Trojan Family Magazine Autumn 2009 by University of Southern California

Inside FEATURES

24 A New Era in Health Care Begins at USC A bold move in uncertain economic times signals the creation of an academic medical center at USC. By Sara Reeve and Katie Neith

28 The WiSE Women of Science USC’s Women in Science and Engineering program is working to make academic research and scholarship more hospitable to women scientists. By Diane Krieger

38 Reality Ends Here A photographic tour of the spectacular building that will be the cornerstone of USC’s new cinematic arts complex. Photographs by John C. Linden

42 Blurring the Lines Between Earth and Life

›› PAGE 40 A swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks Sr. welcomes visitors to Cinematic Arts at USC.

For decades, “geo” and “bio” have been seen as separate disciplines. No longer. In the past few years, USC has become the center of the emerging field of geobiology. By Terah U. DeJong

“Work your butt off. You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.... Sleep faster, I would recommend.” ›› PAGE 14

– California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking to some 8,000 new graduates at USC’s 126th Commencement.

USC Trojan Family Magazine Autumn ’09 Published by the University of Southern California Volume 41 Number 3

›› PAGE 13 U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

Autumn 2oo9 COLUMNS

4 Editor’s Note 5 President’s Page From the beginning, “a refrain kept appearing in [my] writings: partnerships.” 12

64 Last Word Acronyms keep flying around the ER (and the OR).

19 Lab Work One of the first brain studies of inspirational emotions finds that nobler instincts are aroused far more slowly than the baser kind. 48 Family Ties The USC Alumni Association honors USC trustee Ronnie C. Chan MBA ’76. 53 Class Notes Who’s doing what and where.

DEPARTMENTS

7 Mailbag From aquaculture and oysters to Tommy Trojan in Jakarta. 12 What’s New Stephen Hartke and T. C. Boyle breaking barriers.

14 People Watch Pomp, circumstance, the governor and the vice president. 15 Global Horizons USC’s Institute of Modern Russian Culture finds a home in the storied Shrine Auditorium.

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PAGE 47 John Heidelberg and Bill Nelson at the USC Wrigley Institute on Catalina with the Life Sciences 454 gene sequencer that Heidelberg calls the “machine that goes ‘ping.’’’

For past issues of USC Trojan Family Magazine, visit www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/trojan_family

17 Arts & Culture The visual arts at USC celebrate the climbing arts at L.A. Trade Tech; USC Thornton turns 125. 21 Reaching Out There are 67 different houses of worship within a mile of the University Park campus. USC embraces them all.

On the cover: Chemist Hanna Reisler (left) and earth scientist Jean Morrison, among the founders of USC’s WiSE program. Photograph by Mark Berndt.

Robert Padgett

›› PAGE 51

[ EDITOR’S NOTE ]

Will Power

“‘It was unfortunate that to learn how to live, I had to learn how to die,’ USC senior William Zarifi wrote in a class paper shortly before his death. In all aspects of his life, Zarifi succeeded. That’s why it came as such a surprise to friends and family when, last October, he lost his battle with cancer.”

USC

Trojan Family Magazine EDITOR

Susan Heitman

This is the opening paragraph in a story by writer Ariel Carpenter introducing many in the campus community to 21-year-old Will Zarifi, who was honored posthumously by being named one of

ART DIRECTOR

Rick Simner

three salutatorians of the Class of 2009 in May. SENIOR EDITORS

USC faculty and students were not the only ones mesmerized by Will’s story. It also caught the eye of ABC News columnist Lee Dye, who featured Will in his May 27 online Science and Technology column. “The story of Will’s life, and death, is the story of many these days who are faced with unthinkable decisions,” Dye wrote. “If death is certain, is it best to ignore treatment and live life for the moment? Or should you fight, knowing the odds against you are horrible?” Will chose to fight. Handsome, athletic and smart, he was also ambitious, his sister Linda said. He maintained a 4.0 GPA while enduring chemotherapy and two brain surgeries. He was the manager of the USC men’s basketball team (his coach gave him a bracelet inscribed “Never Give Up,” while classmates began sporting their own bracelets, labeled “Will Power”). He gave regularly to the poor. He told his family he wanted to earn millions of dollars, buy a sports team and then give the rest to the less fortunate. Zarifi’s family members are honoring him in a way that continues his vision for charity work. They have set up a foundation to help establish children’s hospitals and orphanages in poor countries. The first hospital, in Afghanistan, is in the planning stages. Will’s father, Ahmad, who grew up in the

Allison Engel Diane Krieger CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Susan Andrews, Athan Bezaitis Alex Boekelheide, Mary Bruce Andrea Bennett, Ariel Carpenter Anna Cearley, Talia Cohen Lori Craig, Terah U. DeJong Jackson Demos, Bill Dotson Beth Dunham, Kevin Durkin James Grant, Richard Hoops Pamela J. Johnson,Timothy O. Knight Ross M. Levine, Meghan Lewit Eric Mankin, Carl Marziali Steve McDonagh, Cynthia Monticue Annette Moore, Jon Nalick Katie Neith, Eddie North-Hager Sara Reeve, Gilien Silsby Kukla Vera, Lauren Walser Suzanne Wu, John Zollinger MANAGING EDITOR

war-torn country, is spearheading the project. Among the comments posted to the ABC News Web site following Dye’s column was this one: “This story certainly gives you cause to reflect upon your own life. What is it that they say? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Thank you for that refreshing drink, Will.” – Susan Heitman

Mary Modina DESIGN AND PRODUCTION

Daniel Nadeau Russell Ono Stacey Torii PHOTOGRAPHY

Allison Engel (coordinator) Dietmar Quistorf

Moving?

ADVERTISING/CIRCULATION MANAGER

Vickie Kebler (213) 740-3162

Please attach your current mailing label and send to: USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790. Or e-mail us at: magazines@usc.edu

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USC Trojan Family Magazine University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 90089-7790 tel: (213) 740-2684 / fax: (213) 821-1100 e-mail: magazines@usc.edu web: www.usc.edu/trojan_family USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published four times a year, in February, May, August and November, by the University of Southern California, Office of University Public Relations, 3375 S. Hoover St, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790.

President’s Page By Steven B. Sample

Recently as I was reading through some of my speeches and op-eds from the early 1990s – soon after Kathryn and I arrived at USC – it struck me that at that time Southern California was experiencing several challenges similar to those of today: recession, uncertainty, instability. A refrain kept appearing in those writings of mine from the early 1990s: partnerships. To my mind, partnerships were the solution to a host of difficulties. Communities,

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

Nineteen of last year’s USC-bound NAI students fly the flag with President Sample.

educational institutions, businesses and other organizations, I believed, needed to band together in common purpose in order to address our challenges. In this unity of values and will, we could do mighty things that would ignite and reinvigorate our city and our region. The idea of partnerships took hold. We’ve seen remarkable progress over the years in our community – people joining together to build with renewed resolve and well-honed objectives. I believe that one of the most successful partnerships during this time has been the USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative. NAI is our college-preparation program that brings together members of the Trojan Family and students, families and schools from the local neighborhood to form a collaboration that truly transforms the lives of everyone involved. Since USC created the program in 1991, NAI has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. To date, 533 local students have completed the program, and approximately one-third of those students end up at USC as undergraduates. One hundred ten former NAI students have graduated from USC, and another 71 are currently enrolled. Each NAI student who earns admission to USC enrolls with full financial support for up to four and a half years. From the very beginning, NAI was an innovative model for improving access to higher education. Instead of simply supporting the best and brightest local youth, which many other collegeprep programs tend to do, NAI was designed for so-called “average” students, the kids whose talents and skills often go unrecognized in our

overburdened public school systems. These students work hard to earn a spot in this competitive program. To gain admission, they have to write an essay, participate in interviews and sign a contract (along with their parents or guardians) stating that they will follow NAI’s code of ethics and commit to becoming scholars. Once they enter the program, the students display a level of dedication and determination that is simply extraordinary. Each weekday NAI’s high school students come to USC for classes at 7:30 a.m. During the day they return to either Manual Arts High School or Foshay Learning Center. After school many students return to USC for tutoring in math and English. On Saturday they are back in class for five more hours. Neighborhood students enter the program each year at the beginning of seventh grade, and NAI’s teachers and staff work closely with them and their families all the way through high school. I’m very proud that NAI has become a national model for programs that promote college access. Ninety-seven percent of the students who graduate from the NAI program attend some type of college. Those students who have chosen not to attend USC have been accepted to other prestigious universities such as Yale, Stanford, MIT, Brown, UC Berkeley and Rutgers, to name just a few. Even more inspiring is the fact that practically all of our NAI students are the first members of their families to attend college. Keep in mind that these students are in a school district where more than one-third of the students don’t even graduate from high school. Through their dedication and hard work, the young people in USC’s NAI program – and those who love them – have experienced the lifechanging effects of a first-class education. As we face current challenges, I’m as firm a believer now (perhaps an even more fervent one) in the power of partnerships as I was 18 years ago. l

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Mailbag

›› “Talk about the perfect name! Donal Manahan heading up the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. Manahan is an Irish family name derived from “Manannán mac Lir,” the Celtic sea god. If a descendent of the sea god can’t make it work, who can?”

QUOTED

Mulling Over Mollusks Editor’s note: Our Summer 2009 cover story on aquaculture (“Consider the Oyster,” p. 32) generated a number of thoughtful letters as well as a number of questions. In addition to printing the letters, we asked Dennis Hedgecock, the Paxson H. Offield Professor of Fisheries Ecology in USC College, to respond to the various questions. His response begins on page 8. I enjoyed Carl Marziali’s “Consider the Oyster.” A few years back I visited an oyster farm in the San Juan Islands. It was a thriving business and very educational. I have always loved oysters, from the childhood memories of oyster stew at Christmas Eve to the adult times on the half shell, baked, fried etc. Bob Cain ’49 BREA, CA

Talk about the perfect name! Donal Manahan heading up the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies and studying the sea and its effects. Manahan is an Irish family name derived from “Manannán mac Lir,” the Celtic sea god, somewhat equivalent to the Roman Neptune. If a descendent of the sea god can’t make it work, who can? Michael McDonald MBA ’73 R A N C H O PA L O S V E R D E S , C A

While I very much enjoyed the information and insight in Carl Marziali’s “Consider the Oyster,” this article also raised some larger questions about the conventional assumptions supporting a “Blue Revolution.” It seems that the global supply of food was never really the issue, but rather it is the

distribution of food that is problematic. As America and other modern societies illustrate, there is now a case to be made that we are actually suffering the consequence of having too much food in the form of waste and obesity. Moreover, the first Green Revolution during the past century did in fact dramatically increase crop yields, albeit at a decreasing rate as larger amounts of chemicals and pesticides are now required to pro-

[LAST WORD]

duce yields that, over the long term, are no greater than conventional organic methods. Properly managed aquaculture has already proven to provide good-quality seafood to an increasing marketplace, but has traditionally also led to the cycle of superficial demand, overproduction and waste soon after the peak of its broader acceptance. Either way, you can still count me in for that oyster! Bill Hory MBA ’02 M A N H AT TA N B E A C H , C A

I read this article with a sense of déjà vu. As a graduate student and postdoctoral worker at USC in the 1970s, I endlessly heard about the promise of mariculture. Well, the year is 2009. We have some new techniques for culturing marine life. That’s nice. But there will be no “Blue Revolution” unless three major prob-

Name That Novel

Writing puzzles in the Information Age isn’t easy. We have to assume that everyone has access to encyclopedic knowledge on any topic, and it can be tricky finding the right balance between the arcane and the obvious. So readers’ reactions to a particular puzzle are instructive, and the reaction to “Name That Novel” was revealing. It set a recent high mark for participation: 212 entries. Last Worders revealed themselves to be literary lions: Nearly three-quarters (150) of our entries were correct. Notes from puzzlers, such as “more Last Words on books, please,” from Louise Sanematsu, and “after years of reading your magazine, this is my first submission,” from Helen Beteta MS ’81, have persuaded us to return to the inkwell for future puzzles. We aren’t the only ones. English teacher Jamie Lewsadder ’08 writes that she will “create a version of this for an Internet research lesson for my high school freshmen.” Drawn from our large pool of correct entries, these five randomly selected winners will soon find Borders gift certificates in their mailboxes: Thomas B. Griffen, Nancy Anne Nuno ’90, Thomas C. Smith MA ’85, Jennifer Van Sickle ’95 and Shirley Pearson. Congratulations to all our bookish Last Worders. Answers

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1. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights 2. Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend

3. Jane Austen’s Persuasion 4. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies 5. Franz Kafka’s The Trial and The Castle 6. William Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence 7. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle 8. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World 9. John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany. l

We welcome letters from readers although we do reserve the right to select and edit for space. Please include your name, address, e-mail address, degree and year of graduation, if applicable, with each letter and mail to: USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790 or e-mail us at: magazines@usc.edu. Please note that, because of our production schedule, it might be several months before your letter appears.

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lems are addressed. 1. Where will we grow these animals? In the U.S.A., coastal real estate is costly. Many of the shallow coastal areas either have been developed into harbors, marinas, residential areas etc., or properly set aside in their natural state. In many states, the areas below the tide line are “open access” – free for use to all. Mariculture requires restricted use. Legal hassles are sure to ensue. Other countries have developed mariculture by hacking down their coastal wetlands, losing valuable protection from storms as well as habitat for birds, fishes and crabs. 2. Where will we get the clean water? After it rains, creeks, ditches and rivers in coastal areas pour a nasty mix of pesticides, gasoline, mud, paint etc. into coastal waters in the U.S.A. In other countries, manure and even raw sewage are added to the mixture. San Francisco Bay contains areas polluted by mercury, Los Angeles Harbor has residues of DDT and there are residues from nuclear power plants off Oregon. Seasonal outbreaks of red tide or poisonous algae do not harm oysters but render them poisonous to humans. Oysters, mussels and clams are particularly vulnerable to pollutants due to their gill feeding mechanism. Shrimp mariculture ponds can become filthy with wastes. The cost of travel to and from clean offshore areas makes mariculture there far more expensive. 3. If you grow it, will they eat it? At least one food writer states that cultured oysters taste like a mass of snot. Americans generally will not eat sea urchins, raw oysters, seaweeds etc., no matter how beneficial these organisms might be. They taste weird! Shrimp, abalone and other cultured marine organisms are relatively expensive and remain a treat, not by any means a major food source for anyone. Mary K. Wicksten Ph.D. ’77 B R YA N , T X

I’ve always thought that the oyster would be a remarkable mechanism for carbon dioxide sequestration. Please pass this on to the author and researchers as this benefit (if it pans out) should be touted. Marc Saleh LOS ANGELES, CA

The article is fascinating. I have a couple of questions. 1. I understand how polluting salmon farming is. Why would oyster farming be that much less polluting? Is it because they are filter feeders? 2. Are the ecosystems in the bays and marshes able to support huge oyster farming

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populations, because these areas are so vital to sea life being able to spawn? Thank you for explaining that “wild caught” Alaska salmon are really farmed! I was “tricked” by advertising! Your magazine is truly a fabulous publication. Though I realize it is a tool to promote your education programs, articles such as this are outstanding, and I know of no other place I could learn the information. Keep up the good work. Janet Cupples SHERMAN OAKS, CA

Dennis Hedgecock responds: Reader Mary K. Wicksten is basically correct in her point 2 (“Where will we get the clean water?). Pollution and degradation of estuarine habitats are certainly major environmental concerns in the U.S.A. and around the world. Oyster farmers are among the most vociferous advocates for water quality, precisely because their livelihood depends on it. Fortunately, many bays and estuaries along the U.S. West Coast are still clean enough to produce shellfish for human consumption. There are a host of federal, state and county regulations about the harvesting of shellfish from polluted beds or when bacterial counts are high. In Puget Sound, permanent closures have increased over time, which is definitely cause for concern. In some areas, such as Tomales Bay in Marin County, for example, harvest is not permitted after so much rainfall (I think 1/2 inch) over so many days, because cow manure from surrounding pastures washes into the bay and coliform bacterial counts become unsafe. Fortunately, oysters do purge themselves of bacteria and other contaminants in time. The reader and the food writer are off the mark in point 3 (“If you grow it, will they eat it?”). Cultured oysters are raised in the same waters and eat the same food as wild oysters. For every food writer who thinks cultured oysters have no flavor, one could probably find a hundred who would extol the virtues of farmed shellfish. In response to Janet Cupples’ first question, salmon farming does not have to be polluting. In poorly managed salmon farms, much of the “pollution” consists of excess nutrients from uneaten food that passes through the cages to the ocean bottom, where it overwhelms the natural capacity of microbes to “re-mineralize” ammonia to nitrate, for example. It is very much in the economic interest of the fish farmer to prevent such waste and pollution, since the largest single cost of producing a farmed salmon is the feed. Thus, in Canada, salmon farmers are now required to monitor cages with video cameras so that feeding machines can be shut off as soon as the first uneaten pellet passes through the bottom; anoxic sediments no longer build up beneath these salmon pens, and the farmers’ bottom lines have improved. Our colleague Dale

Kiefer has done a lot of sophisticated modeling of these processes in fish farming and can provide more detailed information. OK, now for oysters. Because these animals are filtering and feeding on single-cell algae, their digestive systems are much less complicated and contain a different suite of microbes that aid digestion, compared to that in a meat-eating vertebrate, such as ourselves or salmon. The difference between an oyster and a vertebrate is most clearly illustrated by keeping in mind that we eat raw oysters from clean uncontaminated waters whole – gut and all – with no ill effects. To Cupples’ second point, our bays and marshes used to be teeming with oysters and clams, which provided an essential ecosystem service by filtering phytoplankton (algae) from the water column and depositing both uneaten and digested food onto the sea floor, where microbes and other creatures could further process these nutrients and convert them back to mineral forms. The water quality of bays and marshes is now seriously threatened because humans are putting ever-increasing amounts of waste nutrients into these ecosystems. These excess nutrients stimulate algal blooms, some of which are toxic; even when they are not toxic, algal blooms can diminish light penetration to the bottom, where marine grasses grow, and can strip the water at night of oxygen, leading to fish kills. Oysters and clams can check the degrading effects of such “eutrophication” by filtering out the algae, transferring nutrients from the water column to the bottom or into their bodies, which are then removed by harvest, leading to improved water quality. In the Chesapeake Bay, where the native oyster population has been devastated by years of overfishing and introduced diseases, oyster farming is being encouraged by environmentalists as a means of improving water quality. In addition to their role in nutrient cycling in marine ecosystems, numerous studies have shown that farmed oysters provide a complex substrate that is utilized by fish and other marine species as habitat. Oysters are good for the environment! Of course, like anything, too much of a good thing can be bad. In some areas in France, for example, the number of oysters that are planted exceeds the natural carrying capacity of the local waters. Oysters there grow slowly because of insufficient food.

Quite Frankly Just received your USC Trojan Family Magazine and glad to see you finally have a nice article on Frank (“Conversations with Frank Gehry,” by Barbara Isenberg, Summer 2009, p. 40), although the rendering of him is terrible – he almost looks effeminate. He is a fantastic person, good looking and kind. I have known him since our USC days and longer, and you won’t find a nicer person.

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This was a nice article and I also read it in the Los Angeles Times. Looking forward to your book about him to see if I am mentioned (kidding). Hartley Gaylord ’50 P A L M D E S E R T, C A

Degrees of Separation I am a Carnegie Mellon University alumnus and have had the opportunity to read through your magazine from time to time now that I am living in Los Angeles. I just want to let you know I very much enjoyed your “Masters of Many Disciplines” article (Summer 2009, p. 23). I also enjoyed the inclusion of Steven B. Sample’s address to the World Affairs Council, “Los Angeles: The Capital of the Pacific Rim” – you succeeded in shifting my perspective of L.A. after having spent four years (2003-2008) in Asia. I come back enlightened. I have a follow-up question if you would be so kind to direct me to the right person – do you have graduate students taking on more than one degree in the same light as the undergraduate students you highlighted? I imagine this to be a tall bargain and am just curious what options are available to

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someone with a B.S. in electrical/computer engineering who has discovered an affinity in dance therapy and its related disciplines over the past 14 years. Thanks for any input you may be able to provide. Chinarut Ruangchotvit LOS ANGELES, CA

USC Graduate School associate dean Julena Lind responds: The nature of graduate and professional education tends more towards specialization and focusing on developing an in-depth expertise in a particular field. However, recognizing that the complexity of today’s world demands a wide knowledge base, USC has created more than 50 dual graduate degree programs, including Master of Public Art Studies/Master of Planning; Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration; Master of Science, Gerontology/Master of Public Administration; Master of Arts, International Relations/Master of Public Administration; Doctor of Philosophy, Psychology (Clinical)/Master of Public Health (Health Promotion); Doctor of Medicine/Master of Public Health; Master of Business Administration/Doctor of Medicine. There are also several interdisciplinary grad-

uate degree programs where research problems are approached from more than one disciplinary perspective.

Last Writes I really enjoyed this particular Last Word quiz (“Name That Novel,” Summer 2009, p. 64). It made me head down to the library to check out A Prayer for Owen Meany. Right now, I’m reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I started it last night and will finish it this afternoon. I hated to put it down in order to go to bed. Shirley Pearson M O U N TA I N V I E W , C A

This contest really made me interested in reading some of the novels listed that I hadn’t read. Also, I like USC Trojan Family Magazine. It stands up well against, and in some ways is superior to, the magazine of my alma mater, The Princeton Alumni Weekly. Ian Lamberton TA C O M A , WA

Thank you so much for the Borders gift card! I want you to know how much I enjoy the challenge of the Last Word contests, and

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find them to be a fun learning experience. Thank you for the time and effort you put in to create them. Carolyn Godlewski MS ’86 WESTCHESTER, CA

Can the Sexism I enjoyed the Summer 2009 issue – the interview with Frank Gehry was fascinating, and I was pleased to read the editor’s note about the new cinematic arts complex. I wanted to write, though, to call your attention to a couple of things that made me go “ew.” I bristled a bit when I saw the word “gals” in a parenthetical note on the cover – as if the female students who pursue double majors are somehow secondary to the “guys” in the real headline. But I groaned out loud at the use of the word “spinster” in a clue to the Last Word puzzle on famous novelists. Please, take a look at your style guides! Editors have discouraged the use of that word for at least 30 years. True, Jane Austen (the author referred to in the clue) never married. But why not just say that? In her 41 years, Jane Austen lived a rich and interesting life. She fell in love at least once, and she wrote a lot of good books. She seems not to have suffered for her lack of a husband. As the protagonist of Austen’s Emma said: “If I draw less, I shall read more; if I give up music, I shall take to carpet-work. And as for objects of interest, objects for the affections, which is in truth the great point of inferiority, the want of which is really the great evil to be avoided in not marrying, I shall be very well off, with all the children of a sister I love so much, to care about. There will be enough of them, in all probability, to supply every sort of sensation that declining life can need.” Stacey Schmeidel ’86 D AV I D S O N , N C

Hitch’s Women I earned my B.A. and M.A. degrees at USC, and my Ph.D. in comparative literature was granted by the University of Washington in Seattle. I sincerely applaud you for putting together an interesting, varied magazine for us alumni. We truly are grateful to you. I would like to call your attention to the article, “Hitch’s Women” (Summer 2009, p. 19). Most of it is quite good; it is well written and it holds the reader’s attention. The main idea is important and worth thinking about. However, the writer errs when she states that Marnie “is raped by Mark.” No one is raped in the story, and although Mark and Marnie are married, they have never been sexually intimate in the story. The viewer is led to

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Tommy in Jakarta... The photos of Tommy Trojan on pages 46 and 51 of the Summer 2009 issue reminded me of Jakarta, Indonesia. I was there on business, and one day my driver took a shortcut through a nice residential area. There is one street, perhaps half a mile long, with “guards” at each end. The local story is that a wealthy lawyer who lives on that street, and who arranged for the artwork, went to an American university, and that these were the mascots of that university. Looks like Tommy Trojan to me, although some damage is evident. If there is a USC alumni group in Jakarta, perhaps it could supply more information. C. W. Lee ’74 LOS ANGELES, CA

...And on the Chesapeake Bay I thought the Trojan Family would be happy to know that USC has a warrior on the Chesapeake Bay! The picture is of Volare, which a friend and I built from plans drawn by R. Herreshoff in 1932. I am pictured sailing with my granddaughter. Doug Power ’60 I R V I N G T O N , VA

believe at the close of the movie that the two will then begin a normal marriage relationship because of a recognition and a resolution of a dreadful sin in Marnie’s childhood. Sandra L. McCreery ’64, MA ’67

jans had five medals in their first Olympics. In fact, I think John is the only Olympic athlete with five medals in his first Olympics. Jim Rhodes PA S A D E N A , C A

N YA C K , N Y

Tania Modleski, professor of English in USC College and the author of Hitch’s Women, responds: Virtually the entire community of Hitchcock scholars agree in calling it a rape. In fact, there is a special issue of the Hitchcock Annual devoted to proceedings of a conference on the Hitchcock Centennial some years ago. There, the scholars engaged screenwriter Jay Presson Allen extensively on the issue of Mark’s rape of Marnie during their honeymoon on board a ship. Hitchcock had brought in Allen to write the script after the original screenwriter, Evan Hunter, balked at writing the rape scene and was subsequently fired by Hitchcock.

Olympic Omission Nice article (“The Measure of a Champion,” Spring 2009, p. 21). You left out one of the great Olympians from the Trojan Family – John Naber. Of course you can’t mention all of the USC athletes who compete, but I note the omission since very few Tro-

Notice Board We need your assistance in preserving the heritage of our university. The USC University Archives exist to collect, preserve and make available records having permanent value in documenting the history of the university, its administrative offices and academic departments, and USC-related organizations as well as the activities of faculty, staff and students. Books, manuscripts, USC periodicals and newspapers, posters, photographic images, disc and tape recordings, and other archival items are available for research under supervised conditions. Gifts of any items contributing to documentation of the history of USC will be greatly appreciated and carefully preserved. Please contact me at (213) 740-2587 or czachary@usc.edu, or visit us at www.usc.edu/ arc/libraries/uscarchives. Claude Zachary USC University Archivist CAMPUS

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What’s New &

NOTES ON ALL THINGS TROJAN

Among the Elect T. C. Boyle and Stephen Hartke are the first USC faculty named to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. T. Coraghessan Boyle of USC College and composer Stephen Hartke of the USC Thornton School of Music were inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters – a lifetime appointment to an elite club of the nation’s most distinguished practitioners of architecture, art, literature and music. It is the first time any professor from USC has been named to the academy, which was established in 1898. Membership remains static at 250, which means that an opening occurs only when a member dies. Boyle and

IN MAY, WRITER

Stephen Hartke, left, and T. Coraghessan Boyle

Hartke were among only nine new appointees for 2009. “Professor Hartke and Professor Boyle are true masters, gifted with enormous talent, and diligent in pursuit of their art,” said USC President Steven B. Sample. “Their accomplishments add luster to USC’s academic reputation, and the real beneficiaries are the USC students who are fortunate enough to study with them and receive their guidance.” Reflecting on Hartke’s election to what is “certainly the most prestigious cultural

institution in America,” USC Thornton dean Robert Cutietta mused: “People often ask me: ‘Why are there no Mozarts today?’ I think Stephen’s honor answers that question. It shows that there are indeed composers in our midst whose music is recognized as truly outstanding and will be performed well into the future. Our students are fortunate to be able to work with a living legend such as Stephen.” Howard Gillman, dean of USC College, called Boyle’s election “a wonderful and well-deserved tribute to one of the most gifted writers of our times.” Fellow professor of English and renowned poet David St. John praised Boyle’s “exceptional insight into what makes America tick, and the ways its eccentrics – and other fierce individuals – have helped define for us what it means to be alive in both this and early times.” in Orange, N.J., was educated at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania and UC Santa Barbara. He taught in Brazil as a Fulbright Professor at the Universidade de São Paulo before joining the USC faculty in 1987, and now serves as Distinguished Professor of Composition. His work, which has been hailed for both its singularity of voice and the inclusive breadth of its inspiration, has been commissioned by orchestras and cultural institutions across the country. Hartke’s output is extremely varied, including the medieval-inspired piano quartet The King of the Sun; Wulfstan at the Millennium, an abstract liturgy for 10 instruments; the blues-inflected violin duo Oh Them Rats Is Mean in My Kitchen; the surreal trio The Horse with the Lavender Eye; the Biblical satire Sons of Noah, for soprano, four flutes, four guitars and four bassoons; and his recent cycle of motets for chorus, oboe and strings, Precepts. He has won a raft of prizes, including the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, two Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission Grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Most of his music is available on major classical labels. HARTKE, WHO WAS BORN

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING AT THE W HOTEL, LOS ANGELES

NEWS

BOYLE, WHO WAS BORN in Peekskill, N.Y., earned a B.A. in English and history at the State University of New York at Potsdam and went on to the University of Iowa, where he received both an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Ph.D. in 19th-century British literature. Since 1978, he has taught in the English department at USC, where he founded the undergraduate creative writing program. During his years here, he has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, multiple O. Henry Awards for his short fiction and awards for his novels, including the PEN/Faulkner for World’s End (1988) and the Prix Médicis etranger best foreign novel award for The Tortilla Curtain (1995). In 1993, the academy awarded him its Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award for “recent prose that merits recognition.” Boyle is astonishingly prolific, having written 12 novels and nine collections of short stories to date, all the while teaching advanced fiction courses for undergraduates as well as Ph.D.-level writing courses. His latest novel, The Women, probes the tumultuous relationships in Frank Lloyd Wright’s life. The New Yorker described it as “full of vivid descriptions and turns of phrase that pop with a preternatural precision.” The American Academy of Arts and Letters each year awards nearly $1 million in prizes to artists, architects, writers and composers; funds exhibitions and purchases art to be donated to museums; and subsidizes readings and performances of new musicals.

– Allison Engel

[PRESIDENTIAL MEDALLION]

CATALINA, HERE WE COME

Trojan Fleet Doubles in Size Now two shuttles ferry Trojan scholars to and from USC’s Wrigley Marine Science Center. TRAVELING TO USC’s campus on Catalina Island became much easier in April when the U.S. Coast Guard approved passenger travel on a boat owned by USC and operated by the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. The 45-foot-long Zephyrus, approved for up to 20 passengers and two crew members, will make the 20-mile trip across the San Pedro Channel year round. Its primary service will be daily roundtrips between the ship’s home port in San Pedro and the Wrigley Marine Science Center located at Big Fisherman’s Cove near the community of Two Harbors. It joins the original shuttle boat, Harmony, which was a 1999 gift from Packy Offield, a member of the Wrigley family. That vessel carries 10 passengers. “We need regular access to the campus on Catalina Island the same way we need access to every USC campus around Los Angeles,” says Donal T. Manahan, director of the USC Wrigley Institute. “Now we can offer a daily commuter shuttle to our island campus. This is an exciting new development. It will dramatically improve the environmental research and education programs we can offer on Catalina Island.”

Going for Gold

USC trustee and past board chairman Stanley Gold received the university’s highest honor, the Presidential Medallion, at the Academic Honors Convocation in April. USC President Steven B. Sample describes Gold as “a genius at analyzing budgets and spreadsheets.”A trustee since 1993 and board chairman from 2002 to 2008, Gold served as the university’s chief negotiator in its recent purchase of USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital, as well as in securing a 47-year lease with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission. A USC-educated attorney, he made his professional mark in both the legal and financial fields, serving as a director of the Walt Disney Co. and currently as president of the investment companies Shamrock Holdings

ILLUSTRATION BY TIM BOWER

and Shamrock Capital Advisors. Gold also serves on the boards of the USC Gould School of Law, the Keck School of Medicine of USC and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. ●

The Zephyrus made its maiden voyage April 7, leaving San Pedro with eight students taking a class on natural history taught by biologist Gerald Bakus of USC College. USC ACQUIRED THE Zephyrus in October 2008,

but before putting the boat into service, the university needed to meet stringent Coast Guard requirements that apply to commercial passenger travel. Upgrades were made to the boat’s electrical and safety systems and two new life rafts were installed, each with a capacity of 20 people. Passage on the shuttle is free for students, according to Gerry Smith, the waterfront and safety officer for the Wrigley Institute. In its first month of service, the Zephyrus was booked with USC passengers on every trip. Regular operation of the Zephyrus gives the institute more flexibility in getting people to and from the USC campus on Catalina Island, says Smith. “We control the schedule and availability, and that’s especially important in the offseason,” he says. “Commercial ferries only service our part of Catalina Island once a week in the winter.” The shuttle is intended to carry members of the USC community to and from the USC marine labs at Big Fisherman’s Cove. It does not run from the mainland to the tourist community of Avalon. – Richard Hoops

A longer version of this article is at http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/stanley_gold.html

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

›› DEAN The USC School of Dentistry has named Avishai Sadan as its new dean, effective Aug. 1. He joins USC from Case Western Reserve University, where he served as associate dean of clinical affairs and professor and chair of the department of comprehensive care. Sadan received his B.Sc. and doctor of dental medicine degrees from Hebrew University and trained in prosthodontics at Louisiana State University. ›› REAL ESTATE STAR Richard DeBeikes Jr. ’78, president of the diversified real estate corporation DeBeikes Investment Company, begins a five-year term on the USC Board of Trustees. DeBeikes, who is past president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors, is a USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development graduate, and he serves on the SPPD board of councilors and is also a member of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. ›› ENGINEER Also elected to the USC Board of Trustees is Kenneth R. Klein ’82, chairman of the board, CEO and president of Wind River Systems, Inc., which specializes in technologies used in devices ranging from mobile phones to robotic surgical instruments. Klein, who holds a dual USC degree in biomedical and electrical engineering, gave $8 million to the university to establish the Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life.

›› DODGERS CEO Jamie McCourt, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been elected to the USC Board of Trustees. The highest-ranking female executive in Major League Baseball, McCourt and her husband, Frank, have owned the Dodgers since 2004. Under her leadership, the team has achieved its top three season-attendance totals, twice advanced to postseason playoffs and, in 2008, went to the National League Championship Series. ●

For a listing of USC trustees, officers and deans, visit www.usc.edu/about/administration

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

People Watch For Whom the Bells Tolled Pomp, circumstance, the governor and the vice president THE PEALING CHIMES of a newly restored cam-

pus landmark rang in the university’s 126th commencement in May, when more than 8,000 graduating Trojans heard honorary degree recipient Arnold Schwarzenegger outline his “six rules of success.” The ceremony marked the return of the symphonic carillon in the Von KleinSmid bell tower, repaired thanks to the women of Town & Gown and soon to be upgraded with an additional gift from the graduating class of 2009. The festive day included a surprise campus visit by vice president Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, who watched nephew Cuffe Biden Owens graduate from the USC Gould School of Law. President Steven B. Sample, on behalf of the university, bestowed honorary degrees on social worker Frances Wu PhD ’74, founder of the Chinese-American Golden Age Association; journalist and author Elena Poniatowska Amor; computer scientist Anita K. Jones, whose leadership paved the way for USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies; and California Governor Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger’s first rule during his rousing commencement address was, “Trust yourself.” Stop listening to your parents, he told graduates, and look inside yourself to decide who you want to be and what makes you happy. The second rule, or non-rule, was, “Break the rules.” Schwarzenegger spoke of movie agents who told him a bodybuilder could not succeed as an actor and who complained about his accent. Yet one of the most famous

lines in movie history, The Terminator’s “I’ll be back,” worked precisely because of its accented delivery. ILLUSTRATING THE third rule, “Don’t be afraid

to fail,” with self-deprecating humor, Schwarzenegger mentioned some of his box-office flops, such as Last Action Hero. But in keeping with the recurrent scrappy-kid-overcomesall-obstacles theme of his speech, he quickly followed up with a list of his biggest hits. “Don’t listen to the naysayers” was the fourth rule. President Barack Obama did not, the governor reminded the cheering crowd. Schwarzenegger said that if he had listened to naysayers, he would still be in his native Austria, yodeling, instead of serving as “governor of the greatest state of the greatest country in the world.” The fifth rule, and the most important one, according to Schwarzenegger, was, “Work your butt off.” “You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets,” he said, teasing those who claim to need more than six hours of sleep a night: “Sleep faster, I would recommend.” “Giving back” was his final rule, and he talked about being more excited by a game of chess with an inner-city kid than by a walk down a red carpet. He went on to honor the selfless example of his father-in-law, Peace Corps founder Robert Sargent Shriver. He finished: “Never lose the spirit of Troy. You are USC Trojans, proud, strong.” – Carl Marziali

From left: Vice President Joe Biden, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, USC Board of Trustees chair Edward P. Roski, Jr., and USC President Steven B. Sample

BIDEN PHOTO BY MARIA IACOBO / SCHWARZENEGGER PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

Milestones

Global Horizons

WorldWATCH

Soviet Souvenirs Under the onion domes of the Shrine Auditorium, USC’s Institute of Modern Russian Culture finds a new home.

ILLUSTRATION BY TIM BOWER

WHAT DOES SOVIET HISTORY have in common

with the decadence of the golden age of Hollywood? A home address. Since opening in 1926, the historic Shrine Auditorium building with its Moroccan architecture and golden-domed cupolas has been most famously a venue for the Oscars. Now it’s a venue for the Institute of Modern Russian Culture, which formally opened at the Shrine in April – just across the street from the University Park campus. Part of USC College, the research facility promotes the cultural history of the world’s largest country. It is home to extensive collections of rare books, periodicals, archives, photographs, phonograph records and memorabilia from Russia. The opening ceremony included tours of the Shrine and the institute, where the Ferris Collection of Sovietica is on display. The collection – comprising more than 8,000 Soviet-era items, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, publications, banners and toys – is unique in the Western world. “[The late Tom] Ferris’ primary mission was that the collection be studied and researched in an open and accessible manner,” says Thomas Seifrid, chair of the affiliated Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. John Bowlt, director of the institute,

launched the private, nonprofit organization 30 years ago at the University of Texas. The professor of Slavic languages and literatures brought the institute with him when he joined USC College in 1988. It had various temporary homes on campus until moving to the Shrine. The institute’s collection represents the cultural history of Russia, particularly the visual arts and literatures during the 19th and 20th centuries. Among its exceptional features are Russian book illustrations beginning in the 20th century; a history of book designs (including several monographs by Marc Chagall); satirical journals; a phonograph collection; and original sound recordings of music and historic voices of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Leo Tolstoy. Last year, the family of Lev Ladyzhensky donated a collection of materials spanning more than a half-century in the life of poet and Doctor Zhivago author Boris Pasternak. DURING THE OPENING CEREMONY for the institute’s new digs, Jeri Chase Ferris, Tom Ferris’ wife, spoke of her husband’s penchant for collecting all things Russian and his love for the country itself. Tom Ferris began collecting at age 4, but started focusing on Russia in 1970. A Russian studies teacher at Beverly Hills High School, Ferris took his students on a winter vacation to the then-Soviet Union. In all the Ferrises took more than 30 trips to Russia, acquiring items expressing the spirit and achievement of Soviet culture, whether it be a coffee-table album celebrating Stalin, a survey of the Moscow metro, a cigarette case, an abacus, a school uniform, a porcelain figurine or a money-box in the shape of Mikhail Gorbachev. “Tom’s dream was that his collection of Russian memorabilia be preserved, kept safe and made available for study so people could understand how Stalin came to be,” Ferris says. “So Soviet history would be real, not abstract. So future generations would appreciate the history and sacrifices of Soviet citizens.”

– Pamela J. Johnson

›› USC IN PUERTO RICO The School of Social Work has added Puerto Rico to its list of global immersion programs. Associate professor Marie Aranda will lead three-week student trips to the island, where Trojans will interact with students, faculty and alumni of the Beatriz Lassalle School of Social Work at the University of Puerto Rico – the largest and oldest such school in Latin America. They will visit community organizing settings and ecological preservation sites. They may even have the opportunity to shadow health education advocates who work with clients recovering from addictions and other at-risk behaviors. ›› SOCIAL WORK IN TAIWAN Next up for the School of Social Work: a global master of social work degree in community, corporate and organizational development in Taiwan – the first such program to be launched by a top-ranked United States research university. The first year of the program will begin in Taipei, and the second year will be spent in Los Angeles to encourage a true cross-cultural learning experience. More than 500 field internships in Los Angeles will enable students to apply what they learn in the classroom. The degree requirements are the same as for USC’s flagship MSW program.

›› BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL A group of USC Marshall School of Business students spent spring break in a remote Panamanian village helping struggling honeybee farmers put together a viable cooperative. Twenty undergraduates each spent about $1,500 of their own money to travel to the village of El Bale, a four-hour bus ride from Panama City, bringing construction materials as part of their capital investment. Guillermina Molina, director of undergraduate student services, functioned as adviser and translator.

›› CIVIL SERVANT The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development has signed a memorandum of understanding with the South Korean government to provide graduate education and training for officials from Korea’s Ministry of Public Administration and Security. Civil servants will study public administration, public policy or urban planning, as well as gain relevant field experience while pursuing their master’s degrees. ● For more news about USC’s global programs, visit http://uscnews.usc.edu/global

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

Arts & Culture

LA Trade Tech student linemen climb at the final class gathering.

All Power to the Linemen

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

USC Roski and L.A. Trade Tech share dizzying heights as the visual arts celebrate the climbing arts. MFA ART STUDENT Michael Parker happened upon his thesis project while riding his bicycle to class. It was hard to miss. A grid of gigantic wood poles had suddenly appeared on a dirt lot at the corner of Washington and Flower streets. Since he is an art student, Parker assumed it was a modern sculpture. But he soon realized its intended purpose when he saw men in hardhats climbing the poles, wearing leather belts and metal spikes. He had stumbled upon the “pole yard” at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, where fledgling power pole technicians take an eight-hour class, five days a week over 16 weeks. Parker, an outgoing, energetic student who hails from New York City, gained permission of the course instructor, veteran lineman Ken Bushman, to document the journey that 50 men from varied backgrounds took to feel comfortable working atop 35-foot Douglas fir poles. Parker, helped by USC Roski seniors Nick Nemecheck and Marinna Wagner, spent several hours a day at the yard during spring semester and produced a two-hour video culled from 35 hours of tape, 3,500 digital

images and 20 rolls of medium-format film. Collaboratively, the class created a 20-minute looped video in which the Trade Tech students took portraits and self-portraits as they passed a double-headed video camera

[GO ASK ALICE]

“baton” while high up on the poles. Parker then mounted the work in an exhibition, May Day: Control the Power – Follow the Energy, that debuted May 1 at the Roski Graduate Gallery at 30th and Flower, complete with 18 “butt end stools” made from training pole stumps. There was a large turnout of family and friends from the lineman class at the opening – many of them attending an art exhibition for the very first time. USC Roski dean Ruth Weisberg was thrilled (“This was a very positive example of the potential role for fine art to play in society”), and Parker was, too. “I was very excited to collaborate with the class,” he said, “and for others to celebrate with us.” A second presentation of their work together occurred at the pole yard in midJune. There was pole climbing and a shared meal, and a class yearbook in the form of a newspaper detailing student biographies – many inspirational and transforming – was released. The newspaper was a collaboration between USC and the technical college. So many questions, but there’s space for just one: Did Parker ever try a climb? “After a month, the guys were encouraging me, so I did,” he says. “I had been observing so long and paying so much attention that I had to try it.” And how was it? “Scary. Your legs shake. But Bushman told the class that we all are born with a certain fear of heights. A big part of the class is to get over this fear by being in the moment, breathing and being calm in an incredibly unnatural situation.” – Allison Engel

Wonder Bred

Alice in Wonderland meets the popular lotería card game in Ghia Godfree’s inventive mash-up Alicia en Lotería Land, winner of this year’s Wonderland Award. The multidisciplinary competition encourages new scholarship and creative output using materials in the G. Edward Cassady and Margaret Elizabeth Cassady Lewis Carroll Collection at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library. “One of the first things I noticed in the library collections was how many translations of Alice there were, and how quickly they appeared after the book was first published,” says Godfree, a graduate student in cinematic arts. “So I became interested in the process and meaning of translation, as well as the way in which lotería seemed to have so many Carrollian characteristics.” USC students submitted a record 57 entries for this year’s competition. The contest capped off a semester-long celebration of the Wonderland Award’s 5th anniversary, which included croquet games in Alumni Park, the installation of an oversized chess set in Doheny Library and Callooh! Callay!, a retrospective exhibition of previous Wonderland entries. – Bill Dotson

To learn more about the Wonderland Award and the Cassady Collection, visit www.usc.edu/libraries/wonderland

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

Top artists from across the musical spectrum will be dropping by campus this fall to help celebrate the 125th anniversary of the USC Thornton School of Music. Choose from 50 events, showcasing talent from 16 departments, spread across 18 weeks (that’s 125 days).

›› FRENCH TWIST The jubilee begins overseas, with USC Thornton chamber music students traveling to Brittany to participate in the prestigious Rencontres Franco-Américaines de Musique de Chambre, where they will perform in sold-out concerts with students from the Paris Conservatoire. The festival runs August 15-20, in Missillac, France.

›› PARTY OF THE CENTURY Back home, an all-night blowout party kicks off the landmark celebration. First hear a concert by the USC Thornton Symphony Orchestra under the baton of resident conductor Carl St.Clair. Then mingle at a festive reception for the entire USC community. The good times continue with a rockin’ post-concert party in Alumni Park – transformed for one night into a dance club. September 10, Bovard Auditorium. Admission to all events is free.

›› MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS The star conductor of the San Francisco Symphony leads the USC Thornton Symphony in a special multimedia evening of concert music and personal recollections from his student days at USC. October 5, Bovard Auditorium. ›› STEVE MILLER The multi-Grammy Awardwinning pop music legend – whose chart-topping rock anthems include “Fly Like an Eagle,” “Jet Airliner,” “Take the Money and Run” and “Rock'n Me” – kicks it up with a pair of back-toback fundraising concerts. October 22 and 23, Bovard Auditorium.The concerts coincide with Parents Weekend. Other headliners spread over the 18-week celebration include contemporary music sensation eighth blackbird; internationally acclaimed conductor Helmuth Rilling; classical guitar legends and USC Thornton faculty members Pepe Romero, James Smith, William Kanengiser and Brian Head; and jazz greats Alan Pasqua, Bob Mintzer, John Clayton and Peter Erskine, all of whom are on USC Thornton’s faculty. ●

For tickets and information, call (213) 740-GOSC (740-4672) or visit www.uscticketoffice.com

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

WHAT’S HOT AND NOT

Mapping the Buzz Scholars pinpoint cultural ‘hot spots,’ and the geography of a city’s artistic life comes into focus. USC’S ELIZABETH CURRID and Columbia University’s Sarah Williams have been looking at their respective cities from a new geographic perspective. Using 300,000 photographs archived by Getty Images between March 2006 and March 2007, the two urban planning scholars mapped hot spots of cultural activity, or “buzz,” in New York and Los Angeles. On April 15, they presented their findings at a USC research seminar. It turns out that in the world of art, fashion and popular music, “social scenes” – and the buzz surrounding them – produce meaningful economic outcomes for both the creative people and their artistic goods. “So much of the social life of creativity is place-specific,” says Currid, an assistant professor at USC’s School of Policy, Planning, and Development. “With the study of Getty Images photos documenting arts and entertainment events, we could quantify where these creative social scenes formed, and through geographic statistics, we tested whether there were meaningful links between events and where they’re located. As it turns out, there is nothing random about the geography of buzz in Los Angeles.” Beverly Hills and the Hollywood portion of the Sunset Strip hosted the majority of buzz-worthy screenings, fashion shows, concerts and gallery and theatre openings in Los Angeles. Meanwhile the “buzziest” areas in New York, Currid and Williams found, were located around Lincoln and Rockefeller centers and along Broadway, between Times Square and SoHo. “If you look at which places rise to become event enclaves, it’s not just that they’re greater – they’re disproportionately more important to the media,” Currid says. “And they also exhibit spillover effects. You have this disproportionate enclave, and then all of these nodes around it.” Of course, the data set they used, Getty Images photographs, includes certain cultural events and excludes others. And not all buzz is created equal. A motion picture phenomenon like The Lord of the Rings and a notorious flop like Gigli both had premieres covered by Getty Images, but only one of them created a lasting impression on

audiences, notes Leo Braudy, University Professor at USC and author of The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History, who served as commentator at the research seminar. Currid acknowledges a tension between “commodified culture” and “bohemia.” However, she believes that the patterns exhibited in the market-driven Getty Images data set might extend to bohemia as well as to more entrepreneurial milieus such as Silicon Valley. “What we hope we’re doing with this data set is telling a story that the pattern we have found may be universal, even if the data set is not,” Currid says. “Are we learning something about social agglomeration? Does this data set give us one lens into it?” She and Williams (who directs Columbia’s Spatial Information Design Lab) plan to extend their study to include other years and cities in addition to an entirely different data set – “the paparazzi who are following not just the formal events that count, but the actual celebrity sightings, which we believe probably operate very similarly.” – Cristy Lytal

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

125 Days of MUSIC

Lab Work

social pain, in 13 volunteers. (The emotion felt was verified through a careful protocol of pre- and post-imaging interviews.) Brain imaging showed that the volunteers needed six to eight seconds to fully respond to stories of virtue or social pain. However, once awakened, the responses lasted far longer than the volunteers’ reactions to stories focused on physical pain. THE STUDY RAISES questions about the emo-

Virtue Takes Time Nobler instincts are aroused far more slowly – requiring up to 8 seconds of thought – than the baser kind. dominated by studies of fear and pain, one of the first brain studies of inspirational emotions finds that emotions linked to moral sense awaken slowly in the mind. The finding suggests that digital media culture may be better suited to some mental processes than others. The new study came from a neuroscience group led by Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC College. “For some kinds of thought, especially moral decision-making about other people’s social and psychological situations, we need to allow for adequate time and reflection,” says lead author Mary Helen ImmordinoYang of USC’s Rossier School of Education. Humans can sort information very quickly and can respond in fractions of seconds to signs of physical pain in others. Admiration and compassion – two of the social emotions that define humanity – take much longer, Damasio’s group found. Their study appeared online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Damasio’s study has extraordinary implications for the human perception of events in a digital communication environment,” says USC Annenberg media scholar and University Professor Manuel Castells, holder

ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL KLEIN

IN A FIELD

of the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at USC. “Lasting compassion in relationship to psychological suffering requires a level of persistent, emotional attention.” The study’s authors used compelling, real-life stories to induce admiration for virtue or skill, or compassion for physical or

[STUDY BUDDIES]

tional cost – particularly for the developing brain – of heavy reliance on a rapid stream of news snippets. “If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people’s psychological states, and that would have implications for your morality,” Immordino-Yang says. A former junior high school teacher, she stresses the study’s relevance to teaching. “Educators are charged with the role of producing moral citizens who can think in ethical ways, who feel responsible to help others less fortunate, who can use their knowledge to make the world a better place,” she says. “And so we need to understand how social experience shapes interactions between the body and mind, to produce citizens with a strong moral compass.” Clearly, normal life events will always provide opportunities for humans to feel admiration and compassion. But fast-paced digital media tools may direct some heavy users away from traditional avenues for learning about humanity, such as engagement with literature or faceto-face social interactions. The ramifications are not as troubling for online social spaces, some of which can pro-

Faculty Speed-Dating

Stripped of their customary PowerPoint slides and paired up for 90-second conversations, two dozen USC faculty researchers mingled last March in a speed-dating session with a serious, non-romantic objective: to make new research partnerships. “It was easy to very quickly learn about each other and identify people who had similar interests,” says biokinesiology researcher Julie Tilson. “It was surprisingly effective.” Not only effective, but also lucrative. Tilson and four other researchers from medicine and pharmacy – all previously strangers – came away with a $17,000 Zumberge grant as seed money for a project they dreamed up that morning. The speed-dating idea came from Steven Good-

man (dentistry) and Peggy McLaughlin (communication), co-chairs of the subcommittee on collaboration of the University Research Committee. The organizers believe it to be the first such event at a university. Shrikanth Narayanan, who heads the committee, hopes the format can be replicated in future events, perhaps through networking breakfasts with randomly picked participants. – Carl Marziali

A longer version of this article is at http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/speed_dating.html

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

›› TUMOR ZAPPER Researchers have identified a new drug compound that targets tumor cells and surrounding blood vessels without the negative side effects typically associated with Cox-2 inhibitors. The compound – called 2.5dimethyl-celecoxib, or DMC – has a strong antitumor effect while also attacking the vasculature that provides the blood supply necessary for tumor growth. “We believe that DMC will be particularly useful for treating brain tumors such as gliomas, which are highly vascular,” says Keck School of Medicine of USC pathologist Florence M. Hofman.

›› A BRAINY CUNUNDRUM Proteins travel throughout the body, but how do they “know” where to go? In a study that appeared online in Nature Neuroscience, molecular and computational biologist Don Arnold and collaborators solved the mystery for key proteins in the brain. The discovery may enable finer control over neurons for basic research or for treatment of neurological disorders.

›› BEATING HUNTINGTON Researchers at USC’s Davis School of Gerontology have taken an important first step toward protecting against Huntington disease. In the June issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, gerontologist Kelvin Davies describes cell culture findings that show a mutant form of the gene RCAN1, known as RCAN1-1L, is dramatically decreased in human brains affected by the incurable neurological disorder. (RCAN1-1L was first discovered in Davies’ lab.) “Our findings allow for the possibility that controlled overexpression of RCAN1-1L might, in the future, be a viable avenue for therapeutic intervention in Huntington disease patients,” he says.

›› STEM CELLS AND LUPUS Fueled by promising results from the lab of stem cell researcher Songtao Shi in USC‘s Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, clinicians at Nanjing University Medical School have used mesenchymal stem cells infusion to treat four young-adult patients whose lupus symptoms no longer responded well to immunosuppression therapy. In all of the patients, organ function improved greatly. Follow-up at 18 months indicated no problems with organ function or reactions to the transplanted cells. The results were published in the April issue of Stem Cells. ● To find more articles on USC research advances, visit http://uscnews.usc.edu/science_technology

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

vide opportunities for reflection, as they are for fast-moving television or virtual games. “What I’m more worried about is what is happening in the (abrupt) juxtapositions that you find, for example, in the news,” says Damasio. He calls the study “the first to investigate the neural bases of admiration and one of the first to deal with compassion in a context broader than physical pain.”

The study also showed that physical and social pain engage the posteromedial cortex, a central hub in the brain related to the sense of self and consciousness. In keeping with that finding, volunteers reported a heightened sense of self-awareness after hearing the stories. Many expressed a desire to lead better lives. Some even refused payment for participation. – Carl Marziali

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Demographics of Bulimia Black girls are more likely to be bulimic than whites, poor girls far more likely than rich. AN IMPORTANT NEW STUDY challenges the widespread perception that bulimia primarily affects privileged, white teenagers. Rather, girls who are African American are 50 percent more likely than girls who are white to be bulimic, and girls from families in the lowest income bracket studied are 153 percent more likely to be bulimic than girls from the highest income bracket. Using data from a 10-year survey of more than 2,300 girls in schools in California, Ohio and Washington, D.C., economist Michelle Goeree from USC College and collaborators from the University of Maryland and the Autonomous University of Barcelona pored over surveys administered annually to 9- and 10-year-old girls regarding their eating habits and affiliated psychological issues, such as body image and depression. “The difference between public perception and our results is striking,” Goeree says. Among their findings: • Black girls were 50 percent more likely than white girls to exhibit bulimic behavior, including both binging and purging. About 2.6 percent of black girls were clinically bulimic, compared to 1.7 percent of white girls. Overall, approximately 2.2 percent of the girls surveyed were clinically bulimic, close to the national average. • Black girls scored an average of 17 percentage points higher than their white counterparts on a widely used medical index

gauging of the severity of the bulimia. • Girls from families in the lowest income bracket were more likely to experience bulimia than their wealthier peers. • Parent education also matters. Bulimia affected 1.5 percent of girls in households where at least one parent had a college degree. For girls whose parents had a high school education or less, the bulimia rate was 3.3 percent. Eating Disorders Association estimates that more than 9 million females in the United States struggle with bulimia. Health consequences can include heart failure, rupture of the esophagus, tooth decay and irreversible effects on physical development. The study has major policy implications. Based on their findings about the persistence of bulimic behavior and who is afflicted, the researchers argue that bulimia, which is currently classified as a disorder, would be more accurately described and treated as an addiction. This would allow more federal, state and local treatment programs and fewer outof-pocket insurance costs. The findings also hold ramifications for education spending. “You should try to tailor educational programs to the group that they will help the most,” Goeree explains. “Now we’re finding that it’s really important to reach a completely different group than we thought.” THE NATIONAL

– Suzanne Wu

ILLUSTRATION BY TIM BOWER

InquiringMINDS

Reaching Out

The Masjid Omar Ibn Al Khattab on Exposition Boulevard

Stirred up by a Souljourn There are 67 different houses of worship within a mile of the University Park campus. USC embraces them all.

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

DAFER M. DAKHIL had an interesting question

for the students sitting across from him in the basement of the Omar mosque directly across the street from USC’s International Residential College at Parkside. “How much do you know about Islam?” The students who answered “not much” were about to receive an intimate introduction to one of the most talked-about and misunderstood religions in America from a highly respected leader of the Muslim community. “It’s not really that different,” says Dakhil, director of community development and external relations for the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation, which oversees the mosque. “We don’t believe God needs us, but we do need him.” The USC students had just finished participating in afternoon prayers in the immense grand room under the green dome, kneeling down shoeless on a royal blue carpet, when Dakhil invited them to chat over coffee and pastries. “I had never been to a mosque and I wanted to find out what it was about,” says Matthew Behrend, 27, who is getting his doctorate in electrical engineering. “I have some friends who are Muslims, but they

don’t actually go to a mosque. They had a peaceful and unitarian message that I did not know was there. It was quite wonderful to experience.”

[LEARNING TOOLS]

It was all part of Souljourn, a way for USC students to explore Los Angeles, the most religiously diverse city in the world. James Burklo, the associate dean of religious life who organized the outings, says that within a mile of USC, there are 67 religious congregations. The mosque was just one part of a whirlwind tour dozens of students took during spring semester. The first stop was at the Senshin Buddhist Temple two blocks west of campus. Burklo notes that there are more different kinds of Buddhists in Los Angeles than in Bangkok. “There’s no better way to know your neighborhood than to worship or pray with the people who live in it,” Burklo says. “Being at USC offers you a remarkable opportunity not only to study the religions of the world, but also to experience them firsthand.” Students also visited the Thien Hau Taoist Temple in Chinatown and the First African Methodist Episcopal Church on West Adams. They attended the Ministerios Manantial de Amor, a Spanish-speaking Pentecostal church in the University Park neighborhood, and they also found fellowship and food during a Jewish sabbath service. They celebrated Holi, the Indian Festival of Colors, in Huntington Beach, then worshiped in downtown Los Angeles at the Church of the Nazarene. Burklo describes the scene there as a “rocking, rolling service of amens and hallelujahs in a congregation consisting mostly of people who are

Gaming the System

At Jordan and Crenshaw – two Los Angeles high schools targeted for academic improvement – administrators introduced a revolutionary new tool for engaging young minds last semester. It’s called GameDesk. Developed at USC Viterbi’s Integrated Media Systems Center, the program challenges high schoolers to build their own educational and entertainment video games from scratch. “GameDesk is designed to improve students’ mathematical and analytical skills and stimulate their natural instincts to learn,” says Victor Lacour, the center’s associate director for games research. “In a physics class, a motion equation would traditionally be introduced by the teacher in the form of a lecture and ultimately tested in exam form,” he says. “But in GameDesk, the students make ‘Car Crash Derby,’ learning the motion equation as a game tool to build the game.” ●

To learn more about USC Viterbi’s Integrated Media Systems Center, visit http://imsc.usc.edu

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

God.’ She led us into the dining area for a free, really delicious Indian vegetarian meal. We sat on the carpet in the sanctuary and listened to ‘bhajans’ – chants in Punjabi accompanied by tablas and harmoniums – and prayed with the people,” he recounted. “It was beautiful.” – Eddie North-Hager

A MEDICAL PARTNERSHIP

Clinically Experienced A pharmacist and a physician are making a difference on Skid Row – and getting noticed in D.C. “PATIENTS DON’T CARE how much you know until they know how much you care,” observed physician Paul Gregerson, who was the speaker at last spring’s USC School of Pharmacy commencement ceremony. The chief medical officer at the JWCH Institute, Gregerson welcomed 176 new doctors of pharmacy to the health-care team. The pharmacy school works closely with

diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Working under protocols approved by Gregerson, pharmacy team members treat the most difficult-to-manage patients. They see these patients regularly, ordering lab tests and changing medications and dosages as necessary. Their success has brought national attention. Gregerson and Chen now serve as fac-

Steven Chen (center) and Paul Gregerson counsel Cheryl D. Mills at a clinic serving the homeless in Los Angeles.

Gregerson at the JWCH Clinic at the Weingart Center, located on Skid Row, where faculty, students and residents provide clinical pharmacy services to some of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable residents. Pharmacy students who spend time at the clinic work with Gregerson’s partner, USC pharmacy faculty member Steven Chen. Under the watchful eye of professional pharmacists, these students provide medication and manage therapy to patients with chronic

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ulty members for a collaborative of the Washington, D.C.-based Health Resources and Services Administration, the branch of the federal government charged with minimizing health disparities between insured and uninsured individuals. “Here at JWCH, we’ve created a kind of national model using a health-care team approach,” says Gregerson. He and Chen both see expanding pharmacy services as a way to effect change in the health-care sys-

tem, and are helping groups around the country set up similar programs. GREGERSON COMPLETED his medical residency at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and worked for about a dozen years in the emergency room at the LAC+USC Medical Center. After a stint in the emergency room, he segued to the administrative side of medicine, wanting to experience health-care decision making from that perspective. He added an MBA to his academic credentials and eventually landed at the JWCH Institute, where he is able to meld his medical and business backgrounds at the six clinics he oversees. When he started working with Chen at the clinic, Gregerson came to appreciate the clinical pharmacist’s role on the health-care team. “At the beginning, clinic physicians were not quite comfortable with pharmacists working directly with patients,” Chen recalls. “They didn’t quite understand that the protocols allowed us to order diagnostic tests and change medications. They were concerned that having another person making treatment decisions would create confusion.” But Chen proved his worth and staff physicians grew to respect and trust him with their patients. Together, the physician and the pharmacist produced results that have attracted national attention, improving patient outcomes while saving health-care dollars. Much of the savings has been realized through the reorganization of the clinic dispensary. Chen and his USC colleagues revamped the formulary, optimizing the use of available drug purchasing programs and free drug options. The clinic has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars each year since Chen’s arrival, Gregerson says. Those savings grow exponentially when you factor in the drop in emergency room visits and hospital admissions that results with healthier, more compliant patients. “Since we’ve instituted the clinical pharmacy service with USC, patients have a better understanding of their care and are more engaged in their own health, resulting in better outcomes,” says Gregerson. In the crowded clinic hallway, a patient on his way to an examining room confirms what Gregerson has been saying. “This is the best clinic in L.A.,” says the homeless man, without prompting. “I’m diabetic, I’ve had a tumor and they keep me going.”

– Kukla Vera

PHOTO BY DIETMAR QUISTORF

homeless or very low-income.” Another unique experience was praying at the Sikh Gurdwara in the Los Feliz area. “We were greeted by a lovely older woman who explained the service to us,” Burklo wrote in a follow-up e-mail to other USC students. “She talked about her own spiritual journey into the ‘knowledge of

URBAN BEAT

Wired, Willing and Able

ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL KLEIN

A USC project combines high-tech savvy, high school mentoring and high-value reporting for South Los Angeles. IT WAS SO OBVIOUS, the wonder is no one had thought of it before. USC has veteran journalism teachers and apprentice reporters galore. And the communities around University Park have stories that need to be told. In May, the USC Annenberg School for Communication launched Intersections: The South Los Angeles Reporting Project, an information source and an independent voice for USC-adjacent neighborhoods that provides entrepreneurial journalism training opportunities for USC students. The project’s community news site, at intersectionssouthla.org, is now up and running. It features multimedia reporting by journalism students, community residents and community leaders. The focus is on education, economic development, housing and immigration in local communities. Journalism professors Bill Celis and Willa Seidenberg, co-directors of the project, say the site’s objectives include exposing students to urban reporting, partnering with the community and mentoring local high schoolers. “Hyperlocal news sites like Intersections fill a void by supplying meaningful coverage that mainstream media have been unable or unwilling to provide,” Celis says. “We’re

hopeful that the site will, in time, become a widely used resource by the residents of South Los Angeles.” Urban communities like South Los Angeles are often neglected by the news media

[TURNING GREEN]

or only covered in relation to the poverty, violence and problems that plague these neighborhoods, notes Seidenberg.“South Los Angeles may not have the money and clout that other L.A. neighborhoods have, but it has a wealth of characters, stories and lessons to be learned,” she says. “As the journalism industry moves from traditional forms of media to digital delivery systems, residents in low-income neighborhoods cannot be overlooked.” Intersections has multiple layers of community engagement, classroom instruction and different forms of news delivery. The project is currently engaged in a successful mentoring program at Crenshaw High School, where USC Annenberg journalism students have been working with several classes to produce audio slide shows, radio commentaries and blogs. The site also integrates many media outlets and research projects at USC Annenberg, including Annenberg Radio News; the digital magazine Watt Way; the Metamorphosis Project, which examines communication patterns in and around urban communities; and VozMob (Mobile Voices), a new project allowing itinerant laborers to tell their stories through cell phone-based community reporting. “Intersections demonstrates the important and transformative nature of communication and journalism,” says USC Annenberg dean Ernest J. Wilson III. “Our students gain experience as entrepreneurial journalists, and the community gains a voice,” he adds. “We’re delighted to play a role in this win-win situation.” –Jackson DeMos

L.A. Aims to Be Capital of Clean

“Today, with the stroke of a pen, we’re taking a giant step forward in an effort to make L.A. the global capital of clean technology,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said to loud applause at a signing ceremony on the south steps of City Hall on April 15. Beside him was USC executive vice president and provost C. L. Max Nikias, who drew more applause when he vowed to help make Los Angeles “the greenest city in America.” They were talking about a new citywide partnership that harnesses the intellectual capital of USC, UCLA and Caltech, and the business acumen of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., Los Angeles Business Council and Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Formally named CleanTech Los Angeles, the partnership already has produced a CleanTech Manufacturing Center in the newly named CleanTech Corridor, just east of downtown, and the Los Angeles Clean Truck Program, which has retrofitted thousands of trucks working at the ports to burn cleaner diesel fuel. USC’s Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, USC’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies and the USC Energy Institute will be key players in the effort. – Carl Marziali

To read more on CleanTech L.A., visit http://uscnews.usc.edu/university/green_la.html

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

A New Era in Health

A bold move in uncertain economic times signals the creation of an academic medical center on USC’s Health Sciences campus. by sara reeve and katie neith

Care Begins at USC T HIS SPRING, THE TROJAN FAMILY GREW BY TWO.

In a $275 million deal, USC acquired USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital from Tenet Healthcare Corp., making USC and UCLA the only Los Angeles-area universities owning hospitals. The purchase includes 471 inpatient beds and 1,600 hospital employees. USC President Steven B. Sample hailed the acquisition as a “tremendous victory” for the University of Southern California. “After spending thousands of man hours analyzing this deal from every conceivable angle,” he said, “the trustees and officers of USC believe it is very much in the university’s best interests to make this purchase at this time.” Sample acknowledged that the purchase was a complex and expensive undertaking, especially in the midst of the worst U.S. economy in decades. However, he said, the greater risk would be not to invest in such an important opportunity to advance clinical programs and research. “The purchase of these two hospitals has far-reaching, positive implications for the entire university,” he said. “In effect, what this purchase means is that we are establishing an academic medical center on our Health Sciences campus,” which will create deeper connections among disciplines on both campuses in order to enhance research, teaching and patient care. “This is our new frontier,” he said. “My hope is that we embrace this historic opportunity with en-

thusiasm, creativity, insight and foresight.” C. L. Max Nikias, USC executive vice president and provost, said that the strategic hospital acquisition will ensure USC’s position among the nation’s top-ranked research universities in the 21st century, an era in which medicine and biology and the interdisciplinary connections between these sciences and other disciplines will become the focus of innovation and growth. “The hospital acquisition is an historic investment by USC and a strategic move to create an integrated academic medical center,” Nikias said. “We look forward to enhancing the patient service that comes with the outstanding care provided by our Doctors of USC. In so doing, we will elevate the Keck School of Medicine of USC as a nationally acclaimed leader among the nation’s medical schools.” With the hospital acquisition, USC’s faculty physicians will care for private patients at two hospitals owned and managed by

the university, which will allow greater physician direction of clinical programs. The acquisition will also permit the acceleration of innovative therapies and surgical techniques for cardiovascular and thoracic diseases, urologic disorders, neurological issues, musculoskeletal disorders, organ transplantation, cancer treatment, disease prevention and other health concerns. Mitchell R. Creem, who became CEO of the two hospitals following a nationwide search led by Nikias, describes an academic medical center as much more than just new equipment and new information systems. “It is about creating a sense of hope – hope that miracles can happen and that they can happen here with our new treatments and our new cures,” he said. “It’s about giving you all a feeling that, no matter how desperate things feel at times, you have a place to go with people who care.” Having an academic medical center as part of the university will increase the Keck School’s ability to recruit the best doctors available, he added. “These physicians want to practice at a university where they can see patients while still pursuing advanced research to improve patient care,” he said. “This acquisition is integral to strengthening USC’s position as a top academic institution.” opened in 1991 under the ownership of National Medical Enterprises Inc., which later became Tenet Healthcare Corp. Tenet acquired USC Norris Cancer Hospital in 2003. Negotiations have been under way since USC UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

A TIME FOR CELEBRATION: At left, USC Board of Trustees chairman Edward P. Roski, Jr., hospitals CEO Mitchell R. Creem, Keck School of Medicine of USC dean Carmen A. Puliafito and USC executive vice president and provost C. L. Max Nikias at the festivities; ophthalmologist Alfredo Sadun gets an earful from a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band; hospital employees line up for lunch.

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

search space, including space for the new Epigenome Center. The close affiliation between the hospital and cancer center offers immediate benefit to patients seeking the latest breakthroughs in cancer prevention and treatment. Clinical trials are available for eligible patients who may not be succeeding with conventional treatments. “The formal ownership of USC Norris Cancer Hospital is very exciting,” said Peter Jones, director of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We have always worked together to deliver outstanding research and patient care, but now, through a truly integrated partnership, we can take cancer care to the next level.” In recent decades, the Doctors of USC have built private practices at both hospitals. Facilities at the 411-bed USC University Hospital include the new 10-story Norris Inpatient Tower, which provides 11 new operating rooms and 150 inpatient rooms, many of which were never used prior to the acquisition by USC. USC Norris Cancer Hospital encompasses 60 inpatient beds. When USC opens the new inpatient beds at University Hospital, the Doctors of USC will be caring for patients throughout a 1,400-bed system, including the 317-bed Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the 600-bed Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, where USC physicians have provided care to patients for more than 100 years. They have built the largest academic training program in the country, with more than 900 residents and fellows. Outpatients seeking diagnostic testing, chemotherapy, radiation treatment and

second opinions are treated onsite. USC Norris Cancer Hospital also has a radiation oncology department equipped with a CyberKnife and a Varian Trilogy Linear Accelerator, providing state-of-the-art technology, such as stereotactic radiosurgery, intensity-modulated radiation therapy and image-guided radiation therapy. The faculty physicians of the Keck School of Medicine of USC educate new doctors while carrying out their own clinical practice and conducting research to improve health care. CARMEN A. PULIAFITO, dean of the Keck School of Medicine, said that the purchase of the hospitals provides a link between medical education and medical practice for faculty and students. Before the acquisition, we were missing a connection to the principle of caring for patients before caring about the bottom line,” he said. USC is designed to create new knowledge, to train doctors and students, and to provide care to the community. “This acquisition allows us to put patients above profits and provide first-rate care for our community.” By having an academic medical center as part of the university, physicians, researchers and other medical professionals are onsite to provide highly specialized expertise to patients while at the same time developing excellent physicians and health care providers for the future. These same professionals continue the delivery of excellent care to the community, carry out research activities that bring the

PHOTO ON PREVIOUS PAGE BY VERONICA JAURIQUI, PHOTO OF USC OFFICIALS BY STEVE COHN, OTHERS BY JON NALICK

April 2008, when USC and Tenet signed a non-binding letter of intent for the university to acquire the two hospitals. USC filed a lawsuit in August 2006 seeking to end the relationship with Tenet, and Tenet filed a counterclaim against the university seeking monetary damages. The litigation was set aside as negotiations began. Sample credited key members of the USC Board of Trustees with helping to bring the acquisition to a successful conclusion. “Our trustees were crucial to this intricate and exacting process,” he said. “Our current chairman, Ed Roski, like so many of his board colleagues, wholeheartedly believed that USC’s clinical enterprise would flourish remarkably once the university owned and integrated its academic medical center. And our immediate past chairman, Stanley Gold, lent his zeal and considerable talent to the project for two years, proving himself an astute chief negotiator for USC in this landmark acquisition.” An acute care hospital, USC University Hospital tracks 7,700 inpatient visits and 56,000 outpatient visits each year. Patients at USC University Hospital have access to the most advanced medical treatments, such as neurointerventional radiology, minimally invasive cardiothoracic surgery, robotic surgery and interventional cardiology. Devoted exclusively to the treatment of patients with cancer, USC Norris Cancer Hospital is affiliated with the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the original eight such centers in the United States. The cancer center recently opened 99,000 square feet of new laboratory re-

latest diagnostic and treatment methods to patients, and extend new knowledge and leadership in the world of medicine. The acquisition of the hospitals improves the Keck School of Medicine’s ability to recruit additional world-renowned academic physicians who are committed to excellence in patient care both at the public Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center and at the private hospitals, while also committing to excellence in medical education and clinical research. “The quality of medical school education and residency education, I believe, is going to see a big improvement because there are new amenities that we can give to the residents

and medical students that we were not able to in the past,” said Vaughn Starnes, chair of the Department of Surgery at the Keck School and surgeon-in-chief for the two hospitals. “I think faculty will be even more engaged in the mission of teaching and education.” Namir Katkhouda, professor of surgery, said: “It’s important, as academic physicians and surgeons, to have a hospital not just affiliated with USC, but belonging to USC. It will lead to improved patient care and an increase in quality research.” Hospital efforts now are focused on integrating business operations of the physicians and hospitals, developing more patientfriendly business systems, planning for re-

freshed facilities and enhancing the overall patient experience. The goal of the acquisition is to position USC and its academic medical center at the forefront of patient care and translational research, placing the Keck School in the top tier of national medical institutions. According to Starnes, many patients now find themselves at USC hospitals because they have followed a certain doctor, but in the future, “people will come here because it is a great medical center, with the expectation that they will find great doctors.” l If you have questions or comments on this article, please send them to magazines@usc.edu.

BY THE NUMBERS

Caring for the Trojan Family

$275 million: Purchase price for which USC acquired USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital from Tenet Healthcare Corp. 2: Number of Los Angeles-area universities owning hospitals – USC and UCLA 574: Doctors of USC physicians and practitioners

PHOTOS BY PATRICK DAVISON

USC University Hospital

CONVENIENTLY LOCATED near the intersection of the 5 and 10 freeways, USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital offer top medical expertise and sophisticated technology, combined with a personalized approach to health care. “People are justifiably very proud of the USC Trojan name, and I think that the product we deliver is going to have increased patient satisfaction,” says Vaughn Starnes, surgeon-in-chief for USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital. “Now that these hospitals are part of the Trojan Family, the Doctors of USC will treat our patients as family, offering an outstanding level of care and personal attention to match the excellence for which USC is known.” Together, USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital have 471 beds, 350 clinical faculty and 1,600 full-time employees. They offer superior care in a number of

USC Norris Cancer Hospital

specialized areas. Surgical specialties at USC University Hospital include organ transplantation and neurosurgery as well as cardiothoracic, esophageal, orthopedic, and plastic and reconstructive surgeries. The modern facility also offers some of the most sophisticated technology available, including neurointerventional radiology, cardiac catheterization and interventional cardiology. USC Norris Cancer Hospital has a designated bone marrow transplantation unit and surgical unit with highly trained staff. USC faculty physicians practicing at Norris are specialists in the treatment of cancers of the bladder, prostate, kidney, testes, ovaries, breast, lung, gastrointestinal tract, skin, blood and lymph systems. USC Norris Cancer Hospital is one of a few hospitals in the nation dedicated exclusively to the care of patients with cancer. Treatment

options include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and combinations of these therapies. Immunotherapy and genetic counseling for specific cancers are also provided. The two hospitals are located on USC’s Health Sciences campus, east of downtown Los Angeles, which is also home to the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the USC School of Pharmacy, the Doheny Eye Institute, two outpatient clinic buildings, programs in occupational science and occupational therapy and in physical therapy, and the public Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. l For more information, see www.uscuniversityhospital.org and www.uscnorriscancerhospital.org. To schedule an appointment with a Doctor of USC, call 1-800-USC-CARE or visit www.DoctorsofUSC.com.

1,600: Total number of hospital employees in USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital 471: Total number of inpatient beds in the two hospitals purchased by USC 411: Beds at USC University Hospital 60: Beds at USC Norris Cancer Hospital 10: Stories in Norris Inpatient Tower at USC University Hospital, including 11 new operating rooms and 150 inpatient rooms 7,700: Inpatient visits per year at USC University Hospital 56,000: Outpatient visits per year at USC University Hospital 8: Original comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute, including USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center

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Alice Parker, a professor of electrical engineering systems, was helped by a WiSE research grant for work on nanocircuits. That boost led to a multiyear National Science Foundation award.

WıSE Womenof Scıence The

For the past decade, USC’s Women in Science and Engineering program has been working to make academic research and scholarship more hospitable to women scientists. The reason is simple: In today’s global economic competition, American research universities need all the brainpower they can get.

By Diane Krieger

p h o t o g ra p h s b y m a r k b e r n d t

ALICE PARKER CAN RECALL scanning crowds at national meetings in search of another female face. When she spotted one (there was rarely more than one) among the hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of fellow computer scientists, she would give a little wave. The other woman would discreetly wave back. Parker remembers leaving breakout sessions engrossed in conversation with a knot of colleagues, only to come up short at the men’s room door. No one else seemed to sense anything unusual in the situation, but she found it highly amusing. She could hear the discussion continue uninterrupted on the other side. If they did notice her gender, more amusement was in store. When she arrived at Carnegie Mellon University – for her first tenure-track job – the women’s restroom down the hall still possessed a functioning urinal. (One of the department secretaries eventually filled the porcelain hole with a potted plant.) These scenes aren’t from ancient history. Parker got her Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1975. Three years later, female students first outnumbered males at American colleges. Yet 34 years later, Parker, a professor of electrical engineering systems in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, remains an anomaly: a woman, a computer scientist and a professor at a major research university. Nationally,

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for reasons both obvious and mysterious, more than 90 percent of Alice Parker’s peers are still men. But at USC, thanks to a remarkable program now entering its 10th year, change is afoot. A decade ago, USC trailed national faculty gender-diversity averages in every discipline. In 2000, only three tenured or tenuretrack women could be found across the vast landscape of eight academic departments of the USC Viterbi School. Starting this fall, there will be 16. That’s a five-fold increase, though it’s still less than 10 percent of the 186-person USC engineering faculty. Across the six science and math departments of the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the number of women professors has doubled since 2000 – up from 12 to 24. (Women now make up 14 percent of the 168-person math and science faculties.) The program responsible for many of these

Morrison’s words, “frustrating and isolating.” In stark contrast, the Chronicle pointed to Maria C. Yang, then a newly hired USC assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering who, after consulting with numerous female colleagues through WiSE, was able to work out a sensible balancing plan when she became USC Viterbi’s first non-tenured expectant mother. By what Morrison calls “the sledgehammer metric”of total tenured and tenure-track women on the faculty in targeted USC departments, WiSE is a success. “We’ve made some real strides,” says Morrison, who is now USC’s vice provost for academic affairs and graduate programs as well as a professor of earth sciences in USC College. However, she notes: “We’re not where we should be. We still have departments that are below the national average.” Gender imbalance also remains striking

were those of previous decades, according to USC’s executive vice president and provost, C. L. Max Nikias. An engineer and former dean of the USC Viterbi School, he offers a brief historical review of the profession: In the 1930s, he says, civil engineering dominated the scene, and the hero was a guy in a hard-hat straddling a skyscraper or highway. The 1940s and ’50s belonged to the chemical engineer, whose natural habitat seemed to be huge factories, aluminum smelting pots and warehouses. Then, in the 1960s, aerospace engineering was front and center. None of these were environments where women could easily imagine themselves. It’s no coincidence, says Nikias, that the first uptick in women’s engineering enrollment came in the 1980s, with the rise of the personal computer and the information technology revolution. The nature of the work was being transformed. Women could relate.

With a $2o million endowment, WiSE supports women scholars at every stage of their careers – from freshmen to senior professors. “That’s one of our strengths, that we permeate almost all levels of education.”

changes is called Women in Science and Engineering (nicknamed WiSE), and it is unique. While there are other universitybased efforts promoting the advancement of women in the sciences – generally supported by five-year grants from the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE Program – nothing comes close to WiSE in comprehensiveness or independent permanent resources. Funded by a $20 million endowment, WiSE supports women scholars at every stage of their careers – from freshmen to senior professors. “That’s one of our strengths, that we permeate almost all levels of education,” says Hanna Reisler, professor of chemistry in USC College and an original member of the faculty task force that designed the WiSE framework. The program has attracted national attention, including a 2006 feature in The Chronicle of Higher Education. That article spotlighted the personal history of WiSE founding director Jean Morrison, professor of earth sciences and mother of two. A dozen years earlier, when Morrison was pregnant with her first child, the dearth of peer women able to offer career advice made the task of balancing motherhood and professional obligations, in

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among graduate students. According to the latest USC Graduate School data, women make up just under 20 percent of all students enrolled in science and engineering master’s programs and 29 percent of all Ph.D. students. THE PROBLEM OF GENDER imbalance in academic engineering and sciences is complicated. “It hinges on a variety of issues,” says Morrison. “It’s family, it’s work climate, it’s a laundry list of 40 things.” (For what those things are, check out Virginia Valian’s 1999 book, Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women.) It should come as no surprise that women and academia aren’t a natural fit. After all, the roots of the modern university – the departmental hierarchy, the tenure system, the ritual vestments – trace back to the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. It was an environment originally designed exclusively for men, usually celibates (priests, monks and other “bachelors”) who had renounced the material world to retreat into lives of study. Is it any wonder then that the vestiges of this system don’t work very well for women? Interestingly, today’s priorities in engineering, as well as many other sciences, are better suited to women’s self-conception than

“Now we’re into the biotech revolution – medicine, biochemical engineering and green technology will attract even more women into the profession,” he predicts, because women can readily imagine themselves as the heroines of this drama. As dean of the USC Viterbi School from 2001 to 2005, Nikias was determined to increase women’s representation on the faculty. When he became dean, there were just three tenure-track women on the 150-person faculty – a situation he found completely unacceptable. He called together his eight department chairs and informed them that from that point forward, no new job search would be authorized until and unless the department could demonstrate that it had made a serious, goodfaith effort to identify women candidates. And he stuck to that policy. Nikias’ willingness to go out on a limb with his faculty, say many female (and male) academics, was indicative of a real commitment to change. (The fact that he had teenage daughters of his own, Nikias admits, may have had something to do with his sensitivity to the issue.) “For our school, big things happened because of the right leadership,” says Maja Mataric´, professor of computer science and

The WiSE Women of Science

neuroscience and senior associate dean for research at USC Viterbi. “At USC,” she adds, “the most influential advocates for women have been men – former provost Lloyd Armstrong, university president Steven Sample, Max Nikias and Viterbi School dean Yannis Yortsos – scientists all.” This championing of women in science by male mentors is a recurring theme. Intentional sexism isn’t really the problem, though everyone has her favorite anecdote. But the occasional ogre notwithstanding, women scientists invariably describe a plethora of Prince Charmings. Morrison, who received her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, has nothing but praise for her male mentors: “I had wonderful professors, all of whom were men, all of whom I’ve kept in close touch with.” She doesn’t remember ever being told by a man that she couldn’t be a scientist. “And I was naïve enough and oblivious enough not to recognize that there were likely to be real problems ahead,” she adds with a knowing grin. Parker also speaks glowingly of male mentors from high school on up. It was a male physics teacher who recommended her for the engineering scholarship that got her a free ride at North Carolina State, and she reveres the man who supported her every step of the way at USC, George Bekey, professor emeritus of computer science, electrical engineering and biomedical engineering. “Words can’t describe what he did for all the women whose careers he touched,” she says. IN MANY WAYS, Jean Morrison embodies the

challenges women face in academic science. A metamorphic petrologist whose research has focused on stable isotopes and the role fluids play in fault systems, she has spent her whole career at USC, hired right out of graduate school in 1988 as an assistant professor. Morrison, who is married to earth scientist J. Lawford Anderson, also a USC professor, waited until she was 37 to have her first child. By postponing motherhood, she dodged the biggest bullet that kills women scientists’ careers: the collision course between tenure and the biological clock. Having soldiered through graduate school and postdoctoral fellowships and landed a

plum job at a research university, the average woman scientist will spend the next seven years in a Darwinian publish-or-perish struggle. On the march to tenure, she will devote every waking hour to grant-writing, lab-building, data-crunching, symposium-presenting and, of course, teaching and mentoring bright young minds. Throw a screaming baby into the mix and the challenges are amplified. Women graduate students look around at

percent of degrees in engineering went to women. Yet somehow, by the time they should be going on the academic job market, this group of female candidates mysteriously evaporates from the pipeline. Chemist Hanna Reisler laments that of the many doctoral students she has advised over the course of a long career at USC, “I do not have a single woman who had followed in my footsteps. They

Urbashi Mitra, a professor of electrical engineering and WiSE leader, posts clippings about notable women and men in science on her office door.

the small number of faculty women who are successfully performing this perilous balancing act and draw their own conclusions. Most opt out of academe without even dipping a toe in the water. Many others trickle off in the early stages of their careers, casualties of what is called the “leaky pipeline.” Even disenchanted tenured women scientists occasionally jump ship. Taken collectively, about half of all undergraduate degree recipients in science and engineering are women. And according to the latest NSF data (from 2006), women earn 35 percent of all science and engineering Ph.D.s – up from 8 percent in 1966 – although the figures vary widely by field. Life sciences, including health sciences and agriculture, awarded the highest percentage of Ph.D.s to women (51 percent); but only 28 percent of degrees in physical sciences and 20

either went to industry or teaching, but not one went on to a research university.” Those who do make it through the leaky pipeline face the decision of when to start a family. Many opt to wait. “I had my daughter right as I got tenure,” says Morrison, whose children are now 14 and 11. Even with that job security, she found managing two young children along with the demands of her career without guidance from anyone with experience to be hard. “I was rather overwhelmed,” she says. Alice Parker took a similar path. She was 39 and tenured when her son was born. But tenure didn’t solve all her problems. Realizing she couldn’t do everything her male colleagues were doing, Parker attempted what few scientists have ever successfully accomplished: She took a hiatus from research. Putting on hold her work in applied software

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design for CAD databases, she threw herself wholeheartedly into teaching. She threw herself into administration, too, serving as USC’s dean of graduate studies and vice provost for research. Then, four years ago, Parker did the nearimpossible: She rebooted her research, but with a twist. Instead of integrated circuits, she is now designing carbon nanotube neural nanocircuits – a completely different field. Her goal is to create synthetic neurons that can emulate human brain function. WiSE was instrumental in making the switch possible. The $17,600 faculty research grant it awarded to Parker was the springboard to the threeyear NSF grant she landed in 2007. Hanna Reisler took the opposite route. Anticipating that the tenure track and parent-

Amy Rechenmacher, a civil/environmental engineer, researches behaviors of granular material. In her Tutor Hall lab, she measures underground pressures.

ing wouldn’t mix well, she started her family early and pursued pure research. The Israeliborn scientist had come to USC in 1977 as a young postdoctoral student with a husband and baby in tow. When her fellowship ended, she stayed at USC but moved on to a softmoney (non-tenure track) job as research assistant professor. Ten years later, she went on the market for a tenure-track position. “That is very unusual,” she says. “The career track is very conservative. I was very lucky.” Reisler had made a name for herself using laser and molecular-beam techniques in the study of the detailed mechanisms of chemical reactions in gas and condensed phases. USC College hired her as a tenured associate professor in 1987 – “which was great because

it meant we didn’t need to relocate,” she adds, explaining that her husband is a chemist at UCLA. This brings us to another career-buster for women engineers and scientists: marriage. If only they remained single, many of the problems women face in academe would fade away. But they have a habit of marrying, and particularly of marrying other academics. “It’s just a matter of circumstance,” says Reisler. “Most of us are married to other scientists and engineers, because we are in fields where we meet a lot of scientists and engineers already as undergraduates.” She adds with a smile, “There are a lot of guys.” Of course men scientists marry, too. But they marry women from all walks of life. Here’s the challenge: Suppose a woman scientist is tough enough to navigate the leaky pipeline. She publishes. Makes tenure. Despite marrying and raising a family, her academic career is humming along nicely. And now, she’s looking to make a smart move. She’s interviewing for university jobs all over the country. She receives several attractive offers, all requiring that she relocate. Now she faces the dilemma of the trailing spouse. It’s simple, really. For an academic couple, it’s nearly impossible to find a location with two job opportunities. And, like it or not, 40 years after the women’s movement began, society is still configured in such a way that when the demands of family call for compromise, it’s usually the woman’s career that will yield – be she a kindergarten teacher or a highpowered research professor. In the effort to recruit or retain a woman scientist, the existence of an academic spouse can be a dealbreaker. One way to beat the cycle is mounting a proactive effort to find employment for the spouse. Sometimes it’s as easy as finding a neighboring institution to hire the spouse. Sometimes it’s a question of locating a short-term softmoney job to tide the family over during the transition to a new city. Or it can be as complicated as cobbling together a double hire involving two academic departments. Urbashi Mitra, a professor of electrical engineering and chair of the USC Viterbi WiSE committee for three years, knows firsthand

The WiSE Women of Science

how hard it can be to recruit an academic couple. When Ohio State hired her directly out of her doctoral program at Princeton University, it took some cajoling to get her trailing spouse, a physicist, a job of his own at the university. The physics department hired him as a post-doc in 1996. The following year he secured a tenure track position. By the time he resigned six years later, they were begging him to stay. But in 2000, he had decided to

chestrate twin offers to civil/environmental engineer Amy Rechenmacher and her husband, aerospace and mechanical engineer Roger Ghanem. Both came to USC from Johns Hopkins. It took a little over a year to put the deal together. WiSE program manager Nicole Hawkes makes it clear that WiSE does not involve itself in departmental hiring decisions. “We get involved to assist academic departments in

that title a collection of revealing first-person essays penned by 36 mother-scientists. It’s not a pretty picture. In recent years, UC Berkeley legal scholar and former dean of graduate studies Mary Ann Mason has documented some surprising facts about parenting and tenure. Using data from the national Survey of Doctorate Recipients, she zeroed in on scientists a dozen years out of graduate school and still working in

The problem of gender imbalance in academic engineering and sciences is complicated. “It hinges on a variety of issues,” says Morrison. “It’s family, it’s work climate, it’s a laundry list of 40 things.”

leave academe to go into industry. Mitra recalls her excitement at hearing the news: “Does this mean we can move to California?” she remembers asking. Yes, it did. Even after Mitra had formally accepted a job offer from USC Viterbi, “they didn’t believe we were really coming,” she says. Because her husband did not have a position at USC, there were a number of contacts to ask: ‘Are you really coming?’ ” More recently, in 2005, WiSE helped or-

recruiting,” she says. “We participate simply by meeting with candidates to let them know about the existence of the WiSE program at USC and the programs we have to offer, which are very attractive to women faculty.” PROBABLY THE MOST intractable of all the barriers facing women scientists is motherhood – what independent toxicologist Emily Monosson mischievously calls The Elephant in the Laboratory. Last year, she published under

academe. Mason found 55 percent of those with “early babies” (born before or within five years of the mother’s doctorate) were tenured, compared to 65 percent of the same cohort with no babies or “late babies.” By comparison, 77 percent of the men with “early babies” were tenured. Indeed, Mason discovered, young fathers do better than everyone else in job security, including single men and women. Where babies hold back mom, they seem to advance dad’s career.

A Very WiSE Gift A gift from an anonymous donor jump-started the WiSE program and put USC on the map. When USC announced in 2000 that an anonymous donor had made a $20 million gift to support women in science and engineering, the question on everyone’s mind was: Who’s the WiSE guy? First of all, he is a she. Though her identity remains a secret, here’s what program director Jean Morrison can reveal about the donor: “She’s absolutely delightful. She’s elderly, in her 90s. She is an alumna of the university; however, she is neither a scientist nor an engineer.” And the impetus for her exceptional gift? “She wanted to do something for women in the fields where they were making the slowest progress, to help the university redress that lack of progress.”

Working with then-provost Lloyd Armstrong, himself a physicist and well aware of the problems of underrepresentation of women in science, the donor created a sort of minifoundation within USC that could award grants to individuals in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the six science and math departments of USC College. (For organizational reasons, departments based at the Health Sciences campus were not included.) The WiSE endowment pool generates about $1 million a year in investment income. This money fuels an array of activities: sweetened hiring packages for faculty candidates, major and minor research support, travel grants, help with pricey scien-

tific equipment purchases, child care assistance, beefed-up stipends for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate research grants, salary replacement funds to departments faced with a teaching gap caused by maternity leaves, logistics for an array of women’s networking groups, even help in finding soft-money jobs for a “trailing spouse.” Perhaps most crucially, WiSE creates a space for women to ask questions they might feel awkward raising with a male colleague, department chair or dean – anything from “How do I get heard in maledominated meetings?” to “When do I tell my colleagues I’m pregnant?” In 2008-2009, WiSE awarded 140 grants, worth about $760,000. The balance covers program and administrative expenses and salaries for a staff of two, led by Morrison. To

stretch the dollars to the limit, “virtually everything we do involves matching commitments from USC College and USC Viterbi,” says Morrison, who came on as the program’s founding director in 2002 and, like a careful gardener, has pruned and grafted as circumstances demand. “We tend to be entrepreneurial in nature,” she says. “Rather than offering up penalties, we offer up incentives.” With enough money – and $20 million is a tidy nest egg – it’s tempting to imagine you can spend away your problems. But it was clear from the outset, says Morrison, that in the quest for gender equity in academic science, there are no silver bullets. A whole suite of programs would be tried, to sink or swim based on their merits. Much of the work would be pioneering. With no tried-and-true

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In another study, Mason calculated that women with babies are 29 percent less likely than women without babies to ever enter the tenure track. Women who achieve tenure are also twice as likely as men to be single a dozen years after receiving their Ph.D. Where do the women who “leak” from the pipeline flow? A high percentage, says Mason, spill into the second tier of higher education – the part-time, adjunct and lecturer corps.

ceive such advice. “As we tell young women, there is no good time, no right time,” Morrison says. “The time is the time and you have to run with it.” “I was 39 when I had my son,” adds Parker. “It was delayed, significantly, because of my career. That is always a dilemma. Early or late? Until you’re tenured, you feel you’re on thin ice. But then the younger you are, the easier other things are. So what I tell students is that

selves pursuing academic careers. A stop-thetenure-clock option lets junior faculty take a guilt-free year’s detour from the professorial fast track. And WiSE has helped. A couple of years ago, when cosmologist Elena Pierpaoli was hiring a postdoc from among 240 resumes, she happened to choose a woman. When that woman turned out to be pregnant and accompanied by a trailing partner, Pierpaoli didn’t

As we go forward in the next 5o years, with increasing economic pressure from China and India, “we can’t afford to have our universities be uninviting to some members of our population.”

“More than 50 percent of all undergraduate courses [nationwide] are now taught by parttime or temporary instructors, and this work force is disproportionately composed of mothers,” she says. “The advice commonly given to wait until tenure before having a child proved wise. Since the average age at tenure is almost 40, this advice has obvious biological drawbacks.” At USC, under the watchful eye of WiSE, family-minded scholars are not likely to re-

model to build on, WiSE was blazing a trail in the wilderness. The first push was intense faculty hiring: USC’s gender imbalance figures were poor even by the dismal national standard. In many departments, percentages languished in the low single digits; a few scraped rock bottom, with zero women in sight. In recent years, as the numbers soared, WiSE increasingly has focused on support for women graduate students and postdocs. Another important thrust has been visibility and atmospherics – engendering a more woman-friendly climate at USC. WiSE introduced a distinguished lecture series that brings to campus some of the leading advocates for gender equity in American science and technology. In 2009, it hosted a presentation by biochemist Phoebe Leboy, president of the Association for

there is never one answer that fits everyone. There is actually no solution to the situation for working mothers, but we have choices, and we can choose what to emphasize and what to sacrifice.” In recent years, USC has taken steps to make itself more family-friendly. Lactation rooms are a common feature in new campus construction. Campus-based child care, job flexibility and family-leave policies make it far easier for young women to imagine them-

Women in Science, the movement’s leading organization. The year before, former Princeton engineering dean and current Harvey Mudd College president Maria Klawe gave a talk dispelling popular myths about women’s alleged lack of interest in computers. Other guest speakers have included UC Berkeley dean of graduate studies Mary Ann Mason, whose national study “Do Babies Matter?” documented how motherhood stunts careers in academic science. (Many of these presentations are viewable as streamed video at www.usc.edu/programs/wise/events) WiSE didn’t spring fully formed from the head of Zeus: Rather, it was the brainchild of a USC task force that deliberated for more than one year before spending a dime. A small, grassroots group of senior women scientists took the lead on the task force, among them

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go back to her short list. She called WiSE. “Elena pulled it together to find positions for both of them in her lab,” says Hawkes. The candidate was chosen to be a WiSE Postdoctoral Fellow, which comes with $50,000 in salary support over two years; and her baby is now in USC day care, also partially supported by WiSE. Without the will and the resources that WiSE provides, this story could have gone very differently.

chemist Hanna Reisler. “There were only four of us in the whole College,” she recalls: Sarah Bottjer in neuroscience, Susan Montgomery in math, Chiara Nappi in physics (who has since left USC) and Reisler. The university wasn’t even tracking the number of women faculty it employed in 2000, Reisler discovered. So she took to the department Web sites and painstakingly hunted down names that sounded feminine, verified them and brought these women together as a network for the first time. It was a sobering task. The grand total population came to 15. That included all tenured and tenuretrack women in what are now known as WiSE-eligible departments – all of engineering and a half-dozen departments in USC College (biology, chemistry, math, physics and astronomy, earth sciences and kinesiology). Fifteen women out of a

pool of more than 300 permanent faculty in those fields. Five percent. The goal WiSE set for its first five years: Double the number. “And we did go from 15 to 32 in that time period,” says Morrison, an earth scientist and one of the original 15. It was Reisler who initially gathered together these women in what would become the WiSE Faculty Networking Group – a lively sisterhood that meets monthly over sack lunches to compare notes, hash out problems and cheer each other on. (As of spring 2009, membership stood at 38.) The group is remarkably loyal. The April gathering brought out 15 of them. On the top of everyone’s agenda: the names and specialities of three new women faculty hires, set to join USC in fall 2009. – Diane Krieger

The WiSE Women of Science

all possible worlds, women would be as equally engaged in academic science as men. But they aren’t. No one expects gender parity among firefighters, longshoremen or oil platform workers. Do we, as a society, really need women in science and engineering? “It’s a critically important question,” says Morrison. “Why do we care?” Her answer is a straightforward one: We care because American success over the past century has depended on “our unique capabilities at scientific and technological innovations.” As we go forward in the next 50 years, she says, with increasing economic pressure from China and India, the United States must harness all of its intellectual talent. “Particularly where the commodity that is so essential is uniquely American – entrepreneurial, creative, intuitive intellectual drive – we can’t afford to have our universities be uninviting to some members of our population.” Provost Nikias points to the critical role that math, science and technology will play in the new century. “We have three great technological frontiers currently calling American research universities,” he says. “The first – in my opinion, the most important – is medicine and biology; the second is the search for new energy sources; and the third is the ongoing digital media and communications revolution.” Engineering, he believes, will be a major player in all three of these revolutions. “It will shape the 21st century, which will shape the world our daughters and sons will live in. That makes it all the more essential that we draw our daughters into the making of this new world.” Morrison throws out the classic hypothetical: “How do you know that the next Bill Gates isn’t Suzy in fourth grade right now?” Even if Suzy isn’t the next great innovator, there currently aren’t enough science-minded boys in her class to fill the yawning void created by our technology-starved culture. Bill Gates himself is worried. Last year, the founder of Microsoft testified before the House Committee on Science and Technology to urge Congress to permit more H-1B visas, which allow foreign nationals to work in the United States. IN THE BEST OF

Why? Because, according to an August 2008 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Microsoft can’t find enough top-quality computer scientists who are U.S. citizens or already have the right visas. America’s firstrate graduate schools have a wealth of brilliant scientists and engineers in the pipeline, but somewhere between a third and a half of them aren’t Americans. They’re foreign nationals on student visas and, upon gradua-

The female professional dropout rate, however, is huge. Fully 52 percent of highly qualified women working for science, engineering or technology companies quit their jobs, driven out by hostile work environments and extreme job pressures. Reducing female attrition by just one-quarter, the study found, would add 220,000 qualified people to the labor pool – far more than would be gained through a more generous visa allocation program.

Molecular biologist Susan Forsburg has long been active in the women in science movement and follows developments on her Web site, womenbio.net

tion, will return to their native lands. The need goes beyond computer scientists. So starved is industry for engineers that aerospace corporations, for example, have taken to recruiting their future workforce from community colleges – agreeing to foot the tuition bill while students finish their education at a four-year college or university. In effect, industry is privately funding a G.I. Bill for scientists and engineers. At the same time, we know that the female talent pool in science, engineering and technology is surprisingly deep and rich. In 2008, Harvard Business Review released “The Athena Factor,” a report on what corporations are doing to reverse the costly female brain drain that afflicts American industry. The report found that 41 percent of highly qualified scientists, engineers and technologists on the lower rungs of corporate career ladders are female.

ONE AF TERNOON IN early April, a small group of women met for an hour over brownbag lunches and chocolate Easter eggs. Members of the WiSE Postdoctoral Network, they come together every month to share ideas. On this day, they are discussing the qualities that make a good “elevator talk.” This is the two-minute spiel that every scientist must be prepared to deliver on demand should she be asked, “What do you study?” WiSE program manager Nicole Hawkes has made it her business to encourage women scientists at all levels of USC to bond in this way. In addition to the Postdoctoral Network and the WiSE Faculty Network, which meet informally once a month, there are groups calling themselves Graduate Women in Biology, Women in Chemistry, Women in Physics and Women in Math. There’s even a nascent network called FUELS, an acronym for

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“female undergraduates educating and leading in the sciences.” Hawkes, who came to USC three years ago from Chicago after working in the fellows program of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, puts a lot of effort into nursing along these networking groups. Though she insists WiSE is not initiating or running them, she is clearly their No. 1 cheerleader. Some might wonder if it’s worth the trouble but, like Hamlet, Hawkes believes the readiness is all. She explains: “At some point in your career, there may come a moment when you say, ‘Hmm? Did that happen because I’m a woman?’ You go to a professional meeting where there are no other women. Or a department with no ladies’ room. All sorts of subtle experiences that make you wonder: ‘Am I welcome here?’ ” One of the goals Hawkes sets for herself – and for WiSE – is to anticipate that moment, which may come at any time, any place. And when it does arrive, to have networks in place that can provide sympathetic ears and serve as sounding boards at all levels of scholarly life. Chemical/materials science engineer Andrea Armani, left, and electrical engineer Michelle Povinelli, both hired by USC Viterbi in 2008, in Armani’s lab.

In the basic sciences, “postdocs” are the bellwether of what future faculties will look like. Women account for a rising share of these apprentice researchers in all fields except computer sciences. As with graduate programs, there remains wide variation among disciplines in terms of gender diversity, but collectively, in 2006, women accounted for one-third of all postdocs, up from 29 percent in 1996. This is a propitious sign. Other signs aren’t so propitious. According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, women earned only 18 percent of all computer science degrees in 2008. That represents a large step backwards from 1985, when women earned 37 percent of computer science degrees. And this is a field that’s exploding – the nerve center of the ongoing information and multimedia revolutions. SINCE THE INCEPTION of WiSE, USC has made strides in hiring women. Certainly, the momentum for hiring women is strong at USC Viterbi, where in recent years 16 women

have joined the incoming junior faculty ranks. Among senior faculty hires, however, men remain dominant. That has a lot to do with the supply. The pool of senior women is small to begin with, and competition is stiff. USC is not alone in the desire to make a demographic dent in the areas where gender imbalance is most glaring. Cherry-picking senior women scientists and engineers is no easy task. Despite several attractive offers being made, USC science and engineering departments have recruited only two new senior women in recent years: Susan Forsburg in biology and Susan Friedlander in math. But the efforts continue. In 2005, WiSE renamed its chair the Lloyd Armstrong Jr. Chair for Science and Engineering to honor the former provost’s leadership in creating WiSE. The chair’s primary purpose – it comes with a five-year, $50,000-a-year endowment – is to attract outstanding senior women scientists to USC. Currently it’s filled by Hanna Reisler, though she would gladly vacate it. Two engineering hires from 2008 – Andrea Armani and Michelle Povinelli – have “rising star” written all over them. Between the two,

The WiSE Women of Science

they had competing job offers from 10 universities. Plus USC, of course. Povinelli, an assistant professor in electrical engineering with a specialty in nanophotonics, earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Chicago. Before her Ph.D. studies at MIT and four years of postdoctoral work at Stanford University, she went to Cambridge University as an elite Churchill Scholar, picking up a master’s degree along the way. Armani, an assistant professor in chemical engineering and materials science specializing in biophotonics, also got her bachelor’s degree in physics from Chicago, while her Ph.D. (in applied physics) and two-year postdoctoral fellowship (in biology and chemical engineering) were at Caltech. In the one year she’s been at USC Viterbi, Armani already has reeled in three federal grants. Both say WiSE influenced their decision to come here. In Armani’s case, the program sweetened her start-up package, but more important, it rolled out the welcome mat. “I met with

WiSE when I first interviewed here, and they were extremely welcoming,” Armani says. “That was something unique, unlike all the other schools I interviewed at.” E-mails flowed from the WiSE faculty before she arrived. “It made it feel like I already had friends here, a network, which is very, very nice.” be enough to significantly increase the ranks of female scientists in America? Hanna Reisler doesn’t think so. “I won’t see it during my time at USC,” she predicts. Why not? “Because it is so ingrained in the nature of the scientific enterprise, this competitiveness, the fact that the harder you work, the more you are rewarded. The culture is dictated by men who are very driven and very career-oriented. That’s who they are. You can’t tell somebody: Work a little less. “I just don’t see that it is going to change. That’s how it is.” Maybe not for the current generation of women scientists, but what about the next?

WILL CURRENT EFFORTS

At the end of her USC presentation last spring, Phoebe Leboy of the Association for Women in Science told of a junior professor at a major university who had been informed by the head of her mentoring committee that the research talks she had been giving all over town would not count when it came time for her tenure review. Only out-of-town presentations would be considered. “Isn’t that wonderful?” Leboy grimaces. “This is an assistant professor with two small children. “How do we change the culture?” she asks, and answers her own question: “We change the culture,” waving her arms inclusively at the USC audience. “Things like WiSE change the culture.” But, she adds, there’s much more to be done. “Institutions like WiSE – which have worked on the easier problems for 10 years now – please,” she implores, “work on the harder ones, discipline by discipline.” l If you have questions or comments on this article, please send them to magazines@usc.edu.

What Women Want The increasing concern about the role and status of women in research positions at high-powered universities surfaced publicly in the early 199os. The problem of gender imbalance in science, technology, engineering and medical disciplines gained wide attention relatively recently, as successful women at top institutions began coming forward with harrowing tales and startling statistics. The first flare was fired in 1991, with the very public resignation of Stanford faculty physician Frances Conley – a star surgeon, the first woman ever appointed to a full professorship of neurosurgery at an American medical school. When a colleague she detested was promoted to department chair, Conley, then age 50, took to the pages of Time magazine to air her frustration with the status quo, describing casual fondling of her legs under the O.R. table and a steady stream of demeaning comments and sexual innuendo directed at women, both junior and senior. Though she eventually mended fences with Stanford and returned to her department, Conley elaborated on her experi-

ences in an eye-opening 1998 book, Walking Out on the Boys. By then, “The Status of Women Faculty in the Sciences at MIT” was stirring controversy. A groundbreaking study prepared by a small group of distinguished faculty women, it exposed a striking pattern at the nation’s premier technology institute. Between the 1960s and the 1990s, despite surges in the number of women earning Ph.D.s in math, science and engineering, the level of female research faculty members at MIT held steady at 9 percent. There were no smoking guns. No secret handshakes or scandalous memoranda. But such clear stasis in a time of demographic upheaval hinted at subtle bias woven into the very fabric of academe. The MIT report, released in 1995 and updated in 1998, noted: “In no case was this discrimination conscious or deliberate. Indeed, it was usually totally unconscious and unknowing. Nevertheless, the effects are real.”

Interestingly, MIT junior faculty women reported feeling “included and supported in their departments.” However, when the committee interviewed senior women, it got a different picture. These women – and we’re talking about MIT here, scientists at the apex of their professions – described feeling “invisible,” excluded from having a voice in their departments, blackballed from positions of real power. (Molecular biologist Susan Forsburg confirms this feeling. A senior scientist who joined USC in 2004, she has participated in departmental meetings – happily, not at USC – where she felt her voice was not being heard: “I mean literally not heard! Where you say something, and it’s just ignored until one of your male colleagues says the same thing 10 minutes later!”) Given the scarcity of senior women faculty in the sciences and the fact that they are essentially irreplaceable, one would expect tenured women to be treated exceptionally well – pampered, overpaid, indulged. Instead, the MIT study showed, “they are underpaid, have unequal access to department resources and are

excluded from substantive power within the university.” Importantly, the MIT committee found, this pattern repeats over generations: The same senior-ranked women who complain of invisibility and exclusion from power say that as junior faculty, they had felt gender discrimination was a thing of the past. The gender gap isn’t uniform across disciplines. In the biological sciences, women nationally make up 35 to 40 percent of faculties at research universities (the pattern holds at USC). At the other end of the spectrum is physics, with female representation in the single digits nationally (also true at USC). The toughest nuts to crack, besides physics, are computer science and engineering. With physics, the total numbers of students and faculty are small, so a dearth of women in the pipeline, while unfortunate, isn’t catastrophic. But in computer science and electrical engineering, the demand for graduates is huge. Here, the prevailing five-to-one gender imbalance carries ramifications for the entire economy. – Diane Krieger

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

INTRODUCING THE NEW HOME OF THE

USC School of Cinematic Arts

Reality Ends Here…

VIEW MASTERS clockwise from left: High tops The Mediterraneaninfluenced cinematic arts complex contrasts with the skyscrapers of downtown. Swashbuckling The greeter atop the courtyard fountain is a representation of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., one of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founders. Golden Globes The Harold Lloyd Lobby features floors with decorative tile insets, painted ceilings, period light fixtures and generous use of beams and moldings. Screen Gem The largest of eight screening rooms, the Ray Stark Family Theatre, has 200 seats. Avid Workers Students from each of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s six divisions have ample space to edit projects in the new Avid editing suites on the ground level. Photographs by John C. Linden

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E winter 2008

here was an insouciant phrase, “Reality Ends Here,” famously scrawled by a student in the 1960s on a wall of the simple wood structure that then housed USC’s cinema program. Emblematic of what has transpired with the program over the past decades, this informal motto now appears in Latin, etched in stone, at the new complex that is home to the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The George Lucas and Steven Spielberg buildings, which opened their wrought iron gates to students, faculty and the general public in January 2009, are the first elements to be completed in the complex. The facilities named for the two cinematic arts titans face each other across the expanse of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences courtyard. Standing in the center is a bronze statue of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., one of the school’s founders, with his swashbuckling rapier in hand.

It’s safe to say that Fairbanks would feel at home in these buildings. Their arched doorways, painted ceilings, pergolas and tile roofs reinterpret Southern California’s architecture of the late 1920s, when the school was founded. Lucas ’66, who describes himself as an architectural hobbyist, says he wanted to infuse the history of the art form and the school into the environment. He told the Los Angeles Times: “The phenomenon of this school is that it was started so close to the very, very beginning and that a lot of the real pioneers and heavyweights who made the film industry made the school.” To underscore that point, two lobbies are named for early film greats Mary Pickford and Harold Lloyd. Hallways throughout the buildings are filled with framed original movie posters, and vintage cameras and editing equipment are on display. The Lucas and Spielberg buildings, with a combined 137,000 square feet, span five levels. They include eight screening rooms –

ranging in size from 42 to 200 seats – 10 classrooms, six editorial labs, three mixing rooms, a dozen sound and picture editorial rooms, 19 conference rooms, a Foley stage, an automated dialogue replacement stage, a student production office, the office of Dean Elizabeth M. Daley, faculty offices, exhibition areas, installation space and a café. When completed, the new complex will include six buildings. Currently under construction are a four-level, 38,000-square-foot animation and digital arts building and three additional production buildings that will house four studio-sized soundstages and a production services center. All will be completed by August 2010. Urban Design Group is the architect on the project, and Hathaway Dinwiddie is the contractor. The estimated cost of the complex is $175 million. To see floor-plan photos of the new home for USC Cinematic Arts, visit http://cinema. usc.edu/about/new-complex – Allison Engel

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

Blurring the Lines Between

Earth and Life For decades, “geo” and “bio” have been seen as separate disciplines. No longer. In the past few years, USC has become the center of the emerging field of geobiology, involving rock-eating bacteria and intra- and extra-terrestrials. By Terah U. DeJong PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROGER SNIDER

They are not little green men – as far as we know – but the minuscule microbes swarming deep in the Earth’s crust and teeming under the ocean floor, pulling invisible strings that influence some of the most important nutrient cycles on the planet. These diminutive creatures might even be our earliest ancestors. Some scientists suggest that life may not have started at the surface with sunlight or a spark of lightning, but deep in Earth’s rocky womb. The young field of geobiology seeks to understand these intraterrestrials (as well as ocean-dwelling microbes), and through them, to understand our place on the planet. Freed of traditional boundaries between disciplines, geobiologists go wherever their tiny prey lead them. And since a recruiting spree in 2006 that was itself tradition-busting, the country’s top geobiologists have been coming to USC. Assembling this critical mass of scientists has not taken long to produce results. In a groundbreaking paper published in Nature last year, lead author Katrina Edwards of the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences reported that intraterrestrial life is among the world’s most diverse microbial environments, and that it appears to thrive by “eating” the rocks it lives in. In a Nature Geoscience paper, Edwards and USC colleague James Moffett, with co-authors from Woods Hole MEET THE IN TRATERRESTRIALS.

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

Eric Webb, left, Katrina Edwards and Frank Corsetti, geobiologists all, at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Oceanographic Institution and UC Berkeley, showed how this “eating” in the deep ocean floor may have a significant influence on the amount of iron available to life at the surface. Edwards, who piloted small planes as a teenager and should have maxed out her thrill-o-meter long ago, still goes wide-eyed at the thought, once controversial but now widely accepted, that most life on Earth is intraterrestrial. “Where is life? Where is it not?” she asked

at a recent presentation. “What are all those microbes doing down there, and what, if any, consequence does this have for Earth as a whole – for us?” This is what she hopes to find out through her most recent adventure: spending a month with 22 other scientists on a research vessel in the North Atlantic, laying the groundwork for a sub-sea observatory 15,000 feet below the ocean’s surface – and documenting the adventure through her North Pond Expedition

blog, produced by USC and syndicated by Scientific American online. Written from on board the RV Maria S. Merian, somewhere between the Caribbean and West Africa, Edwards’ dispatches offered a rare glimpse of life as a working scientist on a mission. “We have a ship full of sleep-deprived scientists,” she announced on February 28. “This morning’s breakfast discussions revolved around strategies for staying in your

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

Between Earth and Life

bunk … [and about] bizarre dreams that tend to result from attempting to sleep while being flung here and there all night long.” Working up to 20 hours a day, the researchers retrieved and analyzed sediment cores from the depths. Among Edwards’ goals was to choose a spot where her team of 30 scientists will soon drill nearly 2,000 feet into bedrock to study the planet’s intraterrestrials, potentially numbering between a tenth and a third of all Earth’s life. This effort is the first to study the deep biosphere, one of the planet’s final frontiers that has, until recently, been completely ignored. “We know much more about the surfaces of other planets in our solar system than we do about the surface of planet Earth – most of which is expressed at the bottom of the ocean,” Edwards says. in the deep biosphere is just one compelling research avenue in geobiology. She was one of the first scientists to receive a doctorate in geomicrobiology (from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1996)

EDWARDS’ WORK

When she’s not researching in Antarctica or elsewhere, Karla Heidelberg collects water samples to test microbial DNA near Catalina.

and came to USC as part of a 2006 “cluster hire,” an innovative strategy in which USC College’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies invited potential faculty members to self-organize into a team, choose their own research direction and then apply as a group. Kenneth Nealson – a geobiology pioneer and current holder of USC’s Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies who started USC’s geobiology program in 2001 – said at the time: “The notion that you could put an ad out there and ask people to form their own research group and apply for a job – at first it struck me as just a crazy idea.” But the “crazy idea” resulted in more than 200 responses, and eventually a “cluster” of

seven top scientists, spanning disciplines from biogeochemistry to marine environmental genomics but united by an interest and ability to straddle these disciplines, came to USC. Since then, Southern California and USC in particular have been increasingly regarded as the hub of geobiology. For example, USC College earth scientist Will Berelson’s summer course in geobiology – which he has taught since 2002 – is drawing students from around the world. He notes that the course has created a generation of geobiologists from various backgrounds in less than a decade. Some geobiologists say the field was born before geology and biology became separate

What is striking about those early thinkers is their lack of compartmentalization of “rocks” and “life” in the way that the modern disciplines of geology and biology seem to do. Many modern geobiologists feel a nostalgic pull toward this liberty to think big. academic disciplines. “The interdisciplinary part of geobiology is not new,” says USC geophysicist Thorsten Becker. When one looks at the work of seminal thinkers like James Hutton (1726-1797) and Charles Darwin (1809-1882), certain lines of inquiry appear remarkably geobiological. Hutton, regarded by many as the founder of modern geology, was famous for going out into the Scottish countryside and observing that “a vast proportion of the present rocks are composed of materials afforded by the destruction of bodies, animal, vegetable and mineral, of more ancient formation.” In his book Theory of the Earth, he conceived of the Earth as a dynamic system of build-up and erosion of mountain that offers Terah U. DeJong has worked as a writer and editor in USC Media Relations. He begins a dual master’s degree program at Sciences Po in Paris this fall, and then will attend Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

On the Sea conditions for life. Years later, Darwin was said to be deeply influenced by Hutton’s thinking as he came up with his theory of evolution. Indeed, both shared the insight that geologic time is much longer than human comprehension, and can explain changes too slow for us to perceive. What is striking about those early thinkers is their lack of compartmentalization of “rocks” and “life” in the way that the modern disciplines of geology and biology seem to do. Modern geobiologists feel a nostalgic pull toward this liberty to think big, which modern science can make difficult. “A couple hundred years ago you could be an expert in everything,” Becker notes. There is a sense in which geobiology represents a return full circle to those old days without the big gap, when larger-than-life Victorian gentlemen roamed the hills and seas pondering life’s origins. But it’s coming full circle in a context where geology and biology have had centuries to evolve themselves into specific and disparate fields, each with its own adaptations, dialects and strange appendages, like those deep-sea fishes with oddly resplendent adaptations. Which brings us to USC College earth scientist Frank Corsetti and the story of aliens. FOR CORSETTI, the birth of modern geobiology is inseparable from the search for extraterrestrial life. Specifically, the founding of the NASA Astrobiology Institute in 1998 was particularly important, since it brought together a diverse range of scientists to unite around a particular pursuit: the discovery of life on other planets. The institute is “virtual” – involving researchers from different universities – and its tasks have included choosing the landing sites for the Mars Rovers based on where life is most likely to be found. More generally, astrobiology is about defining, as Nealson puts it, “the difference between a living planet and a dead planet.” This is necessary for space missions to know what to look for. Indeed, a fair number of geobiologists – including Corsetti and Nealson – remain involved in the search for extraterrestrial life. (Corsetti is an expert on stromatolites, fossils found on Earth and other planets and believed to be formed by bacteria, although there is debate about this.) But for many involved in the institute, the conversations among geologists, biologists and physicists were so fruitful that talk soon turned to the blurry boundaries between Earth and life closer to home. “This is really what I would call the

underpinnings of modern geobiology,” Corsetti says. “NASA’s Astrobiology Institute got people thinking about things from an interdisciplinary perspective, and that’s where I see the major advances being made: when you get two groups that wouldn’t normally work together, each bringing something to the table that the other wouldn’t have thought of.” He cites the example of Jake Bailey, a USC doctoral student in the earth sciences, who happened to be reading a biology journal about giant bacteria while studying 600million-year-old fossils thought to be embryos. The journal, which earth scientists don’t usually peruse, inspired him to cold-call the biologists, arrange a collaboration, and later publish a paper in Nature that reinterpreted the fossils as giant bacteria. “Had Jake not been thinking in a geobiological way, he wouldn’t have been reading that other journal, and that connection never would have been made,” Corsetti says. geobiology owes much to these conversations begun at NASA and continued thanks to institutions like USC, its spread as a field is due also to key technological advances. There is a quantitative aspect of modern geobiology that distinguishes it from past incarnations, one that has been made possible because of instruments that have come on board in the last decade or so. Perhaps no other technology has done more to advance geobiology than metagenomics. Not normally prone to hyperbole, scientists refer to this field – which involves sequencing the genes of entire communities of microbes – as a revolution. This ability to sequence millions upon millions of genes owes much to machines such as the 454 Life Sciences gene sequencer acquired by USC after the cluster hire in 2006, and located on Catalina Island at the Wrigley Marine Science Center. “It’s the machine that goes ‘ping,’ ” says marine biologist John Heidelberg, referring to the Monty Python sequence in which John Cleese uses a newfangled medical doodad renowned for its “ping” sound. About the size of an office printer, the machine hums along to the squawking background of Catalina’s seagulls. Perhaps appropriate given geobiology’s connection to space exploration, the camera lens it uses to read a genetic sequence was designed for deep-space telescopes. And the images it produces of genetic code look like a million stars. Yet the machine’s true power is its speed. “Let me put this in perspective,” says

WHILE MODERN

Excerpts from Katrina Edwards’ North Pond Expedition Blog www.usc.edu/northpondexpedition FEB. 12, 2009

It is kind of hard to wrap my head around this concept, but we are planning essentially a 10-year-plus program at North Pond. Ten years! Let’s see, in 10 years my oldest daughter should be in college, my younger two finishing high school. FEB. 15, 2009

We are here in Martinique at last – and have had a really busy day unpacking and setting up. We essentially bring portable laboratories and set them up in empty shells of rooms inside the ship. Oceanographers have to plan very carefully and be organized to make sure they bring everything they need for the entire expedition. Simple mistakes, like forgetting one type of tube or one set of pipettes, can sink your experimental plans. FEB. 18, 2009

We’ve known about biogeography in the plant and animal worlds for a long time, but it is a frontier in microbiology, owing in part to the fact that we have only recently had tools available to give microbial species meaningful “name tags” and also, because microbes are so small and easy to transport, some skeptics have wondered whether we will see any differences in biogeography at this scale. Biogeographers in the macroscopic world go to islands or continents on land. We do the same analogy in the ocean – go to a very isolated little pond of sediments in the middle of the Atlantic. FEB. 21, 2009

We are over a major hurdle – our first drill core up and in the cold room! The biogeochemists are making measurements in the cold room: oxygen profiles, and drawing off fluid samples – like taking blood samples except there is no vein. It is done in bulk for different “horizons” (depth intervals). This will continue all night. FEB. 24, 2009

We know fractionally little about microbiology in the oceans, and almost nothing about microbiology in the ocean below the ocean – the sub-seafloor intraterrestrials. We have to work and plan extra hard to do work in the oceans – but the rewards, oh the rewards.

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

MARCH 2, 2009

Remember that great sampling I was talking about yesterday? As the data rolled in, things went from great to greater. We have evidence to support the hypothesis that water is flowing OUT the other end of North Pond. It is simply amazing to see data that confirm a hypothesis. As a scientist, you get used to being right and wrong a lot in your hypotheses. Hypotheses are really just educated guesses, in practice. A good scientist is always trying to prove her/himself wrong, or back up a correct hypothesis with lots and lots and lots of really compelling data. MARCH 5, 2009

One of the things I really love about going to sea is getting to work with my hands and getting back in the lab. As a professor, I don’t get to do that nearly as much as I did earlier in my career. But when I go to sea, I am there to work. You do what needs to be done, when it needs doing – seagoing science parties require a lot of teamwork in general. I have to say that I have never worked with a group as talented, hardworking and amicable as this one. MARCH 6, 2009

I don’t think I’ve mentioned one bittersweet fact about this project and my own personal research agenda for North Pond. I’m heavily involved in all aspects of the broader project, but my own interests really lie with rocks – the aquifer system that is flowing underneath North Pond, and what kind of intraterrestrial microbes might colonize rock, inhabiting the nooks and crannies of volcanic basalt and catalyzing reactions that result in “weathering” – like what you can see on old buildings, roads and rock outcrops on the continents. I bring that up only to point out that this has not been a rock cruise: No rocks – well, big rocks, anyhow – were collected. We’ve spent a month at sea collecting mud. MARCH 13, 2009

Decorated in bruises from head to toe, stuck with a vaccination to yellow fever in my arm, a few pounds lighter, overwhelmed with the collective experiences of the past month, I wonder how in the world I’m going to get recalibrated to non-sea life. Thank you for your interest in this research cruise. Stay tuned to news about North Pond, a deep, dark place that will set a new standard for research on the intraterrestrial inhabitants of the Earth’s crust.

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

marine microbiologist Eric Webb, who collaborates regularly with John and Karla Heidelberg and Bill Nelson, marine biologists who work most closely with the sequencer and live year-round at the Wrigley research station. “When I was in grad school, I spent six months sequencing a gene that was a thousand base-pairs long. Now, on Catalina, they’re sequencing an entire genome – which can be millions of base-pairs long – in a week.” And, just as the institutional basis of modern geobiology might be traced to NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, its technological basis could be traced to the high-stakes race to sequence the human genome in the late 1990s. It was then when J. Craig Venter, one of the two scientists credited by former president Bill Clinton with mapping the human genome, began using a controversial but powerful method called shotgun sequencing. The method involved breaking DNA into pieces, sequencing them and then reconstructing the genome using a computer. “It’s like assembling a two-sided jigsaw puzzle that’s thrown together and all mixed

up,” explains Karla Heidelberg. When the decoding of the human genome was announced in 2000, Venter and colleagues – including Karla Heidelberg – began going on cruises around the world’s oceans, scooping up DNA and sequencing it with this new method. Because of the speed, it was possible to construct “metagenomes,” or genetic profiles of entire communities of microbes, which offered scientists a picture of who’s there (based on key genes of certain families of organisms), what they have the potential to do (for example, a gene that allows a microbe to fix carbon dioxide) and what they are actually doing in the environment (through uncovering which genes are actually used at any given time, a related field called transcriptomics.) So far, one paper after another has revealed a startling diversity of microbes, and has paved the way for discoveries like Edwards’ deep-sea microbes. Karla Heidelberg is currently involved in a geobiological study of the hypersaline Lake Tyrrell in Australia where metagenomics plays

What’s It All About? Geobiology is nothing if not multifaceted. Here’s a quick look at some of its people and perspectives at USC. ONE WAY of looking at geobio-

logy is through a “modern perspective,” an approach that examines how life interacts with geology at the elemental level. New tools developed by biogeochemists such as James Moffett and Sergio Sañudo-Wilhelmy of USC College allow one to measure, with extraordinary precision, how crucial nutrients cycle through the oceans. Iron, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, nickel, zinc and even vitamin B12 are vital to supporting life that drives the carbon and nitrogen cycles. The scientists build models to understand where the nutrients come from and how they are used by organisms. “People are finally realizing that global warming is real,” says microbiologist Eric Webb, who works with Moffett and SañudoWilhelmy. “We need to know what’s going to happen with the carbon and nitrogen cycles in the future.”

A second approach can be called the “time perspective,” familiar to traditional geologists: The geologic record reveals what life looked like in the past; this is compared to the present and then used to predict the future. Sarah Feakins, an earth scientist in USC College, has been able to detect wet-dry cycles in Africa by examining waxes from leaves preserved in marine sediments going back millions of years. She is currently establishing similar techniques across a swath of land in California stretching from Malibu to the Mojave to examine the climate history recorded in lake sediments. Such information is of tremendous use, since human-measured climate records only go back about a century. “We know of the Dust Bowl in recent history,” she says. “But we suspect that there were bigger and longer droughts in the past.”

A third approach to geobiology is from a “molecular perspective,” using new genetic tools to understand at a molecular level how the animate and inanimate worlds interact. Eric Webb, for example, uses genetic tools to detect when crucial marine microbes like Trichodesmium are dying off because of iron shortages. He can do this because the bacteria express a gene when they are “stressed” that he is able to detect. A related development is the rise of metagenomics, in which scientists look at the genes of all organisms in a community, rather than a single one. This has allowed marine biologists such as John Heidelberg, Karla Heidelberg and Bill Nelson to probe huge questions such as how organisms are related genetically, and whether a certain organism has the genetic capacity to live with or without a substance like iron, for example. l

Between Earth and Life

the star role. With water 300 times saltier than the sea, it’s a wonder that anything can survive in this outback lake. “You get out and it’s literally sucked all the water out of your skin – it’s pretty nasty,” she says. It’s so salty that regular life would have its proteins denatured, just as heat makes runny egg whites turn opaque and solid. But when looking at the layers and layers of solid salt, one is struck by its vibrant colors. “It’s bright pink because of the microbes,” Heidelberg explains. “Each different color of the layer is a different community of microorganisms.” She and her colleagues are using metagenomic samples to build the most comprehensive genomic picture of any environment to date. They plan to take it a step further by quantifying certain fatty substances, including the pigments, found in the lake water. This geochemical analysis will then allow them to link the communities they study metagenomically with different measurements of these fats and pigments. Then, using samples of these pigments and fats pulled from six meters of mud,

the scientists will measure their levels going back over 100,000 years to reconstruct changes in the communities over time. The study is important because groundwater the world over, including in Southern California, is becoming saltier as more and more freshwater is pulled out for human use. The combination of the modern biochemical, molecular and time perspectives of a geobiological study like this one offers a remarkably comprehensive picture that might reveal how organisms adapt to the saltier conditions likely to be faced in the coming decades. This, in turn, could eventually lead to applications like salt-resistant crops or biofuels such as glycerol developed from the microbes.

for geobiology’s explosion as a field is that it offers a philosophical challenge deeply relevant to our times. If the boundary between the planet’s rocks and its inhabitants is as porous as the oceanic basalt at North Pond, it will force us to rethink our own sense of being separate from the Earth. In a time of unprecedented human impact on the world, environmentalist arguments often revolve around needing to care for the planet because it’s good or moral. Yet, Edwards has countered, geobiological thinking reminds us that we are part of the planet’s delicate systems, and we should care for them not because we’ve been taught

PERHAPS ONE REASON

Geobiologists are motivated by the understanding that our fates are tied to the natural world. But there’s also the old-fashioned love of discovery. “It’s this exploratory frontier-like feeling. It’s like hitting the coast of Africa for the first time and seeing a giraffe.” The 454 gene sequencer lives in a Catalina lab. John Heidelberg, left, and Bill Nelson sequence genes for communities of microbes.

to be good stewards, but because our fates – both past and future – are more tied to the natural world, rocks included, than we’d often care to admit. For many geobiologists, this is a motivation to keep going after spending two hours waiting for a core sample to come up through 15,000 feet of water. But there’s also the old-fashioned love of discovery. “It’s really going back to this exploratory frontier-like feeling,” Bill Nelson says. “It’s like hitting the coast of Africa for the first time and seeing a giraffe.” In a world where so much seems already figured out, being part of a scholarly field that is raising more questions than answers is motivation enough. The intraterrestrials are just a bonus. l If you have questions or comments on this article, please send them to magazines@usc.edu.

Family Ties NEWS FROM THE USC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

76th Annual USC Alumni Awards This year’s honorees say in their own words what receiving the awards means to them.

recognized. After all, USC is among the most international of top-tier American universities. The choice of Asa V. Call recipient this year is just another small step in that direction, and I am glad to play a big role in that small step! Mark A. Stevens ’81, MS ’84

Ronnie C. Chan MBA ’76, a USC trustee and chairman of Hang Lung Group Limited in Hong Kong, accepts the Asa V. Call Achievement Award from USC President Steven B. Sample.

(USC Viterbi School of Engineering) Alumni Merit Award

All alumni should be very proud of the tremendous progress the university has made along a variety of dimensions in recent years. Here in Northern California, I can tell you that USC is on a very short list of schools that are considered “the” place to go for a topquality college education. I feel very fortunate that I have been able to contribute time and resources to serve the university and to further its mission. Lt. Gen. Frances C. Wilson EdD ’80, USMC (USC Rossier School of Education) Alumni Merit Award

Ronnie C. Chan MBA ’76 (USC Marshall School of Business) Asa V. Call Achievement Award

Partly because of my Chinese origin and Christian background, I always believe not to expect tangible rewards for good works performed. Besides striving to achieve success in one’s chosen career, do, if you so choose, what is beneficial to those around you or your alma mater and leave it at that. As such, the award came as a total surprise. When I first entered USC over 40 years ago, I never

dreamed of it – nor now – that is, until the notification letter arrived. Needless to say, it is a great honor. I am clearly pleased that perhaps for the first time, an alumnus living outside of the United States should be so

[ ALUMS IN PRINT]

Author! Author!

USC scribes are a busy bunch. Take USC trustee Robert H. Smith, head of Robert H. Smith Investment and Consulting and author of the business books Boardroom Confidential and Dead Bank Walking: One Gutsy Bank’s Struggle for Survival and the Merger that Changed Banking Forever. Smith’s books are two of several titles featured on the new USC Alumni Authors Web page, which the USC Alumni Association launched in May. Updated regularly, this Web site spotlights the work of Trojan Family writers and poets past and present, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Art Buchwald, Catch 22 novelist Joseph Heller and humorist/radio commentator Sandra Tsing Loh. Titles are organized into three sections: fiction, nonfiction and poetry. l

To read about or submit descriptions of alumni books, visit http://alumni.usc.edu/authors

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

CHAN AND SAMPLE PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

THE 76TH ANNUAL USC Alumni Awards celebration took place in May at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Eight accomplished and dedicated members of the Trojan Family were honored before a crowd of more than 600. The USC Alumni Association asked each of the eight the following question: What does being honored with a USC Alumni Award mean to you? Here’s what they said:

There are many distinguished USC graduates and to be counted among them is a true honor. I am extremely proud of my Trojan roots and believe the outstanding education I received at this special institution was key to my current assignment as president of the National Defense University and to my success in the United States Marine Corps.

David M. Breslow PharmD ’71 (USC School of Pharmacy) Alumni Service Award

USC is a large part of who I am. Along with my family, profession, business and friendships, it defines me. I have an enormous emotional investment in this university; this relationship is the result of a 40-year involvement and stems from a profound sense of gratitude for the education I received. As one incapable of gifting millions, I find it satisfying to know that personal commitment and contributions are also recognized. To know that the university dipped into our USC Pharmacy family and found me as an exemplar is just beyond belief. Alexander L. Cappello ’77 Mark A. Stevens ’81, MS ’84 and Lt. Gen. Frances C. Wilson EdD ’80, USMC, received 2009 Alumni Merit Awards.

(USC Marshall School of Business) Alumni Service Award

USC has done so much for me, my family and friends, that being of service comes as naturally as breathing. There is nothing I love more than this university and its Trojan Family, other than my own Trojan Family. It would be impossible for me to give back to USC one-tenth of what it has given to me. So being honored for alumni service is like being paid to have fun with your best friends. This university is the cultural, intellectual and social heart of Southern California; it is a leading global research university whose alumni seem to share the same DNA; and its impact on our world is profound. James A. Eddy ’52 (USC Marshall School of Business)

Janet Ewart Eddy ’54, MS ’78, PhD ’91

CURRENT PHOTOS BY STEVE COHN / CARVER PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

The 2009 Alumni Service Award honorees, from left: Alex L. Cappello ’77, Janet Ewart Eddy ’54, MS ’78, PhD ’91, James A. Eddy ’52 and David M. Breslow PharmD ’71.

(USC Rossier School of Education) Alumni Service Award

We support USC because we believe in the institution and are proud of what it represents. It broadens our interests in life and keeps us young in attitude. As we participate in intellectual, support and spirit activities and events at the university, lasting friendships evolve, develop and are nurtured. Being honored for our service is truly a surprise, yet the award is greatly appreciated. Ron Orr ’79 (USC Marshall School of Business) Fred B. Olds Award

USC Alumni Association president Richard A. DeBeikes Jr. ’78 (left) and associate senior vice president for alumni relations Scott M. Mory (right) present Ron Orr ’79 with the Fred B. Olds Award for his long service to USC.

Receiving the Fred B. Olds Award is a tremendous honor and I am forever grateful. I am convinced the Swim With Mike program would not be the success it is today without the commitment and support of the Trojan Family. Working for the university has been a passion of mine for 30 years and I think I am just over halfway done … so Fight On! l

A Sterling History ›› ON JUNE 4, 1932, USC President Rufus B. von KleinSmid presented the first Asa V. Call Achievement “trophy” to retired Harvard economist Thomas Nixon Carver (Class of 1891) during the university’s 49th annual commencement exercises in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Named for the 1931-32 president of the General Alumni Association (now the USC Alumni Association), the Asa V. Call Achievement Award “recognizes alumni who have demonstrated The first Asa V. Call honexceptional commit- oree, Thomas Nixon Carver ment to the university and the community by giving generously of their time, energy and leadership.” In the 77 years since Carver’s name was engraved at the base of the trophy, the USC Alumni Association has paid tribute to some of the most illustrious members of the Trojan Family. Past honorees run the gamut from Grammy-winning trumpeter Herb Alpert ’54 (1994) to former secretary of state Warren Christopher ’45 (1981) to screen icon John Wayne ’27 (1977). In 1970, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong MS ’70 received the university’s highest alumni honor and completed his master’s degree. He had joined NASA before writing his thesis. In 1952, Metropolitan Opera star Nadine Conner Heacock ’33 became the first woman to receive the Asa V. Call award. The premier event on the USC Alumni Association calendar, the annual Alumni Awards celebration has produced more than its share of memorable, often touching moments. In 1986, then-president Ronald Reagan sent videotaped congratulations to honoree Virginia Ramo ’37. And in 2008, USC President Steven B. Sample presented the award to former SEC chairman Christopher Cox ’73, and then handed a long-awaited diploma to Cox’s father, Charles Cox ’43; 65 years prior during World War II, while his USC classmates were donning caps and gowns, the elder Cox was off serving his country in the Pacific. – Timothy O. Knight

To learn more about past USC milestones, visit www.usc.edu/about/history

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Alumni SCene

Scholarship dinners and a dessert party

PHOTO BY DEVON BEGLEY

PHOTO BY LEROY HAMILTON

PHOTO BY DAN AVILA

PHOTO BY ROSS M. LEVINE

1. Scholars on the Town Flanked by Grace Shiba, senior director of alumni relations (left), and Jonathan Kaji ’76, then-president of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association (right), are the 2008-09 Asian Pacific Alumni Association scholarship recipients. The students were honored at the association’s dinner at USC Town & Gown on April 17; the night’s top award went to USC President Steven B. Sample. The association also presented the 2009 APAA Distinguished Alumni Award to Ken Miura ’52, MA ’54, an emeritus professor in the USC School of Cinematic Arts. 2. “Supe” Bowl par Excellence Mark Ridley-Thomas PhD ’89, 2nd District Los Angeles County Supervisor (at left), receives an engraved crystal bowl representing the USC Black Alumni Association Outstanding Alumnus Award from Reginald Jones-Sawyer ’87. Jones-Sawyer,

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a member of the BAA’s Development Advisory Council, presented RidleyThomas with the award at the 31st Annual Black Alumni Association Scholarship Benefit and Alumni Awards Dinner on April 16 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In addition to Ridley-Thomas, the BAA honored Wanda Austin PhD ’88, president and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, with the Emè Award. Music legend Quincy Jones and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Patrice Rushen MM ’76 served as honorary dinner chairs of the event, which raises funds for undergraduate and graduate African-American USC students.

3. Helmet off to a Trojan Pioneer The USC Mexican American Alumni Association’s 35th annual Scholarship Dinner was held on March 20 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Frank Cruz ’66, MA ’69, a pioneering television broadcaster and founder of Tele-

mundo, was this year’s honoree. Pictured here at the dinner is another USC luminary, Mark Sanchez ’09 (second from right), the star USC quarterback now with the New York Jets, along with (from left) Alejandro Menchaca JD ’01, Angel Saad and Ruben Smith ’79, MPA ’82, a member of the USC Mexican American Alumni Association council.

4. Party of 53, Your Tables Are Ready Thirty-eight of the 53 members of Society 53, the USC Alumni Association’s student outreach program, pose on the steps of Widney Alumni House in April before hosting a Trojan “DesSCert” party to thank the alumni hosts of the first Trojan SCuppers. A program of student-alumni networking dinners, Trojan SCuppers was launched by Society 53 in March. Society 53 is named in honor of the 53 students who comprised USC’s first student body in 1880. l

A Conversation with ROBERT PADGETT

Although retired from his career as an emergency medicine physician, Robert Padgett ’68 is as busy as ever. Volunteering is his passion. In addition to his full USC schedule, he belongs

Middle of a Trojan Sandwich Former ER doc helms USC Alumni Association Board of Governors for 2009-10

to the “Flying Doctors of Mercy” and helps out as an M.D. for the Special Olympics. He’s also a mountain biker and lover of history. He spoke with the USC Alumni Association’s Ross M. Levine. What drew you to the alumni association, and what are your goals as president? My 2001 retirement from the practice of emergency medicine after 28 years allowed me the time, plus I’d been active with various USC groups, so it was a fairly easy transition. I possess the solid gold USC Alumni Association life membership card granted my father in 1950 (#2211), and my own gold card (#19,525), although this tradition ended at some point after my graduation in 1968. My first goal is to grow our list of actively involved alumni as we continue our transition into the Epstein Family Alumni Center [on track for Fall 2010]. Also, our database needs to grow in numbers and contact opportunities to strengthen the “two-way street” between the board of governors and the various USC constituencies. What drives you to maintain the USC tradition? I’m the bologna in a three-layer USC generational sandwich. My father entered USC in 1946, one of millions of vets who could not have pursued college without the G.I. Bill. His decision to attend USC created a lifelong affinity in me for all things Trojan. He served as the first non-Greek (independent) student body president. I’d been running around the USC campus as a toddler and couldn’t see myself in any colors but cardinal and gold. My son graduated in 2006 – a third-generation Trojan. What are your memories from your USC student days? I remember former USC President Rufus B. von KleinSmid still walking the campus during my freshman year wearing his dark suit and fedora. I realized this campus truly celebrated the past while inventing the future, that USC was a perfect blend of academics, athletics, social and professional groups. I’d been attending USC football games since 1951, but being a student and seeing Traveler rear up after another Trojan touchdown was a special feeling. Given your history degree from USC, what motivated you to enter emergency medicine? To borrow a phrase, my interest in history is “lifelong and worldwide”; my interest in medicine was situational. It was precipitated by a work-related auto accident the summer after my freshman year at USC, which put me in the hospital for nearly four months. I saw the medical community helping me and others recover from various afflictions and traumas, and it occurred to me that I, too, could serve in that fashion. You interned at L.A. County+USC Hospital in the 1970s. Can you recount your experiences there? My internship at “the County” was a real eye-opener. I was a rotating intern, meaning I’d selected no specialty, so I had month-long “services” in many areas, including a memorable month on the famed thirteenth floor – the jail ward. There, interns were in charge, not resident physicians. The first rule presented to us was no negotiating with prisoners; if an intern was taken hostage, you were on your own! Are you still a volunteer physician for the “Flying Doctors of Mercy”? I still go to Mexico with the Flying Docs on a periodic basis. Each volunteer pays his/her own way and contributes to the group’s expenses: no corporate or governmental sponsors. We travel in small private planes, mostly single-engine four-seaters, with volunteer pilots, and bring not only expertise, but also medications, equipment and supplies from various sources to those in need. What appeals to you about mountain biking? I’ve been mountain biking for nearly 20 years – a more knee-friendly sport after a life of football, rugby, marathon running and gen-

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

eral male mayhem. I’ve been able to explore parts of Alaska and the West that I probably would not have otherwise. My wife, Valerie, is an avid mountain biker, and we’ve biked with a number of good friends through the years. l To learn more about the USC Alumni Association, visit http://alumni.usc.edu

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Class Notes WHO’S DOING WHAT

WHERE

’47 Max Oppenheimer Jr. PhD of Sun City, Ariz., recently published his book Is That What it Means? The Source of Meaning in Language III as well as his second autobiography, Cultivating Gratitude and Playing Your Cards as They Are Dealt.

’48 Tom de Paolo published his latest book, Fear of Falling: Self-Help for Seniors to Protect Your Precious Bones & Enjoy a Longer Life. He lives in Laguna Beach, Calif.

’51 Louis C. Kleber has published several articles for a variety of publications, including Financial Times and History Today. He lives in Las Vegas.

’55 Roshan L. Sharma MS of Richardson, Texas, published Saving Immigrant’s Daughter, a book inspired by the true story of the 1,000 letters Indian immigrant Abnashi Ram left to his daughter upon his death, which detail his journey to America in the early 20th century.

’57 Carl Terzian is celebrating 40 years in business running a full-service boutique public relations firm in West Los Angeles.

’59 Joe Jares of Los Angeles recently co-wrote The Golden Age of College Tennis, the memoirs of USC Hall of Fame tennis coach George Toley.

›› FIELD ART

Among the thousands of football-related items in the USC Archives is a nearly complete collection of game programs. Dating to the 1921 season, when players wore leather helmets, the programs document illustration and photo trends over the decades. This beauty, from a game played at Stanford University 80 years ago, is an Art Deco styling of a Trojan and an Indian, Stanford’s team name at the time. (Notice the redwood tree on the headdress.) Interesting note: The game was played Oct. 26, 1929 – three days before Wall Street crashed on Black Tuesday. l

’67 Peter Breen MSW was elected mayor of San Anselmo, Calif., for the fourth time. ’68 Gene Fife MBA was named the 2009 recipient of the William H. Ruffner Medal from Virginia Tech, awarded annually to a person with outstanding achievement in efforts devoted to the promotion, improvement and development of the university. He worked for 25 years at Goldman Sachs & Co. before retiring as a general partner in 1995. He remains a senior director at the company and is also the founding principal of Vawter Capital private investment firm.

’69 Juan Rodriguez MS ’98 retired from a nearly 39-year career in the aerospace industry. His most recent position was executive director of systems engineering at the Boeing Company. He lives with his wife, Lori, and children Jennifer and Katelyn in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. • Charlene Zettel was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve on the University of California Board of Regents for a 12-year term. A former Poway, Calif., assemblywoman, she is a member of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority board.

’70 Denny Freidenrich, a fundraising and communications consultant in Orange County, Calif., and Jack Harrington ’70, DDS ’74, a dentist in Carson City, Nev., recently launched an e-commerce Web site, OriginalProsperityRock.com, which connects users with links to employment- and other career-related resources.

’62 Dorothy Wooldridge-Gram of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., was installed as president of the Assistance League of San Pedro-South Bay, an organization that runs the only voluntarily staffed post office in the nation as well as a consignment shop to raise funds for philanthropy. She has a practice as a marriage and family therapist.

’71 Richard Butefish MBA ’73 recently assumed the presidency of filters4m3.com, a Web-based home air filter subscription service. He lives in Tulsa, Okla.

’64 Janet Lucinda Rush is a contributor to

’73 Bob Kovitz MPA has been appointed

the Road Back Foundation Bulletin Board, a nonprofit organization that informs the public about the significant benefits of treating rheumatic disorders with antibiotic protocols. She lives in Oxnard, Calif.

to the Parks and Recreation Commission of Tucson, Ariz. • Donald E. Leisey PhD was presented the Founders Award by the West Chester University Institute for Educational Excellence and Entrepreneur-

We welcome news items from all USC alumni. Please include your name, street address, e-mail address, degree and year of graduation with each submission. Mail to: USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790 or e-mail us at: magazines@usc.edu. Please note that, because of our long production schedule and the heavy volume of submissions, it might be several months before your notice appears

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ship at its seventh annual Business and Education Leadership Forum in Philadelphia. He is co-director of the International Academy for Educational Entrepreneurship, an organization dedicated to helping educators improve education. • Ed Poll MBA, a law firm management expert in Venice, Calif., recently launched his Web site LawBizForum.com, an online destination for the legal community to exchange ideas and techniques in order to help each other improve their personal and professional lives. • Nien-Ling Wacker MS was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the USC College Department of Chemistry. She is the president and CEO of Laserfiche, a Long Beach, Calif.-based provider of enterprise content management software.

’74 A. Jamie Baldwin is an adjunct profes-

Intelligent Leader: Dealing with the Dilemmas of a High-Stakes Educational Environment. • John M. Olsson was recently promoted to professor of pediatrics at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. This spring, he also was selected as a master educator at the Brody School, the highest award given by the medical school for teaching.

professor at Cal State Fullerton, has been named the university’s Outstanding Professor for 2009. • Miriam Louise Grisso MM ’76, director of bands for the Wasco (Calif.) Elementary School District, was named the 2009 grand marshal of the Wasco Festival of Roses Parade in September. • Charlotte Reznick MS, PhD ’85, a licensed educational psychologist and associate clinical professor of psychology at UCLA, recently published The Power of Your Child’s Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success. She is the author and producer of several therapeutic relaxation CDs and an international workshop leader on the healing power of childrens’ imaginations.

’76 B. J. Hateley is a Los Angeles-based author who writes under her maiden name B. J. Gallagher. This year, she published two books, Why Don’t I Do the Things I Know Are Good for Me, a women’s self-care book, and It’s Never Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been, a self-help book.

’75 Shannon Alter recently published

’77 Alan Friedenthal, a commissioner of the

Strategies for Working with Small Tenants, a how-to book for real estate professionals. She is president of the commercial and real estate consulting firm Alter Consulting Group in Orange County, Calif. • Lawrence Kemper recently retired from the University of La Verne (Calif.) and has been given the title Professor of Organizational Leadership Emeritus. He is co-author of the book The Politically

Superior Court of Los Angeles, was honored by Southwestern Law School as Outstanding Judicial Officer at its 22nd annual awards recognition reception in April.

’78 Olga Zeiner Clement MSW is living in Plano, Texas, after retiring from her career as a psychoanalyst. • Fernando Elizondo EdD recently retired from his post as executive director of the California Association of

PHOTO BY ROGER SNIDER

sor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he teaches business law and airline management. He also writes a monthly golf column for the Daytona Beach News-Journal. • Mohinder Grewal PhD, an internationally recognized authority on satellite global positioning and an electrical engineering

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Class of ’94 Latino Superintendents and Administrators, of which he was a founding member in 1989. He is president and CEO of Elizondo Educational Strategies, Inc., and is interim superintendent of Luther Burbank School District in Santa Clara County, Calif. • Lisa Donovan Lukas of Pacific Palisades, Calif., had two awardwinning piano compositions in this year’s Composers Today contest through the Music Teachers’ Association of California. Both were performed at this year’s association convention in Santa Clara, Calif. • Jim Miller MPA, the building and planning director for the City of Big Bear Lake, Calif., was elected chair of the Contractors State License Board. He is one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s public member appointees to the board and represents building officials throughout the state.

’79 Clay Steven Dedeaux received his Ph.D. from the Media & Information Studies Program at Michigan State University after spending 30 years in the advertising industry. He now teaches and conducts research at the university. • Maria de la Parra of Marin County, Calif., recently joined advertising and communications agency Velocity Marketing as vice president, management. She previously worked as an account supervisor at Zimmerman and Partners, an advertising agency. • Lloyd Greif MBA was elected chairman of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to attract, retain and grow businesses and jobs in Los Angeles County. He is also chairman of the advisory council of the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the USC Marshall School of Business. • Sandra Harper of Los Angeles recently published her latest novel, Over the Holidays. Last fall, she published her debut novel, High Tea. • Ron J. MacLaren was nominated by President Barack Obama for promotion to the rank of rear admiral with the U.S. Navy. He is currently a captain in the U.S. Navy Supply Corps and serves as the assistant chief of staff for special projects for the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group in Williamsburg, Va.

PHOTO BY ROGER SNIDER

’80 Gregg Carpenter was named senior vice president for the Preferred Client Insurance Services Group at Poms & Associates, an insurance brokerage firm based in Woodland Hills, Calif. He serves on the board of trustees at the University of San Diego. • Richard Golden JD of Santa Monica, Calif., recently published his nuclear war novel, Depth of Revenge. The novel was featured in an article on Slate.com. • Michael W. Long DDS was

ALUMNI PROFILEMS ’35, PhD ’43, lorem First Lastname

ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipisc ing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper A chance meeting with an Italian man who would later become her suscipit lobortis ex ea commodo. Duis husband as iriure memories her mother’sin vivid dreams about autemas velwell eum dolorofin hendrerit vulputate velit esse molestie. oranges led Adriana Kahane ‘94, MBA ‘98 to undertake an unusual First Lastname MS ’35, PhD ’43, lorem feasibility study while at the USC Marshall School of Business. ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipisc Thatelit, study inspired following ing sed diam Kahane, nonummy nibh graduation, euismod to found Dream tincidunt ut laoreet dolore that magna aliquam Foods International, a business imported blood oranges from erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniSicily. It evolved into a successful organic juice company. am, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper “Being from California, figured, ‘WeDuis have oranges – why would suscipit lobortis ex eaI commodo. autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit we import?’“ Kahane says, recalling the projectin from professor Bill Crookston’s feasibility analysis class. vulputate velit esse molestie.

Squeeze Play

“But then I remembered my family’s trips to Italy and my mother telling me about how she liked blood oranges so much that she used to have intense dreams about the juice.” Dream Foods’ juice line, found in retailers such as Vons and Whole Foods, includes shelf-stable bottled tangerine and blood orange juices along with squeeze-bottle lemon and lime juices. Kahane continues to import the fruit from Sicily, where it is grown in the rich earth near Mount Etna, an active volcano that has taken its place on the company’s labels and logo. The volcano also had a hand in shaping

First Lastname

[ IN MEMORIAM the company’s destiny in]2003, after repeated eruptions damaged the skin of the region’s blood orange crop. “There was no choice but to squeeze them into juice, but it was a perfect choice because I had Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tinlong wanted to expand the business into something that could be sustained year-round,” Kahane says. cidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud Such practicality and determination were hallmarks of Kahane’s tenure at USC, Crookston recalls. exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis ex ea commodo. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hen“Adriana was a driven student who opened locked doors,” Crookston says. “She did very well, so well, drerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat vel illum dolore. in fact, that we use her feasibility study for volcano oranges in our classes as a case example of a wellUt wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis ex ea comdone study. All faculty call on her to tell her story about her journey as a exemplar for their journeys.” modo. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum Kahane cites Crookston’s positive energy and USC Marshall professor Gene Miller’s devil’s-advodolore eu feugiat facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iustosuccess. odio dignissim qui blandit luptatum cate nudges as keynulla elements toward sustaining her postgraduate She remains in touch with zzril delenit augue duisaspraesent luptatum delenitof augue duis doloreentrepreneurial te feugait nullastudies facilisi. many of her instructors well as with fellowzzril graduates USC Marshall’s Consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed ’97, nibhMBA euismod aliquamoferat volutpat. program, including Marco Giannini ’03 (founder premium pet food company Dogswell) and ipsum amet,Nova consectetuer elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tinAltonLorem Johnson MBAdolor ’04 ofsitBossa Beverage adipiscing Group. but how things be justad theory, so focused experiential learning, so program “Thatut Ut it’s wisinot enim minim veniam, quis can nostrud magnaonaliquam erat volutpat. cidunt laoreet isdolore applied,” Kahane says. “If yoususcipit go through that program, you should be ready run a business. You’re given exerci tation ullamcorper lobortis ex ea commodo feugait nullatofacilisi. that, really up to you to it happen.” To make it happen, Kahaneconsequat, moved to Italy the tools. Duis After autem velit’s eum iriure dolor in make hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie velafter illum soonnulla married PinoatModica, the et Sicilian who had helped convince Kahane to do that initial graduation feugiat facilisis vero eros accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent dolore eu and feasibility study on importing blood oranges. Modica’s family owned blood orange farms, and their fruit luptatum zzril delenit augue duis praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilwas among the first shipment of oranges Kahane imported to Los Angeles 10 years ago. isi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing. Accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit These days, Kahane, Modica and their 8-year-old daughter spend their summers in Italy, still running praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue. the business, but also enjoying the slower pace and time with extended family. “Being an entrepreneur Consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed nibh euismod aliquam erat volutpat. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, allows you to control your schedule, but most people end up working like crazy and not taking advantage consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna of the fact that you do have control of your time,” Kahane says. “Being in Italy is a constant reminder of aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit how I want to have not just success in my business, but success in my life.” lobortis exiseadeveloping commodo.single-serve Lorem ipsum dolorof sither amet, consectetuer sedthat diam nonummy tangerineelit, juices will put the Kahane bottles blood orange andadipiscing nibh euismod ut laoreet magna aliquam eratwhere volutpat. Utpeople wisi enim products in the tincidunt refrigerated aisles ofdolore grocery stores, the place most lookadforminim juices.veniam, tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis ex ea commodo. Accumsan et iusto odio digquis exerci Butnostrud don’t look for the varieties to change. nissim quithink blandit praesent luptatum zzrilthat delenit augue duis praesent luptatum. “I don’t it was pure coincidence when we launched our juice line, the two juices were cardinal and gold in color,” Kahane says. “I consider it my subliminal tip of the hat to USC.” – Glenn Whipp

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Class of ’65 ALUMNI PROFILE

French Connection A forgotten family letter and a long drive through the country roads of France led Bill Troost ‘65, MS ’67, PhD ’73 to uncover a little-known story about one of the great American authors. As Troost planned a trip to Europe in the spring of 2008, he remembered a single line written about his great aunt – Gone with the Wind writer Margaret Mitchell – in a family memoir passed down by his mother. The line mentioned how she helped rebuild the French town of Vimoutiers after it had been destroyed during World War II. He began making inquiries to representatives of the Normandy town, and the response surprised him. Not only was Mitchell remembered in Vimoutiers, but the mayor himself invited Troost to come and represent his aunt in a ceremony the French people had hoped to hold for her nearly 60 years earlier. In Vimoutiers, Troost learned the whole story. During the war, Mitchell, an Atlanta native, received a letter from a French airman in training at nearby Turner Field in Albany, Ga. Denis Barois wrote about how Gone with the Wind resonated with him because the description of Scarlett fleeing Atlanta during the Civil War reminded him of his own escape from France with the German army approaching in 1940. This began a letter exchange between the author and the French air force pilot. Barois returned to France after the war and married Monique Boullard, who hailed from Vimoutiers.

accepted as a compatriot in the Sons of the American Revolution, a lineage society for people who have traced their family trees back to ancestors who supported the cause of American independence during the years 1774 to 1783. He lives in La Quinta, Calif.

’81 Alessandro Duranti PhD, a linguistic anthropologist, was appointed dean of the UCLA Division of Social Sciences. A member of UCLA’s anthropology faculty for more than two decades, he has served for the past two years as the department’s chair and for the past decade as the director of the UCLA Center for Language, Interaction, and Culture. • Richard A. McDonald MPA, vice chairman of the City of Pasadena, Calif., planning commission and chairman of the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals, has joined the business law firm Horgan Rosen Beckham & Coren based in Calabasas, Calif. • Donald S. Muehlbach Jr. MS recently accepted a full-time appointment to the faculty of the Naval Postgrad-uate School in Monterey, Calif., where he will serve as a professor of practice in the Department of Systems Engineering. He currently serves in the U.S. Navy as an engineering duty officer captain.

honor,” wrote Mitchell, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her bestselling book in 1937, in response to noti-

’82 David Tice won first place in the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing’s 2009 research case study competition for his work with NBC Universal in measuring the audience across all media for its coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics. He is vice president and group account director for the media team at Knowledge Networks, Inc., a marketing and consumer information company based in Cranford, N.J.

fication of her honorary citizenship.

’83 J. Melville Engle MBA was named

mistakenly believing it to be occupied by the Germans. Mitchell was so moved by the story that she donated part of the proceeds from the sale of the movie rights to Gone with the Wind to rebuild the town hospital and pledged to use her influence to find a group willing to restore the rest of Vimoutiers. Following months of letters, she persuaded a women’s charitable organization named Pilot Club International, which still exists today, to adopt the town in 1949. For her efforts, Mitchell was made an honorary citizen and invited to visit the city. “Nothing that has happened to me before has ever pleased and touched me as much as this

But before she could make the trip, Mitchell was struck by a car and killed at age 48. Troost never met his great aunt. His side of the family had moved to Los Angeles when his grandfather, A. O. Bowden, took a job as chair of the archaeology and anthropology departments at USC. Yet, Troost always had an interest in Mitchell, who joined the family when she married John Marsh, brother to Troost’s grandmother. The display Vimoutiers put on for his arrival brought home for Troost and his wife, Trudiee, the impact Mitchell had made on the town. An American flag was draped over the main entrance to one of two hospital buildings, and then pulled away to reveal a plaque dedicating the pavilion to Mitchell. “I do feel a certain connection to Mitchell and hope she’s able to know that she’s not forgotten,” says Troost, who previously taught at Los Angeles Trade Tech and now serves as vice chancellor of education at Coe Technology Center in Stockton, Calif. “I marveled at seeing her humanitarian accomplishments still in effect after 59 years. One really positive result of this trip is that now anybody can go to that town and see the hospital dedicated to her.” Frankly, Mitchell did give a damn – and the people of Vimoutiers remember. – Matthew Kredell

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CEO of ThermoGenesis Corp., a supplier of products and services that process and store adult stem cells, based in Rancho Cordova, Calif. • Mark R. Henschke PharmD was recently honored with the Patient’s Choice Award from MDx Medical, Inc., a national award based on patients’ online feedback about their physicians. He maintains his own medical practice in Newington, N.H., and is currently affiliated with Portsmouth Regional Hospital in Portsmouth, N.H. He is also a visiting clinical lecturer in the osteopathic medicine program at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, and an adjunct clinical faculty member in the physician assistant program at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Manchester, N.H. • Steven Travers of San Anselmo, Calif., recently published What It Means to Be a Trojan, a book profiling some

PHOTO BY ROGER SNIDER

He wrote to Mitchell about the tragic fate of the town, which was bombed by American forces

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of USC’s greatest football players. He also published three other sports books this spring: The 1969 Miracle Mets, Dodgers Past and Present and A Tale of Three Cities.

’84 Howard Cohen MPA ’86 of Los Angeles is a political analyst and has won the Washington Post’s “In the Loop” contest multiple times. • Teresa UpdeGraffPower is a yoga instructor and author of The ABCs of Yoga for Kids, an illustrated book introducing children to basic yoga postures. She lives in Pacific Palisades, Calif., with her husband and two teenaged children. • Ute (Fischer) Van Dam, a school psychologist for the Los Angeles Unified School District, was recently elected to the board of education for the Moorpark (Calif.) Unified School District. She lives in Moorpark with her husband and two teenaged sons.

’85 Byron Motley MM debuted his photo-

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’86 Jeanne “Cezy” Collins of El Paso, Texas, was awarded the 2009 Sarah T. Hughes Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. She is a partner in the litigation department of Kemp Smith LLP.

’87 Daniel P. Kalmanson MA of Richmond, Va., was named associate vice president for communications and public relations at the University of New Haven in West Haven, Conn. He previously worked for eight years as vice president for university communications at the University of Richmond. • A. J. Kroener was recently promoted to senior vice president and manager of the Century City (Calif.) Towers office of City National Bank. He had served as vice president and manager of that office since 1997. ’88 Hwashik D. Bong was recently promoted to news coordinator of JoongAng Broadcasting Company after covering seven consecutive Super Bowl games for The Korea Daily newspaper. • Juan Joaquin Hernandez MPA and Carol Erikson MS ’90 celebrated the two-year anniversary of the launch of their business, Collision on Wheels-South Bay, providing mobile auto

body repair work in California’s South Bay region.

’90 Christopher Froeschner recently accepted positions as commander of Air Force ROTC Detachment 595 and professor of aerospace studies at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.

’91 Dale Nowicki MPA recently obtained his J.D. and accepted an appointment with the U.S. Department of Labor, assigned to the Los Angeles regional office. He is also a professor in the Administration of Justice Department at Cerritos (Calif.) Community College. ’92 Victoria E. Johnson MA, PhD ’97 received the 2009 Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award for outstanding scholarship in film and media studies for her book Heartland TV: Prime Time Television and the Struggle for U.S. Identity. She is an associate professor of film and media studies at UC Irvine. • Alan J. Schafer PhD was honored as a 2009 distinguished alumnus at Cal State Fullerton’s Vision & Visionaries award gala. He is the head of science funding for the Wellcome Trust, an independent charity in

PHOTO BY ROGER SNIDER

journalism work in the exhibition Viva Cuba Beisbol at the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., which will run through January 2010. His work has been featured in several publications including Vanity Fair and USA Today.

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the United Kingdom funding research to improve human and animal health.

’93 Stacey L. Bradford recently published her first book, The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents. She is a writer and blogger covering personal finance and lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. • Kerri L. Briggs MPP, PhD ’96 was appointed State Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia. She has worked at the U.S. Department of Education as an assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education; assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development; and a senior policy adviser in the Office of the Deputy Secretary. • Carla Quaresma Hilbig is the founder and owner of Down The Line Sportswear, Inc., a premium brand of women’s tennis and fitness apparel based in Houston. Earlier this year, the company released its spring 2009 collection, which fused runway trends with high-performance tennis apparel. ’94 R. David Chapel EdD recently toured China as a guest of the governor of Jiangsu Province. He met with political and educational leaders to discuss potential exchange programs with the Rancho Santiago Community College District in Orange County, Calif. • Cherie Rector PhD co-authored the seventh edition of the book Community Health Nursing: Promoting and Protecting the Public’s Health, an undergraduate textbook for community health nursing and public health courses. She is a professor in the Department of Nursing at Cal State Bakersfield. • John Tolerico was named one of the best realtors of 2008 in La Jolla, Calif., by La Jolla Light newspaper readers. He has worked in residential real estate with Prudential California Realty in La Jolla for 15 years.

’96 Achim Bergmann was named director of the Washington, D.C., offices of the Baughman Company, a Democratic political strategy firm that works with governors and members of Congress across the country. He previously served as one of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s lieutenants at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. • Lynn W. Unipan MSW is a development officer at Silver Springs-Martin Luther School in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. The school provides a home, education and treatment for children who have experienced traumas, abuse and/or neglect, or who are seriously emotionally disturbed. ’97 Lynda Honour PhD of Los Angeles was named a Top Mental Health Profes-

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sional in America by the Consumers’ Research Council of America. • Victoria Manley was hired as script supervisor on the upcoming Pixar film Cars 2. She previously worked on the Pixar film Up. • Jeremy Ochsenbein MPA/MPL ’99 received a J.D. from Duke University in May. • Ramin Zolfagari was named medical director of the Sand Canyon Surgery Center, a part of Kaiser Permanente Orange County (Calif.). He has been a practicing pediatric anesthesiologist for three years and is the Kaiser Permanente Physician Champion for Access OC, a nonprofit organization that provides free surgeries for low-income uninsured residents of Orange County.

’98 Stephen Koffman MSW, adjunct professor in the USC School of Social Work, developed the Juvenile Intervention and Prevention Program with Los Angeles police officer Larry Covington, targeting students in the Pico-Union area of Los Angeles who are at risk of dropping out of school and becoming involved in gangs. The two were recently honored for their work with the program by the Los Angeles City Council and are working with the mayor’s Gang Reduction Youth Development Program. • Stephen Christopher Liu MBA received the Local Hero Award for community activism from KCET and Union Bank. He is founder and chairman of the board of the Asian Professional Exchange, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing increased awareness about and to Asian Americans through community service, fellowship, charitable fundraisers, cultural events, professional networking and educational seminars. • Christopher T. Miller MBA ’06 of Los Angeles is a managing director with Specialized Wealth Management, focusing on tax-advantaged investments using real estate and energy.

’99 Robin (Levine) Bergman recently accepted a position at Arlington Premier Realty in Arlington, Va. • Elizabeth Gonzalez JD ’09 was honored by the USC Gould School of Law with its Shattuck Award, which recognizes top law students involved in public service. She recently accepted a job offer from the law firm of Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles. ’00 Lindsay Harrison, an associate in the Washington office of Jenner & Block LLP, recently won a pro bono case before the U.S. Supreme Court in her first argument before a court. She also was honored by the Cross Examination Debate Association as its Alumnus of the Year. • Doerte Lindner was named vice president and manager of the Pasadena, Calif., banking office of City

National Bank. She previously was the manager of the Pasadena branch of Citibank.

’01 Sherrie Guerrero EdD was recently appointed vice president of instruction for Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. • Mehmet “Dali” Ozturk PhD was selected to serve on the 2009-2010 Education Peer Review Committee for the Fulbright Specialists Program. He is executive director of research and evaluation in the office of the vice president for education partnerships at Arizona State University. ’02 Marc Clebanoff, an independent filmmaker, released his latest dramatic action film, Break, on DVD in July, which was screened at USC this summer. He is the founder of Odyssey Motion Pictures, a full service resource for independent filmmakers. • Gabriela Mafi EdD was named the new assistant superintendent of secondary education in the Garden Grove (Calif.) Unified School District, where she has served as director of seventh- through 12th-grade instruction for the past three years. • Aaron Price recently graduated from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Ore. • Victor H. Vilchiz PhD was promoted to associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Virginia State University. ’03 Karla Arriaran-Rodriguez MSW is the student assistance counselor at Moorpark (Calif.) High School where she provides support services to students. She is also the liaison for California School Age Families Education county day care program. • Lawrence Everson mixed the sound for the feature documentary 45365, which recently won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. • Ed Heatley EdD was recently named superintendent of the Clayton County, Ga., school district. He previously served as superintendent of the Chino Valley (Calif.) Unified School District. • Jeffrey Kealing PhD published an article in ESL Magazine on his work in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he has been involved with a longterm training project with the language instructors at the University of Indonesia’s International Language Institute. • Dave Leon MSW is a licensed therapist at UCLA’s Student Counseling Center. He also launched a magazine of art and writing by young adults with mental illness called The Painted Brain.

’04 Jessica Pierce MM, DMA ’08 and MM ’06, members of the flute and guitar duo AlmaNova, were

Almer Imamovic

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named Critic’s Choice 2008 in the January/February 2009 issue of American Record Guide, a classical music review magazine, for their second album, Classic Giuliani. A review of their work was featured in the November/December 2008 issue of American Record Guide.

’05 Christopher Edling recently joined the Peace Corps and is stationed in Armenia, where he is serving as an English teacher. He previously worked as an editorial assistant at The Hollywood Reporter and produced stand-up comedy shows at the Hollywood Improv in Los Angeles. • Rolando Gonzalez MS is a patent agent at the law firm of Lee, Hong, Degerman, Kang & Waimey in downtown Los Angeles.

’06 Adam Gauthier JD recently started his own law practice in West Los Angeles called Gauthier Estate Planning. • Rizza Gonzales graduated from the UCLA School of Law in May. She lives in Culver City, Calif. • Kendra Kozen is senior editor of Aquatics International magazine, a publication for commercial aquatics centers and water park operators. She received a 2009 Neal Award, which recognizes editorial excellence in business media publications, for her article titled “Infectious Fun.” • William “Michael” McIntyre EdD of Burbank, Calif., recently published a study of the Gaelic revival in Scotland titled The Revival of Scottish Gaelic Through Education. He is continuing his study in language and linguistics and recently published a paper in the online journal Linguistics.

’07 Margie Curwen PhD won the Phi Delta Kappa International Dissertation Award, an honor that includes a $5,000 award and publication in the Phi Delta Kappan education journal. She is currently an assistant professor of education at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. • Daniel Heimpel MA, a freelance journalist for the LA Weekly, was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Los Angeles Press Club’s awards gala in June. He was recognized for his stories on Los Angeles City Hall and the policies of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. • Jason Martinez is working towards his master’s degree in elementary inclusive education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

’08 Adam Albrecht of Calabasas, Calif., recently began his career at talent agency International Creative Management in Los Angeles. He began working in the mailroom and has since been promoted to an assistant to an agent. • Annette V. Alpern EdD, assistant superintendent of instructional services at Redondo Beach (Calif.)

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Unified School District, received the 2009 Administrator of the Year award from the school district.

’09 Diane Shammas PhD published an article in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice titled “Post 9/11 Arab and Muslim Community College Students: Ethno-religious Enclaves and Perceived Discrimination.” She lives in Laguna Beach, Calif. • Ryan White EdD was awarded the Burke, Hofman, Kolman Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the First Year of Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame. The position is an appointment as a teaching scholar in the program.

Marriages

grandnephew of Yvonne Carreon ’82 • Allen Jolley ’05 and Belinda Jolley, a daughter, Caitlyn Belle. She joins siblings Stephen, 12, and Mycayla, 5.

Deaths Edward W. Bredenbeck ’33, of Playa Vista, Calif.; March 13, at the age of 101. At USC, he was a member of Delta Chi fraternity. He later worked as a stockbroker in downtown Los Angeles, retiring from Paine Webber in the early 1980s. He was preceded in death by his brother, Arthur, and daughter, Carol. He is survived by his son, Bill, sister Mildred, nephew Arthur “Mike,” and niece Terri Childs.

’35, of Long Beach, Calif.; May 23, at the age of 97. He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in May, having earned eight letters at USC in football, basketball and baseball. In football, he was a member of the undefeated 1932 national championship team and was captain of the 1934 team. As a basketball guard, he was the team’s most valuable player in 1934 and twice earned All-Pacific Coast Conference Southern Division honors. He played outfield on the USC baseball team. He joined the USC coaching staff in 1935, working with the freshmen and junior varsity football, basketball and baseball squads. He assisted the varsity football players from 1937 to 1941 and in 1945. He also was the men’s head basketball coach in 1942. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then worked in sales with a local seafood canner and ranked among the nation’s top amateur golfers. He also served as president of the California and Southern California golf associations. He is survived by his wife, Faye, son Barry, daughters Julianne Gee and Vicki Payne, stepsons John, Steve and Joe Dallas, and numerous grandchildren. Julius “Julie” Bescos

Vicente M. Lechuga ’92, MM ’02, EdD ’05 and Deborah A. Chang MEd ’03 • Stephen Volz ’94 and Erin Long ’01, DPT ’07 • Ty A. Ford ’98 and Meredith A. McKittrick JD ’04 • Christopher T. Miller ’98, MBA ’06 and Susan Jiang • Matthew Fleishman ’01 and Tamara Stoffels ’01 • Julie Orswell ’03, MS ’04 and Corey Hemphill • Anthony Park Jr. MAcc ’04 and Judy Young MAcc ’04 • Ryan DeBusk ’05 and Laura Tamanaha ’05 • Lindsey Nicole Speegle ’05, MS ’07 and James Edward Aldridge • Jennifer Campen ’06 and Joshua Aldridge • Bryn Knapper

MA ’06 and Adam O’Connor.

Births Scott Kappes ’85 and Cindy Griffiths

Kappes, a son, Blake Robert. He joins brothers Brent and Christopher. He is the great-grandson of Harold Neithart ’33, the grandson of Richard Kappes ’52 and Judie (Neithart) Kappes ’56, and the nephew of Robert Neithart ’62 and Kristen Kappes Aiello ’83 • Hwashik D. Bong ’88 and Ji Hyun Kim, a son, Dany Troi • Amy (Barber) Bergant ’90 and Steven Bergant, twin daughters, Olivia Wallis and Emily Anne • Aaron Goldman ’91 and Susan Goldman, a son, Henry Benjamin. He is the grandson of Ronald Feiner ’64 • Doug Dehlinger ’92 and Kelsey Dehlinger, twin daughters, Joey and Corey • Howard L. Yao ’94 and Marina S. Yao, a daughter, Madison Chloe • Maggie Cordero ’97 and Marco Frausto, a son, Jacob Cordero Frausto • Mark Benjamin Fingerhut ’98 and Kristie Cary Fingerhut ’00, a daughter, Madelyn Claire. She joins sister Paige • Kelly (Cesare) Pfeiffer ’99 and Tom Pfeiffer, a son, Ryan Thomas. He joins sister Katelyn Ashley, 2. He is the greatgrandnephew of George “Skee” Parker, professor emeritus of the USC Institute of Safety & Systems Management, and the

James H. Hastings ’40, LLB ’48, of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.; March 24, after a short bout with cancer, at the age of 91. At USC, he was a member of the water polo team, where he was recognized as an All-American. After graduation, he served as traveling secretary for Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and joined the U.S. Navy. He served as a navigator and executive officer on the USS Barry. After the war, he attended law school, later joining his father to practice law in Los Angeles. Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1972 and then to the California Courts of Appeal in 1973, where he served until retiring in 1989. He is survived by his wife, Margie ’41, sons Gary ’68, Neil ’73

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and Dean ’72, and grandchildren Laura, Douglas, Randy ’03, Hilary and James. John B. Selters Jr.

LLB ’41, of Chino, Calif.;

May 2. Phyllis Dixon Lavelle ’45, of San Francisco; April 3, at the age of 85. While at USC she was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. After graduating, she and her husband, Dave Lavelle ’46, moved to San Francisco where she raised their six children and served as a Cub Scout mother and as Mother’s Club president of St. Monica School and St. Ignatius High School. She was an active member for more than 50 years of the auxiliaries of St. Mary’s Hospital, Little Children’s Aid, Little Sisters of the Poor and St. Monica’s Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. She was president of the San Francisco Junior Chamber of Commerce Women’s Auxiliary in 1956. She returned to school in the late 1960s for a teaching credential and was a substitute teacher for many years. She was preceded in death by her father, Carl Parlin Dixon DDS ’19, mother Maud M. Fischer-Dixon DDS ’16, and husband David. She is survived by her sons, Dave, Tim, Mickey and Dan, daughters Patsy and Peggy, daughters-in-law Carol, Helene, Terri and Roanne, son-in-law Clark Rasmussen, grandchildren Denise Lauron, Philip, Brian, Ceci, Brendan, Corrin, Eileen, Heidi, Sean, Mike, Rebecca, Nicole, Rose, Brigid and Ingrid, and great-grandchildren Alyssa and Kathryn.

’45, LLB ’48, LLM ’60, of San Juan Capistrano, Calif.; April 13, of heart failure, at the age of 84. At USC, he was involved in the Naval ROTC and was a member of Phi Kappa Si fraternity. He was commissioned upon graduation to go overseas on the USS New York and received his law degree after his discharge from the U.S. Navy. He worked in his own private practice for several years and later went to work for Superior Oil Company. He also worked for Texaco Company and the Fluor Corporation, where he advanced his legal career as the head attorney of its oil and gas division. He retired from the Fluor Corporation in 1987. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Doris ’47, children Nancy, Barbara, Bob and Bill ’79, grandchildren Michael, Marina ’94, Mindy ’93, Billy, Danny ’03, Rebekah, Tamara, Caleb, Joshua and Helen, great-grandchildren Thomas, Joseph, Myles-Domino, Brooke and Kimberly, and his brother, Kenneth ’40.

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the Delta Gamma Alumnae Association and served on the board of the Clearway Foundation. She was on the executive board of the Christian Science Church in Laguna Beach, Calif., where she was a reader for three years. She was preceded in death by her husband, Bill Laird, and daughter Lea K. Hillgren. She is survived by her son, Mark Hillgren, daughter-in-law Susan Hahn Hillgren, grandchildren Carl R. Hillgren and Sophia M. Hillgren, and niece Ann Schureman Bennett Dieroff. ’48, of Seattle; April 20, at the age of 88. He served in World War II as a naval flight instructor stationed primarily in Corpus Christi, Texas, and San Diego, Calif. He spent his career in various management positions for Los Angeles County and was a resident of the Pasadena/Glendale area since 1925. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Susan Haines. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Clara, son Mark, and cousin Barbara Mugler. Edward R. Haines

’49, MA ’59, of Salt Lake City, Utah; June 2, at the age of 91. He was a veteran of World War II. He led a long career as a teacher and high school administrator in the Whittier, Calif., area until 1969, then began a new career in business in Salt Lake City. After retiring, he taught school in Apia, Western Samoa, for the LDS Church College of Samoa. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Daphne, seven children, 45 grandchildren, and 35 great-grandchildren.

Charles H. Osborn

Beverly Judson Roose

Kay Schureman Laird ’47, of Laguna Hills, Calif.; Jan. 27, at the age of 83. She taught at the Newport Beach (Calif.) Elementary School, was active in Junior League and

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Charlene Hardey Steere ’49, of Malibu,

Calif.; Oct. 23, at the age of 81. She was USC’s Homecoming Queen in 1948. She was also a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, was the Hello and Smile Queen as a freshman and was involved in many campus activities. After graduating, she landed her first film role in Take Care of My Little Girl. She also worked as a model, appearing on billboards and in many magazine and newspaper ads. She frequently acted on Cecil B. DeMille’s Lux Theater radio show. She also appeared on several Fireside Theater television shows and had a regular role as Red Sanders’ secretary on the UCLA football coach’s live weekly television show. This led to a job offer as Sanders’ real secretary at UCLA, a job she held for the next several years until starting a family. She later was an active volunteer during her children’s elementary school years, serving as president of the PTA. She promoted the expansion of youth sports in Malibu and was involved in other community organizing. She was preceded in death by her uncle, Francis Hardey ’29. She is survived by her husband of more

than 51 years, Steve, daughter Shannon ’82, son Steve Jr., brother-in-law Don Steere MED ’61, 14 nieces, and eight nephews. Alfred “Al” Bernard Osterhues ’50, of Lake Forest, Calif.; April 17, at the age of 85. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star. After graduating from USC, he worked for the State of California and the Los Angeles County Engineers. He was the chief engineer for planning the towns of Laguna Niguel, Calif., and Valencia, Calif., before starting his own business. He was a real estate broker, licensed landscape architect, licensed general contractor and registered civil engineer. He was a past president of the Exchange Club of San Clemente, Calif., and the 94th Infantry Division Association. He also belonged to the Society of Civil Engineers, Society of Professional Engineers, Archimedes Circle, David Wilson’s Associates, American Water Works Association and the USC South Orange County Trojan Club. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Ann-Marie ’71, MA ’79. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Donna, son Paul, daughter-in-law Diana ’73, DPT ’99, son-in-law Thomas, grandchildren Erik, April, Michael and Benjamin ’12, brothers Clarence and Raymond, sisters-in-law Edith and Bess, and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

’51, of Paradise, Calif.; Feb. 21, at the age of 80. He attended USC as part of the NROTC program, and upon graduating he served on the USS Theodore E. Chandler in Korea. He worked at the Naval Ordinance Test Stations at China Lake, Calif., and Dahlgren, Va., before spending 20 years working for Lockheed Missiles and Space in Sunnyvale, Calif. He is survived by his wife, Claudean, children Kirt, Marlane, Breck, Tanya and Ross, and seven grandchildren. Robert Louis McAlexander

Dwana (Thomas) Holroyd ’54, of Stony Brook, N.Y.; May 25. After graduating from USC, she went on to study music at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and the Schola Cantorum in Paris. She toured around the world as an accompanist, a soloist and a duo-pianist, later appearing as a chamber performer and accompanist at the Salzburg Festival and as a soloist with the Pittsburgh (Penn.) Symphony. For several years she toured as the accompanist for the Gregg Smith Singers and was the resident pianist at the Adirondacks Festival of American Music. She was on the musical coaching staff in the opera department at UCLA and was a staff pianist, accompanist and musical coach at Cal State Los Angeles. She held a longstanding position as

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an accompanist for the Long Island (N.Y.) Symphonic Choral Society and was founder and director of the Long Island Symphonic Youth Choir. She retired in 2002 after 16 years as the organist of the Setauket (N.Y.) Presbyterian Church and taught private music lessons in her studio. She is survived by her husband, Richard, sons Tom and Scott, daughter-in-law Marisela, and cousins Pat Fank and Barbara Gilcrest. ’56, of Sequim, Wash.; Feb. 17, at the age of 75. He played varsity football at USC and was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. After graduation, he served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He is survived by his wife, Carlene, and four children.

Ronald Lee Brown

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He spent much of his career with Northrop Grumman in avionics. He is survived by his wife, Marie. DSW ’67, of Memphis, Tenn.; Feb. 23, 2008, at the age of 85. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific during World War II. He later served on the faculty of the doctoral and master’s programs, respectively, at the University of Utah and Cal State Fresno schools of social work. In 1994, he retired after 17 years as the director of the University of Memphis undergraduate social welfare program. He served as a Morris D. Klass

[ IN MEMORIAM ] Donald Joseph Knapp MS ’58, of San

Antonio, Texas; Jan. 5, at the age of 79. He was a veteran of the Korean War, serving on the amphibious control ship the USS Frybarger and the USS Coral Sea, an aircraft carrier. He worked in systems for Hughes Aircraft, UNIVAC and the wire service United Press International. He later worked in preventative maintenance for Crothall Systems and as a computer consultant. He was a member of the Gateway Coin Club, the San Antonio Genealogical & Historical Society and the Confederate Veterans, and he was treasurer of the Alamo Council of the Navy League. He was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Frances Ann Sheedy Knapp. He is survived by three children, 12 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, brother William, and many nieces and nephews.

mentor for many social work professionals and was active in community service, sitting on nonprofit boards such as the Volunteer Center of Memphis, Friends for Life and Tennessee Men’s Health Network. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Shirley, sons Steven and Daniel, and nieces and nephews. Alexander Chen-Che Liang PhD ’70, of Huntington Beach, Calif.; May 2, of a heart attack, at the age of 66. He had numerous technical publications and was a member of the honor societies Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi. He worked at TRW

Emery Stoops

Emery Stoops EdD ’41, philanthropist, professor emeritus of the USC Rossier School of Education and 1993 recipient of the USC Distinguished Emeritus Award, died on March 25 in Playa Vista, Calif. He was 106. “Emery Stoops was not only a highly regarded educational practitioner, he was a true visionary,” said Karen Symms Gallagher, who holds the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean’s Chair in Education at USC Rossier. “He understood how a strong school of education with a clear mission could positively change the playing field for teachers, students, researchers and administrators. The USC Rossier School will be forever in his debt.” Stoops taught at USC for 17 years. After retiring in 1970, he embarked on a second career in estate planning, life insurance and tax-sheltered annuities. He served as a co-founder and president of First Penn-Pacific Life Insurance Co. and also was a financial adviser and estate-planning consultant for Aetna Life Insurance Co. Stoops and his wife, educator Joyce King Stoops, established a chair at USC Rossier in 1994. An additional gift in 1996 helped endow the chair in perpetuity and it became the dean’s chair. Their

’62; January 2009, at the age of 68. At USC, she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She later graduated from the UC Irvine School of Medicine. She is survived by her twin sister, Darlene ’62, brothers Kent and Darrell, brother-inlaw Roger Duncan ’61, JD ’64, and mother Josephine Kent ’39.

Marlene Coleman

MA ’64, of Houston, Texas; May 2, at the age of 92. She worked as a schoolteacher for 39 years, spending much of that time teaching gifted children math at the eighth-grade level. She was preceded in death by her husband, Carl. She is survived by her daughter, Chloe Ella Fackenthall, son-in-law Byron Fackenthall, grandchildren John G. Musser Jr., Mary Ellen Hensley and Byron Fackenthall III, and great-grandchildren Ryan Musser, Nicole Miller, Krystin Hensley, Joshua Hensley, Atlanta Fackenthall and Michael Hedge.

Opal Carr

contributions also have established USC’s Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Education Library and 22 scholarships for USC Rossier graduate students, among other gifts to the university. Stoops grew up in Kansas, attended a prairie school and graduated from the University of Colorado in 1930. From 1928 to 1932, he grew wheat on 1,500 acres of land he owned in western Kansas and eastern Colorado. After working on his master’s at USC, he returned to Kansas and taught in a rural school, eventually working his way back to Los Angeles to earn an Ed.D. from USC. Stoops taught at high schools in Whittier, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, and he held administrative posts in Los Angeles County public schools before joining the USC faculty in 1953. He served as an educational consultant to the U.S. Office of Education, the California State Department of Education and numerous school districts. He also was a visiting professor at many universities, including New York University and the University of Alaska. As part of USC’s 125th anniversary celebration in 2005, USC Rossier honored him – at age 103 – as the university’s oldest living alumnus. In 2006, he took part in the USC Emeriti Center’s H. Dale Hilton Living History Project, which produced a videotape of him recounting his life and career at the university. Stoops is survived by three children from previous marriages, including daughters Emelyn Ruth Jackson and Eileen C. Gardner and son Emerson Stoops, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. l

MS ’65, of Lake Oswego, Ore.; April 14, from heart failure.

Louis Paul Oberholtz

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Systems for several years, and in 1970 he joined the Aerospace Corporation where he most recently served as general manager of the vehicle systems division. He was chair of the senior review group for NASA’s Earth Observing System and was a member of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee for the Federal Aviation Administration. He was also a panel chair for the White House-directed Broad Area Review of the nation’s capability for assured access to space. He is survived by his wife, Betty, daughters Jennifer ’90 and Allyson, grandchildren Maryn, McKenna, Scott and Brynn, father Po-Lung “Paul,” and sister Barbara. PhD ’75, of Odessa, Texas; Jan. 19, at the age of 76. After gradLee Rhoads Buice

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uating from USC, she did postdoctoral work at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and the American Management Association in New York City. She taught at several high schools before she began her career with Odessa (Texas) High School, where she directed drama and speech programs and led the school to many state titles. In 1963, she joined the faculty at Odessa College, where she directed the speech and forensics program. In 1975, she became assistant to the president at the college and began a new career as a college administrator. She was named dean of human services and communications at the school in 1986, remaining there until her retirement in 1994. She then continued her teaching career at the Univer-

Thomas P. Nickell Jr.

Thomas P. Nickell Jr., former USC vice president for university affairs, died in San Diego on May 25. He was 88. Nickell directed fund raising, public relations and alumni affairs at USC over the course of more than three decades. During his tenure, alumni volunteers and friends of the university worked under his direction to garner more than $500 million in private support for USC. He also was a driving force in the formation of the university’s premier academic support group, the USC Associates, established in 1959. A native of Richmond, Ind., Nickell spent two years at Butler University before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942. After three years of distinguished service in the South Pacific, he was discharged in 1945 at the conclusion of World War II. In February 1946, Nickell entered USC where, as a student, he was a member of Skull and Dagger as well as the honorary national advertising fraternity Alpha Delta Sigma. He received a bachelor of science in marketing and advertising in 1948. After graduation, he worked for two years as assistant director of advertising and public relations at Occidental Life Insurance Co. He returned to his alma mater in 1950 to direct the university’s annual giving program. Nickell was named USC’s director of fund raising and development in 1957, director of university planning in 1960 and vice president for university planning in 1961. As a newly appointed vice president, he helped steer USC’s first major institutional fund-raising

sity of Texas of the Permian Basin and undertook numerous voluntary roles in local, state and national organizations. She served on numerous boards, including the Ector County (Texas) Independent School District Board of Trustees and the United Way. She was preceded in death by her husband of 42 years, Joe. She is survived by her sons, Don Holloway, Burt Holloway and Mark Holloway, daughter Laura Nugent, daughters-in-law Paige, Sherri and Mary Ann, son-in-law Jay, and many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Kevin Timothy Parsons MD ’79, of Phoenix, Ariz.; Feb. 27, at the age of 55. After graduating from USC, he practiced medicine in Southern California until he was diagnosed at age 36 with Lambert Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome, a debilitating autoimmune disease. He moved with his family to Seattle, where he engaged in research at Virginia Mason Research Center. While researching his illness, he also wrote newsletters regularly to inform, advise and connect with more than 300 victims of LEMS disease across the world. He was preceded in death by his father, Melvin. He is survived by his wife, Hillary, son Jesse, daughter Sarah, mother Violet, brothers Gary and Jeffery, sisters-in-law Betsy and Kris, nieces Tracy, Sariana, Robyn, Nicole and Jillian, friend Steven Chernow, aunts, uncles and cousins.

MA ’80, of La Crescenta, Calif.; November 2008. Jeanne Wright

’82, of Los Angeles; Sept. 3, of a heart attack, at the age of 48. While at USC, he was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. After graduating, he joined the William Morris talent agency before becoming a real estate and mortgage broker and starting his own business, California Mortgage Trust. He is survived by his mother, Vicki Anson, and brother Kelly Alan Williamson.

Scot James Williamson

campaign, the Master Plan for Enterprise and Excellence in Education. He also helped lead a second successful fund-raising effort, the Toward Century II campaign, which brought in $309 million to USC during one of the country’s most severe recessions. Nickell left USC in 1981 to operate the Nickell Co., a development consulting firm. He served on the boards of the Scripps Foundation for Medicine and Science, the Shiley Eye Institute of UC San Diego and American Medical International, among others. In 1987, he received the Butler Award, the highest honor conferred by the Butler University Alumni Association. He also was awarded honorary degrees from Pepperdine University and Upper Iowa University. Nickell is survived by his wife, Toni Woodward Nickell, five children from an earlier marriage and seven grandchildren. l

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Tammy Colleen Moore ’88, of Perkasie, Pa.;

March 21, from complications following heart valve surgery, at the age of 43. While at USC, she was a member of the Public Relations Society of America, a resident adviser, a reporter for the student news service, the ticket office supervisor and a summer conference assistant. During her senior year, she served as a public relations intern at the Los Angeles affiliate of the American Heart Association. After graduating, she worked as director of licensing at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles, where her primary responsibility was the Star Trek television series. She was also the

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director of merchandising for Ticketmaster in Los Angeles, the director of national promotions for Columbia Tri-Star Studio in Culver City, Calif., and vice president for Eclipse Worldwide, a product-placement agency in Los Angeles. She also wrote and published a small monthly magazine, Swing, which focused on the big band revival in the Los Angeles area. In 2007, she moved to Pennsylvania and secured her teaching certificate from Gwynedd-Mercy College in Gwynedd Valley, Pa. In April 2008 she became a foster mother. She worked as a substitute teacher in the Pennridge (Pa.) School District until the time of her death. She is survived by her parents, Thomas V. and Sandra K. Moore, brothers Thomas and Thador, sister Tara Quinn Detweiler, sisters-in-law Deborah and Marnie, brotherin-law Troy, nieces and nephews Anthony, Stephen, Aimee, Kevin, Jenna and Dylan, foster children Daniella and J. J., uncle S. Douglas McElroy, aunt Joan, and cousins Shane McElroy, Jana Gill, Craig Allison, Mark Moore and Kelly Steele. of Altadena, Calif.; March 29, of an aneurysm, at the age of 56. She was a science writer for the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and had more than 25 years of experience covering science and technology at four major California universities. She joined USC in 2003 and contributed hundreds of stories to USC media, including USC Viterbi Engineer magazine, which she also edited, the school’s Web site, USC Chronicle and USC Trojan Family Magazine. She also assisted faculty and engineering administration in the preparation of fact sheets, mailers and other material. Before coming to USC, she worked as a science writer for the Berkeleyan, the faculty and staff newspaper at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, she spent 12 years as a media relations specialist at the Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. She joined JPL after working as a staff writer at the UCLA public affairs office. Before coming to academia, she was a reporter for the Associated Press and a public information officer at the RAND Corp. She is survived by her father, Donald, mother Virginia, and brothers Stephen and Donald. Diane Ainsworth

of Los Angeles; April 1, after a brief illness, at the age of 89. He played a key role in developing the original BFA and MFA theatre programs at USC. He was professor emeritus of the USC School of Theatre and continued to teach classes in directing and experimental theatre at the school until a month before his death. He earned his MFA in design and directing from Yale in 1943, and for the next three years he designed scenery, John Blankenchip

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costumes and lighting both on and off Broadway. He then moved to teaching, spending eight years on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College before joining USC in 1955. He founded, produced and directed Festival Theatre USC-USA, a company composed of USC students and alumni who were the first American artists to perform in the Fringe of the Edinburgh International Festival. He also designed at Tanglewood, the Guild Opera and the La Jolla (Calif.) Playhouse, and he directed and designed for the Ebony Showcase. He received many awards and accolades for his productions. In celebration of his golden anniversary at USC, the School of Theatre established the John Blankenchip Visiting Artist Endowment in 2005. of Santa Barbara, Calif.; March 18, of cancer, at the age of 83. A World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Navy, he had ties to USC dating to 1931. He and his siblings joined their mother, grandparents and former USC president Rufus B. von KleinSmid at the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, which was dedicated to the memory of his father. He remained a lifelong supporter of the USC Libraries, returning 70 years later with his niece Kacey Doheny McCoy to cut the ribbon at the 2001 reopening ceremony for Doheny Memorial Library after the completion of its seismic retrofit. He owned a cattle ranch in Santa Barbara. In 1970, he was appointed by former California Gov. Ronald Reagan to the Fish and Game Commission, later serving as vice president and president before leaving the commission in 1978. He and his wife also provided philanthropic support to a broad range of organizations in land and wildlife preservation, medical research and the arts. He is survived by his wife, Topsy, children Dennis, Dru and Michael and their families, brother Patrick, and sister Lucy Doheny Washington.

Timothy M. Doheny

Nathan Friedman of Beverly Hills, Calif.;

May 27, of complications related to old age, at the age of 97. He was a pioneering periodontist and a USC professor of dentistry for many years. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and after graduating from Columbia University’s periodontal program, he joined the staff at USC and opened his dentistry practice in Beverly Hills. In 1964, he founded the department of behavioral dentistry at the USC School of Dentistry, which used psychological principles to help patients overcome their fear of dental work. He served as its chairman for decades. He later co-wrote a script for a film produced at the USC School of Cinematic Arts called Treating Fear in the

Dental Patient, which was screened in 1972 at a meeting of the American Dental Association and was later shown at major dental gatherings around the world. As a periodontist, he did influential research into diseases of the gum and bone surgery. He practiced dentistry until he was 88. He is survived by his wife, Muriel, daughter Susan, and stepdaughter Janet. Thomas J. Pallasch of Alexandria, Va.; April 20, from complications related to esophageal cancer, at the age of 72. He was an assistant professor and associate professor of pharmacology and periodontics at USC from 1967 to 1989 and then became a professor of dentistry and chairman of the USC School of Dentistry’s pharmacology section. He held both posts until his retirement in 2001 and also served as an adjunct professor at Cypress, Pasadena City and Oxnard colleges from 1993 to 2001. He maintained a periodontics practice in Burbank, Calif., from which he retired in 1996. He authored or co-authored 16 books and more than 125 articles published in peer-reviewed and other journals. He also wrote and published the monthly Dental Drug Service Newsletter from 1980 to 1985. He served for four years in the U.S. Navy’s Dental Corp. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Stephanie Pallasch. He is survived by his children, Brian, Jennifer M. Mosley and Robert, grandchildren Stella Pallasch, Albert Pallasch, Alexa Mosley and Ken Mosley III, and sister Mary Reuschlein. James McNeill Stancill of Pasadena, Calif.; June 17, of pulmonary fibrosis, at the age of 76. Known at USC as the King of Cash Flow, he taught at the USC Marshall School of Business for nearly 43 years, having joined the school in 1964. He was a pioneer in the fields of cash flow analysis and financial management for entrepreneurial companies, and he developed his own Stancill Cash Flow Statement, a system for firms to organize their cash flow statements. He introduced his version of the cash flow statement in Harvard Business Review and later wrote a textbook, Entrepreneurial Finance for New and Emerging Businesses. Upon retiring in 2007, the James McNeill Stancill Chair in Business Administration was established with a gift from former student Robert and Sue Rodriguez. A world traveler, he worked for several decades as a consultant helping U.S. firms entering the burgeoning Chinese market. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Catherine, daughters Martha Stancill, Mary Stancill Plock and Christine Stancill, and grandchildren James Leathers, John Leathers and Marina Plock. l

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Last Word

Admit it. You’ve watched those triage scenes in E.R. or House and wondered at the barrage of acronyms flying around. Well, wonder no more. See if you can decode the medical jargon from these contextual clues. 1. If a patient has no vital signs when the ambulance pulls up at the curb, this threeletter designation will send him straight to the coroner. 2. If the E.R. physician barks this three-letter order, she is requesting a recording of the electrical impulses emitted by a patient’s heart muscle. 3. When you hear these two words over the P.A. system, it means a patient requires immediate resuscitation. It’s part of a system used in hospitals worldwide to convey essential information to staff without alarming visitors. 4. When a patient’s heart stops, the first line of attack is a combination of rescue breathing and chest compressions. The procedure goes by a familiar three-letter acronym.

›› CONTEST RULES We are looking for the medical jargon referenced in each clue. Up to five $30 gift certificates from Borders Books and Music will be awarded to the sharpest armchair physicians and Sundaynight surgeons among our readers. If more than five perfect entries are received, five winners will be drawn by lot.

5. The most common form of cardiac arrhythmia, this condition involves the two upper chambers of the heart. Commonly known by a two-letter acronym, it is identified by the absence of Pwaves and can cause irregular heartbeats in episodes lasting from minutes to weeks to years. 6. This three-letter acronym describes a condition where the heart suddenly acceler-

ates, reaching upward of 220 beats per minute. Episodes can be brief and harmless, or they can last for hours and be very serious. 7. Doctors use this three-letter acronym to describe a series of tonic contractions of muscles in response to a stretching force. Graded on a scale of 0 to 4, it measures the integrity of the central and peripheral nervous system. 8. If you’re having trouble reading the good doctor’s prescription, that might be because he’s scribbling acronyms in Latin. Since Galen’s time, apothecaries have used these quaint abbreviations for “every morning” and “every evening.” 9. Everyone knows that “IV” means “into the vein,” but what are the acronyms for “by mouth,” “under the skin,” “in the muscle” and “in both eyes”? 10. Pharmacists today still decode Latin to interpret the doctor’s orders. But few patients (except the odd classics scholars) will recognize the shorthand for “as needed,” “before meals,” “after meals” and “at bedtime.” 11. An abbreviation derived from a common Latin word, this oft-heard adverb of frenzied emergency room dramas has nothing to do with standard deviations. It simply conveys urgency. Another possible origin for the term: an acronym of an absurdly wordy phrase in English meaning “pronto.” 12. Even the humble suppository has its own two-letter acronym, and the distinguished board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would wince to know the three-letter medical shorthand for its contraindication. l

Send your answers no later than September 15 to The Last Word c/o USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790. Submissions by fax (213-821-1100) and e-mail <magazines@usc.edu> are welcome.

U S C T R O J A N FA M I LY M A G A Z I N E autumn 2009

ILLUSTRATION BY TIM BOWER

Physician’s Alphabet Soup