for Webster Bank and business banking relationship manager for Citizens Bank.

`84

Join today and start enjoying the many benefit of your personal membership card. alumni.uri.edu 32 QUADANGLES FALL 2014

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Michael D. Sullivan, A&S, of Middletown, R.I., computer scientist at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, was recently awarded the Brazilian Tamandarè Medal in a ceremony at the Brazilian Naval Commission in Washington, D.C. The award is comparable to the U.S. Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

`85 Stephen L. Peterson, CBA, of Bloomington, Ind., writes: “I have been a rowing coach at URI, Rutgers, and George Washington University, and now I coach at Indiana University.

We just finished up our 2014 season at the NCAAs, finishing 11th in the country—the best ever for Indiana. I was named Division I Head Coach of the Year for our success.”

`86 Donald E. Tencher, HS&S, of South Kingstown, R.I., was recognized as a National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year for the fourth time during his career at Rhode Island College, having also received this prestigious honor in 2010, 2006, and 2001. Tencher is one of only four Division III athletic directors who was recognized on June 11.

`87 David A. Accetta, A&S, of Cranston, R.I., retired Army Lt. Col., took to the sky during the 70th anniversary of D-Day, leaping from a World War II aircraft onto a field near France’s village of St. Mere Eglise, where troopers of the 82nd Airborne landed on June 6, 1944. David retired from the Army in 2008 after postings in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is now employed by an Army research and development organization in Natick, Mass.

`88 Pilar Seyrlehner, PHM, of Virginia Beach, Va., writes: “I am writing to inform you about a celebration we had in November 2013. Four URI College of Pharmacy graduates met in Virginia to celebrate our friendship and our 25-year anniversary of graduation from URI. All four classmates started at URI in 1983 and somehow made it through the rigorous five year program to become pharmacists.

Although each of us chose a different state to live in and each pursued a different path in pharmacy, we maintained a lasting friendship for nearly 30 years. Annette (Hoffman) Williams ’88 currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. She went into pharmaceutical sales shortly after leaving URI. She pursued an MBA and has worked in several capacities of the pharmaceutical sales and safety fields. She currently works as the senior director, global head, customer safety services at Quintiles. Elaine (Conroy) Brunelle ’89 currently lives in Massachusetts and is married with two children. Brunelle is the only one of us to have remained in New England after graduation and has worked in retail practice for nearly 25 years.

Alice (Townsend) MacGregor ’88 cur-

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CLOSEUP Polly Davis Stiles ‘64 The Gatekeeper The history of the state is bound up among the wildfl wers, trees and monuments over which Polly Stiles presides. So is the history of URI, for the man who founded Riverside Cemetery in 1874—Polly’s great uncle, John W. Davis— also chartered, in the greatest act of a storied political career, the then R.I. Agricultural Experiment Station. The ravishing grounds contain other surprises from the past: a tomb used to store bodies in winter; rare trees planted

by Polly’s botanist father.

Her parents rest near the river, but for Polly, who lives in the “summer house” at the top of the hill, there are no days off. She runs the greenhouse, the crews, the trucks and machinery that keep the wilderness at bay.

She talks to the newly bereaved, the sick, the old, and—her favorites—the foresighted, helping them scour the cemetery’s open land for their place. With flocks of olding chairs and cheerful pragmatism, she plans ceremonies of all kinds, from traditional to wacky.

Polly says this was the fi st local burial ground to allow people of different skin colors to comingle their graves, and it’s a philosophy that Rhode Island still might live by. “John Davis said the country is composed of immigrants,” she says. “We all live together, and we should die together.”

—Pippa Jack

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Say Hello to the New URI Alumni Association Website.

We’ve redesigned our website to create an online experience that’s uniquely URI! The homepage has been restyled for a more engaging and uncluttered look, and provides one-tap access to the content alumni find mo t valuable, from event listings and membership information to class notes, photo albums, and more.

o Win t n i g o L Air! an iPad o log in

ni wh All alum .uri.edu by ni to alum ill be entered r 15 w ing to Octobe m draw o d n a r Air. into a GB iPad win a16

USER FRIENDLY Easy-to-fill forms make tasks like member registration a snap.

RESPONSIVE Our new design adapts to all your devices, from mobile to desktop.

INTUITIVE Find what you’re looking for right away with our mega-dropdown navigation bar.

Please visit today—and let us know what you think!

alumni.uri.edu 34 QUADANGLES FALL 2014

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PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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rently lives in Maryland and is married with three children. MacGregor started out in retail pharmacy, then joined the U.S. Public Health Service and worked at the FDA until she took some time off to raise her three children. Currently she works in the drug safety arena. I live in Virginia with my husband and two children. I pursued my M.S. in pharmacy administration upon leaving URI and have worked as pharmacy director in several health care settings, including hospital, long-term care, and managed care.

The four of us met up in Charlottesville, Virginia, where we visited several vineyards and enjoyed good food, wine, and conversation. We pledged to meet again and this time visit campus. Go Rhody!”

`92 Laura J. Kronen, CBA, of Duluth, Ga., writes: “My first book will launch September 15 on Amazon and Kindle: Too Sweet, The Not-So-Serious Side to Diabetes. It is a modern, humorous and positive look on living with diabetes (I’m Type 1 and have been for 20 years). The premise of the book is to show how you can live an empowering life with a chronic disease, and you can succeed, not just in spite of it, but even because of it. I also have a successful life-coaching organization called Be You Only Better, and I am launching a life-coaching school to train other coaches in my methods.

I have started (and sold) other successful companies in the recent past.

Every day I am able to help people develop their passion for life and their goals for the future.”

David E. Moscarelli, HS&S, of Providence, R.I., received the Rhode Island Teacher of the Year award from Governor Lincoln Chafee during an assembly of the student body at Ponaganset High School. He has been a science teacher at Ponaganset High School for 22 years, and is best known for bringing technology into the classroom and, students say, for his sense of humor.

`93 Kenneth R. Pincus, CELS, of Warren, N.J., was voted the town’s new health officer. Licensed as a health officer by the state Department of Health, he is also recognized by the department as a registered environmental health specialist, a lead inspector/ risk assessor and a certified retail food standardized trainer. In addition, Pincus holds a license as a commercial pesticide applicator and certification as a community noise enforcement officer with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

`94 Christopher D. Delmastro, ENG, of Wakefield, R.I., was named winner of this year’s Rhode Island Federal Employee of the Year Award in the manager/supervisor category. His exemplary management contributions in the past year have earned him distinguished recognition from the R.I. Federal Executive Council.

Chris is an engineer and head of the program management office, undersea warfare (USW) weapons, vehicles and defensive system department at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport, RI.

`96 Jason Scott Hellendrung, CELS, of Brookline, Mass., has led a team at Sasaki Associates researching sea level rise in Boston and design strategies for resilience. The research has culminated in an exhibition at District Hall in Boston, which seeks to share this body of work with the community and inspire action around a plan to protect Boston from climate change and sea level rise. Sea Change: Boston has already sparked many conversations locally, and garnered significant media coverage. You can learn more about Hellendrung’s project at www.sasaki.com/project/360/.

`98 Adam C. Russell, A&S, of Arlington, Mass., graduated with a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, spring semester 2014. His dissertation, “Formulation and Application of Radial Visualization Properties,” rigorously explored deeper mathematical properties of a specific class of data visualizations known as Normalized Radial Visualizations.

`99 Antonio R. Dean, HS&S, of North Providence, R.I., has been named assistant men’s basketball coach at the College of Charleston, as announced by Head Coach Doug Wojcik: “We are very fortunate to hire an assistant coach with playing credentials, coaching experience and the exceptional ability to evaluate and recruit potential student-athletes.”

`00 Joseph J. Pankowicz, NUR, of Warwick, R.I., writes: “I have been employed by Lifespan since 1998. I started my career at Rhode Island Hospital as an RN in the critical care units, then moved to The Miriam Hospital in 2008 as the clinical manager of the coronary care unit and the intravenous therapy department. I was recently promoted to director of ambulatory services at The Miriam

Hospital. In this role I will be the nursing administrator/director for several ambulatory clinics at The Miriam, including the immunology/ infectious disease clinic, TB clinic, men’s health clinic, a cardiovascular clinic, and several other small daily clinics.”

`02 Joseph M. Bell, A&S, of Warwick, R.I., has been named vice president and branch manager at Bank Newport, overseeing the bank’s North Kingstown office on Ten Rod Road and the new Quonset office at The Shops at Quonset Point. He is responsible for branch operations, business development and staff development.

`03 Edward A. Garcia, A&S, of Cranston, R.I., Cranston Public Library Director, was recently appointed by Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee to serve a three-year term on the newly created RI Council of Economic Advisors. The Council will advise the governor, the executive office of commerce, and the state on economic matters and policy, including the strategic economic development plan for the state of Rhode Island. The task of the Council is to provide state leaders with economic data and analysis to better inform and shape commerce and economic development policies and opportunities in Rhode Island.

`04 Melinda D. Golembeske, A&S, of West Warwick, R.I., also graduated from URI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Studies in 2013.

Charles Seugling, A&S, of North Scituate, R.I., is assistant vice president, store manager of the TD Bank store located at 430 Central Avenue in Pawtucket, R.I. He is responsible for new business development, consumer and business lending, managing personnel and overseeing the day-to-day operations at the store serving customers in Providence County and across Rhode Island and southeastern Mass.

Claire L. Stadtmueller, A&S, of Westport, Conn., sang a recital for the Wagner Society of America in Chicago on May 18. Accompanied by pianist Celeste Rue, she performed arias from Lohengrin, Tännhäuser, Der Freischütz and Arabella.

`05 Edwin R. Pacheco, A&S, of Pascoag, R.I., has been named associate vice president for development and external relations at Rhode Island College.

Ed will manage the college’s giving programs, including the Annual

Four paths reconverge in West Virginia. See Class of ’88.

Fund, corporate and foundation support, capital campaigns and planned giving. He also oversees government affairs for the college.

`06 Sean T. Cottrell, CBA, of North Providence, R.I., was promoted as the new Vice President of Insurance Professionals of New England (IPNE) at Starkweather & Shepley Insurance Brokerage Inc. IPNE is a division of Starkweather & Shepley located in Sturbridge, Mass., which specializes in business insurance and employee benefits for health and human services agencies. He will assist in managing and growing the footprint specifically in the Worcester and Western Massachusetts market.

Cottrell started as an account executive at Starkweather & Shepley after graduating from URI. He will continue as the Practice Leader for the Human Services Practice Group for the entire organization

`07 Suzanne D. Augenstein, A&S, of East Greenwich, R.I., was named to the board of directors of Tockwotton on the Waterfront. Most recently, Augenstein served as the bar administrator for the R.I. Supreme Court.

`08 Tamara S. Burman, HS&S, of Wakefield, R.I., was accepted into the Peace Corps and she departed for the Kyrgyz Republic on April 23 to begin training as an NGO developer.

Burman will live and work at the community level to make a difference by working closely with the SECD program in order to improve the NGO’s organizational capacity and sustainability, create strategic and funding plans, raise public awareness of the NGO’s mission, conduct community outreach and motivate the NGO.

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`10

Thank you to our

GOLF TOURNAMENT SPONSORS

SERIES Liberty Mutual Insurance Alumni Cup

PRESENTING Liberty Mutual Insurance

MARKETING All American Classics Golf Digest TaylorMade Adidas Golf Sports Vision Eyewear

SILVER Carousel Industries Toray Plastics (America), Inc. BRONZE COSCO, Inc. Gilbane Building Company Starkweather & Shepley Insurance Brokerage URI Foundation Washington Trust Wealth Management

PRACTICE GREEN EagleDream Technologies

TEE Batchelor, Frechette, McCrory, Michael & Company Coastway Community Bank (2 sponsorships) Gradient Corporation Hydrofera Nordson EFD (4 sponsorships) Pinnacle Payroll Russell Morin Fine Catering South County Orthopedics URI Bookstore URI Dining Services URI Health Services URI Housing & Residential Life Woodward & Curran

GIFT BAG ITEMS Golf Digest Liberty Mutual Insurance Navigant Credit Union TaylorMade Wells Fargo Advisors PUTTING PRIZE Steve Lombardi ’74 BEER DONATION Labonachip, LLC

BEVERAGES Coca Cola

CONTRIBUTORS: Chris Franklin ’88 Roy Kalan ’78 Dr. Steven M. Kreiger & Associates Peter Kohlsaat ’57 Local 528 Council 94 AFSCME Navigant Credit Union Top Shell

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Kenji G. Greenberg, CBA, of Norwalk, Conn., earned his Certified Public Accounting designation in April of 2014. He works for Sansiveri, Kimball & Co, L.L.P. Greenberg provides audit, forensic and consulting services to a wide variety of the firm’s clients. In 2012, he earned an MS in accounting from the University of Connecticut.

Michelle Saunders, HS&S, of Rumford, R.I., spoke at the Yellow Cottage, a former state orphanage site on the Rhode Island College campus for a gathering of former foster children and others dedicated to finding loving homes for children in need, particularly older children. Saunders stated, “Because two Rhode Islanders cared enough to open their home and heart to me, I was given a chance and I took it. Give a child in need a chance. That’s all he or she is asking for. Please consider becoming a foster parent.”

The Yellow Cottage at RIC is the last original building of the state orphanage complex that was in operation from 1885–1979.

`12 Jarvis M. Batista, CBA, of Cranston, R.I., works for the firm of Ward, Fisher and Company LLP in Warwick and is studying for his CPA. David A. Delfino, HS&S, of Johnston, R.I., is the physical education/health teacher and coach at Immaculate Conception School in Cranston, R.I., where he interacts with, teaches, and coaches student-athletes.

Alyssa Hillary, A&S, of Sharon, Mass., writes: “My piece, ‘The Erasure of Queer Autistic People,’ was published in Criptiques.”

`13 Allison R. Loiselle, HS&S, of Warwick, R.I., graduated summa cum laude with a degree in kinesiology.

After graduation Loiselle secured a job as a research assistant for the Navy lab in Groton. In August she will move to London where she has been accepted in the master’s program in space physiology at King’s College.

While at URI Loiselle was captain of the Ramettes, interned with the football team, worked as a research assistant, and participated in the church mission trip to Nicaragua.

WEDDINGS Gerald D. Dewitt ’90 to Christine Perry, on December 7, 2013.

Brian C. Whiting ’91 to Kristin Connelly, on October 26, 2013.

Coley M. Lockward ’95 to Abbigale Davison, on June 7, 2014.

Mark Thomas Barauskas ’96 to Megan French Ring, on February 27, 2014.

Melissa Gitlitz ’99 to Phil Cavell, on May 31, 2014.

Kate Serafini ’08 to Dave Maccarone ’07, on April 26, 2014.

Jeffrey S. Korn ’08 to Marissa C. Salvo ’09, on June 29, 2013.

Courtney M. Catalano ’09 to Matthew J. Marciano, on May 10, 2014.

Catherine L. Collazzo ’09 to Jason Hopper ’09, on June 1, 2013.

Heath Morrill ’09 to Amanda Downing ’11, on September 14, 2013.

Kristen N. Nelson ’09 to Matthew Fessler, on July 20, 2013.

Diane J. Maciejewski ’11 to Corey J. Craven, on August 3, 2010.

BIRTHS Scott and Kristy Thistle Yankee ’01, a daughter, Rowan Michelle, on October 2, 2013.

Emily D. Clapham ’02 and Joshua Smith ’02, a daughter, Zoe Clapham, on August 10, 2012.

Emily D. Clapham ’02 and Joshua Smith ’02, a son, Kai Clapham, on August 10, 2012.

Timothy C. and Melinda D. Golembeske ’04, a daughter, Sansa Rose, on January 4, 2014.

IN MEMORIAM Vera Bailey Evans ’41 of Springfield, Va., on June 22, 2014.

Mae Burt Adams ’42 of Barrington, R.I., on May 21, 2014.

Eugene Conway ’43 of Cumberland, R.I., on July 7, 2014.

PHOTOS: MICHAEL SALERNO; ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; NORA LEWIS

8/14/14 2:10 PM

CLOSEUP

Tinh Huynh ‘11 The Path Not Taken Hoang Huynh and Mimi Truong fled Vietnam as teens. They never stayed anywhere long; from Fort Smith to Biloxi, New Jersey to California, financial tability was always a move away. It was Houston, nine years ago, that took their oldest in a gang shooting.

They fled again, o Pawtucket, where middle son Tinh, his lost brother’s wallet and its freight of memories in his pocket, decided it was time to test his mind. At URI, he discovered his strengths and his goal: “Being a doctor,” he says, “would put me in a position to be on the front lines helping people.’’

The three years since Tinh graduated have been another kind of test—of patience, and resolve. He’s been an EMT and manicurist at his parents’ salon. He’s volunteered at Providence’s Rhode Island Free Clinic and shadowed doctors at Rhode Island Hospital. With help from URI’s Health Professionals Advisory Committee, he’s studied for his MCATs, sent off applications, prepped in mock interviews. He’s now a Big Brother.

This fall, final y, the next test: med school in Vermont.

“I want my parents to look at me,” Tinh says, “and say, ‘This is why we came to America.’”

—Elizabeth Rau

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Come to Homecoming, October 24–26, 2014, and chalk up your own great experence! alumni.uri.edu/homecoming

Janice Harred Cooper ’44 o f Coventry, Conn., on April 11, 2014.

Marshall Weiss ’50 of Silver Spring, Md., on December 24, 2013.

Dorothy Shores Decker ’56 of Narragansett, R.I., on June 6, 2014.

Raymond Laverdiere ’67 of Virginia Beach, Va., on May 16, 2014.

Robert Scott ’45 of Valley Park, Mo., on May 22, 2014.

F. Jere Connor ’51 of Coventry, R.I., on May 11, 2014.

Joan Horton Goodwin ’56 of Williamsburg, Va., on June 12, 2014.

Helen Wodziak ’67 of Smithfield, R.I., on April 17, 2014.

Eugene Marble ’46 of Lincoln, Texas, on April 24, 2014.

Edwin Hollien ’51 of Fanwood, N.J., on May 18, 2014.

Manfred Ziegler ’57 of Portsmouth, R.I., on May 13, 2014.

Gleason Moore ’68 of Riviera Beach, Fla., on November 5, 2013.

Demetra Hills ’47 of Cranston, R.I., on February 16, 2014.

Alice Heditsian Avedesian ’52 of North Kingstown, R.I., on July 8, 2014.

James Gerlach ’58 of Wakefield, R.I., on June 5, 2014.

Joseph Taraborelli ’68 of North Kingstown, R.I., on June 12, 2014.

Carl Barrie ’48 of Vineyard Haven, Mass., on June 30, 2014.

Roger Boucher ’52 of East Providence, R.I., on May 3, 2014.

Stanley Crompton ’60 of Enfield, Conn., on June 25, 2014.

Ellsworth Wheeler ’68 of Laconia, N.H., on May 17, 2014.

William Hunt ’48 of Port Charlotte, Fla., on April 22, 2014.

John Pickup ’52 of Warwick, R.I., on May 20, 2014.

Robert Mancini ’60 of Cranston, R.I., on April 17, 2014.

Richard Dufresne ’72 of Johnston, R.I., on May 18, 2014.

William Ferrante ’49 of Saunderstown, R.I., on June 14, 2014.

Winthrop Collins ’53 of Stamford, Conn., on May 4, 2014.

Gerard Kennedy ’61 of Albany, N.Y., on May 24, 2014.

Robert Sylvia ’72 of Taunton, Mass., on June 6, 2014.

Norman Laflamme ’49 of Lithia, Fla., on June 7, 2014.

William Larkin ’53 of Cary, N.C., on May 18, 2014.

Bernard McAlice ’62 of Round Pond, Maine, on July 2, 2013.

Walter Szeliga ’72 of Pawtucket, R.I., on May 24, 2014.

Lois Turner Winsor ’49 of Greenville, R.I., on March 7, 2014.

Laurent Marchand ’53 of Greenville, R.I., on August 27, 2013.

Richard Davidson ’64 of Inverness, Fla., on May 4, 2014.

Robert Boyd ’74 of Salisbury, N.C., on May 22, 2014.

Bernadette Sheehan Hughes ’50 of Hoffman Estates, Ill., on June 2, 2014.

Janice Wilke ’54 of Wakefield, R.I., on December 24, 2013.

Robert Doyle ’65 of Canton, Mass., on May 1, 2014.

Eric Feinsmith ’74 of Centre, Ala., on July 2, 2014.

Norris Kenyon ’50 of Topsfield, Mass., on May 17, 2014.

Wilfred Gerstenblatt ’55 of New York, N.Y., on June 12, 2014.

Inta Aizsilo Krylo ’66 of Fayetteville, N.Y., on May 24, 2014.

William Parcell ’74 of Napa, Calif., on April 15, 2014.

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ALUMNISCENE Pierre Barrette ’75 of Fort Myers, Fla., on June 21, 2014.

Charles Corr ’75 of Hope Valley, R.I., on July 10, 2014.

Stephen Fish ’75 of Cranston, R.I., on April 18, 2014.

Doris LaHiff Smith ’76 of Indian River Shores, Fla., on July 3, 2014.

Janina Barlowski D’Abate ’77 of Johnston, R.I., on May 5, 2014.

Linda Blaker Krause ’77 of Mystic, Conn., on June 19, 2014.

Philip Haring ’82 of Topsfield, Mass., on May 3, 2014.

Dinner at Royal Automobile Club in London with President Dooley and Dean Corliss June 16, 2014 “It was an honor to be in a room full of people who love URI as much as we do and it was such a joy to listen to the successful stories of graduates past.”

—Amanda Crawley ’13 and Rachel Quimby ’11

Joyce Valentine-Kenney ’82 of Narragansett, R.I., on May 18, 2014.

Mary McConnell Kent ’83 of Bradenton, Fla., on May 4, 2014.

Dorothy Watson Thibeault ’83 of Cumberland, R.I., on May 23, 2014.

Thomas Ballerino ’84 of Sarasota, Fla., on May 28, 2011.

Ellen Gill-Stineback ’85 of Stoughton, Mass., on April 5, 2014.

Cheryl Gelardi ’87 of New Port Richey, Fla., on May 27, 2014.

Cie McAloon ’94 of Barrington, R.I., on April 12, 2014.

Siobhan Sennott McDonnell ’95 of Alameda, Calif., on June 4, 2014.

C a ro l i n e P h e n i x F i s h ’ 9 6 o f Wakefield, R.I., on June 17, 2014.

Kimberly Orzechowicz Gauvin ’96 of Cumberland, R.I., on June 10, 2014.

B a r b a ra S ta u f f R e i l ly ’ 9 8 o f Narragansett, R.I., on July 3, 2014.

Brien Harrington ’05 of Quincy, Mass., on June 2, 2014.

IN MEMORIAM FACULTY AND STAFF William Ferrante, of North Kingstown, R.I., on June 14, 2014. Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics, former Acting President of the University, former Dean of the College and former Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Richard E. Bailey, of Peoria, Ariz., on June 6, 2014. Professor Emeritus of Speech Communication.

Business After Hours event at The City Club of Washington, DC. June 12, 2014 “What a unique and truly out-of-thisworld alumni event! Dr. Grant’s presentation on the Mars Rovers Program was fascinating. The Rover photographs of the planet surface, along with in-depth information on the research and mission provided a whole new perspective on Mars.”

—Hank Nardone ’90

Class of 1964 Fiftieth Reunion May 16–18, 2014 “One of the highlights for me was seeing my old economics classmate, Richard Vangermeersch, who went on to be a prominent professor of accounting in the College of Business. He and I shared many remembrances of old times at URI. Another nostalgic event was trying to find Iggy’s bar (down the line); although I didn’t succeed, I relished the chance to search and revisit my old stomping grounds!”

—Ray Acciardo ’64

If you attended a URI alumni event and would like to share a photo and a reminiscence, we’d love to hear from you! Please write to us at alumni@ uri.edu.

Find out about upcoming alumni events: alumni.uri.edu UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 39

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BACKPAGE 75 Years of

Hullabaloo

Left: DJ Kellan Martin (center) and Keith Grillo (right) chat with a guest on Under The Table Radio.

Below: Robert W. Kettlety, engineering student, in 1947.

Radio Free RI Campus airtime now leases for cash (Georgia State’s WRAS, which launched R.E.M. and Radiohead, has become an NPR affiliate) and radio in general is losing ground to online streaming, but WRIU remains the independent, student-run, commercial-free voice of URI. Yet the reggae and electronica, public affairs and children’s programming on 90.3FM airs largely under the radar.

Too bad, since unlike a pre-programmed Pandora station, WRIU has the potential to expand listeners’ horizons.

It formed in ’39 as WHOE (a joke about gardening tools, of course) and now reaches most of Rhode Island and some surrounding areas. Announcers are unpaid college students and community members.

Alums credit the station with launching professionalism. “You have the duty of ­providing interesting programming,” says Gregg Perry ’88, who worked at WPRO and WHJJ before founding the Perry Group.

“And, you have to do it on time.”

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“You learn everything from organizational dynamics to teamwork and responsibility,” echoes Duffy Egan, who spent a few semesters at URI and is now Cumulus Media’s director of engineering. He remains the station’s contract engineer.

Jim Tingley ’75, a NASA computer programmer, remembers Firesign Theatre ­visiting: “We all crammed into a tiny booth as Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman launched into their crazy banter. I wasn’t in radio at the time, but perhaps it contributed to pursuing my short-lived, on-air career.”

Another, very personal memory comes from Joan C. Hudson ’68, M.A. ’74. Her uncle, the late Robert W. Kettlety ’51, was an electrical engineering student and WHOE staffer. “I remember my grandmother showing me his former bedroom —it was wall-to-wall radio apparatus.”

Some 15 years ago, she brought Kettlety, by then retired from a career that had spanned the space program, farming and

oil industries, to visit the Student Union. For the length of a song, the announcer gave him his old seat back. “It was a precious, joyful moment,” she remembers.

“WRIU is an astounding place, diverse and signifi ant,” says Laura Travis, Celtic Realm DJ since ’82. “What happens with more popular forms of music is that listeners realize there is something long and deep at work. Then they seek out programs like mine. It’s the original idea of public radio—local, informative, responsive.”

In the end, perhaps the most telling paean comes from senior Sara Holland ’15, FM program director. “I was a journalism major who didn’t love writing,” she says.

“Then I joined the station, and I ended up loving journalism.”

After 75 years, then, the power to inspire when it counts the most.

—Pippa Jack PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS, COURTESY JOAN C. HUDSON

8/14/14 3:38 PM

im•pact [im-pakt] verb: to have a strong effect on someone or something

Private support of the University of Rhode Island makes an impact and changes lives. Donations from our generous alumni and friends support students, faculty, programs, facilities and more, helping to foster a culture of excellence and to enhance the academic experience at all of our campuses.

Make your gift today at urifoundation.org.

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 3

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Alumni Center 73 Upper College Road Kingston, RI 02881 USA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

When humans make it to Mars, it may just be because of URI chemical engineering major Patrick Brown.

As an engineering intern for NASA, the Westerly native is on a team that’s developing a new, lightweight solid oxide fuel cell system that will generate the electricity needed to power spacecraft by converting methane into hydrogen. It could be trialed on the Red Planet as early as 2020. Yup, it’s rocket science.

In November, Rhode Island voters will be asked to support a $125 million bond referendum for new and updated engineering facilities—to match the outstanding caliber of teaching, research, and innovation in the URI College of Engineering. uri.edu

HELPING NASA GET TO MARS

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