Illustrious science alumni

Ripon has a long tradition of alumni who have gone on to impact the world. Here is merely a sampling of some of our science alumni and their career accomplishments.

Major: Chemistry Glass science authority. Wrote standard handbook for the glass industry, taught at Alfred University.

RAYMOND

Major: Physics. Worked in the lab of Thomas A. Edison and on early audiometer and audiogram in the engineering department of Western Electric Co. in New York City.

OTTO JULIUS

Class of 1909

Major:

Major: Physics. Electrical engineer who helped advance early telephone technology at American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (AT&T) and Bell Laboratories; inventor of m-derived filter and Zobel Network, a type of filter section based on the imageimpedance design principle.

MARY

Major: Chemistry. Professor of chemistry and first female faculty member at University of Kansas for 22 years; scientific researcher at Kresge-Hooker Science Library, Wayne State University, in Detroit, for 10 years; author of Discovery of the Elements (1933), published in seven editions over 35 years and multiple languages.

Class of 1902

Major: Science. Awardwinning bridge designer and consulting civil engineer; developed design and construction of the rigid-frame bridge and wrote an authoritative book on the subject.

Major: Physics. Pioneer in spectroscopy; has a moon crater named in his honor

JOHN G. FRAYNE

Class of 1917

Majors: Physics and mathematics. Physicist and sound engineer. Co-wrote classic textbooks in these disciplines. Won Scientific or Technical Academy Awards in 1941 and 1953, and an honorary Academy Award in 1984.

HARRISON

Major: Physics. Professor of physics at Brown University for 44 years; investigated surface physics and directed Brown’s Electronics Laboratory, the world’s leading center of research on low-energy electron diffraction

Established Ripon’s William Harley Barber Distinguished Professorship in honor of his former professor; and the Harrison E. Farnsworth 1918 Chair in Physics.

ELDA EMMA ANDERSON Class of

1922

Majors: Physics and mathematics. Helped develop the atomic bomb at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico; in the aftermath, led development of the field of health physics.

ROBERT R. RIESZ, Class of 1924 Majors: Physics and mathematics. Physicist, helped develop the artificial larynx at Bell Laboratories.

DANIEL TRAINER, Class of 1950

Major: Biology. Did environmental work, wrote three books and more than 140 publications, only the third American to receive the Distinguished Service Award of the Wildlife Disease Association; developed the first graduate program in environmental diseases at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

FLOYD MELVILLE SOULE, Class of 1923

Majors: Physics and mathematics. Pioneer in oceanography, was an authority on the Arctic, went on numerous oceanographic scientific expeditions with Marine Biological Laboratory and was the civilian senior physical oceanographer and chief scientist for the International Ice Patrol, operated by the U.S. Coast Guard.

DUNCAN E. REID, Class of 1927

Major: Biology. Professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard University, author of Controversy in Obstetrics and Gynecology, standard textbook on the subject.

RICHARD COE FROEDE Class of 1951

ANN EWING, Class of 1941 Majors: Chemistry and physics. Science writer who coined the term “black hole” in space terminology.

RODERICK ESQUIVEL, Class of 1949

Major: Biology. Medical doctor, professor, politician, former vice president of the Republic of Panama.

Major: Biology. Served in the U.S. Air Force for 21 years, retiring as a colonel; taught pathology at University of Arizona Medical School; chief medical examiner for nine Arizona counties; civilian Distinguished Scientist in Forensic Sciences in Washington, D.C.; named this country’s first Armed Forces Medical Examiner

ARTHUR A. MYRBERG JR., Class of 1954

Major: Biology. One of the world’s leading figures in animal bioacoustics, zoology, animal behavior; more than 90 published papers.

ALEXANDER HENRY LEVIS, Class of 1963

Majors: Physics and mathematics. Sc.D. in mechanical engineering, 30 years at George Mason University; senior research scientist at MIT; served for three years as the chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force

Jonathan Muraskas

Class of 1978

Major: Chemistry. Medical doctor and leading neonatology expert on premature babies; comedical director, Neonatal ICU; director of NeonatalPerinatal Research, Loyola Medicine. Doctor for the then-world’s smallest baby to survive birth.

PETER BOCK, Class of 1962

Majors: Physics and drama. Expert on artificial intelligence; NASA scientist; engineering and computer science educator at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

THOMAS REINECKE, Class of 1968

Majors: Physics and mathematics Rhodes Scholar, quantum physicist at U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

Cheryl Rofer

Class of 1963

Major: Chemistry. Worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 35 years. Acquired high-quality UVVIS spectrum for UF6 for laser isotope separation; pioneered using elementary reactions to describe catalysis; developed supercritical water oxidation to destroy hazardous wastes; blogs on Nuclear Diner and other venues.

PHIL MCCULLOUGH, Class of 1969

Major: Biology. Clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; on medical staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Distinguished Life Fellow of American Psychiatric Association. Established Ripon’s Patricia and Philip McCullough 1969 Professor in Biology.

JEFFREY W. BANTLE

Class of 1980

Majors: Physics and mathematics. NASA chief flight engineer

ROBERT WAGNER, Class of 1978

Major: Chemistry. Director of the Section of Nuclear Medicine at Loyola University Health System, interpreting diagnostic studies, performing therapeutic procedures, teaching students, residents and fellows; research using novel radiopharmaceuticals; training hospitals on managing radiation accident victims.

AL KLAPMEIER, Class of 1980

Majors: Physics and economics. Aircraft developer; co-founder and former CEO of Cirrus Design, CEO and president of Kestrel Aircraft Co., CEO of One Aviation Corp.

KENT TIMM

Class of 1981

Major: Biology and selfdesigned major in presports medicine Three-time Olympian in the sports medicine department in the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Australia and Salt Lake City. Also a sports physical therapist for Pittsburgh Penguins, athletic trainer for Pittsburgh Steelers and athletic trainer at Carnegie-Mellon University.

LISA MAHNKE, Class of 1992

Major: Chemistry. CEO and president, Nerviano Medical Sciences-US, Boston, Massachusetts, chief medical officer and board member of NMS Inc.

KYLIE AINSLIE, Class of 2011

Majors: Biology and mathematics

Infectious disease modeler at Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) in Utrecht, Netherlands.

LARRY HUEBNER, Class of 1983

Majors: Physics and mathematics Mission manager within NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions Program Office.

SHANNON MCKINNEY-FREEMAN, Class of 1998 Majors: Chemistry and biology Associate member, principal investigator and associate director of faculty development, Department of Hematology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee; vice president, International Society of Experimental Hematology.

Sam Sondalle

Class of 2011

Majors: Chemistry and biology. Completed the M.D./Ph.D. program at Yale School of Medicine in 2020. Currently in clinical training as an Albert J. Solnit Integrated Resident/ Fellow in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.

ZACHARY MORRIS

Class of 2002

Majors: Chemistry and biology. Rhodes Scholar, radiation oncologist and physician/ scientist, vice chairman and endowed professor of human oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

BRIAN L. FREY

Class of 1991

Major: Chemistry. Senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, six U.S. patents, more than 50 publications with 200 citations.

HILARY SMITH UYHELJI, Class of 2007

Major: Biology. Principal research geneticist with the Federal Aviation Administration

RAYMOND ALLEN, Class of 2015

Major: Chemistry-biology. Ph.D. in biology from Duke University, postdoctoral researcher at UW-Madison at the Center for Limnology. Centers research on Indigenous-produced knowledge in science.