SPRING 2019
M A G A Z I N E THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO I ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Game Changers: Innovation and Discovery at UNM
Contents 17 UNSPOOLING DNA Jeremy Edwards looks for longer gene sequences
18 BREAKTHROUGH Alum Frank Bennett wins prestigious prizes for drug discoveries
20 INNOVATION HOTBED UNM alumni improve medical Christina Salas (MS ’08, PhD ’14) with a 3-D printed ligament. Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 12 PUTTING IDEAS TO WORK 6 CAMPUS Alumna Christina Salas is CONNECTIONS a problem solver
What’s going on around campus
10 WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA? Inventions and patents, new products and new treatments. We look at a few of the groundbreaking discoveries made by UNM alumni, students and faculty.
15 FUELING THE FUTURE Plant biologist David Hanson helps algae grow fuel
16 FASTER HORSES – AND HEALTHIER ONES, TOO Startup EquiSeq delves into equine genetics
products in Heather Canavan’s lab
21 HUNGRY MASSES DEMANDED IT And a UNM alumni team devised a way to mail Dion’s Ranch dressing
22 IDEA HUB UNM’s Innovation Academy helps bring ideas to life
23 WHIZ KID Inside Kyle Guin’s inventive mind 24 DEEP FREEZE UNM team breaks the cold barrier
On the cover: UNM senior Kyle Guin demonstrates a Lobo cherry smoke bomb, which Guin sells under one of the two companies he has started while still an undergraduate. Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
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Mirage was the title of the University of New Mexico yearbook until its final edition in 1978. The title was then adopted by the alumni magazine, which continues to publish vignettes about UNM graduates and news of the University.
M A G A Z I N E
26 TAKING OUT THE GARBAGE Health Sciences’ Vojo Deretic uses autophagy to cure disease
27 MAPPING THE BRAIN Vince Calhoun fine tunes mental illness diagnoses
28 CHEERS! Local brewers invent a Lobo cherry beer
30 GIVING LIFE AND HOPE
32 SHELF LIFE
Spring 2019, Volume 39, Number 1
Books by UNM alumni
The University of New Mexico
38 HONORING ALUMNI Meet our award recipients
Garnett S. Stokes, President
41 FROM THE VEEP
UNM Alumni Association Executive Committee
Dana G. Allen, Vice President, Alumni Relations
A message from Alumni Association’s Dana Allen
John Brown (’72 BBA) President
42 ALUMNI NETWORK
Harold Lavender (’69 BA, ’75 JD) Past President
Did our cameras catch you at an event?
43 IN MEMORIAM
Cancer Center’s Sarah Foster Adams gives cancer a one-two punch
Alexis Tappan (’99 BA, ’17 MA) President-Elect
Daniel Trujillo (’07 BBA, ’08 MACCT) Treasurer Dana G. Allen Secretary Appointed Members James Lewis (’77MPA, ’17 LHD) Rosalyn Chafey (’03 BBA, ’07 MBA, JD) Jaymie Roybal (’12 BA/BS, ’16 JD) Chad Cooper (’01 MBA) Jim Novak (’96 MBA) Mirage Editorial Dana G. Allen, Vice President, Alumni Relations Leslie Linthicum, Editor Wayne Scheiner & Company, Graphic Design Marleen Linares-Gonzáles, Senior Marketing Representative Address correspondence to MirageEditor@unm.edu or The University of New Mexico Alumni Association, MSC 01-1160, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001. You can also contact us at (505) 277-5808 or 800-ALUM-UNM (800-258-6866). Web: UNMAlumni.com Facebook: Facebook.com/UNMAlumni Instagram: Instagram.com/UNMAlumni
Department of Chemical & Nuclear Engineering’s Heather Canavan encourages students in her lab to invent solutions to medical problems. Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
Flickr: Flickr.com/UNMAlumni
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Letters to the editor TO THE EDITOR:
FROM THE EDITOR:
A
s I was meeting and getting to know the makers, builders, innovators and disruptors featured in this issue of Mirage, I was struck by how important brainstorming and collaboration were to just about all of the discoveries, and how careful listening was just as central as brilliant thinking to moving from problems to solutions. Maybe it’s just an out-of-date mindset on my part, but when I think of the brilliant university researcher on a path to a Nobel Prize, I picture a man or woman hunched over a microscope or computer array — alone. As it turns out, genius flowers in teams. As a recent story in The New Yorker on the fruitful partnership of computer programmers Sanjay Ghemawat and Jeff Dean noted, about half of the Nobel Prizes awarded in physiology or medicine in the past 35 years have gone to scientific teams. Heather Canavan, an associate professor in UNM’s School of Engineering, told me her classes wouldn’t work and her lab wouldn’t function if questions weren’t explored and projects undertaken in teams. “Students always say they hate group work,” says Canavan. “But working with people with different ideas and experiences is really where ideas come from. It’s all about collaboration.”
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In other words, collaboration isn’t just an ingredient of laboratory environments or consortiums, MBA programs or law schools; it is the secret sauce to success. UNM’s Grand Challenges competition takes collaboration to a new level, broadening the scope of teamwork outside of disciplines or departments or colleges and asking the University’s best thinkers to challenge their own boundaries to devise solutions to some of the state’s most deepseated problems. It’s an exciting opportunity for UNM students and faculty to go to parts of campus they never would have visited and hear ideas they never could have imagined and learn that two or 10 or 100 heads really are better than one.
Leslie Linthicum MirageEditor@unm.edu
I
enjoyed reading about Jami Porter Lara and her fantastic work. But as a UNM alumnus, a retired Smithsonian Institution employee, and one who has worked at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, I felt I had to write and tell you that the article errs in its indication that the National Museum of Women in the Arts is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum is a very good, independent, private museum, but it is not affiliated with the Smithsonian. I hope this note is helpful to you, and thank you for Mirage magazine.
Paul Jett (’76 BA) Accokeek, Md.
Editor’s note: Several names were also misspelled in the previous issue. They are Zia Award winner Kenneth Sapon, artist Sol LeWitt and Professor Kirsten Pai Buick. Additionally, the color of artist Porter Lara’s neon sign art piece was misstated. It is white.
FALL 2018
M A G A Z I N E THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO I ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Jami Porter Lara’s Vessels / Alumna Kerry Perry Brings USA Gymnastics Back to its Roots Susan Ressler’s “Executive Order” / United Way’s Steven Taylor Keeps Roots in Albuquerque Track and Cross Country Teams Driven to Win / Alumna Gives Back to Sociology Department
UNM-018-A-Mirage-Fall-2018-Single-Pages-final.indd 1
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Making Connections Look for a friend on every page!
Dear UNM Alumni –
W
hen I came to UNM, I quickly learned that I am not just leading a university; I am leading a community that extends far beyond our campuses. To do that, I am making connections throughout our state to better understand its people and discover ways in which we can work together to advance the University for New Mexico. I have stated before that this is not only The University of New Mexico, but also the University for New Mexico. We serve as the flagship institution with promise and pride. I also believe we serve the world. While our impact on the state is immense, our students, faculty, staff and alumni — Lobos everywhere — are changing the world around us through innovation, education, patient care and more. We have so many ways to share our stories today through words, photos and videos— each a small window into the Lobo experience. I have been taking advantage of sharing the connections I have made in the past few months on Twitter and a statewide tour blog as strategies for building on common themes and soliciting new ones. I encourage you to take advantage of the many digital and social platforms we use to stay connected, including our web sites and social media platforms. Making connections is an important responsibility for any president. Maintaining connections is even more critical. My commitment to you, Lobos for life, is to stay connected and support opportunities for you to become even more involved in the success of The University of New Mexico.
Warmest regards, and Go Lobos!
Garnett S. Stokes President, The University of New Mexico
Send your alumni news to Mirage Editor, The University of New Mexico Alumni Association, MSC 01-1160, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001. Or better yet, email your news to Alumni@unm.edu. Please include your middle name or initial and tell us where you’re living now. Deadlines: Spring deadline: January 1 Fall deadline: June 1 1960s Rudolfo A. Anaya (’63 BAED, ’69 MA, ’72MA), Albuquerque, is among the top 100 Great American Reads for his novel “Bless Me, Ultima.” John R. Cooney (’65 BA, ’65 JD), Albuquerque, a shareholder with Modrall Sperling, was selected by Best Lawyers in America as a 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” for Bet-theCompany Litigation.
John R. Cooney
Arthur David Melendres (’65 BA, ’71 JD), Albuquerque, a shareholder with Modrall Sperling, was selected by Best Lawyers in America as a 2019 Lawyer of the Year Arthur David Melendres for both education law and municipal law. Kyla T. Thompson (’66 BAED), Los Ranchos, N.M., won a National Philanthropy Day award. 1970s Petra Maes (’70 BA, ’73 JD), Santa Fe, N.M., retired from the New Mexico Supreme Court. William D. Prather (’70 BSEE, ’74 MS), Albuquerque, retired from the Air Force Research Laboratory after 48 years.
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Campus Connections
GOOD DOG It’s easy to look into the warm pools of your dog’s adoring eyes and assume that the relationship between humans and domesticated canids has always been as simple as sit, fetch, eat and snuggle. And to assume that wild canids — wolves and coyotes — have never been treated with the kindness we bestow on our pets. For centuries, dogs and humans have developed close relationships and can be traced back to some of New Mexico’s earliest communities. But have our perceptions and treatment of wild and domestic dogs remained unchanged throughout the centuries? In a recent article in the international journal Open Quaternary, UNM
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Anthropology Department researchers Victoria Monagle, Cyler Conrad and Emily Lena Jones asked and set out to answer the question, “What Makes a Dog?” They began by examining coyote, wolf and domestic dog remains from Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, a 14th-century site just outside of Santa Fe. The archaeological site dates between A.D. 1300 and 1420. But knowing the genetics of an animal does not tell the story of its life. Analyzing bone isotopes, the researchers were able to determine what the canids ate, and therefore whether humans were feeding them or not. In at least one case, a coyote was being fed as a domestic dog.
They also tracked where canid bones were recovered. Bones found outside of homes or gathering places suggested the animal was most likely wild. But many of the bones were found in indoor spaces, including kivas, which would suggest the animal was valued. Their conclusion? “The Arroyo Hondo canids suggest a disjuncture between archaeological definitions of domestication and how Ancestral Puebloans considered dogs,” they write. “In some of the specimens we tested, dogs match archaeological expectations for dogs, but in others, coyotes seem to have been treated like dogs, and in yet others, genetically domestic dogs seem to have eaten more like coyotes or wolves.” What does it mean if coyotes were treated like dogs and dogs were treated like their wild relatives? “We hope this research will start conversations about differences in human-canid relationships in the Southwest today,” Monagle says. “Many people, the public and researchers alike, are interested in why humans and dogs have, and have had, such a special connection throughout history. We asked ourselves what makes a dog different? And, what is a dog, in the most basic sense?”
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE More than 1,300 veterans and their dependents attend The University of New Mexico. It’s only a small portion of the approximately 25,000 students
Pete Gibson (’71 BS), Albuquerque, was inducted into the UNM Hall of Honor. Donald T. Lopez (’72 MS) is mayor of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.
UNM has an active Veterans Resource Center on campus, located in the Student Union Building, and has also launched the Veteran Preference Program, which gives priority to military veterans in the university hiring process. Qualified veterans who elect to participate in the program and who apply for open regular staff positions are guaranteed an initial interview. To qualify, applicants must have received an honorable discharge from the military, meet the minimum qualifications stated in the job posting, and apply before the “For Best Consideration Date” stated in the posting.
on campus, but President Garnett S. Stokes has identified supporting a veteran-friendly campus as a major priority of her office. “Veterans have selflessly served our country,” Stokes says, “and now it is our turn to serve these individuals.” She met with military veterans on campus on her first day in office and offered training workshops to faculty and staff over the summer to help them better understand the unique strengths and challenges of veterans on campus as they transition from active duty to civilian and student life. The veteran student experience differs from that of traditional college students. They are often older, with experience in a structured culture and sometimes saddled with PTSD or the effects of traumatic brain injury.
Lynn H. Slade (’73 BA, ’76 JD), a shareholder with Modrall Sperling, was selected by Best Lawyers in America as a 2019 Lawyer of the Year for oil and gas law. Theodore Bornhorst Lynn H. Slade (’76 MS, ’80 PhD), professor of geology and executive director of the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum of Michigan Tech, has been appointed to Michigan’s Environmental Permit Review Commission. Eugene Gonzales Sanchez (’76 BUS), Los Lunas, N.M., celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary. Sam W. Scarber (’77 BSPE), North Hollywood, Calif., was inducted into the UNM Hall of Honor. Melanie Cottier Fowler (’77 BA, ’90 MS), Albuquerque, is a provider at Presbyterian Medical Group. Lynn Lawrance (’78 MBA), Dallas, Texas, a certified financial planner with Cetera Advisor Networks, was named as one of the Best Financial Planners & Top Wealth Managers in Dallas.
SHE EATS, SHE TWEETS
If you left New Mexico after graduation and miss the food and the landscape, or even if you live in the Land of Enchantment but are tied to your desk and longing for a road trip, you might want to start following President Garnett S. Stokes on Twitter. As @PresidentStokes demonstrates, one tweet at a time, the new president is putting some miles
Debra M. Sandoval Woodward (’79 BAFA, ’83 MA), Bosque Farms, N.M., earned the Max Coll and Catherine Joyce Coll Award for Distinction in Art Education from the New Mexico Art Education Association. Dennis Garcia (’79 BBA, ’08 MBA), Albuquerque, is chairman of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce. Rudy J. Miera (’79 BAED, ’93 MA) was named a finalist in the drama category of the 2018 Latino Books Into Movies Award for “Harvey Girl,” written with Adelita Sanchez.
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Campus Connections on her tires and getting to know New Mexico and enjoying its food and culture. Whether it’s red chile enchiladas at Jemez Pueblo, green chile cheeseburgers at both the Owl Bar and the Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, N.M., a visit to the giant pistachio monument in Alamogordo, exploring Chaco Canyon, hiking in the Gila or spelunking at Carlsbad Caverns, Stokes is on the road and sending back snapshots of her adventures. She’s aiming to hit all 33 counties in New Mexico, and it looks like she’s having fun.
The Three People’s Murals, four large Depression Era murals that hang in Zimmerman Library, a task force recommended, and university leadership endorsed, a plan to keep the artworks in the library, but cover them with theater curtains unless viewing is requested. The Kenneth Adams murals, commissioned as part of the New Deal, show Native American weavers, Latino builders, an Anglo doctor and — the most controversial — an Anglo man holding hands with an Indian and Hispanic man. While
“UNM must remain focused on matters of campus climate, equity and inclusion; the status quo is not acceptable,” wrote President Garnett S. Stokes and Interim Provost Rich Wood in a message to task force members. “We have heard from several faculty, staff and students that the murals make them feel excluded and attacked. We know that many people enjoy the murals, and we remain committed to a solution that ensures that everyone feels welcome at UNM.” The final decision lies with the Board of Regents.
BIG JIGSAW PUZZLE
CONTROVERSY BEHIND THE CURTAIN After a year spent evaluating a long-simmering controversy around
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the Anglo’s features are distinct and he is the focus, the men of color are faceless and gazing at him. Decades of criticism and protest led to the task force.
One billion years ago, North America was part of a supercontinent. Known today as Rodinia, it fused together and encompassed all of the Earth’s continents, then rifted apart some 250 million years later. On this, geologists agree. But the particulars of which continents were adjacent to which others and how they were connected continues to inspire academic debate. One of the hotly debated questions is which part of Rodinia abutted the American Southwest. To help put the question to rest, Karl Karlstrom, a professor in UNM’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, accompanied Ph.D. student Jacob Mulder, visiting UNM on a one-year fellowship from the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Australia’s Monash University, on a research trip into the Grand Canyon to gather evidence.
1980s C. Frank Bennett (’80 BSPH), Carlsbad, Calif., was awarded the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Science.
They delivered a new dataset in a paper in the journal Geology. Titled “Rodinian Devil in Disguise,” it lays out evidence of similarities between the Unkar Group of sedimentary rocks in the Grand Canyon and the Tasmanian Rocky Cape Group of rocks in Tasmania, an island off southeast Australia. The Tasmanian rocks have puzzled geologists because they don’t look like rocks from that era elsewhere in Australia. By grinding up the sandstones from each place into sand-sized grains, the scientists were able to find and date hundreds of sand grains of the mineral zircon and compare them. “We started this work by looking at Mesoproterozoic (~1 billion years old) sedimentary rocks in Tasmania, a small island off southeast Australia,” Mulder said. “These rocks had puzzled us for a long time because they didn’t look a lot like the nearby Mesoproterozoic rocks in Australia.”
The results suggest the two areas were adjacent to each other from 1.25 to 1.1 billion years ago. “Not only do the rocks in Grand Canyon look similar to those in Tasmania and are the same age, the detrital zircons in the Grand Canyon sedimentary rocks (and related rocks in central Arizona and Texas) also share the same geochemical fingerprint as the zircons in the Tasmanian Mesoproterozoic sequences,” Mulder said. Together, he says, the evidence supports the interpretation that Tasmania must have been attached to the western U.S. “In science,” Karlstrom says, “the devil is always in the details, and this new ‘Tasmanian devil’ seems to have unlocked secrets of the Rodinian supercontinent that have remained mysterious for decades. The paper also re-emphasizes the power of international collaborations in resolving geologic debates.”
Frank T. Bryant (’80 BUS), Alamogordo, N.M., an orthopedic surgeon, joined the Lovelace Specialty Health Care Clinic in Roswell. Mark S. Sanchez (’80 MPA), executive director of the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility, has been elected president of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. He also Mark S. Sanchez serves as the chair of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission. Melanie Jane Majors (’81 BA), Bosque Farms, N.M., is the executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. Michelle Lujan Grisham (’82 BUS, ’87 JD), Albuquerque, was elected and sworn in as the 32nd governor of New Mexico. Daniel Pava (’83 MAPA, ’85 MCRP), Santa Fe, N.M., was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He is an environmental planner at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Daniel Pava
Lorraine C. Garcia-Parsons (’86 BSN), Orlando, Fla., is working with the Veterans Affairs Hospital in the Department of Sleep. Daniel Thomas Primozic (’86 PHD), Albuquerque, is the dean of instruction at UNM Gallup. Jacqueline Rose Medina (’87 BA, ’91 JD), Albuquerque, is a judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. (continued on page 33)
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By Leslie Linthicum
What’s The
Big Idea? 10
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Innovation and discovery are more than academic
G
reat minds definitely do not think alike. Across UNM’s campus, in big labs and tiny cluttered offices — and sometimes on a bike path or sitting in traffic — faculty members and students puzzle through problems that plague society, from curing disease to improving solar cells to creating apps that make harried 21st century life a little easier. While a university’s primary role is to serve its customers — the students who enroll to earn degrees — it also plays a fundamental role in the much less tangible or quantifiable role of asking questions, challenging assumptions and growing the world’s body of knowledge. Large research institutions like UNM take that mission and run with it — toward scientific breakthroughs, innovative products, novel theories and startup companies. In the last fiscal year, UNM researchers were awarded $297 million from outside the university to fund research projects. Nearly 2,000 projects are underway on campus and through UNM’s tech transfer partners, STC.UNM and Innovate ABQ. Those big ideas have launched more than 100 startup companies, creating hundreds of jobs and more than $56 million in total economic output. The innovations and discoveries by faculty, students and alumni highlighted in this issue — ranging from cancer treatment innovation to really cold freezers to helping horse breeders find the next Secretariat — are just a sampling.
What Are Those Big Ideas?
Elsewhere across campus, UNM is part of a consortium of partners sharing a $22 million federal grant to revamp the state’s electrical grid to accommodate green energy sources. At the Center for High Technology Materials on South Campus, an interdisciplinary team from Electrical
& Computer Engineering and Physics & Astronomy is pushing the frontiers of engineering in quantum technologies, developing the properties of individual photons of light that can be used to develop a scalable integrated quantum communication platform. Practical applications include a secure data transmission network or solving computational problems beyond the capability of existing computers. One of UNM’s biggest successes, Project ECHO, grew from a simple idea to solve the problem of a lack of hepatitis C treatment in rural areas of the state. Sanjeev Arora, M.D., a gastroenterologist in the School of Medicine, discovered he could use technology to help train general practice doctors in other parts of the state in the specialized care of hep C patients. Today, ECHO’s telehealth medical education model has spread to hundreds of communities in the U.S. and abroad and is expanding beyond medicine to address crisis intervention training and education. What about a nanoparticle that can be loaded with cancer-fighting drugs and deliver its cargo straight to the tumor? It developed from the research of Jeffrey Brinker at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. A10-minute breath test to better diagnose pneumonia? That came from the School of Pharmacy lab of Professor Graham Timmins. A unique matrix of thin metal film to extend the life of solar panels? That’s just one of the many gamechangers to come from Sang M. Han, Regents’ Professor in Chemical & Biological Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering. And our understanding of migration patterns in the Southwest? That’s because Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Patricia Crown discovered chocolate residue in ceramics at Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. And not every big idea or innovation requires a test tube or a microscope.
Barbara McCrady, director of UNM’s Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions, developed Alcohol Behavioral Couple Therapy, which is now the standard treatment for couples when one has an alcohol use disorder. Maggie Werner-Washburne, Regents’ Professor emeritus in biology, saw a disconnect between UNM STEM graduates and New Mexico companies that could put them to work. So she created STEM Boomerang, a matchmaking service to reduce the brain drain. The initiative has brought together more than 60 employers looking to fill jobs with several hundred graduates.
Accepting the Grand Challenge Many of the greatest innovations start with brainstorming between colleagues or in classrooms. How to scale that up and make it University-wide, increasing the probability that the academic community will harness its smarts to solve the some of the state’s biggest challenges? At a kickoff event last November, President Garnett S. Stokes asked students and faculty to work across departments and disciplines and think big as she announced the UNM Grand Challenges Initiative. Calling it an opportunity to “empower our state of minds,” Stokes invited teams of researchers to tackle problems that when solved will have a significant impact on New Mexicans. As Interim Provost Richard Wood described the mission to hundreds of faculty, students and staff gathered to jump on the challenge: “Think interdisciplinarily, because that’s what it’s going to take.” The challenge is on with three ambitious projects chosen from the 14 submitted — sustainable water resources, substance abuse and successful aging — and research teams are being formed to get to work collaborating on solutions. ❂
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Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
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Alumna’s practical a pproach is changing the ortho f you come game to UNM By Leslie
alumna Ch Linthicum Salas (MS ’0 ristina 8 and PhD C o m ’14) with a problem, sh paring two techniques e’s unlikely of the long for repair to throw yo pity party. thigh bone ua The assista Salas tried — a th ro n ro d t professor w ugh the cen that goes to imagine appointme ith ter of the fe something nts in both m ig ht work be th m that at sits on to the UNM S ur vs. a pla Medicine’s tter. She an te p of the bo chool of Departmen d colleague landed on ne — she sa benefit and t of Orthop s a m and Rehab e sh w the typically use felt the exc aedics ilitation an bones in th itement of d to e n re d g p in th e air e fa e ap e of Enginee School ce. ring princip plying ring is more les to medic “We thoug te st in ap a g ht if we can l device t to begin and innovat strategizing figure out if ion. a solution. facial mesh “It kind of this w orks as well “I’m sure I opened up as somethin th upset peop at m w a y m s e d a y esigned for ny other m es to how g le,” says Sala “But if I see edical devic patellas, th s. someone c we can buil en maybe es there are out there th omplaining d o ff something th at and creat at could be about , my first th new,” she sa nefit from e somethin improveme ought is ‘W ys. some g we do abou n t, ” h sa at y can s t it?’ I like to S a Th la s, ro w o u h f g o a h w la ri so o b g rks out lve problem orous testin on North C Even before g on knees s.” ampus in th cadavers do joining the & Translatio of e n C at faculty in 2 Salas was a li ed to UNM n ic a n l al Science C 014, lready work , th th e e m y fo e e sh n u te n H w r. d in er next big as as strong g out soluti to some of question fo and effectiv ons orthopedic the conven cused on the technic e as medicine’s ti onal wire, b vexing pro al problem most ut it stretch blems. m s u ch su rg . S tr eons have o they chan ed too eating fractu As part of h ged the shap res of the p mesh open er master’s e at sm o e f ll the a o , in o th th th g e s es mechanica kneecap bo and found is in l engineerin ne that sits their inven Patent #9,5 u n d g tion. e ju 1 at r 7 st ,097, “Low the skin. C UNM, Sala jumped into -Profile, Hig urrent meth s Tension M the new fiel a lo o h n e d d of biomed sh Plate for g wire to kn s use engineering Subcutaneo ical it the bone Fracture Fix and turned together, w back us her eye to p ation,” was in femur fr h ich can be roblems is sued in De acture repai 2 0 1 ir 6 . ri It ta p is ti a cember inful and o ng or r. a mesh of tr ften requir iangle-shap openings th es addition e surgery to d at c a a l n be laid ac remove and kneecap, elb ross a shatte replace. ow or stern red um and atta with screw ched s. Salas’ rese arch covers a broad
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Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
range of to pics, from finding a b surgical ap etter proach for arthritis of The Mind thumb to te the of An Inve sting the effi c ntor a “I’ve alway c pins to rep y of variou s had an in air shinbon s difficult wit te e re S h a busy re fr st a actures las says. “F in design,” in children search lab, rom a very . w ith her part and, e a rl fa y age my ner, a 4-yea vorite thing “What I do r-old daugh s w a n e is look for re d a T n in o th k ter e er baby due r Toys and I loved to b problems,” says. “As I lo Legos. any day no uild things. Salas ok at the su S a la w s ” a . lso teaches rgical techn In college w our surgeo an innovat ique ns are usin hen auto re called “Bio ive course g on patien p design” that e a x ir p s how some e g n o si t v e, ts S a is a n las grabbed d jo of those tech th in ro tl y u offered gh the scho a manual a niques fail learned to time, it start ols of Engin nd fix her own over s sparking M e e d e ring and icine that is car. ideas of ho Salas grew I prevent th focused on w can up in a larg at.” technologie in n ovating e fa Antonio, T s to solve p mily in San Her curren exas, and tr roblems in h t focus is on o sp it a a our ls v e a led an unu nd clinics. and difficu using biom — bone an sual lt road to h aterials d ligament E a ch e r y Ph.D. As a ear Salas ch replacemen she suffere on a 3-D p child ooses a foc d terrible a ts created rinter — as this year it us area — n x ie a novel app ty is geriatrics th th e to conventi at ti m , b e y sh ro e — ach entered sec a onal ligame re n d se st a udents rch problem ond grade, nt repair su developed Ligaments s in the are had rgery. into agorap are what ho c o a m , and then e up with id hobia. Una ld bones to face the an joints, and eas for how ble to gether at xiety of the when they be done be th in gs could cl a ss fa tter. Throu was habitu room, Sala il they cause that hinder gh a narrow ally truant. s gaps mobility. W process, th ing ey come up hen the liga “I was reall can’t be rep with two o ment y smart,” Sa aired and n id e a s to r three concentrat las says, “I eeds to be re just terrifie surgeons h e on. was d of being placed, arvest tend This year, o in sc o h n o s, o n L d l.” either end uckily for a e group is tr rill holes in of the bone nyone with slide board ying to imp and stretch s, the board a shattered kneecap or rove tendon tigh the s a torn ACL th tly until the at m h o e v lp e fr p , o at a m ie sp te bones pull bed to whe nts ecial educat acher at he together. Th back elchair. The r elementa ion is envisio e problem ry school w other n with using in o g u t a is that they a n so a d lution. Sala orked aptive whe tendons stretch ove might adap s set up in elchair that r time and t to a strok small office, the teacher’ require a se o e patients’ in ft w e n s ith a windo cond surge m o b il it y as they re creased w so she co ry. her mother “So why do cover. uld see sitting in h n’t we just cr The course e r c a lo r t. e in d ate ligamen replacemen She sailed th oesn’t end the parking t with ideas. ts?” Salas th At end of se rough her cl ought. And u m se a e ss yet, why no d st w th er, the grou o e rk re and , better st of the sch t create an en to ps are requ su bmit an inn ool day rea dictionary tire bone-li ired bone kit th ovation dis ding the and getting gamentat can be pla S cl TC.UNM, osure to th extra lesson ced in the g te th e a e ch u e Salas and h n r iversity’s te s from a part who saw so ap? er grad stu ch transfer mething sp ner, as a firs dents are d Th just that, usi e t c e step toward ial in Salas. p arrangeme oing ng a uniqu atent applic nt got her th a provision e bio printe elementary ation. al ro Salas and h u g h r sc that hool, and c er team cre A n d th e o at p w h in e in e d lped her to g strategies . ning team g She has five complete m ets $50,000 spend the n pending pat iddle schoo to high schoo ex t ent applicat for the bon y ear develop l and l in regular e and ligam ions an ing their id d cr e cl at a in ss e g a prototyp ea anxiety flare nt printing rooms. The other techn e that migh and four d up again ologies, incl be patented t someday when Salas uding the p away to coll an d itself. She e g et went to the mark rinter ege to stud stimates an “I think the etplace. y engineeri imal studie again unde end goal of still a year n g s b r u a re t c ontrol. is or two awa o is u r a lw re search a ys translatio y. Part of her n to a bette approach to e x p r e p rience in o atient stress manageme ur hospitals nt is to stay Salas says. and clinics, busy, which ❂ ” isn’t
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FUELING THE FUTURE – And growing better plants – By Leslie Linthicum
The idea came about when he told a graduate student he couldn’t imagine how his idea to encapsulate and grow microalgae in a gel could possibly work. After all, he reasoned, growth requires easy access to CO2 in the air. “I said, ‘It probably doesn’t work, but you can try,’” Hanson says with a laugh today. They found it did work when encapsulated in a silica gel that had been invented in the UNM School of Engineering. “We found the cells stop dividing but become more metabolically active,” Hanson says. And they lived for much longer than algae cells in water. Furthering the research, Hanson found that he could place two single-celled species together in a gel and they could feed off one another. hen biology professor David With a graduate student and a doctoral That idea, called encapsulating communities, Hanson wants to relax, he watches candidate, Hanson just formed the startup resulted in another patent application. a cooking show with his kids or bakes company MicroCeres (named after the Hanson is excited by the possibility that a tiered cake. It’s that right-brain activity goddess of agriculture) and is testing its his encapsulating innovation could help that helps propel his left brain toward microneedle technology in farm fields bring down the costs of biofuels, which scientific discovery. as a step toward commercialization. currently require frequent harvesting and “When I’m thinking about solving a If a farmer wants to know the exact replacement of algae. problem it’s much more my creativity in the amount of moisture in a plant, he can Besides applications to biofuels, Hanson arts than in science that guides me,” he says. stick the harmless microneedle in it, also sees the possibility of its use in higher The mind of this plant biologist and get a reading and adjust his irrigating, value products, such as plastics, cosmetics inventor, on the faculty at UNM for the fertilizing or harvesting accordingly. If and pharmaceuticals. past 16 years, is behind a large and active he leaves the microneedle connected, the laboratory that has attracted graduate plant can control the watering automatically. The other benefit, maybe greater than all that, is an uptick in interest in science students and research assistants from This automation may prove especially spurred by his biofuel project. around the world and kicked out two valuable for busy astronauts on the “When I talk about plant physiology, inventions recently that have the potential international space station or during long everyone leaves the room,” Hanson says. to reduce the price of biofuel, help keep missions to Mars. “When I talk about biofuels or space nutritious plants in space for astronauts, It’s nothing that Hanson envisioned biology, I get a lot of questions.” and make your green chile, tomato or when he began studying plant biology, He calls it “stealth STEM,” a phrase even your wine tastier. but he has found many research grants borrowed from his colleague Steve Gomez Hanson is part of a project with Sandia are now geared toward eventual licensing at the Santa Fe Community College. National Laboratories that received a $2.4 of discoveries for commercial use. “They come in interested in biofuels million U.S. Department of Energy grant to Hanson’s other pending patent explore adapting “microneedles,” extremely application is another potential marketplace and not interested in science. And then to understand biofuels, they’re doing science. small, painless needles developed at Sandia, disruptor — streamlining the process of It’s rewarding.” ❂ to use as moisture sensors for plants. extracting biofuels from algae.
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Faster Horses EquiSeq decodes equine genetics for better health and performance By Leslie Linthicum
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t the core of most living things is the genome, the package of genetic material stored in long molecules of DNA. It’s what makes a person, a whale or a blob of algae grow and develop different characteristics. And it is at the core of developing more effective disease treatments and cures. Scientists around the world have collaborated to map the human genome and continue to work in laboratories to tease out longer pieces of DNA and more complete genomes and to apply genomic discoveries to helping mankind. UNM Professor Jeremy Edwards and retired biology Professor Paul Szauter pursue those ideals, but they also apply those same scientific questions and techniques to horses. Partners in the Albuquerque-based startup EquiSeq, they have already patented
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and licensed four genetic tests that will allow breeders to screen for common but devastating muscle diseases in horses. And they have hit on a trade secret that could revolutionize thoroughbred racehorse breeding. It began with a simple question: What made Secretariat, the fastest horse in racing history, run so fast? The answer is that his heart was more than twice the size of a normal horse’s heart. Bigger heart, better cardiovascular performance, faster speeds. The EquiSeq team went looking for the gene responsible for larger equine hearts and found it. A test for that gene is just one of the performance trait tests the company plans to market. Of all the genetic puzzles to try to unlock, why horses? The founders knew that the human genome marketplace was crowded and
competitive. So instead of competing as one fish in a big pond, they decided to become the big fish in a small but lucrative pond. “Nobody was working this area. It was wide open,” Edwards says. “And horse owners invest a lot of money in their horse. To get a thoroughbred to age two or three, it’s a couple hundred thousand dollars. And you can make millions of dollars in stud fees. So they are looking for technology to protect that investment.” EquiSeq turned to UNM Ph.D. student Alex Hafez (’14 BS) to run the company. Hafez spends his time working out human problems — his doctoral research in the biomedical sciences focuses on trying to find a molecular basis for leukemia and lymphoma, which he hopes will have real-world implications in faster drug discoveries. His only experience with horses was taking a ride at Boy Scout camp.
Unspooling DNA By Leslie Linthicum But he also has an interest in business and completed his coursework for the Anderson School MBA. Through Anderson he met Szauter and got the opportunity of a lifetime — to start in business at the top, as CEO, while still a student. Szauter, a longtime biology professor, left UNM to found the company and serves as chief scientific officer. Edwards holds the unusual title of “chief visionary oracle.” “My role,” says Edwards, “is meeting with them and dreaming up new ideas and applications of technology.” Their search for genes associated with other performance traits and diseases continues. ❂
“It’s kind of a unique spot to be in your career,” Edwards says. “It’s unusual for your research question to be answered before you retire. I found myself in a very unique position of saying, ‘We did it.’ Not me, but we the community. I’d like to think that some of my work contributed to where we are today, not just as a country but as an entire world.” In addition to EquiSeq, Edwards is involved in two other companies. With his assistance, Sentieon has developed the gold standard for finding gene mutations. And Centrillion licensed some technology from his lab that enables sequencing much longer pieces of DNA and more complete genomes. Edwards is also in the final year of coeremy Edwards, professor in directing the National Institutes of Healththe departments of Chemical funded center for better understanding and Nuclear Engineering and spatial temporal modeling — or how cells Molecular Genetics & Microbiology communicate with neighboring cells. and co-director of the New Mexico “In my lab I don’t do anything with Spatiotemporal Modeling Center, spends horses, ” Edwards says. “I’m all about most of his mental energy working on applying technology to studying human problems. humans and human disease. The horse “In general, I develop technology to was just an offshoot. It’s a very small improve DNA sequencing,” Edwards part of what I do, but it turns out to be explains. “Trying to develop new tools exciting and fun.” and techniques to sequence DNA faster, How does a mind travel so nimbly cheaper, more accurately.” between mathematics, chemistry, biology, When Edwards was just starting out as spatial modeling, cell signaling, engineering a Ph.D. candidate and postdoctoral fellow and even quarter horse breeding — and at the University of California, San Diego, connect the dots in ways others haven’t? and Harvard Medical School, he stayed out “The short answer is I have no clue,” of the biochemistry lab and worked with a says Edwards. “I think differently than computer to develop a method to generate most people. I know that.” a massive number of genome fragments Most academics narrow their and sequence them in parallel. focus as they move through education The first human genome sequencing took and research. His has broadened. a decade, hundreds of scientists and $3 “The further I go in my career the billion to complete. more interested I become in other At the time, scientists around the things that I don’t know anything world were working on an ambitious about,” Edwards says. “So I bring a project — to develop the technology to really interesting perspective to most sequence a human genome more quickly problems, because they’re not how and for less than $1,000. Today, a whole most traditional people in the field human genome can be sequenced in a would see them.” ❂ day for a few hundred dollars.
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Fixing Holes in Genes Pharmacy grad keeps eyes on the prize
By Benjamin Gleisser
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rank Bennett (’80 BS) recently experienced three proud moments — and one of them made him cry. Bennett, senior vice president of research at Ionis Pharmaceuticals in Carlsbad, Calif., a company he helped found, received the Leslie Gehry Brenner Prize for Innovation in Science last October for his leadership in developing IONIS-HTTRx, a drug to help combat Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that deteriorates mental abilities and physical control. That same month, he was also the corecipient of a 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences — an award that recognizes the world’s top scientists and comes with $3 million — for developing nusinersen (marketed as SPINRAZA), a drug for children suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative disease that paralyzes muscles and results in death. On the night Bennett received the Breakthrough award, Emma Larsen, a 5-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy who participated in a clinical study to
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demonstrate the efficacy of the drug, took to the stage in a wheelchair, with her beaming parents standing behind her. Seeing the happy girl, who might have died without the new treatment, brought tears to Bennett’s eyes. “It was the most fabulous feeling I’ve ever had,” Bennett remembers. “I’ve been working in this industry for 35 years, and this is the first drug I have developed that has had such a major impact.”
Bennett pauses a moment to reflect, then adds, “Knowing that what I do every day will impact someone in the future and that what I work on will matter to people, is very motivational.” Diseases like Huntington’s and spinal muscular atrophy are the result of mutations in our genetic code that cause genes to either become toxic or lose function. The genetic information is encoded in our DNA and is translated into protein through an intermediate molecule called RNA. Bennett and his colleagues at Ionis Pharmaceuticals have developed highly selective “antisense” drugs, which bind to the RNA and can be designed to selectively inhibit harmful protein production, as is the case for Huntington’s. Conversely, antisense drugs can also be designed to increase protein production for diseases caused by the lack of a particular protein or can modify the processing of the RNA, which can alter the composition of the protein, as is the case for spinal muscular atrophy.
Bennett, who grew up in Aztec, N.M., began working on IONIS-HTT in 2006, in collaboration with Don Cleveland, M.D., at the University of California, San Diego. Bennett’s lab developed the technology, and Cleveland primarily tested the drug’s efficacy in mouse experiments. The research process had many ups and downs, Bennett says. “Our ‘eureka’ moments, where we figured something out and everything came together, were the best moments we had,” he says. “Other times, when experiments didn’t work out, we had to figure out why.” Nusinersen was developed in collaboration with Adrian Krainer, M.D., at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a non-profit research institute in New York. Research on the drug began in 2006 and it was approved for use in 2016. Antisense drug technology is currently being developed to treat other diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, and to combat other neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s
disease, Bennett says. In the latter case, Ionis is targeting the tau protein, which creates neurofibrillary tangles inside nerve cells within the brain and destroys the brain cells. “We’re not only focusing on how to clear the gunk out in the brain by targeting the tau protein, but we’re also looking at how to make neurons healthy again,” Bennett says. As a youngster, Bennett was fascinated by the natural sciences and enrolled at UNM with the goal of majoring in wildlife biology. But after taking a course in pharmacology, he became intrigued by how drugs affected the body. “UNM encouraged my research interests, and I was fascinated by the biochemistry of how drugs affect our biology,” Bennett says. “At the time, Professor John Yuhas was working on cutting-edge cancer research.” Bennett also credited Scott Burchiel, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who “taught me to think as a scientist, rather than just memorize facts
and equations. He showed me how to analyze data and come to conclusions.” After his bachelor’s in pharmacy, Bennett earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Baylor University in 1985. He performed his postdoctoral research in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at SmithKline and French Laboratories. He joined Ionis in 1989. In addition to his duties at Ionis, Bennett serves on the Advisory Board for the Experimental Therapeutics Centre in Singapore. He has published more than 175 papers in the field of antisense research and has more than 150 issued U.S. patents. Looking to the future of science, Bennett says education is the key to keeping science vital. “Education is a big area we need to invest in, and I’d like to see schools hiring more teachers that pique their students’ curiosity and motivate them to learn science,” he says. “A scientist is like a detective searching for the truth. And science can also be fun.” ❂
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Photos: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA) From left, Darnell Cuylear, Associate Professor Heather Canavan, Tye Martin and Phuong Nguyen.
Listening, Thinking, Talking, Designing The Canavan Lab secret is in the teamwork By Leslie Linthicum
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eather Canavan didn’t coin the term “necessity is the mother of invention,” but she is perfecting it in her lab on the second floor of the Centennial Engineering Building. Canavan, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical & Nuclear Engineering, has students at work on inventions that include a better shower chair, a less-gross colonoscopy prep method and a foolproof way to organize blood draw vials. They all stemmed from personal experiences when she, a student or a colleague came up against what Canavan calls “a dumb problem.” Take the Shower Chaise™, a project of biomedical engineering graduate student Tye Martin (’13 BS, ’17 MA). It was 2016 and Canavan was being treated for breast cancer. She had a double mastectomy and returned home with a simple desire. “I really wanted to wash my hair,” she says. The only “technology” available to her was a hard plastic chair she could put in her shower and sit on, while trying to twist
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and bend and keep her chest dressings dry while getting her head wet. Martin knew all about frustrating shower chairs. Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a child, he spends much of his day in a wheelchair. “I’ve constantly dealt with adaptive equipment that really didn’t meet my needs,” Martin says. Doctoral student Phuong Nguyen (’14 BS, ’16 MS, ’18 MBA) knew of her uncle’s frustrations showering after having a stroke. So when Canavan returned to teaching after her medical leave, the brainstorming began. “I thought, ‘This is not a hard problem, this is a dumb problem,’” Canavan says. “It was basically using my experience as a patient, my students’ experiences and our engineering expertise to ask what could work better.” The result is a flexible, customizable shower chaise made of a softer bacteriaresistant material with a back that raises and lowers. The project, which began as
a Lego-built idea and advanced into a 3-D-printed prototype, received a National Science Foundation I-Corps award. The chaise and other inventions are part of Adaptive Biomedical Design, a startup company founded by Canavan and Nguyen, which has resulted so far in five provisional patents, all tailored to improving medical care. While Canavan’s research has been in cell surface interactions, she is embracing the mission of finding practical solutions to obvious problems. “We are beginning to specialize in the dumb problems,” she says. “It’s like, ‘This is a dumb thing. I could fix this.’” Another dumb thing, which everyone who turns 50 learns as they prepare for their colonoscopy screening, is the jug of viscous fluid required to consume to clean out the bowel. When Canavan needed a colonoscopy, she was grossed out by the volume and consistency of the drink. When Nguyen brought in banh mi sandwiches and bubble tea — a Vietnamese
milky tea with floating tapioca pearls — from her cousin’s sandwich shop, the group had an aha moment. What if the polyethylene glycol, the active ingredient in the colonoscopy prep solution, could be suspended in a similar way? “What if we can encapsulate it so you don’t have to taste it?” Nguyen thought. As Nguyen and fellow student Darnell Cuylear, who graduates this spring with a bachelor’s degree in biology, began formulating their invention, they surveyed colonoscopy patients, who told them they rarely finish the prescribed prep dosage because they find it nauseating. And they surveyed gastroenterologists who were open to a better prep technique. They are currently testing their Bubblyte™ in a gastric environment to ensure the capsules break down and release their contents. Cuylear and Nguyen are also working on another invention, a color-coded test tube rack to take the guesswork out of drawing blood. That project grew out of a conversation with Wendy SimmsSmall, a nurse at University Hospital, who described how phlebotomists and nurses use mnemonics to make sure they draw blood into colored vials in the right order to ensure the tests are completed properly. The mnemonics vary from institution to institution and medical professionals often forget them. Cuylear and Nguyen came up with a simple little carrying case, color coded to match test tubes. They’re calling it the Be Positive™ test tube rack. Canavan also has in the works a project she is calling “Genius Beauty Queen,” which aims to reduce bacteria buildup in makeup sponges, an attempt to break into the $850 billion-a-year cosmetics industry. Canavan believes her team has succeeded in developing better products because of her lab’s culture, which stresses collaboration, teamwork and listening to patients’ and caregivers’ concerns. “One of the big problems has been that the people who are designing these things — engineers — aren’t talking to the people who use them,” she says. ❂
Cool It!
UNM student team devises a way to send home the Ranch
The problem: You grew up in New Mexico or went to school here, became addicted to the creamy goodness of Dion’s Ranch dressing, then moved away and your life (and your pizza and salads and sandwiches) became a sad and hollow shell. If only Dion’s could mail bottles of its Ranch or its Green Chile Ranch dressing, which needs to stay refrigerated, to all those addicts out there. The Challenge: Dubbed the Keep It Cool Challenge, Dion’s partnered with UNM’s Innovation Academy to ask student teams to devise a mailing method that would keep bottles of the precious buttermilk-based ranch cool (between 33 and 41 degrees) for at least 72 hours and come in at $10 or under per package. Why Dion’s asked UNM students: First, Dion’s CEO Mark Herman (‘91 BA) is a UNM grad, so there’s a Lobo connection. And, “We’re really good pizza makers, but we’re not scientists and engineers,” said Deena Crawley (’05 BA). “We knew there are really smart, talented UNM students who could help us with this.” And the winners are: Five smart members of Heather Canavan’s engineering lab beat out four other teams with their simple but effective method of lining standard flat rate cardboard boxes from the U.S. Postal Service with layers of foam, newspaper, gel ice packs and dry ice. Team members are: Phuong Nguyen (’14 BS, ’16 MS, ’18 MBA), John Yarmey (’18 BS), Darnell Cuylear, Benjamin Matheson (’14 BS, ’18 MS) and Tye Martin (’13 BS, ’17 MS). How they did it: “We took boxes we had around the lab and started experimenting with different off-the-shelf insulation,” said Martin. Why they did it: “I love Dion’s ranch dressing,” said Cuylear. “It’s so good. I can’t have pizza without it.” What they got: The prize was $1,000 cash and Dion’s for a year (provided pizza consumption stays within a $600 cap).
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Innovation hub By Marleen Linares-González
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ucked behind a vacant Baptist church in downtown Albuquerque lies a lush environment of innovation, entrepreneurship and free-flowing creativity. Lobo Rainforest, UNM Residence Life & Student Housing’s newest housing option, is part of a collaboration between UNM, the city of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County and Nusenda Credit Union. The Innovation Academy, housed within Lobo Rainforest, is a new kind of incubator hub. “Most programs like ours are focused on business and engineering,” said Rob DelCampo, executive director of the Innovation Academy. “I knew that model wouldn’t work here at UNM because of the inclusion we pride
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ourselves on here. I realized we need to be inclusive of all different disciplines to be successful.” At its inception, DelCampo put out a call to faculty around campus to gauge interest in adding innovation and entrepreneurship to the curriculum of courses across all disciplines. Once the new curriculum was developed, it was given the Innovation Academy stamp of approval. In Fall 2015, Academy representatives visited every class it was affiliated with and were able to recruit more than 100 students into the program. Funding from the Kellogg Foundation allowed for the development of the 2+1+2 program, a curriculum geared to nontraditional students who can transition
from an associate degree, through a B.A. in Liberal Arts, and complete a Master of Business Administration or a Master of Public Administration in five years. Today, the Innovation Academy has begun developing its own classes, taking some to UNM branches. And it continues to connect students with each other and local businesses to facilitate learning and innovation in a safe environment. “We just want to provide a lot of different support to students who want to create their own path,” DelCampo said. “We often underestimate the quality of some of the student ideas. Here they have the capability to see through with their ideas and not have to wait until graduation.” More than 900 students from 85 different majors are enrolled in the program and 36 successful student businesses have grown from the Innovation Academy. “The reality is you don’t need a business degree to create a successful business, you just need to know who to ask and how to identify those resources,” DelCampo said. “That’s the gap we’re trying to fill here.” Every idea is not a winner, and that’s part of the process. “I feel like one thing we do particularly well is let them run with their idea, no matter our own personal feelings about it,” said program manager Tiffini Porter. “We also let them fail. Not all of our students succeed at first. But they get to fail in a safe space in a way that doesn’t feel like failure. They just learn a lesson, pivot and try again.” Another success the team prides itself on is their demographic makeup. More than half of its students are women, more than half are students of color and more than 65 percent are first-generation college students. “Traditionally, only 10 percent of technology entrepreneurs are non-white, non-male,” DelCampo said. “We’re reaching our target demographics and we’re really proud of that.” ❂
I
At only 22, Kyle Guin is a start-up veteran
n his first year at UNM, Kyle Guin felt like something was missing. The Aztec, N.M., native was struggling with the traditional classroom setting and, at one point, wasn’t even sure he’d finish school. Luckily, UNM’s Innovation Academy was able to fill in those missing pieces. Guin was one of the first students to sign up for the Innovation Academy in the incubator hub’s early days. He helped to develop the skeleton of the program while the Innovation Academy team — executive director Robert Del Campo, program manager Tiffini Porter and coordinator of program advisement Becca Rodriguez — helped keep him engaged. “Entrepreneurship is all about ‘what you put into it is what you get out of it,’” Guin said. “If you’re really willing to work with the team, they’ll go the extra mile to help you.” As soon as Guin joined the Innovation Academy, he got straight to work on his first idea. As a student, he was constantly frustrated with the task of lugging a calendar around and, when he didn’t have it, not being able to reference what he had written down. In came the idea for Pencil-In, a mobile app that photographs your planner and enters the data into your phone calendar. Guin pitched the idea at a couple of pitch contests and started lining up capital for his project. He was able to develop a functional version for personal use and the app was available for sale by September 2017. Traction was steady but slow until early 2018, when Guin and his team were featured in a story on PBS NewsHour. That story sparked a chain reaction of more coverage for Guin, and Pencil-In quickly gained more than 10,000 users. But Pencil-In’s success was just starting. Albuquerque startup Lens acquired PencilIn and hired Guin. “It was a great offer,” he said. “To have a successful exit before I graduate college at the age of 22 is pretty unheard of, so it was something I couldn’t turn down.”
Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
WHIZ KID By Marleen Linares-González
Guin is now marketing director at Lens, an online privacy company, while his entrepreneurial spirit continues on through his second business, Shutter Bombs. Shutter Bombs, a smoke bomb supplier, was born out of an Innovation Academy course called “Create, Sell, Bank,” in which students are tasked with planning and establishing multiple streams of income for their product or service. Guin’s friend at the time was having trouble finding a reliable, affordable source of smoke bombs for a photo shoot. Thus, Shutter Bombs was born. Guin sourced suppliers and a quick shipping network and began building the website. Although there were bumps on the road at first, Shutter Bombs is growing exponentially and flourishing. Shutter
Bombs were featured in popular hip-hop artist Travis Scott’s music video. Guinn hopes to double the size of the business by the end of 2019 and to graduate this spring with a degree in early stage business operations and general management. He credits the Innovation Academy for his ongoing success. “The more I got involved with the Innovation Academy, the more I was able to work on real-life problems, real-life situations with real-life issues but also real-life returns. My concentration shifted a lot and because of that I’m able to graduate college. And it fills the cracks that I felt I was missing out on in the everyday classroom.” ❂
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By Leslie Linthicum
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ansoor Sheik-Bahae breaks down his field of cooling research into six words: “The game of light and heat.” It sounds like a paradox, since light causes heat, but Sheik-Bahae and his team of graduate students and research staff have identified a novel technique that produces a net loss of energy that results in a cooling effect like no other. “If I could describe it in one sentence,” he says, “it would be mitigating heat using lasers. Every device generates heat — your iPhone, your computer. Heat is always a problem. You always want to dissipate heat, remove it, because it degrades the performance of any device.” Cooling mechanically is nothing new, and there are effective cryocoolers — or mechanisms for producing extreme cold — on the market. “But they are mechanical, and anything that has moving parts and motors creates vibration, which is detrimental to many applications,” Sheik-Bahae says. The concept of optical refrigeration was first predicted in 1929 in Germany and first demonstrated in 1995 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sheik-Bahae has been playing with the concept ever since.
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Last year, his group — Ph.D. student Junwei Meng, research professor Alexander Albrecht, postdoc Azzurra Volpi and Ph.D. student Saeid Rostami — along with collaborators from Los Alamos and a start-up company, TDF LLC in Santa Fe, managed to demonstrate the coldest-ever
thus removing heat. Because the coolers are solid state, meaning they have no moving parts or fluids, they are more reliable and generate no vibrations. They have successfully cooled a crystal to about minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
UNM researchers have developed the world’s coldest all-solid-state refrigerator
milestone, an accomplishment that was highlighted in various science magazines and editorials and bannered on the cover of the Laser Focus World magazine. At its most basic, their invention — the trademarked CryoRay cooler — cools by beaming laser light at one frequency into a crystal that reemits it at higher frequencies,
Many devices need to be cooled — sensors, superconductive electronics, gamma ray sensors, thermal cameras — and an efficient solid-state cryocooling device could extend their lives and improve their performance, Sheik-Bahae says. His group is currently working closely with scientists at the National
Institute of Standard and Technology to integrate their ultra-precise clock with UNM’s laser cooler. In order to make it work, they need to cool a piece of crystalline silicon to very low temperature (minus 236 degrees Fahrenheit) but in a totally vibration-free environment. To do that now, they use a bulky cryostat attached to a huge tank of liquid nitrogen. “If we can integrate our cryocooler with their technology, it’s a game changer,” says Sheik-Bahae, “because that makes that technology accessible to a lot of applications that need such a precise time-keeping.” The cooler being fine-tuned in his lab is about the size of a microwave oven and contains at its core a small crystal. Sheik-Bahae will leave the
Mansoor Sheik-Bahae
details of the design and manufacture to others. “I’m a physicist,” Sheik-Bahae says. “My question is, ‘Can we cool this thing to low temperatures using this approach?’ In the end, I am not going to deliver a gadget. That is for someone else to do. I’m going to move on to other questions. Can we make it smaller? Can we make it more efficient? Can we make it colder?” While Sheik-Bahae and his group have been working on cryogenic cooling with lasers for more than 20 years, he is now aiming for making lasers that won’t generate any heat at all. His lab received part of a $7.5 million research grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to pursue novel lasers that will balance the heat they generate by the fluorescence they emit. In this project,
dubbed MARBLE, Sheik-Bahae leads a team of scientists from five institutions to investigate such “athermal” lasers in various media. Like many academics, Sheik-Bahae turns puzzles over in his mind all the time. He often starts with basic scientific questions and allows them to lead him to invention. “Academic freedom means you get to look for interesting puzzles,” Sheik-Bahae says. “The boundaries of knowledge and science are totally abstract. You start with a question and you never know where it will lead, especially in physics. What makes us tick as scientists is we’re trying to solve problems. Our primary goal is to educate students so they can go out and solve other problems.” ❂
Azzurra Volpi
Junwei Meng
Photos: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
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M
any scientists only dream of being on the cutting edge of a new field in biology, but for more than 15 years Vojo Deretic has been at the forefront of research focused on autophagy — a cellular process central to many biological systems that promises to hold the key to curing infectious diseases and cancer.
started looking into harnessing autophagy for disease treatment, Deretic had already received grants with different research objectives. His forays into the new field eventually pioneered the application of autophagy as an antimicrobial tool by manipulating the process to kill tuberculosis bacteria in immune cells.
TAKING OUT THE
GARBAGE By Kara Leasure Shanley
Vojo Deretic harnesses cell’s cleanup mechanism for disease treatment
The journey has been full of professional risks, fascination and legacy for Deretic, professor and chair in UNM’s Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology. His move to UNM in 2001 led to highprofile work in what was then a rapidly evolving and controversial field of study. If a cell has damaged parts or has been invaded by bacteria, it can either remove these harmful substances or die. This is autophagy’s function: it is the cell’s dynamic recycling mechanism. Cells can also use autophagy to feed on themselves during starvation. Delving into a novel cellular function is perilous, especially when most biologists have yet to realize its significance. When he
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But Deretic did not stop there. He also demonstrated experimentally that autophagy could aid the immune system during HIV infection by destroying viral particles and slowing their spread through the body’s cells. His innovative idea of harnessing autophagy to stop infection has inspired other researchers to study its use to combat deadly parasites and in diseases with dysfunctional proteins, such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. Though these applications have yet to jump from the laboratory bench to the clinic, research is already underway to identify drugs that could one day activate autophagy to treat human disease.
Deretic remembers his early days fondly. “Because it was such a rapidly developing field,” he says, “you could really do spectacular science and make breakthroughs on a yearly basis, and that’s what I got accustomed to.” That meant multiple publications in prominent journals like Science and Nature, bringing more recognition to UNM. Deretic realizes the benefits that his research brings to New Mexico, a place he was in love with even before he found his academic home at UNM. Born in Croatia, he attended the University of Belgrade and the University of Paris for his bachelor’s and graduate degrees. He eventually traveled to the University of Illinois at Chicago for post-doctoral work and received faculty appointments at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Michigan. Deretic remembers visiting New Mexico while living in Texas — even dreaming of owning a home in Santa Fe, despite having little income at the time. “We loved New Mexico,” Deretic says, “so there was always a big attraction.” “I’m not in science to work for money or anything like that,” he says, laughing. “I’m here for interest, and it’s funny enough that in New Mexico I could pursue those.” That interest garnered an $11 million National Institutes of Health grant to establish the Autophagy, Inflammation and Metabolism in Disease Center at the UNM Health Sciences Center, the first NIH-funded autophagy center of its kind. And he was recently selected for a prestigious MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) award from NIH to continue his work. The award means that Deretic will have his research funded for another eight to 10 years without having to submit it for a competitive renewal process. He’s proud that the award will aid future autophagy researchers. “I am particularly happy that it’s actually not for me,” he says. “It’s for the environment, the junior faculty and their students. This should give a boost to a lot of different things. It’s really not personal, not my career — it’s about multiple careers.” ❂
Mapping
The Brain And taking the guesswork out of diagnosing mental illness By Leslie Linthicum
B
ipolar disorder and schizophrenia are complex mental illnesses that share symptoms and are often difficult to differentiate during diagnosis. Diagnosing the correct illness — and early on — can guide a patient toward the correct medication and greatly reduce suffering. Vince Calhoun, a distinguished professor in the UNM Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and president of the Mind Research Network, is making inroads in using functional magnetic resonance imaging to map blood flow in the brains of patients with the goal of making quicker and better psychiatric diagnoses. He is also using the technology to assess the effectiveness of drugs used to treat some mental illness. “We’re taking brain images of people diagnosed with mental illnesses while people are sitting in the scanner essentially just resting,” Calhoun explains. He can see and measure brain activity and identify differences in how the neural networks communicate in people with various mental illness diagnoses. Then, a trained classifier looks at the data and picks out the difference between someone who has schizophrenia and someone who has bipolar disorder, or
the difference between someone who has bipolar disorder and depression. “We’ve been able to predict with greater than 90 percent accuracy whether a patient has schizophrenia or bipolar disorder,” Calhoun says. Using the same technique, Calhoun has looked at brain scans of patients diagnosed as either bipolar or depressed and being treated with common drugs — antidepressants or mood stabilizers. By following the patients for a year or two and seeing which of the drug treatments helped, he was able to sort out which diagnoses were accurate and develop a method for recognizing the difference between bipolar and depression on brain scans. “We were able to accurately predict for people who were bipolar or depressed when they came in and also for the folks who were unknown,” Calhoun says. “And again it was over 90 percent accurate.” If clinicians could use a brain scan in initial diagnosis, Calhoun says, “this would allow people to get on the right medication early on. They won’t have to go through a year or two of being really out of sorts, or even getting seriously ill, because they’re on the wrong medication.” A patent application is pending and STC.UNM, UNM’s tech transfer arm,
is working to bring the diagnostic tool to the marketplace, where it could be a game-changer for streamlining diagnosis and medication options and guiding pharmaceutical companies as they develop drugs. “We’re not there yet,” Calhoun says. “We need more studies to make sure it works with different MRI scanners and in different clinics.” Calhoun, an electrical engineer by training, found his calling in the psychiatric field while he earned master’s degrees in biomedical engineering and information systems at Johns Hopkins University followed by a Ph.D. at the University of Maryland. He began his career work in a psychiatric neuroimaging lab and became enamored with collecting large amounts of data related to electrical networks in the brain and analyzing the data to predict patterns. “I really think psychiatry is a black box,” Calhoun says. “And I’d like to untangle it because it impacts so many people’s lives. Brain imaging coupled with advanced analytics to help answer important questions about mental illness within individuals provides a way forward.” ❂
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CHEERS! There’s a new brew on tap, woof, woof, woof By Leslie Linthicum
From left, Denise, Jennifer and Randy Baker with their unique Lobo brew.
I
t takes about 10 days for the hops from Washington, the cherry juice from Oregon and the water from Albuquerque to reinvent themselves into the cold, fizzy, rosy, tasty beer known as El Lobo Rojo — The Red Wolf. It took a lifetime for Denise and Randy Baker to get to the point in their lives where beer, family, community and Lobo sports knitted together to create this brew. On tap at Lobo sporting events and at the Bakers’ brewpub, Rio Bravo Brewing Co. north of downtown Albuquerque,
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Photos: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
El Lobo Rojo aims to allow UNM faculty, staff, alumni and students of legal drinking age to show their school colors while having a cold one. (Aggies, Arizona State alumni, graduates of the School of Hard Knocks and anyone else in the universe are also welcome to sip a can or glass of the bespoke cherry wheat brew and support UNM athletics.) Under an agreement with UNM through Learfield Licensing, 12 percent of the Bakers’ distribution sales outside of the Rio Bravo taps goes to support the UNM Athletic Department.
“We’re pretty excited about it,” says Denise Baker, who with her husband also runs D.R.B. Electric, as well as the brewery. “We needed a signature beer and we wanted something that is pleasing to all palates, not just to craft beer people.” Since they approached UNM officials more than a year ago, the Bakers’ brew is now on tap at their brewery (where general manager Gabriel Alarid (’10 BFA) might pull your draft) and also at Dreamstyle Stadium, Dreamstyle Arena and the Draft and Table taproom in the Student Union Building. Its cherry red and turquoise cans are at Kelly’s Liquor, Jubilation Wine & Spirits, Quarters package stores and in Albertsons grocery stores. Randy Baker never attended UNM and Denise attended for two years before transferring to ASU. So how did these two get so “woof, woof, woof?” Denise was two months away from being born when her parents moved to Albuquerque from Kansas and immediately bought season tickets to UNM basketball. That was in 1959 and the family has been season ticket holders since. Daughter Jennifer (’16 BA) who now handles the brewery’s marketing, says, “We’ve always been Lobo fans for as long as I can remember.” She and her sister Kristen, a junior in the Anderson School, even spent time as volunteer sweat moppers during Lobo basketball games. So tying one thing they love — beer — to another — Lobo sports — just made sense. And when Bosque Brewing Company struck a licensing deal with New Mexico State University and began producing Pistol Pete’s 1888, Randy said he felt a challenge.
“I said, ‘Wait a minute. We can’t be outdone by the Aggies down south.’” The use of cherry juice for their signature brew made sense, and Rio Bravo’s two brewmasters worked to tweak the taste and color into something that could proudly represent UNM. The can design was another lengthy process in consultation with Learfield. The end result combines school colors, the Sandia mountains, the Lobo shield and even a snippet of the Lobo fight song: “Fighting ever. Yielding never.”
“I think it’s exciting,” says Jennifer. “And I think it’s especially important to support UNM. You go to UNM, you’re drinking UNM beer and some of that money goes into UNM sports.” Randy hopes that the beer will create a buzz and maybe get people a little more enthused about UNM’s mission and its sports teams — win or lose. Randy quaffed a Lobo Rojo at the last home game of UNM’s football team and found it helped him swallow the 31-3 loss. “Hey,” he says, “Who doesn’t love a good cold beer?” ❂
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UNM PEOPLE CHANGING WORLDS
GIVING LIFE AND HOPE UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center Clinical Trial Focuses on Combination Drug Therapy to Treat Ovarian Cancer By Miranda Fafard
T
he UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center is home to New Mexico’s largest team of world-class cancer specialists, representing every cancer specialty and treating more than 65 percent of New Mexico’s adults and virtually all children affected by cancer. Among its 125 boardcertified oncology physicians is Sarah Foster Adams, M.D., who has dedicated her life’s work to women affected with cancers of the uterus, cervix and ovaries.
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Adams relocated from Philadelphia to New Mexico in 2012 after accepting both a clinical and research appointment at the Cancer Center — an endowed professorship funded in part by a major gift from the Surface Family Trust through the estate of Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface. “I’d never been to New Mexico when I first came out here for a meeting, and it was gorgeous,” Adams said. “I said something to my co-workers about how we should move
our research center out here. A year later, I was living here with my family. The fact that the Cancer Center and the University offered me an endowed position was something I interpreted as evidence they had a lot of confidence in the work I was doing, which means a lot to me.” That confidence was well placed, as Adams’ work in ovarian cancer research and treatment — specifically tumor immunology — has yielded much new
information and progress, giving hope to women affected by recurrent and hereditary ovarian cancer and their families. Adams currently runs a clinical trial based on previous lab research, with a goal of enrolling 50 women by the end of 2019. As of October, she had treated 32 women using a combination of two drugs that had previously only been used separately. UNM was chosen as the first site to run this clinical trial as a member of ORIEN (Oncology Research Information Exchange Network), a national consortium of leading cancer centers. Adams and her team rose to the challenge of developing the infrastructure to support the trial, which has now expanded to multiple sites across the nation and generated interest among patients who are willing to travel for treatment. This trial uses immune therapy in combination with targeted treatment for ovarian cancer. Instead of treating cancer by directly killing tumor cells, immune therapy enables a patient’s own immune cells to attack tumors. This is sometimes called “taking the brakes off T cells.” T cells are white blood cells that kill germs and cancer cells. Research from Adams’s lab showed that immune therapy was more effective in ovarian cancer when it was combined with a second drug called a PARP inhibitor. The goal of this combined approach is to teach immune cells to recognize, track down and destroy cancer cells, even as the cancer changes or potentially metastasizes. “I hope what we’re going to be able to show is some of the drugs we’ve been using all along can provide greater benefits to patients if we can leverage these additional mechanisms,” Adams explained. The five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer remains at less than 50 percent.
Even though not every case has a positive outcome, Adams is determined to persist in discovering new therapies to eradicate ovarian cancer. “It’s of course very difficult to lose patients,” she said. “Figuring out a way to do a better job of taking care of people means everything to me. It would validate all the hours in the lab and everything else, and I feel like the achievements have already made it worthwhile.” Adams’ work and the clinical trial wouldn’t be possible without transformational gifts like the Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Endowed Professorship, along with an additional gift from Victor and Ruby’s daughter, Carolyn Surface. This generous Albuquerque family has been the driving support to bring world-class cancer researchers to UNM. Carolyn feels Adams was the best choice for this position. “She’s absolutely top-notch,” Carolyn said. “Her energy and enthusiasm — just everything about her — is totally aligned to her research.” “Recruiting world-class faculty like Sarah Adams is possible because we have generous donors like Victor, Ruby, and Carolyn Hansen Surface, who understood that creating endowed faculty positions would allow the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center to compete for the very best cancer physicians and scientists in the country to join our team here in New Mexico,” said Cheryl Willman, M.D., director and CEO of the Cancer Center. “Dr. Adams’ new immunotherapy treatment for women with recurrent ovarian cancer shows great promise, giving life and hope not only to women in New Mexico but also across the United States.” While this research and clinical trial will lay a solid foundation for future treatments, this work is also very personal for Adams.
“I’ve gotten to know the patients on the trial,” she said. “One of them is a woman with little kids. I happened to be in the clinic the day that she got her first [posttreatment] CAT scan, and she had an over 90 percent reduction in her tumor. I got to tell her that good news. It’s unbelievably gratifying.” ❂ To support the Women’s Cancer Research Fund, visit UNMFund.org/fund/ womens-cancer-research, and to support the UNM Cancer Center Patient Care fund, visit UNMFund.org/fund/unmccpatient-care-fund. You may also contact JooHee Berglund at JooHee. Berglund@unmfund.org or (505) 925-0471, or Lorraine Hare at Lorraine. Hare@unmfund.org or (505) 272-4609.
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Shelf Life
Books by UNM Alumni
Upon their re-entry into New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Spanish colonial government and the Catholic Church agreed that for their second attempt at colonization to succeed, they would need families. So a caravan of immigrants headed north to Santa Fe. Their family names — Chavez, Lopez, Sanchez, Duran — read like a modern-day telephone directory. In Colonial New Mexico Families: Community, Church, and State, 1692-1800 (University of New Mexico Press, 2018) researcher Suzanne M. Stamatov (’92 MA, ’05 PHD) uses church and civil records to tell the stories of how family relationships functioned in this trying frontier. Families shared land and supported one another financially and gathered to celebrate feast days. There was also infidelity, meddling in-laws and bickering over property. Visitors to Albuquerque’s North Valley, and certainly natives who have watched the Valley change from a rural enclave to a collection of subdivisions and bustling commercial centers, will appreciate Albuquerque’s North Valley: Los Griegos & Los Candelarias (Rio Grande Books, 2018). Francelle E. Alexander (’66 BAED, ’77 MA) meticulously chronicles the shift from 1700s-era Hispanic village to incorporation into the city of Albuquerque for these two charming neighborhoods. With biographical sketches of the most important founding families and photographs of adobe homes, farm fields and businesses, Alexander shows how much the neighborhoods have changed and how much of their history has been preserved. With Albuquerque’s North Valley: Alameda & Los Ranchos (Rio Grande Books, 2018), Alexander uses the same sources of documentation to explore history and change in the far North Valley. New Mexicans have a long and strong history of military service, so it should be no surprise that more than 14,000 New Mexicans served in the armed forces in World War I. In Lest We Forget: World War I and New Mexico (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018) historian David V. Holtby (’75 MA) offers the first comprehensive study of New Mexico’s role in the four-year war and its repercussions on the men who came home. Holtby’s research began with this question: Why did he know so little about the Great War? With the help of letters home from and questionnaires completed by veterans, Holtby fleshes out the story of the horrors seen and carried home. Valerie Shere Mathes (’63 BA, ’65 MA) has made a career of researching California Indian history. The latest from the historian, a member of the faculty at City College of San Francisco, explores the Indian agents charged with carrying out policies of the United States government in Southern California in the late 19th century. Reservations Removal and Reform: The Mission Indian Agents of Southern California 1878 - 1903 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), written with co-author Phil Brigandi, profiles seven agents who carried enormous sway over the Mission Indians, in areas including
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education, health care, law enforcement and land issues. While U.S. policy was set in Washington, the men who served as agents brought their own ideas, strengths and weaknesses to the tribes they served. The authors conclude that the seven men “were a varied lot” and ranged from ineffective placeholders to dedicated public servants to an artifactpocketing scoundrel. Jim Sagel (’76 MA) died by suicide in 1998, leaving behind a legacy of award-winning published poems and short stories, newspaper columns and essays and a state filled with devoted friends. Some of those friends combined efforts to bring the manuscript of Sagel’s first and only novel to publication. Some Are Born Under A Star (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2018) takes place in the fictional New Mexico village of San Buenaventura, which borrows characteristics of Española, Chimayó, Santa Cruz and Tierra Amarilla, With the Christmas play Los Pastores as a backdrop, Sagel introduces the people of San Buenaventura who play the parts in the pageant, including Marta, the Holy Virgin, who is pregnant with her own son. Their stories, tragic and funny and human, are repeated in Spanish in the second half of the book. The Del Toros of southern Colorado run a family business and young Matt, who is 12, is starting to learn the ropes. That is where normal ends in Del Toro Moon (Owl Hollow Press, 2018), a middle-grade fantasy novel by Darby Karchut (’81 BA). The family business is slaying the howling, fanged monsters known as skinners, who imperil the good people of the eastern slope. Matt has at his advantage the family legacy, a hefty mace and El Cid, his 1,200-pound talking horse. With a National Humanities medal, the National Medal of the Arts and a place of enduring honor in the realm of Chicano literature, Rudolfo Anaya (’63 BAED, ’69 MA) could rest on his well-earned laurels. But in Chupacabra Meets Billy The Kid (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018) the author of Bless Me, Ultima, goes back to the village of Puerta de Luna in a daring and very modern satire. Melding time travel, magical realism and the folklore of the Chupacabra monster, Anaya transports a young Chicana writing a novel about Billy the Kid from the 21st century back to the 19th century and the Lincoln County War. Hispanic land grants, secret scientists known as the C-Force, wormholes and lilting Spanish corridos all have a place in Anaya’s latest offering. The subtitle of Beyond Cancer: The Powerful Effect of Plant-Based Eating (Wellness Ink Publishing, 2018) is “How to adopt a plant-based diet to optimize cancer survival and long-term health.” For author Sally Lipsky (’75 BSED), none of that is academic. Diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer in 2007, Lipsky began practicing the vegan diet she recommends. With a disclaimer that she is not giving medical advice, Lipsky’s slim volume runs readers through basics of grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, offers practical meal planning and a couple dozen easy recipes.
The first section of the collection of poems that comprise The Handyman’s Guide to End Times (University of New Mexico Press, 2018), explores loss and the end of the narrator’s relationship. “If I could, one last time, I would kiss the freckles/and moles you hate, the matching cigarette burns/on your hands, the small knee scar/you never explained.” Poet Juan J. Morales (’05 MFA) organizes a man’s life journey from divorce to rebuilding in a new home and finally to feeling love again. Regular readers of Shelf Life will be acquainted with the tales of Nasario Garcia (’62 BA, ’63 MA), a native New Mexican and prolific chronicler of New Mexico folklore. In his latest collection, No More Bingo, Comadre! (University of New Mexico Press, 2018), Garcia introduces readers to Doñas Socorro and Adelfa who take their coins to the Indian casino when the parish bingo game shuts down, to a Halloween prank tipping outhouses that ends with a boy in the caca hole, and to a Spanglish showdown on the Corrales bridge between a rancher and a corrupt sheriff. And who can resist a chapter titled “Grandpa Lolo’s Gay Rooster,” a story that also features drunken chickens? In praising By Heart (The Wildflower Press, 2018), a collection of 51 short poems by Karen McKinnon (’60 BA, ’77 MA), UNM Professor Emeritus David Johnson writes, “There is nothing tentative or coy about these poems.” Indeed. Steeped in the natural world and very much rooted in life in New Mexico, McKinnon writes about sadness and loss. The burden of possessions, the weight of aging, the lapse of days into dusk. From “Fugue”: “Evening gathers up its rags/Ragged gatherings of clouds appear/crossing the sky like gray rag rugs/frayed by the wind.” V.B. Price (’62 BA) writes in his forward to Imagine a City That Remembers, The Albuquerque Rephotography Project (University of New Mexico Press, 2018) that the authors, architect Anthony Anella and UNM School of Architecture and Planning Professor Mark C. Childs, “join a long and distinguished list of patriots who’ve struggled for more than three decades to preserve Albuquerque’s fascinating history from the rapacious demands of constant and random growth.” The book grew out of a series of photographs of Albuquerque streetscapes and articles about New Mexico’s largest city published in The Albuquerque Tribune in the late 1990s. A photograph taken in 1910 or 1958 is juxtaposed with one taken from the same vantage point in 1998. The photos alone are fascinating — buildings here one year and gone decades later, or streetscapes that have survived largely unchanged as the city has grown. In essays the authors describe patterns of change and continuity and the forces that have shaped Albuquerque. This edition updates with perspectives from 2017.
ATTENTION PUBLISHED ALUMNI AUTHORS: We would like to add your book to the alumni library in Hodgin Hall and consider it for a review in Shelf Life. Please send an autographed copy to: Shelf Life, UNM Alumni Relations 1 UNM, MSC01-1160, Albuquerque, NM 87131
Stuart R. Butzier (’89 JD), Albuquerque, shareholder with Modrall Sperling, was selected by Best Lawyers in America as a 2019 Lawyer of the Year for environmental law in Santa Fe. He was also named Lawyer Stuart R. Butzier of the Year in natural resources, energy and environment by the State Bar of New Mexico. P. Timothy Eichenberg (’89 BA), Albuquerque, is the New Mexico state treasurer. 1990s Mark Anthony Basham (’90 JD), Santa Fe, N.M., is Española’s city prosecutor. Steven Lee Carr (’90 BA), Los Lunas, N.M., was awarded the Lee & Marie Hirst Vista Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Public Relations. Larry Leo Luna (’90 BSME), Albuquerque, was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Brenda Pinion (’90 BBA), Albuquerque, has been named chief financial officer/associate at FBT Architects, an Albuquerque-based design firm. She previously served as the firm’s comptroller. James Adrian Abreu (’91 PhD), Las Vegas, N.M., received the Administrator of the Year award from the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders. Kristina Bogardus (’91 JD), Albuquerque, is on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. Stanley Godfrey Hrncir (’91 BBA, ’94 MBA), Albuquerque, is chief financial officer at Dion’s Pizza. Esther Marie Garduño-Montoya (’91 JD), Las Vegas, N.M., is the Las Vegas city attorney. Maria O’Brien (’91 JD), a shareholder with Modrall Sperling, was selected by Best Lawyers in America as a 2019 Lawyer of the Year for water law.
Maria O’Brien
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A UNM Legacy
“Nelson Mandela stated, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which can change the world.’ We are proud to be part of the UNM family by helping to improve the lives of many young people by preparing them with a solid education for the future challenges of this world.” – Dr. Siu G. Wong and Dr. William L. Jones ( B.S. ‘69)
Siu and William have chosen to make a lasting impact by including UNM in their estate plan. Legacy gifts help students succeed, advance research, aid patients, and assist health careproviders for years to come. For more information about how you can create a legacy at UNM, please call 505-313-7610.
Look forward by giving back.
@UNMFund
UNMFoundation
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SHOW YOUR PRIDE ON YOUR PLATE!
New Mexico motorists, get your Lobo license plate today! $25 from each plate is donated to the University.
INFO: www.unmalumni.com/license-plate
The University of New Mexico
Alumni Memorial Chapel A P L AC E TO C E L E B R AT E
ARE YOU A
LO BO? MAKE YOUR WEDDING HISTORIC
BEAUTIFUL NEW MEXICO LANDMARK NONDENOMINATIONAL LOCATED ON MAIN CAMPUS
505-277-5808 Visit www.unmalumni.com/chapel to take a virtual tour and book online
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“The results of philanthropy are always beyond calculation.” – Miriam Beard
What does philanthropy mean to a university? It means that students can work towards their goal of earning a degree, faculty can share their expertise with students, researchers can work towards discovering scientific advances, and health care providers can provide top-tier care for patients. Philanthropy comes in all forms and can provide scholarships, programmatic funding, faculty support, and more. The UNM Foundation is proud to work with donors – like you – to support the students, faculty, and programs at The University of New Mexico. Every gift can change worlds.
Whose World Will You Change? Visit unmfund.org to make a gift today. @UNMFund
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RSVP “Yes” and Get To Know UNM
O
ne of the benefits of serving as president of your Alumni Association is that I attend the numerous events and festivities put on by the Association. And although it has kept my calendar full, and my days and evenings busy, it has been an incredible experience, exposing me to many aspects of UNM and the Alumni Association that I — and I’m sure many of you — are not aware of. I’ve had the good fortune to attend pre-game tailgate events organized by the Association and its local chapters, which John Brown are always fun and well attended by Lobos throughout the country. Our local chapters carry the Lobo spirit across the country and engage and support UNM alumni with special events including chile roasts, happy hours, and entertaining social events. At UNM, the Association’s Lobo Living Room events showcase really cool aspects of the university. Whether it’s a professor totally into the science of beer, an introduction to the men’s and women’s golf teams, a night of fine wine and rare literary treasures at Zimmerman Library or a walk on Mars guided by the Earth and Planetary Sciences faculty, each event showcases some of the amazing things going on at UNM that make it one of the country’s leading research universities. The Veteran’s Day Celebration organized by the Association at the Alumni Memorial Chapel was one of the most moving experiences of the year. It showcased our ROTC cadets and midshipmen, and the remarkable UNM Concert Choir while honoring UNM alumni who, since World War I, gave the ultimate sacrifice. Our annual All University Fall Awards Breakfast honored distinguished Lobos, young and old, from across the university. And the Lobos for Legislation, another Association-sponsored group, provides a focused venue for advocating for UNM with local, state and national political leaders. All of these activities (and more) are organized by your Alumni Association. I am certain that if you participate in these events, your enthusiasm for and connection to UNM will become a part of your life. So read your Mirage, pay attention to the Howler when it comes in your email inbox, and go to the Alumni Association website (UNMAlumni.com) to see a calendar of these many events, and attend as many as you can as a proud Lobo. You won’t be disappointed!
John W. Brown Alumni Association President
Don Butterfield (’92 BA, ’01 MBA), Reno, Nev., was named director of business development for the new Reno Behavioral Healthcare Hospital. Butterfield will oversee marketing Don Butterfield and business development for the 124-bed hospital. Jana Giles (’94 MA), Monroe, La. associate professor of English at the University of Louisiana Monroe, has received a Regents Award allowing her a year-long sabbatical to complete her research Jana Giles project, “The Post/ Colonial Sublime: Aesthetics, Politics, and Ethics in the Twentieth-Century Novel.” Melissa Eakin Mason (’94 BS, ’00 MD), Albuquerque, was honored with an Award for Special Achievement by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the New Mexico Pediatric Society. Debra Anne Haaland (’94 BA, ’06 JD), Albuquerque, was elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing the 1st Congressional District. Floripa P. Gallegos (’95 JD), Las Vegas, N.M., is a Fourth Judicial District judge. Stephanie Marie Yara (’95 BA, ’01 MBA), Albuquerque, is the Albuquerque City Council’s director of council services. Bert R. Parnall (’97 JD), Albuquerque, is the president of The Rotary Club of Albuquerque. Michael James Chicarelli (’97 BSN, ’11 MSN, ’15 DNP), Bosque Farms, N.M., is chief operating officer for University of New Mexico Hospitals. Olivia Elizabeth Padilla-Jackson (’98 BBA), Albuquerque, is the city budget officer for the city of Albuquerque.
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UNM ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AWARD WINNERS
T
he UNM Alumni Association
James F. Zimmerman Award
Bernard S. Rodey Award
proudly honored the
Bernard F. Fuemmeler (’94 BA) Bernard F. Fuemmeler, Ph.D., is professor and Gordon D. Ginder, MD Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Fuemmeler received his B.A. in psychology and philosophy from UNM and then pursued advanced degrees at Oklahoma State University, Harvard University and the National Cancer Institute. He began his academic career at Duke University in Durham, N.C., where he was on the faculty for 11 years in the Department of Family Medicine. As a research professor at Duke he led a number of population-based studies, mentored and trained post-doctoral and junior faculty, and founded and directed mHealth@Duke — a schoolwide co-laboratory whose mission was to expand research, education and leadership in mobile and digital health. In 2016 he was recruited to VCU’s Massey Cancer Center, an NCIdesignated cancer center. In his position as associate director of cancer prevention and control, Fuemmeler is responsible for the development and coordination of Massey’s cancer prevention and control research program. He has authored numerous peerreviewed scientific publications and book chapters, and holds one U.S. patent for his work in mobile and digital health.
Amy Wohlert (‘78 BUS, ’80 MA, ’11 MBA) Over a 25-year career, Amy Wohlert, Ph.D., has served in 15 administrative positions in multiple capacities at UNM. She has broad experience in academic administration at the University, having served as interim dean at the Anderson School of Management, interim director of the School for Public Administration and as the dean of Graduate Studies. Additionally, she has served UNM as vice provost and dean of Graduate Education, associate provost for Academic Affairs (Curriculum and Instruction) and chair of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences. She completed her career at UNM as chief of staff for the Office of the President, where she served as deputy to the president to advance the initiatives of the office internally and externally. She is also professor emeritus in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences.
recipients of its prestigious 2019 Winter Awards during the annual Winter Awards Dinner held on Feb. 7 at Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town.
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
Martin L. Salazar (’98 BA), Albuquerque, is the city editor of the Albuquerque Journal. Laurie Anne Magovern (’99 MA), Albuquerque,is executive director of TEDxABQ. 2000s
Erna S. Fergusson Award
Faculty Teaching Award
Bradford Zeikus (’66 JD) Bradford Zeikus is one of the UNM School of Law’s most dedicated and longest-serving alumni. Zeikus practices family law and has helped hundreds of New Mexico families since he began practicing in 1969. He helped develop the curriculum for the Family Law Institute and has chaired the family law specialization committee for the past 12 years. He also served as president of the Albuquerque Bar Association. He is highly committed to the State Bar of New Mexico’s Senior Lawyers Division and has served as chair multiple times. With the Senior Lawyers Division, he helped establish a fund in 2016 that provides law students with scholarships and honors the memories of attorneys who passed away the year before. Zeikus graduated from the UNM School of Law in 1966. In 1972, he was asked to co-found the Law Alumni Association Board of Directors. He not only helped establish the Law Alumni Board, but also has served continuously since its inception and has seen its evolution and growth into a highly functioning and successful group. The board has been so successful that it now provides an additional $20,000 in annual scholarships.
Christian Koops Christian Koops, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics at UNM. He received his doctorate in linguistics from Rice University in 2011. His research spans variationist sociolinguistics, the study of social variation in dialects, specifically sociophonetics. He is especially interested in language and dialect contact phenomena, such as the segmental and suprasegmental features of Spanish-influenced varieties of English as well as other ethnic varieties of North American English. Koops teaches at several learning levels and is known to be a dedicated instructor and mentor to many students within the Linguistics Department. In addition to in-classroom projects, Koops regularly collaborates on research projects with students, giving them a chance at post-graduation success. He commits long hours and energy to ensure his students will benefit from learning both in and out of the classroom.
Jennifer Diane Anderson (’00 BS), Farmington, N.M., was honored with an Award for Special Achievement by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the New Mexico Pediatric Society. Selma ĆatoviććHughes (’00 BAA), an instructor at the College of Architecture, Art and Design at American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, contributed Unraveled: Life Under the Siege, a post-war reflection of her childhood in Sarajevo to an exhibit at the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. John Russell Pederson (’00 MD), Albuquerque, was honored with an Award for Special Achievement by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the New Mexico Pediatric Society. Briana Hope Zamora (’00 JD), Albuquerque, is a New Mexico Court of Appeals judge. Sarah Marcel Armstrong (’01 BA), Albuquerque, is a managing partner at ARWJ law firm. Hector Balderas (’01 JD), Albuquerque, was re-elected as attorney general of New Mexico. Brian S. Colón (’01 JD), Albuquerque, was elected as New Mexico’s state auditor. Margaret Toulouse Oliver (’01 BA, ’05 MA), Santa Fe, N.M., was re-elected as Secretary of State of New Mexico. Monica F. Torres (’02 PhD), Las Cruces, N.M., is interim president of Doña Ana Community College. Emma Lorraine Whitley (’03 BA, ’06 JD), Albuquerque, is a managing partner at ARWJ law firm. Megan Paige Duffy (’04 BA, ’08 JD), Albuquerque, NM, is a New Mexico Court of Appeals judge.
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Alumni Events Calendar MARCH
10 COLLEGE OF EDUCATION ALUMNI HERITAGE CLUB AND GOLDEN GRAD REUNION
2
NORCAL CHAPTER LOBO DAY POTLUCK AND SCHOLARSHIP FUNDRAISER
Cameron Park
7
UNM ANDERSON HALL OF FAME AWARDS AND BANQUET
UNM SUB Ballroom
13-16
MOUNTAIN WEST BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Las Vegas
15 SAN DIEGO CHAPTER HAPPY HOUR Societe Brewing Company, 5:30 p.m.
USTIN AND SAN ANTONIO AREA ALUMS A WINE TASTING
9 LOS ANGELES CHAPTER RECRUITMENT TEAM Pasadena
14 LOS ANGELES CHAPTER RECRUITMENT TEAM
16
17
18
25
Anaheim
LOS ANGELES CHAPTER RECRUITMENT TEAM
ICE CREAM FESTIVAL
10 a.m.
6 UNM ALUMNI REGIONAL CHAPTER LEADERS VOLUNTEER TRAINING
Hodgin Hall
7 UNM ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF
15 VETERANS ALUMNI CHAPTER AT THE
DIRECTORS MEETING
ALBUQUERQUE ISOTOPES
Petco Park
Del Mar College Fair
SAN DIEGO CHAPTER RECRUITMENT TEAM NACAC College Fair
CHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & S PLANNING CHAPTER WELCOME NEW GRADS HAPPY HOUR 5:30 p.m.
L AS VEGAS CHAPTER AT LAS VEGAS 51’S BASEBALL GAME
MAY
AUGUST
7
DALLAS/FORT WORTH CHAPTER GREEN
25
LAS VEGAS CHAPTER GREEN CHILE ROAST
25
CHILE ROAST Carlitos
LOS ANGELES CHAPTER CHILEFEST!
28TH ANNUAL GREEN CHILE ROAST & LUNCH, ALEWORKS Hawthorne
SEPTEMBER
4 DALLAS/FORT WORTH CHAPTER CINCO DE MAYO GRACE COMMUNITY EVENT AND MARGARITAS
40
18 LAS VEGAS CHAPTER, SPRINGS PRESERVE
AN DIEGO CHAPTER PADRES S VS. GIANTS BASEBALL GAME
COMPETITION
KARL STRAUSS BREWING COMPANY
Sorrento Valley, 5:30 p.m.
28
26 UNM ANDERSON BUSINESS PLAN
4
SAN DIEGO CHAPTER HAPPY HOUR AT
SAN DIEGO CHAPTER RECRUITMENT TEAM
17
5:30 pm
JULY
26
NEW GRADS HAPPY HOUR
Ontario
16 NATIVE AMERICAN CHAPTER WELCOME
JUNE
APRIL 6
Class of 1969
Grapevine
L OS ANGELES CHAPTER CINCO DE MAYO LUNCH & FUN Orange County
MIRAGE MAGAZINE
7-8
W ASHINGTON, DC TACO PICNIC AND GREEN CHILE ROAST
14
LOS ANGELES CHAPTER CONTINGENT
TO UNM FOOTBALL @ NOTRE DAME
Go to unmalumni.com for updated information on alumni activities and events. Events, dates and times are subject to change. You can also contact the Alumni Relations Office at 505-277-5808 or 800-258-6866 for additional information.
From Dana’s Desk
A
s an undergraduate student, I was afforded an opportunity to present research I’d done at a national conference, traveling to Kalamazoo, Mich. It was a great experience to talk about something I found interesting (Symbolic Convergence and its counter productivity in the proliferation of colored ribbons) and see some of my hard work pay off. Here at UNM, we are proud of the research done by our faculty, students and alumni and the wide swath of interests represented by this work. In this issue, you’ll read about a few and also learn more about UNM’s Grand Challenges Dana Allen initiative, which provides an opportunity for individuals to come together to address difficult but important issues drawing in expertise from numerous areas. You’ll also read about the great opportunities to get involved with your Alumni Association and the experiences our president, John Brown, has had during his first six months on the job. I appreciate all the time he’s dedicated to this role and look forward to doing my part to ensure the last half of his tenure is as exciting as his first! You will have an opportunity to meet John at upcoming events and I hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity to do so. A full (at the time of print) calendar of events is a feature of each Mirage, and we hope that you use this information to plan ahead and see what’s coming up and where you can plug in to your pack. And don’t forget that we also send great news and updates to you monthly via the Howler, the Association’s e-newsletter. If you aren’t receiving it, that means we may not have a current email address for you. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to visit UNMAlumni.com to update your information with us online, and while you’re there, check out the latest Instagram post, travel program opportunity, or upcoming chapter activity. I’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate President Stokes on her first year at the helm of the University. She has done a remarkable job listening and learning, and I’ve heard from many of our alumni about how much they’ve enjoyed getting to know her and hearing why she’s proud to be leading not just the University of New Mexico, but also the University for New Mexico. The Alumni Association looks forward to continuing to support her efforts and promote pride among our pack.
Save the Date: Homecoming 2019 Oct. 21-26
Linking All Lobos —
Dana Allen Vice President for Alumni Relations
Meredith A. Johnstone (’04 BBA, ’07 MBA, ’09 JD), Albuquerque, is a managing partner at ARWJ law firm. Elizabeth DeGregorio (’06 BA), New York, N.Y., is editorial director for the Viacom Multiplatform Production team in New York City. Paul L. Madrid (’06 BBA), Albuquerque, is a principal at REDW Stanley Wealth Advisors. Ashlie K. Maxwell (’06 BFA, ’14 MLA), Albuquerque, is landscape designer at Consensus Planning. Joshua D. Hinson (’70 MA) Ada, Okla., is a Chickasaw artist, decoy maker and Chickasaw language speaker. His work has been demonstrated at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and he is working on a Rosetta Stone Chickasaw language product for tribal members. Tiffany A. Sippial (’07 PhD), Montgomery, Ala., was appointed director of the Honors College at Auburn University. Regina T. Smith (’07 BSN), Hagerman, N.M., is a provider at Lovelace Medical Group. Paul A. Brittain (’08 BS, ’12 MD), Albuquerque, practices at Lovelace Cancer Center. Katy M. Duhigg (’08 JD), Albuquerque, is Albuquerque city clerk. Jennifer M. Coffey Gill (’08 BBA, ’14 MD), Albuquerque, is a physician at Women’s Specialists of New Mexico Jessica Marie Jaramillo (’08 BA, ’12 MPA), Las Vegas, N.M., participated in the Harvard Graduate School of Education Management Development Institute. Clayton R. Meredith (’08 BS), Tijeras, N.M., is an International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List assessor at the ABQ BioPark. Myrriah S. Tomar (’08 BS), Ohkay Owingeh, N.M., is director of the New Mexico Economic Development Department Office of Science and Technology. W. Azul La Luz (’09 PhD), Santa Fe, N.M., cofounded La Escuela y Galleria del Cuervo Azul.
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Alumni Network Snapshots from Alumni events
Yolanda Dominguez (’95 BA, ’14 MPA) celebrates 2018’s Homecoming “Wolfstock” theme at Picnic on the Plaza.
UNM Alumni Association Board of Directors President-Elect Alexis Tappan (’99 BA, ’17 MA) presents Kenneth Armijo (’05 BA) with a Zia Award at the 2018 All University Breakfast.
Alumni John Florez (’13 BAA) and Geraldine Blackgoat (’13 BAA) at the Homecoming 2018 Architecture & Planning building tour and happy hour.
UNM students Andrea Reyes, Nadia Mata, Lisette Camarillo and Lorena Cardine (left to right) enjoy hot chocolate and posole at the 2018 Hanging of the Greens celebration.
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
UNM Naval ROTC Commander Michael Riley (’90 BA) speaks at the rededication of the USS New Mexico bell.
UNM Alumni Association Board President John Brown (’72 BBA) and wife Julienne V. Brown enjoy the Veterans Day Memorial Service held at the UNM Alumni Chapel.
In Memoriam We remember alumni who recently passed away.
1920 - 1929
William Albert Alfano, ‘53
John W. Hernandez, ‘25
William L. Chenoweth, ‘53
2010s
Clifford L. Crader, ‘53
Erin K. McSherry (’10 JD), Santa Fe, N.M., is the Santa Fe city attorney.
1940 - 1949
Robert G. Scanlon, ‘53
Charles M. Hitt, ‘42
Robert H. Stuart, ‘53
Norman M. Freed, ‘44
Arnold J. Leondar, ‘54
Ann Simms Clark, ‘45
David Gene Burton, ‘55
Edwin F. Johnson, ‘45
Tommy Fred Dils, ‘55
Priscilla N. Thompson, ‘45
Wendell A. Nelson, ‘55
Gisa Neuhaus Mertz, ‘46
Andrew L. Terpening, ‘55
Bliss M. Bushman, ‘48
Donald M. Bedale, ‘56
Candido L. Salazar, ‘48
Ivan Ward Lasher, ‘56, ‘65
Robert Lloyd Barrett, ‘49, ‘55
Joe Mengoni, ‘56
Herbert O. Cook, ‘49
Catherine (Cornell) Ross, ‘56
Patricia A. (Jones) Heggem, ‘49
James A. White, ‘56
Jean H. Molzen, ’49, ‘68
James M. Durrett, ‘57, ‘60
1950 - 1959
Rosetta L. Flippin, ‘57 Joe E. Griego, ‘57
D. Lunetta (Yelonek) Bingham, ‘50
Albert L. Grubesic, ‘57
Joseph D. Chavez, ‘50, ‘75
Barbara Ann (Duenkel) Miller, ‘57
Edward G. Fremgen, ‘50
Anna Del Vento Everett, ‘58
Woodrow W. Hoffman, ‘50
Mary Joyce Fidel, ‘58
Albert O. Lebeck, ‘50
David G. Jackson, ‘58, ‘69
Ruric D. Mason, ‘50
Henry J. Martinez, ‘58
Quinten T. Plikerd, ‘50
David Arnold Williams, ‘58
Harold K. Russell, ‘50
Edward P. Norris, ‘59
Francis E. Aldrich, ‘51
Reynaldo Rudy Zamora, ‘59
Tom L. Crespin, ‘51 John Whitlock Hernandez, ‘51
1960 - 1969
Harry Honig, ‘51
John M. MacCready, ‘60
Stanya Schwarzkopf Jimenez, ‘51
Donald F. McLeroy, ‘60, ‘62
William Kranzler, ‘51
Donald R. Minich, ‘60, ‘70
Douglas M. Lawrence, ‘51
Barbara J. Morgan, ‘60
Augusta Helen (Syme) McNamara, ‘51
Jose Augustin Luz Diaz De Leon Villa, ‘60
Mavis Patricia Dean, ‘52
Ronald D. Andreas, ‘61, ‘70
Scott Henline, ‘52
Jay Miller, ‘61, ‘68
Stewart L. Peckham, ‘52
Donna L. (Roderman) Nesbitt, ‘61
John P. Seman, ‘52, ‘54
Emery A. Postenrieder, ‘61
Yvette Montoya (’10 BA), Taos, N.M., is a clinician at Nonviolence Works. Melanie Unruh Rodriguez (’11 MFA) and Jennifer Simpson (’12 MFA) have created Plume, a subscription service for women writers. Each monthly subscription box includes a letter from a successful female writer, a writing sample, writing prompts and some self-care treats. Veronica Nadine Lewis (’12 BUS, ’17 JD), Rio Rancho, N.M., is an associate at Miller Stravert, P.A. law firm. Marvin F. Lozano (’12 EDD), Albuquerque, joined the Albuquerque Small Business Development Center at Central New Mexico Community College as a business adviser. Melissa R. Velasquez (’12 BAFA, ’13 AA), Albuquerque, heads the City Clerk’s Department in Española. Moses B. Winston (’12 JD), Rio Rancho, NM., joined Modrall Sperling’s Albuquerque office, providing counsel on health care, tort and employment matters to business and governmental clients.
Moses B. Winston
Kameron J. Baumgardner (’13 BAA, ’15 MS), Albuquerque, is chief technology officer at RS21. Micaela A. Cadena (’13 MCRP), Albuquerque, is a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. Bridget E. Condon (’13 BA), Santa Fe, N.M., is director of business development at the Sandoval Economic Alliance. Jazmine Janet Ruiz (’13 BBA, ’16 JD), Albuquerque, is an attorney at the Atler Law Firm, P.C. Scott Culler (’14 MLA), Rio Rancho, N.M., is landscape architect at Consensus Planning.
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In Memoriam Barbara Joyce Briscoe, ‘62
William Allen Short, ‘68
Ethel (Davis) Marianito, ‘74, ‘76
Frederick Daniel Gutierrez, ‘62, ‘64
James C. Welch, ‘68
Brenda Gold McGee, ‘74, ‘90
Dale Eugene Kempter, ‘62
Betty Anne Compton, ‘69
Elizabeth E. Whitefield-Thorne, ‘74, ‘77
Carole Penny (Marschiarelli) Marshall, ‘62
David L. Cook, ‘69
Nancy C. Doyle, ‘75
John Earle Rode, ‘62
Billie Jennifer Miller, ’69, ‘01
Marilyn E. (Barber) Hendron, ‘75
Charley R. Smith, ‘62
Susan S. Paquet, ‘69
Barney Jones, ‘75
Esao Sumida, ‘62
James M. Snee, ‘69
Audrey M. (Lermusiaux) Lietzow, ‘75, ‘77
Richard W. Waggoner, ‘62 Judith (Runge) Geilenfeldt, ‘63
1970 - 1979
Jean Marie Maher, ‘75, ‘80 Paul Houston Mansfield, ‘75
David J. Mangusso, ‘63
Deborah E. (Irvine) Hester-Rael, ‘70
Jay Todd Miller, ‘75
George Ruben, ‘63
Santiago Martinez, ‘70
Michael P. Pettenuzzo, ‘75
Margaret Beth (Craig) Eitzen, ‘64
Tomas F. Quintela, ‘70
Warren Ernest Crowe, ‘76
David E. England, ‘64, ‘67
Gwendolyn D. Seccombe, ‘70
Frederick N. Hagedorn, ‘76
Alvis L. Lisenbee, ‘64, ‘67
Helen Jane Bergen Taichert, ‘70
Deborah A. Ross Haury, ‘76, ‘81
John R. Sigler, ‘64
Richard Eugene Uhrmann, ‘70
Daniel Ernest Hovard, ‘76
Jerry Robert Torr, ‘64
Ronald Keith Banks, ‘71
Erich Paul Marchand, ‘76, ‘80
Dorothy Bass, ‘65
Anne J. Brown, ‘71, ‘79
Beverly Ann Rogoff, ‘76
Inez (Lopez) Deines, ‘65
Hugh Gary Hanson, ‘71
Ruth Ellen Simms, ‘76
Stuart Harroun, ‘65
Larry A. Larrañaga, ‘71, ‘80
James Clifton Crain, ‘77
Barbara M. (Sena) Hosenfeld, ‘65
Stanley Schneider, ‘71
Katharine B. Jorgensen, ‘77
Kathryn Carol McNair, ‘65
Kileen (Vandam) Scott, ‘71
Charles E. Mitchell, ‘77
Joe Cruz Castellano, ‘66
Jerry Lynn Teale, ‘71
Wayne Shaver, ‘77
John L. Hollis, ‘66, ‘68
Robert Gary Bogan, ‘72, ‘90
David Earl McCormick, ‘78
Stephen C. Johnson, ‘66
Sharon Martha (Sibbitt) Kettwich, ‘72, ‘76
Polly A. Azar, ‘79, ‘81
Zelda Ruth (Opdyke) Maggart, ‘66
Barry C. Lauesen, ‘72
Anthony Joseph Lujan, ‘79, ‘84
James B. Matthews, ‘66
Charles E. O'Haver, ‘72
John B. Moulton, ‘79, ‘88
Beverly Ruth (Summers) Ohms, ‘66
John Roberts, ‘72, ‘74
Richard Francis Venters, ‘79, ‘82
Samuel Bluefarb, ‘67
Lawrence A. Chavez, ‘73
Gilbert Baca Zamora, ‘79, ‘87
Terry E. Richards, ‘67
Margaret Geneva Garcia, ‘73
Barbara Smith Richter, ‘67
Rita Eymldia Gonzales, ‘73
1980 - 1989
Tommy Wayne Robinson, ‘67
Ruth Brewer Masters, ‘73
Linda Rogers Brodkey, ‘80
Martha E. Wylie, ‘67
Mary Edey McGuirk, ‘73
Steven Lynn Carlyle, ‘80
James C. Bradley, ‘68
John Lloyd Moss, ‘73
Randall Oliver Knott, ‘80, ‘84
Jo Ann L. Glover, ‘68
Constance Louise Reischman, ‘73, ‘76
Ramon D. Mondragon, ‘80
Larry E. Hatler, ‘68
Otto L. Schumacher, ‘73
Marilyn J. Nicely, ‘80
Sylvia Topp Hughes, ‘68, ‘94
Jere C. Blocker, ‘74
Carrie Lee (Vanpoll) Watkins, ‘80
Michael M. McGonigle, ‘68
Doris Ann J. Brooks, ‘74
Bertha Melgoza Baker, ‘81
Phyllis G. (Deiter) Moffitt, ‘68
Adelfio P. Fronterotta, ‘74, ‘79
Harvey Lockwood Conklin, ‘81
Janet Vanorsdall Peck, ‘68
Patrick Hall Kennedy, ‘74
V. Skip Holmgren Franzen, ‘81
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In Memoriam Michael James Jaeger, ‘81, ‘90
Susan B. Brill de Ramirez, ‘91
Edward Thomas Nash, ‘81
Arthur Hunt Crapsey, ‘91
Francisco Mario Ortiz, ‘81, ‘86
Timothy J. Hool, ‘91
Juan A. Sandoval, ‘81
Justin M. Begay, ‘92
Daniel P. Gillett, ‘82
Anita Sanders McGuire, ‘92
David D. Harbin, ‘82, ‘84
Ignacio Perez, ‘92
Vicki Lynn Price, ‘82
Valerie Lynn Roybal, ‘92
Carol A. Simmons, ‘82
Steven Allen Whitworth, ‘93
Christopher Lee Garcia, ‘83, ‘89
Kevin Lynn Wildenstein, ‘93
Mark Emory Difford, ‘84
Lisa Gutierrez England, ‘94, ‘99
Ronald Eugene Erwert, ‘85
Judy Kay Vavrek, ‘94, ‘03
Audrey Ross Harrison, ‘85
Thomas Ray Carpenter, ‘95
Joseph Leroy Vigil, ‘85
Meredith Burrill Mahony-Mueller, ‘95, ‘05
Carol S. (Britton) Wood, ‘85
Mitchell Warren Mulcahy, ‘95
Mark Chouinard, ‘86
Raymond Keith Purvis, ‘95
Lisa M. (Stratton) Kunsman, ‘86
Bonnie Lynn Farman, ‘96
Mary J. Johnston, ‘87, ‘92
William Isaac Hoffman, ‘96
Jermaine Marie (Romero) Ulibarri, ‘88
Fernando E. Jimenez, ‘96
Jacqueline Maureen Henry, ‘89
Tia Leslie Koury, ‘96
Marilyn Ronsholdt Morgan, ‘89
Jason Blair Roberts, ‘96
Matthew Urrea, ‘89, ‘92
Lea Anne Zukowski, ‘97, ‘04
1990 - 1999
Laurie Linda Castro, ‘98, ‘09 Alice Skinner Jojola, ‘98
Mike Thomas Friggens, ‘90, ‘03
Georgiana Monaco Kennedy, ‘98
Harrell Kennan Fuller, ‘90
Jason Knight, ‘98
Brian Elliott Jolliffe Stapp, ‘90
Ethel Eileen Goebel, ‘99
Myra Jo Bates, ‘91
Gordon Frank Moens, ‘99
Have a Good Howl Our monthly email newsletter, The Howler, keeps Lobos up-to-date with Alumni Association news and events, as well as additional alumni profiles not published in Mirage. You can read it online at UNMAlumni.com/howler or subscribe to the email version by sending a request to alumni@unm.edu.
Alexander Kurt Hafez (’14 BS), Albuquerque, is CEO of the Albuquerquebased biotechnology company EquiSeq. Deian McBryde (’14 BLA, ’17 JD), Albuquerque, opened McBryde Law LLC. His practice focuses on family law, domestic relations and alternative dispute resolution in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Phuong Anh H. Nguyen (’14 BS, ’16 MS, ’18 MBA), Albuquerque, launched Adaptive Biomedical Design. Matthew Jake Skeets (’14 BA), Vanderwagen, N.M., received the Cowles Poetry Prize. James Terrell Foty (’15 MCRP), Albuquerque, is a planner at Consensus Planning. Anna Elizabeth Part (’15 BA) is completing her master’s degree program at the Royal College of Art in London. Xochitl Torres Small (’15 JD), Las Cruces, N.M., was elected to the United States House of Representatives representing the 2nd Congressional District. Jared Laurence Holley (’16 BA), Albuquerque, is an assistant baseball coach at Pima Community College in Tuscon, Ariz. Lance D. Hough (’16 JD) has joined Modrall Sperling’s Albuquerque office, practicing in tort, product liability and class actions at the trial and appellate levels.
Lance D. Hough
Elizabeth M. Reitzel (’16 JD), Albuquerque, is an associate at the Miller Stravert, P.A. law firm. Gary S. Lee (’17 JD), Albuquerque, is assistant mayor of Albuquerque. Robert Allen Frohmader (’18 MSN), Albuquerque, is a provider at Presbyterian Heart and Vascular Care.
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In Memoriam 2000 - 2009
OTHER ALUMNI
James Paxton “Corky” Morris
Owayne H. Benally, ‘00
Albert E. Arrigoni,
Janet (Wespe) Norrod
Derek Wayne Brumfield, ‘00
Barbara Ann (Bruce) Bell
James David Pankey
Robin Michelle Lackey, ‘00
Stephen Caminiti
Barbara Young Simms
Linda Marie Romano Ryter, ‘00
Fernie A. (Bernstein) Caplan
Jeffrey Carl Somers
Tamara Lyn Ewing, ‘02
Freddie J. Foster
Rosemary Stastny
Elizabeth Anne Schoepke, ‘02
Virginia Gangwer
Sandra Gale Strong
Margaret Anne Blonder, ‘05, ‘08
Rowena E. (Lane) Hewitt
Lloyd N. Strosnider
Gary D. Hamelstrom, ‘08
Marvin L. Hillger
FACULTY AND STAFF
Richard C. Gardner, ‘09
William D. Houston
Adam M. Padilla, ‘09
Susan Harrison Kelly
2010 - 2019
Herbert A. Lewis Carolyn Laird Martin
Nancy Lou Halbgewachs, ‘11
Garth E. Massingill
Nicole A. Berezin, ‘12
Patricia Ann McCamey
Leonard Felberg Cornie L. Hulsbos Heidi K. Kenney Toby L. Merlin Paul U. Strauss
Patsy Jean (Briggs) McGill
Pack Your Bags The UNM Alumni Association gives Lobos with wanderlust the opportunity to continue their education by traveling the world through the Alumni Travel Program. With a number of unique trip opportunities in 2019 — from Stockholm to Spokane — the Alumni Travel Program sets you up for success by handling all the travel plans and arrangements for you while offering amazing discounts too. To view Alumni Travel Program options and book, visit UNMAlumni.com/travel. For questions, please call Kathie Scott at 505-277-9093. Baltic and Scandinavian Ballads Jun. 13-23, 2019 Cruise Stockholm to Copenhagen
Timeless Cuba Sep. 27 - Oct. 5, 2019 Cruise from Miami to Cuba
75th Anniversary Of D-Day Jun. 15-23, 2019 Normandy, Honfleur
Masterpiece Montage Sep. 30 - Oct. 11, 2019 Rome to Barcelona
Canadian Rockies By Train Aug. 8-16, 2019 Dramatic scenery
Grand Danube Oct. 7-21, 2019 Prague To Sofia
The Charm Of The Amalfi Coast Sep. 4-12, 2019 Sorrento, Positano, Pompei, Naples
Kingdoms of Southeast Asia Oct. 31 - Nov. 19, 2019 Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
Wines of the Pacific Northwest Sep. 15-23, 2019 Portland/Vancouver to Spokane/Clarkston
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
My
ALUMNI STORY
I grew up in Seattle and studied photography in Olympia, Wash., but I found The University of New Mexico when I was searching for graduate programs in studio art. The faculty were open minded and saw that any technology could be creative — so I ditched the cameras and instead went deep into computer programming and electronics, finding ways to apply it to sculpture and media art.
®
As a graduate assistant I was in the classroom teaching those skills to studio art majors nearly ever semester, and that was where I really gained an appreciation for the UNM community. There’s an amazing amount of creativity and ingenuity that bubbles up when you get young New Mexicans in the classroom together. They bring their stories and their hopes and worries to their art and it’s natural for many to find their voice through technology. After I graduated I moved away to teach, but I came back to New Mexico to take a job at Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe art collective that turned into an immersive art company. I am helping to manage the technology team as we plan and build our new exhibits in Las Vegas, Denver and Washington, D.C. That never would have happened without the support and openmindedness of the faculty in the College of Fine Art. Go Lobos! Conor Peterson (’13 MFA)
Stay in touch with your Alumni Association at UNMAlumni.com. Click on “Connect.”
SPRING 2019
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M A G A Z I N E
The University of New Mexico Alumni Association MSC 01-1160 1 University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
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If you would no longer like to receive a paper copy of the Mirage magazine in the mail and would prefer an emailed version, please let us know by visiting UNMAlumni.com/Mirage and completing the digital opt-in form. Simply confirm your email address and the next edition will be sent directly to your email inbox and not your curbside mailbox. If you opt for the electronic version only, rest assured you will see the same magazine — great color photos, engaging articles, news of alumni events and updates on your classmates — only in a digital format with easy-to-use page-turning features.