Trojan Family Magazine Winter 2015

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CA L I F OR N I A WINTER 2015

$ 4. 9 5

F A M I L Y

H ELP I N G H A N D S USC creates and programs robots to help people live better lives.

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11/25/15 3:07 AM

scene The face of USC Village takes shape one wall at a time at a production plant in Perris, California. That’s where workers put together the concrete-and-brick panels that will form the exterior of USC’s $700 million residential-retail project. About 1,800 bricks go into each of the panels, and builders will need some 2,500 pieces to finish the project. Trucks deliver the finished sections to Los Angeles, where the warm exteriors will welcome students, faculty and neighbors to the north side of the University Park Campus in fall 2017.

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autumn 2014

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PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

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Editor’s Note Important milestones and inspiring moments mark an unforgettable year.

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President’s Page The far-reaching benefits of a Biotech Park aim to transform the future of Los Angeles.

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Seen and Heard Your take on USC stories from our magazine and the social Web.

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News USC’s most selective class debuts, celebrate Sinatra’s 100th and MacGyver goes modern.

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Seats of Distinction

By Diane Krieger Endowed chairs date back to ancient Rome and 16th-century Britain.

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Home on the Range

By Bekah Wright Andrea Gaston reflects on her journey from amateur golfer to legendary coach.

inside

Robots like Bandit are part of an electronic wave that may sweep health care.

24 Master of Mind Games

By Emily Gersema Psychologist Norbert Schwarz discovers surprising ways your subconscious influences your decisions.

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Fabulous Fulbrights Did you know that USC is one of the leading universities in producing Fulbright grant recipients? Meet some of the Trojan scholars with a global outlook on life.

By Lynn Lipinski

26 Picture of Health

By Amber Dance High-tech imaging could improve the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

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Lights, Camera, Animation Is it real or is it special effects? In today’s films, it could be a little of both.

Learn how animators are making fantasy reality. By Allison Engel

PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

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Alumni News Stroll down digital memory lane, hear from Trojans in Europe and celebrate the USC Black Alumni Association’s 40th anniversary.

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Class Notes Who’s doing what and where?

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Committed to Memory The one constant on USC’s University Park Campus is change.

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The Robot Revolution A fleet of machines is readying to boost Americans’ health, serve as caregivers and keep people safe. By Cristy Lytal

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A Weighty Issue As scientists learn more about obesity’s causes and consequences, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem. By Mike Branom usc trojan family

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e d i t o r’ s n o t e ON THE COVER Green sensors on this robot hand replicate human touch. USC professor Gerald Loeb and his former grad students invented and produce the BioTac sensors at their LA company, SynTouch.

The quarterly magazine of the University of Southern California E DI TO R-I N- CHI EF

Alicia Di Rado

Trojan Tidings

M ANAGI NG E DI TOR

It’s the most wonderful time of the year—again.

Back in childhood, the days leading up to the holidays seemed like an eternity. Vacation and presents couldn’t come soon enough. But these days December zooms by, and before you know it, it’s New Year’s Day. Maybe time flies because I’m not a kid anymore, but I’m sure our fast pace at USC also has something to do with it. We’ve been busy with the Campaign for USC, which hit some big milestones this year. USC Athletics reached the goal for its Heritage Initiative, its most ambitious fundraising campaign ever. The USC School of Cinematic Arts topped its fundraising target. Generous donors pushed the momentum behind the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Across the university, Trojan alumni, parents and friends backed scholarships and supported research.

But we’ve also been busily telling the stories of the people who motivate our campaign: our students. In 2015, some of our students made us a little emotional (read about Stephen Guy on p. 8) and proud (see our feature on Fulbright scholars on p. 30).

This year, 14 percent of the students in our freshmen class represent the first generation of their family to attend college—and the class is the most academically stellar group of freshman ever at USC. As the students look ahead to the holidays with their families, I’m taking this chance for a brief pause to thank you, the Trojan Family, for staying connected to USC and sharing your own stories and thoughts with us this year. Here’s wishing you the best for a healthy and happy 2016.

Elisa Huang SE NI O R E DI TO R

Diane Krieger PRO DUCT I O N M ANAG ER

Mary Modina

ART DI RE CTO R

Sheharazad P. Fleming DE SI GN AND PRO DUCTION

Pentagram Design, Austin

CO NT RI BUTO RS

Laurie Bellman Kristin Borella Brian Brusavich Evan Calbi Nicole DeRuiter James Feigert

Jerry Gibson Steve Hanson Michelle Henry Judith Lipsett Russ Ono Holly Wilder

PUBLI SHE R

Alicia Di Rado Editor-In-Chief, USC Trojan Family Magazine

Minne Ho M ARKE T I NG M ANAG ER

Rod Yabut

Winter brings the Trojan Family back together.

ADVE RT I SI NG I NQ UIRIES

Kristy Day | kday@lamag.com

USC Trojan Family Magazine 3434 S. Grand Ave., CAL 140 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2818 magazines@usc.edu | (213) 740-2684

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USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published in March, July, October and December by USC University Communications.

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p r e s i d e n t’ s p a g e

Bold Plans for a Biotech Park

PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

b y c. l. m a x n i k i a s When Niki and I welcome alumni back to USC, they’re often amazed by the tremendous transformation on our campuses, taking pictures as Fertitta Hall acquires its new spire and the USC Kaufman School of Dance shakes off its scaffolding. USC Village inevitably draws the most attention, and is on schedule to open next fall, adding 2,700 student beds, 15 acres and even a Trader Joe’s to our University Park Campus.

As these important changes continue apace, I want to share another transformation we intend to see in the coming years. Adjacent to our Health Sciences Campus, we plan to establish a vibrant hub that will dramatically bolster an entirely new industry in Los Angeles: biotechnology. We’re calling this new corridor a Biotech Park.

As a field, biotechnology encompasses a broad range of products and services, including medical device manufacturing, biopharmaceutical development and the latest diagnostic tools. California already has two major biotechnology hubs—San Francisco and San Diego—but Los Angeles lags behind. Although universities in our county produce more than 5,000 graduates in science- and engineering-related fields each year, compared with only 2,800 in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was San Francisco that attracted $1.15 billion in biotechnology investment in 2013. By comparison, our county drew only $45 million, prompting many of our talented graduates to head north.

To reverse this, we need to create opportunities for these skilled graduates close to home. These opportunities would come naturally from a collaborative community that supports business, a dynamic workforce, venture capital investment, and access to academic medical centers for research and clinical trials. This is where a Biotech Park will pay dividends.

To advance our plan—and to lay the infrastructure for such a corridor—we are working with our colleagues in county and city government, as well as at Caltech, Cal State LA, Cal Poly Pomona, community colleges, the LA Unified School District, and other institutions. Together, we can provide space for established companies, training for entry-level jobs and incubators for start-up firms. Earlier this year, USC hosted a highly productive summit to develop our strategy, tfm.usc.edu

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and Supervisor Hilda Solis, Supervisor Mark RidleyThomas and Councilman José Huizar highlighted our discussions.

The economic potential of a Biotech Park is enormous. It will initially produce 3,000 construction jobs and nearly 4,000 permanent positions, from entry-level technicians to high-wage, doctorate-level scientists.

But that would be just the start. The entire corridor could be similar in size and scope to San Francisco’s Mission Bay project, which will employ an estimated 30,000 people once completed. A recent study found that every new high-tech job created leads to four more jobs in other fields, such as marketing, accounting, administration, service and sales.

There are a number of reasons why Los Angeles is so ripe for a Biotech Park. We already have leading research universities, top clinical and research hospitals, a manufacturing base, a massive port and a venture capital presence. A Biotech Park will connect these pieces, generating investment, jobs and tax revenues throughout the county. With the right alignment between government, academia and industry, we will make this happen, thereby harnessing our region’s strengths—including our science graduates—to spark extraordinary growth.

President Nikias at the Los Angeles Biotech Summit with (from left) community partner Ruth Rios, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis and Los Angeles City Councilman José Huizar.

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seen and heard Musings about Trojan life and USC Trojan Family Magazine from mail, email and the online world.

People.com shared the inspiring story of Stephen Guy, a 28-yearold USC transfer student who had no formal education after third grade. His mother, who suffered from mental health issues, took him out of school nearly 20 years ago and they lived their life on the road—but with perseverance, good friends and support from unexpected places, Guy is now a sophomore at USC Annenberg. Read about his remarkable path to USC at bit.ly/ StephenGuy.

Presidential Power We published images in our Summer 2015 issue from some of the appearances by U.S. presidents at USC. That spurred Barney Rosenzweig ’59 to share his memories of a visit by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958. As yell king, Rosenzweig was asked to lead a rally for the president. But Rosenzweig disagreed with Eisenhower’s policies, so he refused—until he was summoned to the office of Norman Topping ’33, MD ’36, who was then in his first of 12 influential years as USC’s president.

Rosenzweig sat facing the president’s desk as Topping took a document out of a drawer and then returned it to the drawer. Here Rosenzweig continues the story, as he remembers it: “‘Mr. Rosenzweig... do you know what that was?’ My reply was succinct, ‘No, sir, I do not.’ ‘That, Mr. Rosenzweig … was your diploma. Should you ever wish to see it again you will lead next week’s rally for the president of the United States.’”

And so Rosenzweig did—but the cheeky student also assuaged his political leanings by making a crack about Eisenhower over the microphone at the next football game. Says Rosenzweig, years later: “There went my chance at shaking hands with the 34th president of the U.S.A.”

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Superfan Superstars

After we posted this picture on Facebook of major leaguers who played at USC, Trojans couldn’t help reminiscing about their other favorite USC baseball players. Among their top Trojan baseball greats: Tom Seaver, Mark McGwire, Randy Johnson and Bill Lee

Diehard USC fans Candy Yee ’68, MS ’69, her sister Patti Poon ’65 and their respective husbands were featured in our Autumn 2015 issue (“Fantastic Fans,” p.

56). On Facebook, fellow Trojans were quick to cheer them on: “We became basketball buddies with Candy, Pat and their husbands. Great ambassadors of all things USC!” posted Michael Valerio. Alexis Travis Albarado, whose son Kristopher is a punter for the Trojans, added: “Love Candy! I can honestly say that she lights up when she talks about my son and any of the other athletes!”

ABOVE, FROM LEFT: Steve Kemp, Roy Smalley, Rod Dedeaux, Fred Lynn and Dave Kingman (circa 1970s)

Helenes History The USC Helenes, the university’s oldest women’s service organization, took over the @uscedu Instagram for a week to show the campus from their perspective, including posting this then-and-now snapshot of Bovard Auditorium. Bovard was completed in 1921, the same year the sisterhood got its start.

Bovard Auditorium has been a cornerstone of the University Park Campus for 94 years.

TOUCH

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LEGENDS ON THE FIELD

Follow us @uscedu

Write to us magazines@usc.edu

BASEBALL PHOTO COURTESY OF USC ATHLETICS; USC HELENES PHOTO BY WINNIE QUAN

A Good Guy

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Image credits: Frank Gehry, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 1989–2003 (competition 1988), Los Angeles, California, © 2015 Gehry Partners, LLP, unless noted otherwise images courtesy Gehry Partners, LLP. Top–bottom: Project Sketch, Collection Frank Gehry, Los Angeles; Walt Disney Concert Hall Project Model, Gehry Partners, LLP, Los Angeles; Walt Disney Concert Hall Digital Model; Walt Disney Concert Hall, photo courtesy of Josh Bustos Photography

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FRANK GEHRY A breathtaking look at the ideas that transformed how we look at architecture

Through March 20, 2016 Tickets on Sale Now Los Angeles County Museum of Art 5905 Wilshire Boulevard lacma.org |323 857-6010

Always FREE for Members and Children 17 and Under

This exhibition is organized by the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, in association with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Presented by:

Generous support is provided by MATT Construction.

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SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT WITH ALICE U N D E R S T A N D I N G A L Z H E I M E R ’ S A Conversation with

LISA GENOVA and

ARTHUR W. TOGA A Visions and Voices Signature Event Thursday, February 4, 2016, 7 p.m.

Bovard Auditorium Admission is free and open to everyone.

RSVP at visionsandvoices.usc.edu.

Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist and award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, and Inside the O’Briens. Still Alice was adapted into a major motion picture starring Julianne Moore, who won the 2015 Academy Award for her role as Alice Howland, a professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Genova has travelled internationally speaking about Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and autism, and has appeared on Dr. Oz, The Diane Rehm Show, CNN, Chronicle, Fox News, and Canada AM. Lisa Genova will join USC professor and brain researcher Arthur W. Toga for a fascinating and important conversation on the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on individuals, families, and communities.

Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative.

For more information, please visit the Visions and Voices website or contact us at at visionsandvoices@usc.edu or 213.740.0483.

visionsandvoices.usc.edu University of Southern California

Media Sponsors

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PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

TROJAN

SANDS OF TIME Mandalas are spiritual symbols employed in Buddhism and other faiths. Tibetan monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery took five days to painstakingly create this traditional sand mandala, and then swept it away as a reminder of the impermanence of material life. The USC Pacific Asia Museum and the University Religious Center hosted the monks’ visit to USC.

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trojan news

A SELECT GROUP

New Kids on the Block As this year’s 2,949 incoming freshmen are learning to be Trojans, nearly half of them are also learning to be Californians. For the first time, just as many USC freshmen come from outside California as come from within it. More new arrivals than ever traveled to LA from places like New York City, Atlanta and Cleveland. The Class of 2019 also has proved to be USC’s most selective group. Read on for more about the newest branch of the Trojan Family.

51,925 Applications received, the most ever at USC

17.7%

USC is now one of 50 American universities with an acceptance rate below 18%.

F RO M N E A R A N D FA R

53%

4%

West

New England

8%

9%

Midwest

Mid-Atlantic

5%

6%

Southwest

South

43%

15%

17%

From California

International, representing 52 countries

From East Coast

9,050 Students accepted

ACADEMIC A L L- S TA R S

53% 47% Female

Male

ETHNIC BREAKDOWN

40% 23% 15% Caucasian

Asian American

International (any race)

13%

7%

2%

Latino

African American

Native American / Pacific Islander

TOP ENROLLING SCHOOLS Other 14%

USC Viterbi School of Engineering 16% USC Marshall School of Business 20%

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USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences 40%

About 19% have a parent who graduated from USC

The most popular words chosen by members of the freshmen class to describe themselves include creative, curious, passionate, determined, ambitious, compassionate, driven, dedicated, confident, optimistic, motivated, diligent, outgoing, enthusiastic, honest, inquisitive, independent, and tenacious!

22% received merit scholarships

USC School of Cinematic Arts 5% USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism 5%

82% had standardized test scores in the 90th percentile or higher

19% of class earned straight As in high school 1 out of 7 are first-generation college students

Average GPA 3.73 (unweighted)

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trojan news Poised for Success For a few talented freshmen, 2015 marks not only the beginning of their lives as Trojans, but also their start as the inaugural class at the USC Kaufman School of Dance. Jodie Gates, vice dean at USC Kaufman, had the difficult task of whittling down the large number of applicants. In the end, Gates and the admission committee carefully selected the dance majors in the same way they’d put together a professional dance company: They looked at them as a group.

“It’s an incredibly diverse class full of hybrid dance artists,” Gates says, “from aspiring choreographers to hip-hop, from ballet to contemporary dancers.” The class is also balanced in gender—15 men and 18 women—which is unusual in dance programs. “The backgrounds of the students vary, which is exactly what we wanted,” she adds. Meet three dancers from this historic class.

BR IA N NA MIMS

JU ST I N E P ST E I N

J E S S I CA M U S ZYN S K I

Hometown: Jacksonville, Florida Dance Style: Modern Previous training: Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, River City Fine Arts Academy Three words that describe you: Spiritual, artistic, intellectual Fun Facts: There are times when I seek edification and then there are times when I want to put on my superhero cape and run around.

What does it mean to be a part of USC Kaufman’s first class? It means that God has opened doors of opportunity, experience and growth. I’m so blessed to be part of it.

Hometown: West Hills, California Dance Style: Hip-hop Previous training: Thrive Dance Center Inspiration: My role models—my mom and my dance teacher Three words that describe you: Hard-working, confident, clumsy Fun Facts: I can wiggle my ears and I have a collection of more than 40 neckties.

What does it mean to be a part of USC Kaufman’s first class? It means I will be a trailblazer in the new method of dance education—a conservatory-style program at a large, academically rigorous university.

Hometown: Calgary, Canada Dance Style: I hope it continuously evolves, melding all styles together as I become more aware of different ways of moving. However, my most comfortable style fits under “contemporary.”

Previous training: Richmond Academy of Dance, Airborne Dance Centre Fun Facts: I have been trying to learn Korean unsuccessfully for over a year and I love watching documentaries.

What does it mean to be a part of USC Kaufman’s first class? It’s a dream come true. The approach the school has taken on the new conservatory is refreshing, and I am so excited to start expanding the boundaries of dance with the faculty and other students.

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Sound Decisions When great music makers have a smash hit, most don’t sit back and coast—they work on their next big project. Just ask the team behind the new bachelor’s program in music production at the USC Thornton School of Music. It was inspired by the flourishing major in popular music the school introduced in 2010.

Rick Schmunk, music technology chair, and USC Thornton Vice Dean Chris Sampson designed the program with help from esteemed audio engineer and educator Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton, a USC Thornton artist-in-residence, and Miamibased DJ and producer Greg “Stryke” Chin.

The inaugural music production class began this fall and focuses on creative, technical and business aspects of producing professional music. The curriculum reflects the current and evolving nature of professional music-making in the digital age, teaching skills including composing and arranging, live and studio performance, audio engineering/editing and mastering, music synthesis and programming, as well as business responsibilities related to music.

Students will work closely with songwriters, artists and bands at USC Thornton and with video directors, designers, artists and other creative minds across USC. “We’ve seen firsthand the power of creating a highly collaborative music community at USC Thornton,” says Sampson, who is also founding director of the USC Popular Music Program. “Adding musicians from the new music production major into this community will greatly enhance the experience for all our students.”

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To learn more about endowed chairs, visit campaign.usc.edu.

trojan news

Seats of Distinction As timeless as the university itself, endowed chairs are the gold standard for recruiting distinguished faculty and supporting academic endeavor.

Nobel laureate and hydrocarbondecoder George Olah has one. So do world-famous violinist Midori Goto, DNA-computing pioneer Len Adleman and visionary Internet social theorist Manuel Castells—among more than 300 other USC faculty. They’re the proud holders of endowed chairs. In many cases, it was a chair that helped attract these luminaries to USC in the first place.

Endowed chairs date at least as far back as ancient Rome. Steeped in tradition and ceremony, endowed chairs continue to be a magnet for recruiting and retaining faculty, and represent the highest accolade a university can bestow upon a professor.

So important are chairs that recruiting a world-class faculty member sometimes can’t happen without them, says Beth Meyerowitz, USC professor and former vice provost.

“It has a meaning that’s understood by all of us in academia,” explains Elizabeth Graddy, vice provost for academic and faculty affairs. She should understand their prestige: Graddy holds the Jeffrey J. Miller Chair in Government, Business, and the Economy at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

It was the Epstein Family Chair in Industrial and Systems Engineering, for example, that helped woo Jong-Shi Pang to the USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 2013. Pang’s pioneering contributions to mathematical modeling have the potential to solve major issues facing society, from health and social sciences to homeland security and communications systems.

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In the case of developmental biologist Andrew McMahon—a leading scientist who left his endowed professorship at Harvard University to join USC in 2012—an endowed chair at USC was a natural.

Today he spearheads USC’s stem cell efforts as the inaugural holder of the W. M. Keck Professorship of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

Chairs also play a role in faculty retention. In 2005, eight stellar cinematic arts faculty were installed in new chairs on the same day. A decade later, all but one of the original eight are still at USC—a testament to the staying power of chairs. Distinguished media scholar Ellen Seiter is one of them.

“It represents the high point of my career after 24 years of university life,” said Seiter, an expert in the effects of digital technology on young children, at the ceremony installing her in the Stephen K. Nenno Endowed Chair in Television Studies.

THE NAME ON THE CHAIR Chairs not only elevate the holder but also honor in perpetuity the person they’re named after. Two years ago filmmaker George Lucas ’66 endowed three chairs named for early cinema pioneers Georges Méliès, Sergei Eisenstein and William Cameron Menzies. In 2013, director Steven Spielberg, a USC trustee, asked the university to name a chair in honor of his lifelong friend and collaborator Michael Kahn, film editor on 24 Spielberg projects.

Ten years ago, Lucas and Spielberg teamed up to fund chairs named for two Hollywood

craftsmen they admire: music editor Kenneth Wannberg and cinematographer Conrad Hall. In 2004, Lucas endowed a chair named for esteemed sound editor Kay Rose.

“It was important for George and Steven to honor these people,” explains Marlene Loadvine, senior associate dean for external relations at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. “They want the students to remember these giants in their craft.”

The focus of the chair also matters.

“A donor can push research forward by funding chairs in areas that fall between traditional disciplines,” says Leo Braudy, whose own chair, the Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature, straddles two fields.

During the $6 billion Campaign for USC, more than 70 new chairs have been created. And unlike endowing a brick and mortar building, establishing a chair has a personal side.

“One of the great things about giving money to support a professor rather than a building is that you can have lunch with a professor,” says Vice Provost Martin Levine, holder of the UPS Foundation Chair in Law and Gerontology. It’s not unusual for chairholders to regularly talk with their benefactors—sharing their latest journal articles, inviting them to public lectures and introducing them to promising students.

It turns out the chair—that humble, inanimate object—might just be the most human expression of a philanthropic love of learning.

OPPOSITE: GROUP PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

by diane krieger

winter 2015

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Chair-a-phernalia FIRST TROJAN CHAIR

3 LONGEST-SEATED CHAIRS

In 1885, Sarah E. Tansey donated 100 acres of land to endow the John R. Tansey Chair of Christian Ethics in memory of her husband, an ardent USC advocate who did not live to see the university established. The first holder was USC founding President Marion M. Bovard (below). The Tansey Chair is currently held by religion professor Cecil “Chip” Murray, Los Angeles civic leader and former pastor of the First AME Church.

Outstanding professors are installed in their chairs through a formal ceremony typically involving the presentation of a physical chair—be it a tiny statuette or the full-sized mahogany you’d find in a well-appointed parlor. Chairs are appointed by the provost at the recommendation of the dean and a faculty committee. Chairs exist in perpetuity, but are subject to renewal every few years.

Retaining one is itself an achievement. Here are USC’s longest-seated chairs.

CHAIRS OF OLDE A millennium and a half after Roman emperor Vespasian created the first chairs in Greek and Latin rhetoric, the tradition was reborn in the British Isles when Margaret of Richmond, mother of Henry VII, established the Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity at Oxford University in 1502. Scottish and English monarchs thereafter made a practice of endowing Regius (Latin for “royal”) professorships at various universities.

By the early 1600s, others were following the king’s example.

Endowed chairs pushed the university curriculum in new and secular directions by freeing faculty members—previously all working clergymen—from their obligations to the church. Independent scholarship, scientific inquiry and rigorous study of the humanities flourished. You could say the modern research university was made possible by the endowed chair.

GEORGE LUCAS ’66 USC alumnus and supporter

BRUCE BLOCK Sergei Eisenstein Endowed Chair in Cinematic Design

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1982

1983

1984

MARTIN LEVI NE

GEORGE OLAH

SHAHBUDIN H. RAHIMTOOLA

Vice Provost and Professor

1994 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Distinguished Professor

Distinguished Professor

UPS Foundation Chair in Law and Gerontology

G.C. Griffith Chair in Cardiology

Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Chair in Organic Chemistry

SUPPORT WHAT MATTERS When donors endow a chair in a particular discipline, they give universities the tools to recruit outstanding teachers and researchers and keep them on the faculty. It’s a way to ensure that future generations of students will have the chance to learn from the best. Named chairs also enable donors to honor and remember people who have made a difference in their lives.

MICHAEL FINK Georges Méliès Endowed Chair in Visual Effects

ELIZABETH DALEY Dean and Steven J. Ross/ Time Warner Dean’s Chair

ALEX McDOWELL William Cameron Menzies Endowed Chair in Production Design

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P R O F I L E

To learn more about Coach Andrea Gaston’s USC women’s golf team, go to bit.ly/USCWomensGolf.

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G A S TO N

Home on the Range It’s every talented amateur golfer’s dream: Break onto the pro tour.

Andrea Gaston had that dream—twice.

Gaston played for San Jose State University in the 1970s, but left the game for the business world.

Yet golf still called, and when she finally returned to the fairways some 14 years later, she was playing better than ever. She racked up several big tournament wins, vaulting her into amateur golf’s top 10.

But she was also a realist. By 1995, she made a plan: Turn pro within two years, or leave competitive golf for good.

Sometimes life offers another option when it’s not expected. As Gaston pursued her tour card, a friend mentioned that USC might be looking for a women’s golf coach. On a whim, Gaston applied.

Soon she was offered “a miracle”—a coaching position for the 1996 season. The door closed on her pro career, but Gaston knew that coaching could yield its own rewards. “Given the heritage and tradition of USC, it felt like the right place for me to land,” she says. “So I put my clubs away, knowing I wouldn’t be pursuing my own goals as a golfer, but I could help these young women achieve theirs.”

And achieve they have. Fast-forward 20 years, and Gaston’s coaching career is legendary. Three NCAA team championships and five NCAA individual championships. Two NCAA Players of the Year and five Pac-12 Players of the Year. Three Coach of the Year titles from the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) and the Pac-12 Conference. Since 2006, the team has consistently placed in the nation’s top five. Sixteen of Gaston’s players have gone on to compete on the LPGA Tour. “It’s been a pretty phenomenal run, beyond my dreams,” says Gaston, who was inducted into the WGCA’s Hall of Fame in 2010.

Gaston is quick to credit the team’s success to strength, character and mutual respect from the players. Golf is an individual sport, but you don’t win championships without a team. “One trait of our national championship teams was that every player contributed at least two out of the four scores,” Gaston notes. “That means all five team members showed up, were competitive and ready to contribute, with nobody giving up or choking under pressure.” When recruiting, Gaston looks for women who have talent but also understand team dynamics. She is particularly adept at figuring out what makes each player tick. Maybe it’s from her own time in golf, but she knows that mind games can carry a great player to greater heights—or lower lows. To battle self-doubt, Gaston coaches players to use self-talk and body language. “A round of golf is like life,” she says. “You have to take the bad with the good and talk yourself into coming right back after you’ve had a bad hole.”

After Gaston’s 20 years helming USC’s women’s golf, her love of the sport still shines through.

When she describes golf courses—“unbelievable playgrounds with beautiful grass, trees and lakes”— or the “privilege and pleasure” of working with talented athletes, Gaston glows. She’s as competitive as ever, she says, but collegiate golf has another important side to it. “I love to win. But for me, the bigger part of coaching is all about forging relationships—the ‘heart’ part of the game.”

PHOTO BY RICHARD C. ERSTED

C O A C H

BEKAH WRIGHT

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Remembering Ol’ Blue Eyes 3

Frank Sinatra would have been 100 years old on Dec. 12 this year, and his memory lives on at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Frank Sinatra Hall, in the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Complex, hosts film screenings in a refurbished space thanks to support from his daughters Tina and Nancy Sinatra and the Frank Sinatra Family Foundation. Now the Sinatra family and other donors are marking the centennial by sponsoring seats in the theater to raise funds for scholarships for deserving USC students. (Learn more and join the effort online at sinatra.usc.edu.)

The hall also hosts the largest exhibit of memorabilia showcasing the American icon’s life and cultural contributions. Here are a few highlights from the collection.

#3 Teenage girls flocked to Sinatra’s concerts in droves during Sinatramania in the early 1940s. Here they clutch copies of Song Hits magazine, which published lyrics from his music.

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#1 “It seemed obvious to put dad in the center of youth and learning,” says Tina Sinatra of the family’s partnership with USC. Frank Sinatra Hall was dedicated in November 2002.

#2 Sinatra recorded “All or Nothing at All” with the Harry James Orchestra in 1939, but it didn’t become a hit until 1943, when Columbia Records re-released it during a musicians’ strike.

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6 #4 Sinatra is remembered for his trademark fedora. #5 Gambling chips commemorate Sinatra’s death and the closing of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, a favorite of Sinatra’s. #6 In 1970, Sinatra received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

He previously won an acting Oscar for From Here to Eternity.

RECORD, MAGAZINE, AND CHIPS PHOTOS BY GUS RUELAS; HALL PHOTO BY ROBERTO GOMEZ; STUDIO PHOTO COURTESY OF SINATRA FAMILY FOUNDATION

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trojan news AT HOME WITH DESIGN Though considerably less boisterous than its Rose Bowl Stadium neighbor, The Gamble House is a visitors’ mecca in its own right. Since becoming a National Historic Landmark some 37 years ago, it has welcomed more than 1 million guests eager to see one of the most celebrated showpieces of the American Arts and Crafts movement.

Now, design enthusiasts can get an in-depth look at the home’s history and design with The Gamble House: Building Paradise in California, the first new book published about it in more than 20 years. Published in partnership with the USC School of Architecture, The Gamble House and CityFiles Press, the book includes photography and essays from leading architectural and historical researchers.

The 1908 home was originally commissioned

by David and Mary Gamble, heirs to the Procter & Gamble fortune, and stands as the best-preserved masterwork of Arts and Crafts architects Charles and Henry Greene. Five decades ago, The Gamble House was given to the city of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the USC School of Architecture, which manages the site and runs several academic programs there, including sponsoring two architecture students to live at the home every year.

PHOTO BY ALEXANDER VERTIKOFF FROM THE GAMBLE HOUSE BOOK; CONFERENCE PHOTOS BY ROCK LU

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East meets West in Shanghai, the hub of business and entertainment in China. The forward-looking city was a fitting host for the USC Global Conference, and the latest staging of the biennial event focused on innovations shaping our future.

October’s sold-out conference brought together luminaries, thought leaders and distinguished USC faculty. USC Trustee and event co-chair Ming Hsieh ’83, MS ’84 was honored for his contributions to the university, and Robert Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, was a featured speaker.

Iger sat down for a conversation with Willow Bay, director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, and shared thoughts ranging from how to balance globalization with local cultures and tastes to the design of a muchanticipated Disney theme park in Shanghai.

Though innovation was the theme, Iger was quick to point out that it takes both technology and an understanding of humanity to drive success for companies like Disney. “People love great stories. We try to tell stories that touch their hearts,” Iger said. “Innovation is critical, but telling great stories is where it starts. People tend to overthink that.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Chinese TV personalities Dong Qing, right, and Bai Xu Xu co-host the gala dinner; Robert Iger discusses innovation; Iger, right, receives a USC jacket from C. L. Max Nikias after a discussion with Willow Bay.

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trojan news

Go to thenextmacgyver.com/ finalists.html to learn more about the five finalists and the runners-up.

Holding Out for a Hero[ine] What he did with just a safety pin, a glue stick and a coffee cup was unbelievable. MacGyver was must-watch television in the 1980s and its eponymous hero proved that secret agents don’t need weapons—just their smarts—to save the world.

Now “The Next MacGyver” competition aims to bring a new problem-solving engineer to life in a new TV series, but this time the hero is a woman. It’s organized by the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, the National Academy of Engineering and Lee Zlotoff—creator of the original MacGyver.

Beyond entertaining, the goal of “The Next MacGyver” is to inspire. Women comprise 35 percent of USC Viterbi’s undergraduates—and 38 percent of its freshmen class—but “across the nation, less than 20 percent of engineering students are women.

This cannot continue,” USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos says.

The open call for TV show concepts drew more than 2,000 entries earlier this year. Five proposals earned each of their creators a roll of duct tape, $5,000 and the chance to partner with a TV producer to develop their shows. Here are the five winning concepts that you might see on TV one day. D A N I E L D R U H O R A

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#1 BETH KESER, a semiconductor engineer, won for the adventure-procedural Rule 702. She’ll be mentored by Lori McCreary (Madam Secretary), president of the Producers Guild of America. #2 JAYDE LOVELL, a communications staffer for the New York Hall of Science, won for her high school dramedy SECs (Science and Engineering Clubs). She’ll work

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with Roberto Orci, writer-producer of Sleepy Hollow and Hawaii Five-O. #3 Indie filmmaker MIRANDA SAJDAK will have her World War II drama Riveting developed by Clayton Krueger, senior vice president of television at Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions. #4 CRAIG MOTLONG, a Seattle-based creative director, was chosen for the action drama Q Branch.

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Anthony Zuiker, creator and executive producer of CSI and its spinoffs, will work with him. #5 SHANEE EDWARDS, film critic at SheKnows.com, is taking her steampunk concept Ada and the Machine to actressproducer America Ferrera ’13 (Ugly Betty, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and Gabrielle Neimand of Take Fountain Productions.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY LUKE FREEBORN, MICHAEL PENICK, TIM SZABO, MATTHEW ZIKRY AND ZOE CHEVAT

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FA C U LT Y

P R O F I L E

Master of Mind Games A USC psychology researcher delves into the surprising ways your subconscious mind affects your actions.

Norbert Schwarz might know you better than you know yourself—even though you probably don’t know him at all.

The USC psychologist probes the utility and faults of human instincts, conscious and subconscious. His 30 years of studies into social cognition— how people think about the social world—give insight into unexpected quirks of human behavior. Who would have thought that smelling something fishy makes people not only suspicious, but also sharper thinkers?

Through his research, Schwarz confirmed that—and other ways that your senses and feelings affect your actions.

Schwarz, Provost Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, is co-director of the USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center. He talks with USC writer Emily Gersema about some of the traits that make us uniquely human.

N O R B E R T

S C H WA R Z

Do you ever worry that your research will be used for manipulative purposes?

Yes, I do worry. Of course, that’s true for most areas of research—the unknown genius who improved our lives by inventing the wheel also set the stage for millennia of road kill.

In behavioral science research, the best you can usually do is to make the insights available to all. A recent investigation of the influence of hunger on consumer behavior, with Alison Xu of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Bob Wyer of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is a good example. Earlier research had shown that hungry

shoppers buy more food than they intend to at the supermarket. We wondered how far that influence goes. If being hungry puts “getting food” on your mind, would that also increase the likelihood that you get other things? This led to a series of laboratory and department store studies that showed that hunger also increases non-food purchases, including the purchase of binder clips, which aren’t known to make for a good meal. For stores this means that it is a good idea to attract hungry consumers; for consumers it suggests that they’re better off having a snack before they shop.

What’s your favorite part of conducting a study?

For me, the most fun part is translating the theoretical idea into an involving experiment.

It’s a bit like writing a play: devising a social situation in which stuff—sometimes weird— happens in a way that allows you to shed light on something unknown. It’s fun to dream up the procedures and nicely challenging to do it in a way that really tells you something about the underlying processes.

To read more about Schwarz’s research into fishy odors, go to bit.ly/SmellStudy.

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ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS GASH; PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

Why study social cognition?

It sheds light on how little things can make a large difference in what we think and do. Little things that impact your mood, from finding a dime in the street to whether your sports team wins or loses, can influence how you see the world in unrelated domains.

People who are temporarily in a good mood are more satisfied with their lives as a whole, more optimistic about the future, more pleased with how the economy is doing and more helpful to others. And you can get all of that for a dime—well, more correctly, the good mood it elicits. Even the stock market is more likely to go up on a sunny day than a rainy day in the financial center, most likely reflecting the influence of the weather on optimism about the future.

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trojan news HE ALTH FI LES Call it the “Happy Meal effect”: People willingly choose a small meal portion over full size if they get a prize for making that choice—even if it’s a modest reward like a raffle ticket for a $10 gift card.

The USC research suggests strategies for businesses to offer smaller, healthier portions that compete with super-sized ones.

In 1995, William and Julie Wrigley provided the lead gift to establish the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. The marine science center is the centerpiece of the institute.

A hyperbaric chamber at the center stands at the ready to treat people involved in scuba diving accidents.

Students can take non-credit courses there to become certified American Academy of Underwater Sciences divers.

BY LAND AND SEA

PHOTO COURTESY OF USC WRIGLEY INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES; CURRIES PHOTO COURTESY OF USC LIBRARIES

In 1965, the Wrigley family—famed owners of the chewing gum empire and the Chicago Cubs— gifted 14 acres of land on Catalina Island, just off the Southern California coast, to USC to ensure the area’s preservation. Fifty years later, the USC Wrigley Marine Science Center is an important resource for international scientists conducting environmental research. Just in time for its 50th anniversary, the center unveiled a new facility for research into aquaponics, algae and shellfish culture. Here are some facts you might not know about USC’s facilities on Catalina.

Many of the millions of Americans with diabetes don’t get eye tests for retinopathy. In part, that’s because tests are time-consuming and require injections and dilation. But USC scientists are enhancing optical screening machines so they can capture retina images quickly and easily using infrared light, allowing for more early diagnoses that could prevent blindness.

Why have 20thcentury women lived longer than men? A new USCled study reveals that vulnerability to heart disease is the biggest culprit behind higher death rates for men. That suggests further study on what raises heart disease risks among men and women—or protects them—at different stages of life.

USC Wrigley-based research includes studies of ocean acidification, harmful algal blooms and sustainable food recycling and shellfish farming.

B U R G EO NING BIO SCIENC E If anyone understands how science and engineering are coming together to improve lives, it’s Malcolm Currie.

Among the highlights of his long career, the engineering physicist and USC trustee headed research and development for scientific and medical devices at Beckman Instruments, oversaw research and systems development for the Defense Department as under secretary of defense, and led Hughes Aircraft Co. So when he and his wife, Barbara, recently donated $10 million toward the endowment of the Keck School of Medicine of USC and construction of the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, it was an important stamp of approval for USC’s accelerating efforts in medicine and biotech.

The Curries’ gift will be recognized with the naming of the new 450-bed Health Sciences Campus student residence hall that will open in 2016. A few miles west, at the University Park Campus, the lobby of the USC Michelson Center will also bear the Currie name.

The gift is one of many that are building fundraising momentum at the medical school. Last fiscal year the school’s donors contributed $200 million, the most since 2011. The donations boost the Campaign for USC, a multi-year effort that seeks to raise $6 billion or more to advance USC’s academic priorities and expand the university’s

positive impact on the community and world. The campaign has raised more than $4.7 billion.

At the same time, Keck Medicine of USC, the university’s medical enterprise, is expanding rapidly.

It has added satellite offices and forged partnerships with local hospitals across Southern California.

And energy is building behind a movement to create a biomedical research corridor anchored by the Health Sciences Campus, building on the assets of the Keck School of Medicine, LAC+USC Medical Center and pharmaceutical firms.

“In the coming century, we will see society’s greatest technological advances at the convergence of science and engineering,” says USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “This is why support from visionary philanthropists such as Malcolm and Barbara Currie is so important—it ensures the university’s leadership in this vital research frontier, and helps humanity benefit from the exceptional innovations that emerge.” LY N N L I P I N S K I

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Picture of Health Neurologist Daniel Pelletier accelerates Keck Medicine of USC’s imaging and treatment efforts to find answers to multiple sclerosis.

ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN STAUFFER; PHOTOS COURTESY OF USC HEALTH SCIENCES PUBLIC RELATIONS & MARKETING

by amber dance Survey a waiting room full of patients with multiple sclerosis, and you’ll hear a dozen different stories about their symptoms. Some have blurry vision. Some slur words. One might struggle with numb feet or tingling hands.

But they all share one common experience: the MRI. Once a year—or more often if the disease is getting worse—patients with multiple sclerosis, or MS, have to take off their jewelry and glasses, don a hospital gown, and lie motionless inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine as it whirs and clangs for an hour or more.

Doctors examine the resulting pictures of the brain and spinal cord, looking for bright white spots—the lesions that cause MS. These are the “many scars” that led to the term “multiple sclerosis,” explains neurologist Daniel Pelletier, the new chief of the neuro-immunology and multiple sclerosis division in the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Department of Neurology. Those scars indicate spots where the body’s immune system has attacked nerves.

For now, the MRI lights up lesions, but Pelletier believes it can do much more. For longer than a decade, he has focused his research on imaging techniques to better understand the disease and figure out if new drugs are working properly. In the near future, detailed imaging markers may help physicians better diagnose MS and adjust their treatment of the disease. The potential to make more of imaging is part of what drew Pelletier to USC from Yale University in tfm.usc.edu

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April 2015. With USC’s powerful imaging capabilities and lofty goals for a large-scale MS center, he plans sweeping changes for Keck Medicine of USC’s MS program, including efforts to reach more Angelenos with MS and involve Keck Medicine MS patients as partners in vital research to beat the disease.

“There’s no one who knows more about imaging in MS than Dan Pelletier,”

says Leslie Weiner, an MS specialist and Richard Angus Grant Sr. Chair in Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine. “We will be a major center, with more people taking care of MS patients than probably anywhere on the West Coast.”

Researchers need to use imaging and other tools to better understand MS because the disease varies from person to

person and scientists don’t know what sets it off. What they do know are the mechanics behind patients’ symptoms: nerves and the immune system.

Nerve cells communicate through long, thin wire-like fibers that are coated with an insulator called myelin. During an episode of MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks myelin as if it’s an infection.

Without insulation, the fibers malfunction.

The body can repair the damage, but imperfectly, leaving a scar. Thanks to this repair, many people with MS experience long periods without symptoms.

Neurologists can prescribe several medicines that keep the immune system in check, protecting the myelin and slowing the disease. However, eventually the nerves get damaged, and doctors cannot fix that problem—not yet, at least (see “Three Big Questions,” p. 28). After that point, the disease only gets worse.

Depending on where nerves are under attack—in the brain, the spinal cord or behind the eyes—MS can hamper thinking, movement and vision, among other things. It can be a challenge to treat and diagnose, but early treatment is key, says Keck Medicine neurologist Lilyana Amezcua.

Medications can reduce attacks and delay progression, but they can cause side effects ranging from the unpleasant, such as hair loss, to the serious, including increased risk of brain infection. That’s why she recommends that every MS patient go to a specialized academic center like Keck Medicine, where expert neurologists take a comprehensive approach to the care of MS. usc trojan family

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Three Big Questions: Daniel Pelletier Multiple sclerosis research has made great strides in the last few decades, but questions remain. Neurologist Daniel Pelletier explains.

Why do people develop MS? We don’t know the cause of MS. We have a working hypothesis. Patients have a genetic susceptibility; that’s where it starts. That doesn’t mean you have one gene that causes the disease, but you have a genetic background that will make your immune system prone to attack your own body. There are almost 200 genes that have been identified already that affect MS risk. But genes are not enough. On top of that there are environmental factors that raise risk, such as low vitamin D, smoking and high body mass index. It’s not just bad MS genes or bad environmental factors: It’s the interaction between the two.

The million-dollar question is, is there a virus or a bacterium that’s associated with the risk of MS? We believe that there might be a viral agent, but we haven’t been able to pinpoint which one it is. The theory is that when you are a teenager you get infected by a virus. You barely have symptoms; you are able to fight the infection. Years later, the immune cells fighting against that virus find their way into the brain and spinal cord, and now they think they see the same virus again. But it’s not the virus, it’s a portion of your myelin. Instead of the virus, the immune system is attacking the central nervous system. Years later, new symptoms may appear again, affecting different parts of your myelin and nervous system.

Is there any hope for restoring the damaged nervous systems of people already harmed by MS? Over the past 20 years we’ve made a lot of progress on treating the inflammation. We can prevent new scars from forming, which is good. The challenges moving forward will be to prevent nerves from getting hurt.

Right now there are many researchers and companies working on myelin repair, and there are many potential candidates. Within the last few months we’ve heard the final results from a proof-of-concept trial on a promising drug for myelin repair, an antibody targeting LINGO-1. [LINGO-1 is a protein found in nerve cells and cells that make myelin.]

What stands in the way of developing medicines that protect nerve cells? One challenge that we have is, how do we actually monitor myelin repair? We do not have the right tools. Industry partners and researchers are in trouble right now because of that; it’s a key area of research. Without the tools, we’re not moving as fast as we should.

That’s where imaging comes in. We’re working very hard to find imaging markers for myelin repair and nerve death. The tools that we have—standard MRI and PET—are not good enough. This is an unmet need; it’s crucial. We at USC are up to this challenge.

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FROM TOP: Lilyana Amezcua treats MS patients and studies racial disparities and imaging in MS; Leslie Weiner is internationally recognized as a neurologist and MS researcher.

PREVIOUS PAGE: Daniel Pelletier joined USC from Yale University to lead Keck Medicine of USC’s growing MS program.

Keck Medicine’s MS team includes specialist nurses, physical therapists, nutritionists, counselors and occupational and speech therapists, in addition to MS-trained neurologists. Those experts were once scattered across USC’s Health Sciences Campus, but Pelletier and colleagues are looking forward to the upcoming opening of a unified MS clinic in its own suite in the new Norris Healthcare Consultation Center. “We’re building a one-stop shop for MS,” Pelletier says. “We’re building a team around the patient, as opposed to a patient going to four or five different places.”

The clinic will be about more than providing top-notch patient care; it will also be a place of science, says Pelletier, vice chair for research for the neurology department. Keck Medicine MS patients can already participate in clinical trials of new medicines, and soon everyone treated at the center will be able to contribute to MS research (unless they choose not to). The clinic will build a research library of patients’ blood samples, DNA, medical images and other information, and scientists will mine the data to better understand the disease. They could look for genes that might raise MS risk, for example, or signs on an MRI that indicate a person’s disease is worsening.

Those thousands of images take a lot of computer space to store, and they’ll have a home at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute. The institute’s new building, opening in spring 2016 on the Health Sciences Campus, will have an MRI machine with the most powerful magnet available. Fewer than a dozen U.S. research centers have a 7-tesla MRI machine, which has a magnet 140,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field and five times more powerful than that used in common medical MRI units.

With the extra power, Pelletier can peer more closely at what’s happening in the nervous system of someone with MS. For example, he’ll be looking for a little molecule called glutathione, which, if found in low levels, indicates stressed-out nerve cells. He’ll also look for another called glutamate, which in excess damages nerves.

And using a different type of imaging called PET, he hopes to see the immune cells that attack myelin.

Pelletier estimates the new clinic will serve 2,500-3,000 people with MS. But he has visions beyond USC’s gates. He wants to open Keck Medicine MS clinics in other locations, including sites in Beverly Hills and Orange County, to treat thousands more. With participating patients as his research partners, he and preventive medicine collaborators at USC hope to investigate the epidemiology of MS: the science of who develops the disease, and why.

He also aims to unite doctors in the U.S. and Canada in a partnership to understand MS risk and how the illness progresses over time. The network would bring together more than 30 clinics across the continent to collect information like genetic profiles and MRIs from as many as 10,000 patients. Patterns in the data may point out risk factors. By comparing MS rates to maps of air pollution, for example, scientists could investigate whether there are links between air quality and the disease.

Scientists admit they still have a lot to learn about MS. While physicians can prescribe drugs to reduce nerve scarring, they can’t reverse the damage. But Keck Medicine’s team is upbeat about the momentum behind MS research. Thanks to the power of imaging, they say, answers are within sight. winter 2015

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H E A LT H

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N U M B E R S :

M U LT I P L E

S C L E R O S I S

FOUR KINDS OF MS 85% of people first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis have relapsingremitting MS. They have intermittent flare-ups, perhaps once or twice a year, when the immune system attacks myelin and symptoms like fatigue, vision problems and spasticity occur. After 4-6 weeks, symptoms subside. Doctors can prescribe drugs to stave off flare-ups. Over time, most people with relapsingremitting MS will see their disease change to secondary-progressive MS. At this point, symptoms steadily worsen and the disease begins to progress. No medications today can slow secondary-progressive MS. For some people with MS, their condition declines from the start. Some 10% of MS diagnoses are primary-progressive MS, which has no distinct flare-ups. Another 5% get progressive-relapsing MS, in which the disease worsens and patients also have occasional attacks.

HOW C OMMON IS MS ?

Sources: MS Foundation, National MS Society, Keck Medicine of USC physicians

MS symptoms can be invisible or tough to diagnose, and there is no national registry for the disease, so prevalence statistics are rough estimates.

Six faculty neurologists, in addition to fellows and residents, diagnose and treat MS at Keck Medicine of USC.

TWELVE NEW DRUGS T O T R E AT M S Before the 1990s, doctors could only offer medicines to treat MS symptoms.

They couldn’t dampen the super-charged immune response that causes the disease. About 75 percent of people with MS were likely to be disabled within 5-10 years of diagnosis, recalls neurologist Leslie Weiner. Thanks to a dozen new drugs, he says, that number has dropped to nearly 25 percent today.

SYMPTOMS

FI V E FAC T S T O K N OW

MS symptoms vary widely, depending on the part of the nervous system affected, and may include:

More women than men get MS, but it tends to be more severe in men.

Pain Difficulty walking Numbness Blurry vision Weakness Frequent urge to urinate

9,000-10,000 people in Los Angeles County

400,000-500,000 people in the U.S.

2.3–2.5 million people worldwide

1 750 in

the average American’s chances of developing MS.

20-50 MS can start at any age, but most often between 20-50.

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People who grew up in cold climates, farther from the equator, are more likely to get MS than those from warmer climates—perhaps because their bodies make less vitamin D from sunlight.

THE R ACE T O ER A SE MS When scientists talk openly with each other about their discoveries, science moves faster. That’s the idea behind the Race to Erase MS and its Center Without Walls program, a partnership among seven top institutions, among them USC and Harvard and Yale universities. “We can brainstorm with the best people in the country,” says Daniel Pelletier, who will represent USC in the consortium.

The Center Without Walls members work together regularly. Each of the seven centers brings its own expertise, with the Keck School of Medicine of USC offering strength in epidemiology, imaging, immunology and stem cell research.

MS is most common among people with a northern European heritage, but affects people of all ethnicities. Studies show that African-Americans often experience symptoms that are more severe, and that MS diagnoses are rising rapidly in Latin America.

Most people with MS live productive lives.

Two-thirds will keep their ability to walk, though they might need help from a cane or scooter.

Life expectancy for someone with MS is about seven years less than average, but good treatment can help by preventing or dealing with complications.

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Fabulous Fulbrights More Trojans than ever are taking their studies overseas through a prestigious grant program— and many got their start through scholarships that draw top students to USC.

By Lynn Lipinski • Illustration by Justin Renteria

COURTESY OF KRISTI CLARK, CAROL MILLER AND THE LABORATORY OF NEURO IMAGING

At only 22 years old, Maria Fish ’15 has a breathtaking collection of snapshots from places across the world: Chile, England, Honduras, Hong Kong, Macau and Spain, just to name a few. But these aren’t souvenirs of idyllic vacations.

There are the pictures of Fish as a teenage exchange student in Costa Rica and Honduras. More recent ones show her on Mexico’s Isla Contoy, taken during a tour of the national park to examine the effects of tourism on local ecosystems. Others show her in Valencia, Spain, where she traveled on a research award the summer after her freshman year at USC to study immigration policy. She looks at ease in the images: Traveling and working far from her Pacific Northwest home come naturally now.

After all, she speaks Spanish and English fluently, and is learning Catalan. She’s also learned to embrace bridging language barriers and cultural differences as the best training to become a true global citizen— an education that can’t be acquired from any book.

Her love for languages and life abroad made the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences graduate a standout candidate for the prestigious Fulbright scholarship, which sent her to Europe this fall. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program stands as one of the oldest and most well-established international exchange programs, offering some 1,700 American students the opportunity each year to meet, work, live and learn in host countries around the world. tfm.usc.edu

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This year, 19 USC students won Fulbright grants, the largest Fulbright class in USC history, and USC has consistently been one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright students. The exchange program fosters cross-cultural understanding across national boundaries through personal experiences. For USC, nurturing students like Fish in their quest to become citizens of the world is critical to making meaningful contributions to the larger international community.

Fish earned her Fulbright after a successful college career at USC. But like many of her fellow USC recipients, she got her first big break earlier—through the scholarship that made her a Trojan.

FAR FROM HOME It’s no accident that Fish, born in New York City and raised in Portland, Oregon, chose a college that enabled her to pursue her passion. USC’s school spirit and opportunities to study in Spanish-speaking countries, live in residential colleges and join diverse campus clubs convinced her that USC was the place for her. But another huge draw was her Trustee Scholarship, which covered her tuition for four years.

USC grants Trustee Scholarships to about 100 outstanding entering freshmen annually based on achievement, community involvement, character and leadership skills.

“Without the generous support of USC fellowships and alumni and donor scholarships, I would absolutely not be a Fulbright scholar,” Fish says. “These usc trojan family

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USC Fulbright scholars Maria Fish, left, Nick Kosturos and Vivian Yan

experiences—offered and supported by USC—are what I believe set me apart from other applicants.”

Fish took advantage of the guidance available from the university’s dedicated staff in its Academic Honors and Fellowships office for students pursuing university awards and nationally competitive fellowships like the Fulbright.

When Fish was a junior, the Gold Family Scholarship underwrote her semester-long trip to Chile to deeply explore local culture and language. She studied human rights, Chilean politics and literature—in Spanish and with local college students at two universities—while living with a host family. USC Dornsife’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fund stipend funded her study of post-colonial cultural identities in Hong Kong and Macau through USC’s Problems Without Passports course. And Undergraduate Student Government sponsored her travels to Oxford University for a human rights course last spring.

Now her Fulbright scholarship takes her to Andorra, a country about the geographic size of New Orleans that’s nestled high in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain. Fish is the first USC student to win a Fulbright grant to teach English in the Catalan-speaking nation.

“I’ll be teaching English to 14-to-16year-olds in the Andorran school system,” she says. She also hopes to volunteer with a local human rights organization and hike every marked trail in Andorra.

“I pursued a wide range of study abroad and international research programs at USC because I believe in the idea of global citizenship,” says Fish, who graduated with dual majors in Spanish and narrative studies.

“I think intercultural understanding is the only way to create a more peaceful world.”

Though many Fulbright scholars are well traveled like Fish, their qualifications go beyond an oft-stamped passport.

They’re distinguished for bridging international cultures.

Nick Kosturos ’15 wanted to gain a more global perspective his freshman year when he joined a Problems Without Passports research excursion. The San Mateo, California native soon found himself in

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completely new territory, examining Arctic security matters in Finland, Russia and Sweden.

“I was hooked,” Kosturos says. Taught

by USC Dornsife’s Steven Lamy, professor of international relations, and Robert English, associate professor of international relations, the program brought students face to face with researchers and diplomats working on issues related to the militarization of the Arctic.

His Arctic adventure made such an impact that Kosturos switched from studying the Middle East and Arabic to Russian and post-Soviet languages, politics and cultures. His interest in Russia and the Cold War crystallized his post-graduation plans for study and work. “It has been a climate of innovation, going 100 miles per hour, since I was a freshman,” he says.

His enthusiasm led to a Fulbright grant to teach English and American culture for nine months in Belarus, starting this past September. Earlier this year, a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship funded his study of Russian in Vladimir, a city 110 miles outside Moscow.

In Vladimir—population 350,000— Kosturos lived with a host family in an apartment, studying Russian four hours each morning and speaking it nearly everywhere he went. Within months, his Russian had improved enough that he was able to have a two-hour-long conversation with a stranger on a train. His newly honed skills serve him well in Belarus, where the

PR O B LE MS W I TH O U T PAS S P O RTS P RO G RAM

USC Dornsife’s Problems Without Passports courses introduce students to global challenges that span across international borders.

official language is Russian.

Most of the Russians he met over the summer were generous and kind, Kosturos says. “They are very welcoming, and very curious about the American way of life.” He hopes to continue this cultural exchange in Belarus, where he wants to organize small discussion groups at the local university to share ideas.

Like Fish, Kosturos traces his travels to Russia back to his exploration at USC— and the scholarship that started it all. “I can’t thank USC enough for these opportunities, all made possible through the Trustee Scholarship I was awarded and the funding of summer experiences,” says Kosturos, who hopes to pursue a career in foreign policy focusing on cybersecurity.

The opportunities didn’t end with his Fulbright: Kosturos was recently named a Dornsife Scholar, which grants $10,000 for graduate school after the Fulbright term is over.

CROSS-CULTURAL CONNECTIONS The Fulbright recipients often tell personal stories that explain their international ties.

Fish, for one, credits her interest in Spanish to her grandmother, who immigrated to the United States from Spain while that country was under the rule of Francisco Franco. When Fish was a child, her grandmother convinced Fish’s parents to enroll her in an immersion program so that she would learn Spanish and English simultaneously from kindergarten through high school. This foundation sparked her passion for languages and the idea of global exchange at an early age.

For Vivian Yan ’14, speaking Cantonese at home and growing up listening to her parents’ stories about life in Hong Kong widened her worldview. She was raised in Fullerton, in Orange County, California, but two visits to Hong Kong sparked her sense of intrigue and curiosity about that city. After Yan graduated from USC Dornsife with a double major in history and comparative literature, she decided to take her interest in transpacific Asian American history even further as a Fulbright student researcher.

She initially planned to spend her year winter 2015

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Learn how you can support talented USC students through scholarships at campaign.usc.edu/giving.

Fulbright scholars experience local traditions abroad, such as visiting Hong Kong’s wishing trees for Chinese New Year.

Fulbright Facts

PHOTO COURTESY OF VIVIAN YAN

Founded in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government.

at the University of Hong Kong in 2014 to study how Southeast Asian domestic worker activism has impacted ethnic and racial discourse in Hong Kong since the 1950s.

But the timing of her trip meant that instead of reading about historic events in dusty archival documents, she got a firsthand view of social unrest and political protests as they unfolded.

“I knew the protests were likely to happen, which is why I wanted to go,” she says. “But the start of the protests shifted my research interest mainly to South Asian history in Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong’s “umbrella revolution” turned the city’s central business district into a protest zone, and tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents flooded the streets, demanding politically diverse candidates for the top governmental post.

Yan saw that Hong Kong’s immigrants from India, Nepal and Pakistan were much more engaged in the protests than the domestic workers she had expected to see. South Asians “didn’t just march and give speeches, but they proudly claimed to be ‘Hong Kongers’ just like the ethnic Chinese,” she says. “What made this special was that for the first time since 1851, the Chinese Hong Kong residents seemed to accept them as such.”

Yan quickly refocused her research to look at historical British-Indian-Chinese relationships, and their impact on creating racial discourses in Hong Kong, both under British imperial rule and now under Chinese rule.

“Like most people, I thought of Hong tfm.usc.edu

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Kong as a place where Chinese migration is centered,” Yan says. “But the city is also an important place for Indians and other South Asians in their migration history.”

As a freshman Yan had been intrigued by cultural studies, but she wouldn’t have considered studying abroad without the early encouragement of Ramzi Rouighi, associate professor of history and Middle East studies at USC Dornsife. When she was a student in his modern Middle East history class, he encouraged her to connect to the broader world through travel and research. Yan had the qualities that make for a good study abroad candidate, so he suggested she apply to USC’s Problems Without Passports course in Kazakhstan, as well as a six-week program studying French in Paris.

“She is self-motivated, curious, open to the world and unafraid to work hard to achieve her goals,” he says.

After returning from Hong Kong, Yan began doctoral studies in Asian American history at Stanford University in September, taking with her copies of the reams of historical documents she has collected about Hong Kong from the 1850s to 1970s. She plans to continue the research she began during her Fulbright.

Some five years after a Presidential Scholarship first brought her to USC as a freshman, Yan has clear career goals. “I want to be a professor,” she says. “I want to continue to study these issues. And I also want to pass on to other students the kind of support I received from my USC professors. Their mentorship made things possible for me I never dreamed of.”

More than 325,000 scholars have participated in the Fulbright Program.

The Fulbright Program offers grants for U.S. college students, faculty members, teachers and other professionals to travel abroad. It also brings foreign scholars to the U.S. For the past three years, USC has been a top producer of Fulbright Student Program grant recipients among U.S. research institutions.

This fall, 19 current and recently graduated USC students received Fulbrights as teachers and researchers in countries such as Andorra, Mexico, Norway and Turkey. Their average GPA is 3.73.

As of this fall, 170 USC students have won Fulbrights.

The first Trojan to earn a Fulbright student grant went to what was then West Germany in 1973.

The number of Trojans who apply has jumped in recent years, from 63 applicants in 2010–2011 to 84 in 2014–2015.

Each year, some 9,000 students nationally apply for 1,700 Fulbright student grants.

Read more about USC fellowship programs at ahf.usc.edu.

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Lights, Camera, Animation Animation melds seamlessly with live action to transport movie audiences to new worlds.

By Allison Engel • Photos by Noé Montes

Michael Fink introduced a green-screen course at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2012.

“Directing in a Virtual World” was instantly popular and always has a hefty wait list.

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Quick, can you name the best animated movies you saw this year?

If films like Inside Out or The Good Dinosaur were on your list, you’re not alone.

But what about live-action blockbusters like Jurassic World, The Avengers or Mission Impossible?

“Nobody called Avatar an animated film, but it is,” says Michael Fink, chair of the film and television production division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. In that film, he points out, nearly all the scenes on the planet Pandora were computer-generated with animated performances closely based on the performances of live actors.

Today, movie fans can be forgiven if they can’t tell the difference between animated and live-action films. Films with cartoon characters are easy calls, but what about special effects-laden projects such as Gravity or The Hobbit? They feature live actors shot in front of green screens, and many scenes use computer-generated animated effects that increasingly blur the line between reality and fantasy.

But moviegoers watching a superhero shrink convincingly to the size of an ant or a monster shake its realistic tufts of fuzzy hair might not realize the complexity behind it all. It takes math, computer science and software development—as well as a rich understanding of human emotion,

movement and artistic rendering—to bring these characters alive.

And they also may not know the critical roles that the John C. Hench Division of Animation and Digital Arts at the School of Cinematic Arts and several units at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering play in pushing the boundaries of what can be visualized. USC has a reputation as a longtime leader in cinematic arts and game design, but its faculty and alumni are also at the forefront in creating digital humans, virtual reality, 3-D digitization, science visualization and other technology that brings fantasy worlds to life.

A DIGITAL REVOLUTION It’s a common mistake to associate animation only with kids’ films and TV cartoons, says past Hench division chair Kathy Smith. “The fact is animation is at the core of most digital media creation today.”

The division’s current chair is Tom Sito, whose career began under the tutelage of the legendary Chuck Jones (think Looney Tunes) and some of the original Disney animators dubbed the “Nine Old Men.” He recently completed a comprehensive history of computer animation, and says flatly: “Animation as an art form has moved into the center of modern digital culture.” winter 2015

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USC professor Eric Hanson creates digital images that are 1,000 times more detailed than what a conventional camera captures.

Sito pinpoints the crux of the digital revolution as the period from 1991 to 1995, when films with groundbreaking animated technology such as Terminator, Toy Story and Jurassic Park were released.

“Before that, saying ‘I want to do a movie with computers’ was considered ridiculous,” he says. “After that, not using computers was considered ridiculous.”

At USC, a turning point of sorts may have been reached two years ago when the School of Cinematic Arts’ longtime dean, Elizabeth Daley, named Fink, an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and second unit director, as chair of the school’s production division. His predecessors all had backgrounds in live action producing, but little in animation or visual effects. “It was a pretty bold move on the part of Dean Daley,” Fink says. “She was looking at where media production is now and where it’s going.”

Fink started his USC career in the Hench division, teaching “The World of Visual Effects,” a survey course on the evolution of technology, art and storytelling.

In 2012, he started teaching in the production division, inaugurating a green-screen course, “Directing in a Virtual World,” that was instantly popular and has a hefty wait list every semester.

Visual effects supervisors have to work with every department on a production, Fink explains, as they need to know what the director and director of photography are doing and what the production designer and costume designer are planning. They must creatively collaborate with all the production department heads. As Fink describes it: “You have to work with the entire team so that they see and understand something that hasn’t yet been created.”

These days, on large films—and even medium-to-low-budget-ones—various

HIGHLIGH T S FROM USC A NIM AT ION HIS T ORY

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USC’s Boris V. Morkovin lectures on Walt Disney cartoons and has Disney meet with USC students.

Morkovin also gives lectures to Disney Studios animators (which they found overly academic), and writes the classic Disney short The Three Little Pigs.

1993

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND USC was the first major university in the country to teach animation. The course began in 1933, only four years after USC inaugurated the country’s first class on filmmaking. The animation instructor— Boris V. Morkovin, a sociology and comparative literature professor—brought Walt Disney himself to campus to talk to his classes. In turn he gave lectures to animators at Disney’s studio.

Today USC instructors still teach hand-drawn animation, but they also offer students the latest technology, including tools for stop-motion and 3-D digital modeling. Last spring, Hench division professor Eric Hanson—a former special effects artist for big-budget films—created the first studio class to use USC’s own IMAX theater. Undergraduates shot three short films, each designed for a different immersive experience: an IMAX theater, a full-dome theater and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

During his eight years at USC, Hanson has unleashed new digital avenues for students in lighting, compositing and visual effects storytelling. Hanson’s own work epitomizes the limitless possibilities of combining live action with animation.

He travels to remote, inhospitable desti-

The late Gene Coe, professor at the School of Cinematic Arts, and visionary software developer Richard Weinberg design the curriculum for the original MFA in film, video and computer animation, which leads to the school’s current MFA, BA and minor programs in animation and digital arts.

HANSON PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

scenes might be animated first—including those that will be shot entirely in live action, Fink says. The director, director of photography and production designer work closely together to create these “pre-visualizations,” which sometimes are done for every scene in a movie. Even if there isn’t any animation on the screen, “pre-vis” animations may have been a key part of a film’s production.

1942

Les Novros, whose career spanned art direction for the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence of Fantasia to special effects on 2001: A Space Odyssey, begins teaching the “Filmic Expressions” elective course. It has influenced thousands of USC students.

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nations around the globe, such as glaciers in Iceland and the Himalayas, and records the landscape with cameras, laser scanners, camera drones and helicopters. The former competitive hang glider pilot then assembles thousands of images taken at extremely high resolution and creates immersive video environments that surround viewers with panoramic images roughly 1,000 times more detailed than what a conventional digital camera captures. “You see things that would be impossible to see if you were actually there,” Hanson says.

It’s a far cry from hand-painted cels, but it’s still considered animation.

Other new genres of animation include Japanese-inspired anime, documentary animation and the “visual music” created

by Hench professors Mike Patterson and Candace Reckinger. As innovators in this area, the two are known for the elaborate projections they and their students create to accompany live performances by orchestras and other musical groups. It’s a mix of 2-D and 3-D animation, illustrations, live-action photography and stop-motion animation.

“We’re melting the borders between film, animation and music,” Patterson says.

To consider the world that’s opened to animators, look at the career of Raqi Syed ’98, MFA ’01. She has worked on more than a dozen big-budget films, including ones immediately recognizable as animated (The Adventures of Tintin, Tangled) and others considered live action (Avatar, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Iron Man 3 and The Hobbit films). Going by the title of lighting technical director, she’s an expert on bringing characters and environments to life with realistic applications of

1997–98 Professor Christine Panushka curated the first streaming animated video on the Internet. The experimental animation, created for Absolut vodka, is expected to receive 60,000 hits. Instead, it receives millions.

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Building Character It’s hard to imagine a world without the likes of Goofy, Gumby and Genie. Luckily, USC faculty and alumni have dreamed up timeless characters like these that have made our world a more entertaining and happier place.

ART BABBIT T Created Goofy and Geppetto from Pinocchio The late Disney animator was an adjunct instructor at USC. The industry veteran was most proud of his work on Pinocchio, but is best known for creating Goofy, who was originally called Dippy Dawg. Babbitt said of Goofy: “He thought long and carefully before he did anything, and then he did it wrong.”

ART CLOKEY Created Gumby and Pokey While studying at USC in 1953, Clokey made an experimental film, Gumbasia, as an homage to Fantasia. He and his wife later came up with the clay characters Gumby and Pokey, who appeared first on The Howdy Doody Show and then on their own series, which was the first extended use of stop-motion animation on television.

TOM SITO Created Shrek and Roger Rabbit A professor at USC since 1994 and now chair of the Hench division, Sito was storyboard director and drew the original sketches for the title characters of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Shrek. The three-time head of The Animation Guild also worked on The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Pocahontas and Beauty and the Beast.

ERIC GOLDBERG Created Genie from Aladdin A protégé of master animators including Chuck Jones and Art Babbitt, Goldberg joined the USC faculty in 2015. He supervised animation for Genie in Aladdin, a character specifically written with Robin Williams in mind, and also memorably created Louis the Alligator in The Princess and the Frog, Phil in Hercules and Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh.

PETER CHUNG Created Aeon Flux Chung’s leather-clad secret agent character debuted on MTV in 1991 and later snagged her own TV series and a live-action film starring Charlize Theron. Chung, who previously worked on Rugrats and Transformers, has had an award-winning career in films and experimental TV and has been an adjunct professor since 2013.

2011

The large-scale outdoor event Rhythms + Visions: Expanded + Live, which combines live music with projected animation and effects, debuts at USC. Creators and faculty members Mike Patterson and Candace Reckinger, widely known for their earlier animation on A-ha’s seminal “Take On Me” video, go on to stage more large-scale blended media events.

2014

The IMAX Theatre and Immersive Lab opens at the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts, the first teaching facility for developing 3-D, IMAX, full-dome projection and virtual reality content.

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light and shadows. “We think of ourselves as digital cinematographers,” she told animation students during a recent visit to the University Park Campus.

Syed considers any film that is manipulated frame by frame an animated film, and notes that visual special effects are increasingly being used in subtle ways outside obvious summer action blockbusters. “Birdman, for example, had an interesting set of contradictions,” she says.

It was lauded for its seamless long takes that didn’t rely on special effects. But in truth, she says, “a lot of it was digitally stitched together.”

Animators constantly hear complaints that computer-generated imagery ruins films, something Syed attributes to society’s discomfort with technology and feelings of nostalgia for the past. But animation and effects are improving at a dizzying pace, giving film creators greater control than ever, she says. “What visual effects were five years ago aren’t what they are today.”

SPANNING THE UNCANNY VALLEY USC cinema history is studded with early technical wizards such as Ray Harryhausen, whose puppet animation in the 1953 film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms began the monster-movie genre. Harryhausen, a former USC student-turned-lecturer who died in 2013, also created the stopmotion Sinbad fantasies and special effects for influential films such as Jason and the Argonauts in 1963 and the original Clash of the Titans in 1981.

Those crude animations are worlds away from the current photorealism in animation that inches closer to the socalled Uncanny Valley, the phenomenon of human characters looking creepier the closer they get to looking real. The Uncanny Valley may be the biggest stumbling block in the movement to bring animation and live action together.

“We will accept cartoony people, but a nearly photorealistic person can leave us feeling unsettled and pull the audience out of the story,” explains Richard Weinberg, the computer scientist and research tfm.usc.edu

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associate professor who helped design the School of Cinematic Arts’ original MFA program in film, video and computer animation. Current off-the-shelf and real-time computer models aren’t good enough to perfectly re-create human features, so the “nearly human” animations make people uncomfortable. But expect that to change as computer modeling improves, says Weinberg, the Charles S. Swartz Endowed Chair in Entertainment Technology.

The technological bridge over the Uncanny Valley might very well be built at USC. Weinberg credits the work of USC Institute for Creative Technologies’ Paul Debevec for the development of light stage technology to capture live actors. Debevec’s system creates digital doubles that in many cases are indistinguishable from real people, with lighting that blends easily into the movie.

The Uncanny Valley is also being tackled by Hao Li, a USC Viterbi School of Engineering computer scientist lauded as one of the world’s top young innovators for his work on facial recognition and capture.

“I don’t think that anywhere else in the world is there a more intense agenda on creating virtual humans and worlds,” Li says. In collaboration with Oculus Rift, his lab has developed the first headset that can detect a wearer’s facial expression in real time, enabling people to interact with each other in virtual reality. The lab also digitized high-fidelity human hair from a single image, a technological feat. His next push is for technology to help digitize the full human body with clothing.

In the near future we also can look forward to fully immersive 3-D videos and games, rendered in real time and indistinguishable from reality, Li says. And animation itself will become even more automated and accessible. “It is likely that someday, everyone can become a professional animator, just like we can produce professional-looking images through Instagram filters using a simple click.

“Animation is an art form that people create from scratch,” Li says. “The horizons for it are just limitless.”

Sidebar styling still FPO.

Beyond Entertainment Animation’s influence today stretches from health care to law. Here are a few of the ways it’s used to teach and illuminate.

USC began offering a minor in science visualization in 2012.

Animation is widely used to illustrate medical concepts, in legal testimony in courtrooms, for aviation training, in construction, for architectural walk-throughs and more. Current USC student projects include illustration of cochlear implants, marine science and plastic recycling.

Documentary animation took off in the late 1990s. Now there are full-length animated documentaries using varied techniques, and festivals devoted to nonfiction animation.

Sheila Sofian, who teaches the subject, released Truth Has Fallen, a 2013 full-length documentary on wrongful convictions. Says Sofian: “Animation is a very powerful, empathetic tool.”

“Gesture Movement for Animation,” offered through the Hench division, experiments with drawing, animation and motion capture. “We build empathy by mirroring each other’s gestures,” professor Christine Panushka says. Learning how to create and understand more realistic gestures has implications for neuroscience, dance, dramatic arts and computer science, as well as animation and game design.

“Animation as an art form has moved into the center of modern digital culture,” says Tom Sito, chair of the John C. Hench Division of Animation and Digital Arts.

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The Sarcos humanoid robot has helped USC researchers test an artificial spinal cord model.

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THE ROBOT REVOLUTION SOPHISTICATED MACHINES LAUNCH A PROMISING NEW ERA FOR ROBOT-ASSISTED HEALTH CARE.

By Cristy Lytal

PHOTOS BY LUKE FISHER

The robots that inhabited the sci-fi world of the late Isaac Asimov were programmed to avoid hurting humans. Now his 20th-century fiction is turning into 21st-century fact, but there’s a twist.

It’s not enough for many of today’s real-life robots to avert human harm. They’re being created and coded to promote human health.

These robots can be gentle and funny. Sometimes they’re downright cute. Ultimately, they’re helpful. It’s a robot revolution, and USC engineers and innovators play a leading role in it, recruiting automatons to support the well-being of the young and old.

There’s a reason to enlist technology in the effort. In part, as the U.S. population ages and the volume of patients in need of support surpasses the number of human caregivers, robots are at the ready to close the gap. In hospitals and homes, these machines may soon do everything from encouraging stroke victims to exercise their limbs to serving as eyes for people whose sight has been impaired by diseases of aging. They’re also under study as a potential way to help children with autism.

Health-minded robots are just a part of the expanding universe of robotics at USC. Some of the university’s best engineering minds have created or coded robots to quickly build houses on land or dive deep under the sea. But health care is one area where robots shine brightest. Read on to meet a few of the growing fleet of “Tro-bots.” tfm.usc.edu

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NIMBLE NAO SPECIAL TALENT: Workout buddy ISSUE: Obesity and autism MOTIVATION: This adorable, 22-inch-high humanoid from France teaches children to practice helpful habits.

USC researchers have used Nao to coach overweight children to do exercises including bicep curls and squats. And among children with autism, Nao can encourage kids to do something they often struggle with: imitating behavior. In one study, Nao flashed its eyes green, nodded or said “Good job!” when children imitated its arm poses correctly.

Kids who did it incorrectly improved over time with the help of the robot’s instructions and demos. Nao was also recently used as a tutor for preschoolers learning numbers. usc trojan family

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DRAGON DIET COACHES SPECIAL TALENT: A terrific palate ISSUE: Obesity and Type 2 diabetes MOTIVATION: Chili and Cayenne the DragonBots nudge kids to exercise (dancing, anyone?) and choose healthier foods.

First-graders regularly sit down with a DragonBot for a few weeks as the ’bot gears up for its big Dragon Race. During one-on-one sessions with the robot, children pick out different kinds of food to nourish it, and get feedback from the robot about the foods’ nutritional content.

The children learn to pack a healthful lunch, choose good after-school snacks and create balanced meals.

AT-HOME TRAINER SPECIAL TALENT: Coaching ISSUE: Weakness and immobility after a stroke MOTIVATION: Bandit-II turns tedious rehab exercises into an easy-to-follow, fun strengthening program.

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PHOTOS BY LUKE FISHER

The robot instructs patients recovering from stroke to exercise their affected arms or legs and provides feedback and encouragement.

So far, Bandit-II has proven its popularity with patients at the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, California. It eventually may provide an option for convenient and affordable therapy in patients’ homes. It has also been used as a coach to teach social skills to children with autism, music therapy to Alzheimer’s patients and chair aerobics to the elderly.

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CALM FOR KIDS

ROBOT WRANGLER

Maja Matarić Professor and Chan Soon-Shiong Chair in Computer Science, Neuroscience and Pediatrics; Vice Dean for Research at USC Viterbi School of Engineering; Director of the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center; Literally wrote the book on robots: The Robotics Primer

As founder and director of the Interaction Lab at USC, Matarić wants to endow robots with the ability to help people, especially people with special needs such as patients with Alzheimer’s disease. MAKI, Nao, Bandit-II and the DragonBots—all used in unique studies by Matarić—exemplify what are often called socially assistive robots.

Matarić teams with seemingly countless faculty members, graduate students and undergrads, research assistants and technical staff across USC, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center to push the frontiers of robotics. Her projects also include collaborations with engineers at universities including Yale, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

SPECIAL TALENT: Reassurance ISSUE: Fear and anxiety MOTIVATION: MAKI aims to make children feel comfortable and at ease in a hospital, even if they’re about to get a needle stick for an IV line.

This open-source robot can be fabricated using an at-home 3-D printer and off-the-shelf hobby electronics. Measuring a little taller than 12 inches, MAKI is as portable as it is adorable, making it the perfect pacifier for nervous young patients at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. But what makes MAKI unique is its ability to help children cope with fear and anxiety by expressing calm emotions and coping strategies that the child can imitate.

MAKI PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

HUMANOID ON PATROL

“I cannot think of a single paper dealing with group robotics which does not refer to Dr. Matarić’s work.”

SPECIAL TALENT: Falling down and getting up again ISSUE: Hazardous conditions MOTIVATION: In a catastrophe like a nuclear accident, Athena could travel through rough, dangerous areas without exposing humans to harm.

A laser scanner in the six-foot-tall robot’s head provides longrange vision, while a 3-D camera interprets changes in terrain and nearby objects. The robot walks on two feet, just like a human.

Once Athena can walk around autonomously, researchers hope to program it to perform manipulation tasks.

G EO RG E BE K E Y Founder of USC’s robotics program, in MIT Technology Review

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MIND READERS SPECIAL TALENT: Extra-sensory perception ISSUE: Paralysis or amputation of the hand MOTIVATION: Engineers want to enable amputees to control their prosthetic hands with their minds.

At USC, engineers are building “closed-loop brain-machine interfaces,” or BMIs, that record the electrical activity of neurons in the brain. The BMIs translate neurons’ activity into commands.

This can enable a patient to direct the movements of a prosthetic hand just by thinking about it.

HELPING HANDS

“Coming up with the applications, the algorithms...it’s the opportunity to do things that have never been done before.”

GE RALD LO E B

SPECIAL TALENT: Handling objects with care ISSUE: Paralysis or amputation of the hand MOTIVATION: A robotic hand that can feel objects and handle fragile items gently could change lives.

USC researchers are developing mechanical hands that “feel” using sophisticated sensors, which consist of a soft, flexible, skin-like material with fingerprints. These sensors can detect temperatures, the direction of forces, the hardness of materials and vibrations produced by rubbing a textured surface. This feedback can signal robotic hands to employ a gentle touch when handling delicate objects such as drinking glasses or eggs.

ROBOT WRANGLER

Gerald Loeb

Loeb was chief scientist for Advanced Bionics during part of the 1990s before moving to USC. His big focus: connecting the nervous system with electronic devices to help people with neurologic problems, such as paralyzed limbs or a heart with faulty rhythm.

Today, he’s CEO of a startup called SynTouch LLC, which is developing a tactile sensor called BioTac for robotic and prosthetic hands based on work from his lab at USC. Among other projects, researchers in his USC lab are developing computer models of the spinal cord’s circuitry, which is key to how the body learns and controls voluntary movements—like grabbing a coffee cup or clicking a mouse.

ROBOT PHOTO BY LUKE FISHER

Professor of Biomedical Engineering at USC Viterbi; Director of USC’s Medical Device Development Facility; One of the original developers of the cochlear implant to restore hearing to the deaf

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SHAPE SHIFTER SPECIAL TALENT: Feats of flexibility ISSUE: Hazardous conditions MOTIVATION: Whether in a hurricane or earthquake, SuperBot aims to come to the rescue of humans.

SuperBot is composed of block-like modules—each of which has its own intelligence —and can reconfigure itself into many useful shapes. It could be shipped to the scene of a crisis, then rearrange its modules into shapes best suited for climbing mountainous terrain, carrying heavy loads, reaching long robotic arms into tight spaces and more.

ROBOT WRANGLER

Wei-Min Shen

SUPERBOT PHOTO BY LUKE FISHER; DA VINCI PHOTO COURTESY OF INTUITIVE SURGICAL INC.

Research Associate Professor of Computer Science at USC Viterbi; Director of USC’s Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory; Associate Director of the USC Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems

You might say Shen wants to give robots a mind of their own. His interests lie in artificial intelligence, autonomous robots and robots that can change their shape. He may have the rational mind of an engineer, but he also relishes the delight of robots: He wrote a book on how machines learn from their environment based on surprises.

His work on the SuperBot—a robot that can configure itself—earned the attention of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In 2014 the agency awarded him and his group at the USC Information Sciences Institute a $1 million grant to adapt the robot for use in the inhospitable expanses of space.

Asked how he came up with the SuperBot name, Shen told PC Magazine: “I just thought, This is a great robot, it needs a super name! and then I thought, SuperBot! and that became the name. I love the creativity. Everything we do here—none of it has ever existed before.” tfm.usc.edu

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ROBOT DOCTOR SPECIAL TALENT: Operating in tight spaces ISSUE: Cancerous tumors, clogged arteries and similar health problems requiring surgery MOTIVATION: Surgeons use these robots to operate more precisely and gently than they could with their hands alone.

Keck Medicine of USC doctors use the da Vinci Xi Surgical System robot to remove tumors from the abdomen and chest through tiny incisions in the skin. They also use the MAKOplasty surgeon-controlled robotic arm for precise alignment during knee resurfacing and hip replacement surgeries and the Sonatherm robotic high-intensity focused ultrasound surgical ablation system to destroy small tumors in the kidneys. Vascular specialists use the Magellan Robotic System to navigate through blood vessels and open up blocked or narrowed arteries. For patients, robotics means less scarring, pain and bleeding and faster recovery. Rest assured: The robots are fully controlled by the surgeons and can’t operate on their own. usc trojan family

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A Weighty Issue Some try to regulate it and some try to legislate it, but obesity remains a major health challenge to the nation. Here’s how USC is approaching it.

By Mike Branom • Photos by Meiko Takechi Arquillos

At the USC Fit Families program, there’s glaring proof of America’s obesity epidemic: broken scales.

“My new scale goes up to 1,000 pounds,” says program director Cheryl Resnik, associate chair of the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy. “We’ve broken two that had a 500-pound weight limit.”

Kids, teens and parents keep tabs on their weight at Fit Families’ free wellness clinic in east Los Angeles, where USC physical therapists and graduate students counsel Angelenos at high risk of Type 2 diabetes and other weight-related problems. Community-level programs like Fit Families are one way health professionals try to tackle obesity where it starts: through habits picked up at home.

They’re also where health advocates see firsthand just how difficult obesity is to beat. tfm.usc.edu

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More than one in three adults and one in six children in the U.S. are obese, posing a long-term and serious health crisis. Medical problems prompted by excess weight account for as much as $210 billion in health care costs a year, with Californians responsible for perhaps a quarter of that, says Michael Goran, professor of preventive medicine and pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, pointing to a study from the Trust for America’s Health.

In Los Angeles, one in three children in low-income neighborhoods is now obese, Goran adds.

But that number tells only the financial price of weight gain, not the human toll. Obesity-related health problems like heart disease and stroke, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers are among the leading causes of preventable death.

Where dollars and lives are at stake, public policy follows. As economists publish white papers with titles like “The Health Risks of Obesity: Worse Than Smoking, Drinking or Poverty,” local governments attack obesity and try to change behavior through regulation and legislation. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg famously tried to battle his city’s bulge by prohibiting the sale of large sugary drinks— a ban struck down in court in 2013. Last May, a legislative panel in California nixed

Darius Lakdawalla, Cheryl Resnik and Michael Goran are among the USC faculty members looking for answers to the nation’s obesity puzzle.

Heavy Air Pollution might be a risk factor for obesity. USC recently launched the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors Center, called the MADRES Center for short, to investigate how obesity and overexposure to chemicals are related in low-income, urban minority neighborhoods.

As an example, Carrie Breton, MADRES Center co-director and assistant professor in the environmental health division at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and her colleagues point to Boyle Heights, an east Los Angeles neighborhood with significant poverty and a disproportionately high obesity rate: Half of the local teens are overweight. Four of LA’s major freeways hem in the area.

Through the center, 750 pairs of mothers and infants in Los Angeles will help scientists look for possible links between air pollution and excessive weight. Scientists will track how much weight children gain in their first year of life, and how environmental factors relate to that.

They’ll also look at women’s exposure to air pollution before and after they give birth, track women’s psychological stress and examine behavior that influences the weight women gain during pregnancy—and how much of that weight they shed after childbirth.

Funding for the center comes from the National Institutes of Health, including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

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the latest in a series of attempts to tax sweetened soda and fruit drinks. Policy changes have also hit schools and restaurants. More than two in five of the nation’s school districts pulled junk food from their vending machines in the last few years, according to a government survey, and the federal government now mandates that chain restaurants publish calorie counts on their menus.

But research shows that these steps have limited success, says Darius Lakdawalla, the Quintiles Chair in Pharmaceutical Development and Regulatory Innovation at the USC School of Pharmacy.

People often ignore the warnings of a burger’s 33 grams of fat or seek substitutes for banned products. “If you’re unable to buy a Big Gulp of soda, you can still go to the café next door and buy a massive Frappuccino,” he says.

So Americans’ girth still grows.

The problem is simple to solve on paper, says Goran, co-director of the USC Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute. Eat less (consume fewer calories) and move around more (burn more calories). “But the fact of the matter is that simple solution doesn’t translate to practice very well,” he says.

No, it doesn’t. It’s a conundrum that crosses scientific and societal bounds. As scientists learn more about obesity’s causes and consequences—why it can be so dangerous and how it affects people differently—they realize it’s so complex that there may never be what Goran calls a one-size-fits-all solution.

“It’s going to be very personalized types of intervention to address individual metabolism, individual behaviors, individual environments, individual contexts,” Goran says. “This will require broader changes in the food environment that would shift the balance from easier access to cheap, low-quality food toward better access to healthier food choices.”

USC researchers and their colleagues across the nation are committed to the fight, even if it has to happen one person at a time.

SHAPED BY THE ENVIRONMENT The choices many Americans make every day can quietly sabotage their health. Take fountain drinks, for instance. Sugary beverages are the biggest calorie contributor to the American diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. Drink more soda, gain more fat—so says the research. On the other side of the equation, fewer than one in 10 Americans get the amount of vegetables and fruit they need for good nutrition.

People are increasingly eating on the go, too. Americans consume a third of their calories outside the home—and more than 11 percent of their calories come from fast food, the CDC reports.

It’s a matter of convenience for families—but what parents might not know is that fast-food meals are dense with calories, and excess calories add up over time and translate to weight gain.

Environment plays a part in these choices. People who live near supermarkets tend to eat more healthfully, according to research, but minority and low-income neighborhoods have fewer of these markets—especially compared to convenience stories and burger joints—and they may be tough to reach without a car. It’s easy to see why researchers call these areas food deserts.

Some policymakers have tried to limit fast-food restaurants and encourage new grocery stores in these food deserts. LaVonna winter 2015

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Blair Lewis, a teaching professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy who studies the phenomenon, was a vocal supporter of a moratorium on new standalone fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles passed seven years ago.

But do these moratoriums work? The prohibition remains hotly debated, partly because obesity is still rampant in the area. Lewis pleads for patience, noting that it takes time to change a neighborhood’s eating habits. The ban is a victory because it preserves space for healthier food options, she says. “The land available for new development in South Los Angeles is limited, so let’s protect it.”

Lewis also backed a successful effort to require local farmers markets to accept EBT cards, which is how California distributes food-stamp benefits. Hosting farmers markets is a win for low-income areas, says her colleague David Sloane, a USC Price professor specializing in urban planning and community health. These markets—and community gardens that build awareness about fresh fruit and vegetables—have gradually crept into inner cities, representing signs of progress.

“The conversation about how we get people good, healthy food has completely changed,” Sloane says.

Then there’s the issue of culture. Immigrants in low-income areas often struggle with weight, the researchers say. Some newcomers are unfamiliar with the array of processed foods that are readily available—and their detrimental health effects. Sometimes their children guzzle sodas and devour burgers in an effort to become more American.

“The research tells us that the longer people stay in this country, the more unhealthy they become,” Lewis says.

Schools may be a key to changing behavior, because education about nutrition and exercise can help kids adopt good habits early, Lewis says. School-provided lunches that are healthful and tasty can help too, especially if children are involved in testing recipes and growing ingredients.

But schools can also sabotage diet, she says: It’s not unheard of for cash-strapped districts to accept vendors’ incentives to keep sugar-sweetened beverages and other unhealthy options on campus—while at the same time cutting physical education classes and extracurricular sports programs to meet tight budgets.

Lewis is among those calling for an examination of procurement policies in public facilities. “Soda companies have a lot more discretionary income than a local farm trying to get vegetables into a school or other public facility,” she says.

Numbers to Shoot For Physicians use a measure called body mass index, or BMI, as a screening tool. Plugging your height and weight into a BMI calculator can assure you that you’re at a healthy weight—or hint that it’s time to adjust your diet and exercise more. Here is how the numbers play out, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: U ND E RW E I G H T

BMI < 18.5 H E A LT H Y

BMI = 18.5 to 24.9 OVE RW E I G H T

BMI = 25.0 to 29.9 O BE S E

BMI = 30.0+ It’s not a perfect science, but a high or low BMI may suggest a visit to the doctor is in order.

Find a BMI calculator and other related resources online at cdc.gov/healthyweight.

FROM TOP: Carrie Breton, LaVonna Blair Lewis, Katie Page, David Sloane and Sarah-Jeanne Salvy

THE SOCIAL NETWORK Sometimes you not only are what you eat—you are what your friends eat. Research shows that obese people who feel marginalized socialize with other obese people, and that could reinforce unhealthy habits.

At the same time, the social sphere echoes with so-called “fat shaming.” The public’s unforgiving language about obesity is similar to past patterns of denigrating people who fall ill after years of smoking or those with HIV/AIDS, Sloane says.

The talk comes across as “bad people making bad choices,” he adds. In an image-conscious culture, people may believe that the obese deserve what’s coming to them—and this stigma can be tfm.usc.edu

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The Science Behind Fat and Food When Michael Goran started studying obesity 30 years ago, scientists thought body fat was inert and simply served as a way to store potential energy for the body.

Since then, science has shown that our body fat isn’t just a blob. It’s alive.

Body fat operates like a major organ: It releases hormones and other substances, has a blood supply and nerves and communicates with the brain—just as we think of, say, the pancreas. Goran calls this concept of fat a “breakthrough” in a field with no hope of a miracle pill.

Scientists are rapidly identifying the substances that body fat releases and why they matter. For example, they’ve found that fat pumps out chemicals called cytokines that stoke the immune system and promote inflammation, raising blood pressure and causing other health problems. It also releases a hormone called leptin that can quell appetite and another called adiponectin that helps control blood sugar. And that’s just for starters.

There’s another factor: USC researchers have shown that fat tucked between abdominal organs like the stomach and liver is more dangerous than fat deposited just under the skin. Deep belly fat emits more of the hormones, fatty acids and other substances that cause harm. But why—and why fat ends up in one place rather than the other—remains a mystery.

At the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, scientists are focusing not just on the gut, but also on another key spot—the brain.

Alan Watts, USC professor of biological sciences, physiology and biophysics, seeks answers in the hypothalamus, a master controller in the brain for how and why we eat and drink. And his colleague Scott Kanoski, an assistant professor of biological sciences, is researching the neurobiology behind compulsive overeating. Once scientists drill into the science of bingeing, they can come up with solutions.

One promising target lies in sugar, and how it affects the brain. In studies of rats, Kanoski and Goran found that animals that consumed high fructose corn syrup—the cheap sweetener in soda—had more trouble with spatial learning and memory (how effectively they navigated a maze) than those that consumed sucrose, or ordinary table sugar. Both groups performed worse than rats that just drank water.

And seeing differences in how the sugars fructose and glucose are metabolized is what Keck School of Medicine endocrinologist Katie Page ’94, MD ’02 calls “one of the most exciting and provocative findings” coming out of her recent work.

Although the two sugars offer the same calories, glucose has some beneficial effects, like working with hormones in the gut to make people feel satisfied so they stop eating. Fructose, though, fails to stifle hunger.

“We’ve only looked at fructose and glucose by themselves,” Page says. The next step is seeing what happens in the brain when fructose and glucose are consumed together—as they’re found in table sugar or soda.

See Katie Page’s tips on sugar at bit.ly/KatiePage and follow her on Twitter at @drkatiepage.

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tough for the overweight to overcome.

But relationships and the voices of others can also help, rather than hurt. Group programs like Weight Watchers offer affirming support to the obese through caring relationships. Relationships are partly why USC’s Fit Families shows promise: Families gel at the clinic by learning about nutrition and exercising together.

“We’ve got one mother-daughter combo that’s actually begun to run races,” says Resnik, the program’s director.

Miles to the north, in the Antelope Valley, other USC researchers are using the power of social support in the home. The Childhood Obesity Prevention at Home program partners with registered nurses who serve at-risk, low-income families. The nurses visit one on one with mothers in the first few years of a child’s life to deliver obesity prevention and health promotion education as part of the services they provide to families.

Program director Sarah-Jeanne Salvy, research associate professor at the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, says the postpartum period is often pivotal for mothers to implement healthy changes. What frequently drives them to change their lifestyle is the thought of their children struggling similarly with weight as they grow older.

Although the researchers are only a few months into this study, preliminary findings show that the program can impact infants and mothers even after a short implementation, Salvy says. Women are receptive to change “not just for themselves, but also because they’re establishing the health trajectory of their kids for life.”

HEALTH OR HAPPINESS? Call it the french fry effect. Some people just crave foods that they know are stuffed with empty calories or are even harmful. These foods might offer their own emotional, visceral rewards.

“You might choose, reasonably, to weigh more than a doctor says is ideal because you enjoy drinking beer and eating steak,” Lakdawalla says. “From an economics standpoint, those are all contributing to your happiness. It would be paternalistic to say, ‘People should care about maximizing their longevity at all costs,’ even if it means giving up the things they love.”

And that gets to a sticky problem: Where is the line separating obesity as a scientifically predetermined fate versus the result of harmful living? Perhaps some people are preprogrammed to eat unhealthful foods or to build up more fat from these foods.

As Katie Page ’94, MD ’02, an assistant professor in the Keck School of Medicine’s Division of Endocrinology, puts it: “Some people may consume the same amount of calories and exercise as much as the person next to them, but they just may be more prone to keep that energy stored in their body.”

Scientists are trying to figure that out in the lab, and it will take time. But in practice, public health researchers are seeing reason for a little optimism in the national data. While nearly 79 million American adults are considered obese, the obesity rate appears to be plateauing. Perhaps it’s the beginning of a payoff from studies and interventions that cross boundaries.

“It’s a really slow process,” Page says. “It’s not just genetics; it’s not just environment— it’s both. Sorting through all that takes time, and it takes good questions and rigorous research.” winter 2015

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THE KECK EFFECT: MORE CELEBRATIONS

Keck Medicine of USC attracts the world’s top researchers and physicians. Together, we’re preventing, diagnosing and treating diseases with greater precision — an approach we call The Keck Effect. That means doing everything possible to help our patients do more of the things they love.

With locations throughout Southern California, exceptional care is close to you. See how we’re redefining medicine.

KeckMedicine.org (800) USC-CARE

© 2015 Keck Medicine of USC

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USC Alumni Day of SCervice Daylong and Worldwide.

Saturday, March 12, 2016 Roll up your sleeves and join thousands of fellow Trojans participating in community service projects around the world.

Sign up for a project in your area: alumni.usc.edu/scervice

ALUMNI.USC.EDU | ALUMNI@USC.EDU | TEL: 213 740 2300

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FA M I LY

PHOTO BY HEATHER DINGESS

READY AND ABLE Since 2005, USC occupational therapy students and alumni have traveled regularly to the Mephibosheth Training Center in Ghana, where therapists like Erin O’Donnell MA ’13, OTD ’14, right, teach vocational skills to children with disabilities.

The skills allow children to find a place in communities that might otherwise ostracize them.

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Trojans, Twice Over Alumni feel the USC love all over again when they become Trojan parents. by diane krieger After his daughter was admitted to his alma mater, Mike Lederer ’89 went to his computer and Googled the question, “How do I get involved at USC?” “That’s how out of touch I was,” he says with a laugh. “I had no contacts.”

That was five years ago. Today, Lederer is connected in a big way to a community of Trojans. The USC Marshall School of Business alum serves on the boards of the Trojan Athletics Fund, the USC Price School of Public Policy and USC Associates. He counts Jack Knott, dean of USC Price, as a “dear friend” and frequent dinner guest. At his first USC Associates board meeting, Lederer hit it off so well with fellow inductee John Jenkins ’89 that they’ve become partners in various businesses. At USC Price, the two friends also spearhead the LEAP Program, which sends undergraduates on fully funded weeklong “labs” to tackle real-world policy challenges in places like Washington, D.C., and Singapore.

Caring for his children was Lederer’s chief concern when they were young, so he had understandably drifted away from USC.

“My priority,” says the Westlake Village, California-based real estate investor, “wasn’t getting down to USC football games but getting to my 6-year-old’s soccer game.”

Now, Lederer has his kids to thank for his finding his way back to the Trojan Family. In addition to Amanda Levy ’14, who graduated from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences as a psychology major, Lederer’s son Ryan is a freshman at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Levy is now working on her master’s in the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, and his other daughter, Eden, a high school senior, is eyeing USC to study theater next year.

Of course, proximity to Los Angeles isn’t a necessary ingredient for parental alumni involvement. Jacqueline Legorreta Erdman ’79, MBA ’83 is based in San Francisco and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

She had drifted away from the Trojan Family, but reconnected with USC as her daughter Mackenzie Erdman was starting college. These days she attends lots of Bay Area events hosted by USC Mar-

shall; she especially enjoys those geared toward young entrepreneurs. Last spring she joined USC Associates, and has recently taken an interest in the new USC Kaufman School of Dance.

“It has really been a lot of fun to spend time in LA again,” Erdman says, “and to see the amazing transformations on campus.

I’m so proud my daughter is there.”

Sandra Weber Lyon ’88 reconnected with USC as her older son, Jack Lyon, was finishing high school in Denver. Receptions for incoming students sparked her school spirit. For the past two years, Lyon has hosted the USC Alumni Club of Colorado’s SCend Offs, led its USC Day of SCervice projects, and planned its football game viewing parties and Trojan First Thursday events. In September, the family relocated to Seattle and she wasted no time contacting the local USC alumni club to get involved.

Jack is now a senior, and Sandra Lyon’s younger son, Henry Lyon, is a freshman, both at USC Marshall. “It’s really fun to have both boys there together,” she says.

“USC is just the right place. The professors take such good care of them. I feel like it’s family.” Her husband, Tony Lyon, is on board, even though he’s a Bruin. “He walks the campus wearing a USC Dad T-shirt,” she says with a laugh.

Best of all, Lyon has a new sense of connection with her sons: Both got freshman housing in her old residence hall. “We are sharing meals, 30 years apart, in the same cafeteria,” she says. “That’s fun.”

LYONS PHOTO BY DAVID SPRAGUE; LEDERERS PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LEDERER FAMILY; ERDMANS PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

family news

From left: The Lyons, Lederers and Erdmans

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To learn more about USC BAA’s 40th Anniversary and Scholarship Benefit Dinner in March 2016, go to sait.usc.edu/baa or call (213) 740-8342.

The BAA’s annual pinning and affirmation ceremony welcomes new Trojans with symbolic pins naming the attributes of a USC scholar.

A Circle of Support

PINNING PHOTO BY MICHAEL OWEN BAKER

To c e l e b r at e t h e 40th anniversary of the USC Black Alumni Association (BAA), two Trojans from different generations share their journeys after graduating from USC—and the paths that brought them back to Troy and the BAA. THE POWER OF A HELPING HAND Growing up in one of Los Angeles’ toughest housing projects, Leonard Fuller ’68 dreamed of attending college. Instead of going home after school, he’d sneak into Doheny Memorial Library on the University Park Campus and study for hours.

Little did librarians know that he’d one day graduate from USC and turn into an alumni leader. Fuller was elected to the Board of Governors of the USC General Alumni Association (the former name of the USC Alumni Association) in 1992 and later became the organization’s president.

He served as a USC trustee for five years.

Fuller’s life changed when his high school principal introduced him to Mark Friedman, a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist. Friedman was so impressed

by Fuller, a top scholar and student body president of his high school, that he offered to pay Fuller’s full tuition at USC. Fuller thrived at USC but felt lonely at times. “There were so few blacks it was difficult to get to know others,” he remembers. “As enjoyable and intellectually stimulating as it was, I felt that it could have been enhanced by an organized association of African-American students.” tfm.usc.edu

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He went on to Harvard Business gaps. After graduating from the USC School and a successful business career, Annenberg School for Communication returning to LA in 1990 to start his own and Journalism, Wilson launched Good consulting firm. “I had been away from News Magazine to support multicultural Los Angeles for 15 years and I relations in LA and hosted and really missed my association with produced the TV program On the university,” Fuller adds. He was the Continent, which aired in Afdelighted to discover the BAA. rica. She later made history as the “It helps people stay connected first American woman to own and and it lets you form a common operate an international public rebond with people who share the lations and marketing firm in the same background,” he says. He newly democratic South Africa. has mentored students and fellow Wilson is also a U.S. consultant alumni, imparting wisdom earned for a Chinese program that awards Leonard Fuller through 50 years of work and scholarships to students at histori’68 (top) and community experiences. cally black colleges and universities Julia Wilson ’91 believe in sharHe’s also established the to study in China. ing knowledge LaVerne Fuller Endowed Schol“When I was a student at with others. arship in honor of his mother to USC, I remember participating in help young scholars achieve the activities that encouraged crossdream he once thought impossible: to at- cultural relationships and interactions,” tend college.

Wilson says. She led a pluralism organization on campus to promote diversity and BRIDGING DIVIDES received the Order of Troy award as an Julia Wilson ’91, CEO and founder of outstanding senior.

Wilson Global Communications, is a An adjunct professor at USC Annenstrong advocate of the USC BAA. berg, she stays involved with BAA events, “Sometimes students can feel isolated including presenting talks about entrepreat large institutions where they are the neurship and globalization. Wilson, who minority,” Wilson says. “The BAA pro- will receive the BAA’s 2016 Outstanding vides black students with a place to express Alumnus award in March, says that meeting themselves and their ideas freely, and feel other members and sharing knowledge is all included without hesitation.” part of the invaluable support BAA provides Wilson knows from experience— to USC’s African-American community. she’s spent much of her professional career exploring and bridging racial and cultural K A M A L A K I R K usc trojan family

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family news

Transatlantic Trojans Alumni outposts in Europe bring the Trojan Family together.

There’s nothing more French than the lights of the Eiffel Tower, shopping on the Champs-Élysées and celebrating Thanksgiving at Le Grand Carnot.

Wait, what?

“I have a butcher who gets these incredible free-range turkeys from Italy,” says Leslie Nelson Cressy ’82, a 30-year resident of France. “And I buy sweet potatoes and fresh cranberries at the local French market.”

Cressy is president of the USC Alumni Club of Paris. Her annual Thanksgiving feast, now in its eighth year, is the club’s signature event, ringing in the holidays for scores of Trojans based in the City of Lights and outposts across Europe. (The event may have been especially important this year as Paris recovers from recent tragedy.)

Widely known for its presence in the Pacific Rim, USC also has a significant European alumni base. The Trojan spirit is particularly strong in London, Paris and Munich, where active alumni clubs engage with a few hundred alumni and friends of USC every year.

Walter Ladwig ’98, a lecturer in international relations at King’s College London, leads the USC Alumni Club of London, the largest club in Europe. In Munich, tech entrepreneur John Beckner ’82 oversees the USC Alumni Club of Germany, which also attracts alumni from Austria and Switzerland.

Each club has its own vibe. The Paris club, for example, specializes in cultural events—such as private tours of the Monet exhibit at the Grand Palais or the Louis Vuitton Foundation museum (designed

by Frank Gehry ’54).

The London club concentrates on

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meet-ups with USC headliners visiting the metropolis. Its Twitter tagline: “Keep Calm and Fight On!” The club had a banner year in 2012, when the London Olympics and the USC Global Conversation brought waves of world-class Trojan athletes, trustees, star faculty and the Trojan Marching Band to town.

Members of the USC Alumni Club of Germany are based in 30 cities across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Beckner says, giving the group a decentralized feel.

The club’s signature event, Oktoberfest, draws Trojans from far and near. Lately the Munich-based businessman has taken his club on the road. In June, he organized a cocktail and dinner party with 20 alumni in Warsaw, Poland. Next up: Vienna, Zurich and Berlin.

European alumni clubs typically host an event each month—say, a traditional Bavarian wine tasting, Christmas market,

or picnic in Hyde Park on the BBC Proms “Last Night,” the closing event of summer season concerts. There are yearly events, such as summer SCend Offs for incoming freshmen from Europe, community projects on the Alumni Day of SCervice, and college fairs. “We were located near Harvard and Stanford,” says Cressy, of her club’s table in a Paris hotel last September.

“We were proud to be amongst the busiest.

It was wonderful.”

Of course, the clubs host events around Trojan football, though logistics can be tricky when games kick off at 2 a.m. local time. “This season, most of our screenings are tape delayed for Sunday morning brunch viewings,” Walter Ladwig says. “Fortunately, we have a good relationship with a sports bar in Marylebone that hosts us.”

All three clubs make a point of embracing the hundreds of USC undergraduates who study in Europe each year.

“We open our arms to them,” says Cressy, who along with her husband, Gérard, has hosted five exchange students so far in their Neuilly-sur-Seine flat.

Not a week goes by that these busy club presidents aren’t fielding requests from Europe-bound Trojans seeking an introduction, travel tips or a lead on finding a place to live or work.

It seems the farther Trojans live from USC, the more they yearn for a connection to the Trojan Family. “I always feel a kinship when we meet other alumni from around the world,” says Jen Ladwig ’99, past president of the London club and a senior consultant with Q5. “We’re like magnets drawn to each other.” (She’s married to current club president Walter Ladwig—they met as college tour guides at USC.)

MUNICH GRAFITTI WALL PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN BECKNER

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To access the Trojan Family Archive, go to alumnigroups.usc.edu/archive.

Living in France for the past 30 years has only strengthened Cressy’s Trojan pride. “Those four years at ’SC were some of the best years of my life,” says the former two-time national champion volleyball player who now runs her own entertainment business. “You want to stay connected to people who can make the same claim.”

The European club presidents have infused their Trojan passion in their bicultural offspring. Beckner’s two children, Alysa and Connor, are both at USC now.

Cressy’s oldest son, Jonathan Cressy ’11, MS ’12, graduated from USC Viterbi with a minor from USC Marshall. And the Ladwigs’ 3-year-old son, Walter IV, frequently romps around London in his USC “Class of 2034” shirt.

Jen Ladwig, who served on the USCAA Board of Governors from 20132014, sums up the expats’ feelings this way: “I think it’s because the university isn’t at our back door that we don’t take it for granted.” o learn more about the Europe-based USC T To learn more about Europe-based alumni clubs, go to facebook.com/groups/USCParis, facebook.com/USCAlumniGermanyAustriaSwitzerland and facebook.com/groups/USCLondonAlumni or twitter.com/USCLondon.

“Those four years at ’SC were some of the best years of my life. You want to stay connected to people who can make the same claim.”

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A Digital Memory Lane Ever wonder what happened to Joe, the anthro major with green spiky hair in your freshman residence hall? Or are you just looking to relive some of your favorite USC moments as a student? You now have a new tool that will help you travel back in time.

Thanks to a partnership between USC Libraries and the USC Alumni Association, alumni and friends of USC can now search for their former classmates, friends and organizations in the comprehensive Trojan Family Archive, a project housed in the USC Digital Library.

The Trojan Family Archive, which initially launched in 2013 with a vast collection of the Daily Trojan student newspaper (1912–present), the El Rodeo student yearbook (1898–present) and issues of USC Trojan Family Magazine from the last two decades, has expanded this fall to include the University Commencement program (1911–present) and every back issue of USC Trojan Family Magazine and its predecessors (such as Alumni Review) since 1917. The archive includes high-resolution copies of every photo, article, name listing, letter to the editor, obituary and birth notice in a searchable database.

“You can look at these publications page by page,” says Claude Zachary, university archivist. “If you want to save a page, you can download it as a low-resolution JPEG. Or download the entire volume or issue as a PDF.” Funding for the project came primarily from the USC Alumni Association and a donor pool led by history enthusiast Jim Maddux ’56, Half Century Trojans president for 2015–16.

“The Trojan Family Archive presents an exciting opportunity for all alumni and friends of the university to relive great memories, reconnect with their USC heritage and share their own USC story with family, friends and future generations of Trojans,” says Patrick Auerbach EdD ’08, USC’s associate senior vice president for alumni relations. “This archive will make vast digital resources available via the USC Digital Library and enrich the experience for alumni engaging with their alma mater.”

Leaf through USC history digitally with the Trojan Family Archive.

DIANE KRIEGER

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Make a gift.

Make a difference.

Support the USC Lambda LGBT Alumni Association scholarship program.

The USC Lambda LGBT Alumni Association has awarded more than $400,000 in scholarships to LGBT and ally students since 1992.

By connecting LGBT and ally Trojans to one another and the university, USC Lambda has helped make USC one of the most LGBT-friendly colleges and universities in the nation.

WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;RE ALL FAMILY HERE. | LAMBDA.USC.EDU

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Class notes appear online. Read news about each graduate at tfm.usc.edu/classnotes and send your news for consideration to classnotes@usc.edu.

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Jacob Dekema ’37 (ENG) of La Jolla, California, celebrated his 100th birthday in July with family and friends. A longtime highway engineer, he was recognized as a transportation pioneer by the California Department of Transportation at his birthday celebration.

Rocky Barilla ’70 (LAS) published the book A Taste of Honey, which won second place in the fantasy category for fiction at the International Latino Book Awards.

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Charles Lloyd ’60 (MUS), a saxophonist, flutist, composer and arranger, was recently named a 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.

Iftikhar Ahmad MPA ’63 (SPP) recently published Post 9/11 Pakistan, which covers conflict resolution, public policy, politics and Pakistan-U.S.-Afghanistan relations.

Christopher Kittides ’63, MS ’65 (ENG) retired as chairman and CEO from BEI Associates Inc., a Detroit-based architectural firm. He served as chairman of the Michigan Society of Professional Engineers and the Detroit City Planning Commission.

Edward K. Jeffer MD ’66 (MED) published The Man Who Killed Happy Hour. His first book, The Malthus Confederation, received a belated positive review from Eric Foner, a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Bruce Broughton ’67 (MUS) received an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding original main title theme music for Texas Rising on the television channel History.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN GOLDBECK

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George Frederickson, PhD ’67 (SPP) was recently honored at the University of Kansas with the Gloria Hobson Nordin Award for his work in the study of social equity.

James Kirk MS ’69 (ENG) served in the United States Air Force as a radar bomb navigation technician in the 85th Bomb Squadron/47th Bomb Wing in England during World War II. Since then, he has been in private patent law practice.

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Jerald B. Gartman MS ’71 (ENG) founded Gartman and Associates, an international consulting firm specializing in statistical quality control and strategic planning. A retired Marine colonel, he was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Silver Star Medal, 21 Air Medals, two Meritorious Service Medals, the Purple Heart, the Navy Commendation Medal and two Navy Achievement Medals.

Patrick Fuscoe ’72 (ENG) of Fuscoe Engineering Inc. received life membership status in the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Eduardo Samaniego ’72 (ENG) celebrated 25 years since being ordained as a Jesuit priest. He has been focused on parish work since his ordination and is also a published author whose books include If You Preach It, They Will Come.

Linda Silverman PhD ’73 (LAS) wrote Giftedness 101, a book about the science and psychology behind gifted children. She directs the Gifted Development Center in Westminster, Colorado, which has tested more than 6,000 children worldwide.

Arthur (Larry) Andrews MS ’74 (ENG) is a former rocket scientist, aerospace program manager and adjunct professor at USC. He published A Space Oddity, a science fiction romance.

David Esquith ’74, MSW ’75 (SSW) retired from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after more than 35 years as the manager of medical social work.

Herman Statum MS ’74 (EDU) received the American Society for Industrial Security’s lifetime achievement award. The Middle Tennessee ASIS Chapter named its community service award the Herman Statum Service Excellence Award, which will be presented annually to a chapter member or public safety official.

Karen McCaffrey ’76 (SPP), vice president of McCaffrey Homes, a leading homebuilder based in Fresno, California, has been appointed to serve a three-year term on the board of trustees of the California Homebuilding Foundation.

Marcia B. Smith MS ’77 (BPT), a professor of physical therapy at Regis University, received the American Physical Therapy Association’s Catherine Worthingham Fellow Award during the association’s NEXT Conference & Exposition in June.

Joseph T. Morris III ’79 (LAS) retired from the U.S. Army Medical Corps in June after 31 years of active duty. Since 2010, he was chief of medicine and infectious disease service at Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington. He is now chief of specialty care service at Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia.

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Ronald Burgess MS ’80 (EDU) was inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

He serves as Auburn University’s senior counsel for national security programs, cyber programs and military affairs.

Brian L. Goldbeck MS ’85 (ENG) concluded his 32year career with the U.S. Department of State Senior Foreign Service, having served in South Korea, Yemen, China, Ethiopia, Mongolia and the Philippines.

Since 2012, he was deputy chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in Manila. Prior to joining the department, he taught at an international school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve. He will retire in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife.

David M. Ring ’87 (BUS), JD ’90 (LAW) was named to the Daily Journal’s 2015 “Top 25 Plaintiff Lawyers” list.

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A Well-Read Woman

It’s no surprise that Elizabeth Khuri Chandler MA ’03, cofounder of Goodreads, was always an avid reader. “My mom taught me to read with flashcards when I was 2,” Chandler says. “I still remember the first time I went to the library when I was 5. They said I could take anything I wanted, and I remember thinking, Oh my God... this is an amazing place.”

She captured that excitement of discovery—shared the world over by millions of booklovers—through Goodreads, an online community that enables people to find, recommend and talk about books. Since the community launched in 2007, it has amassed more than 40 million members and more than a billion books catalogued.

Users review about a million books every month.

Chandler grew up in Palo Alto, California, the daughter of two educators (her father a professor at Stanford University and her mother a teacher). She studied English at Stanford and took internships at the Paris fashion house Chloé and the Associated Press in Rome, which stoked her interest in arts journalism. Her next step was setting her sights on the print journalism master’s program at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

“I ended up making a lifelong mentor with Cinny Kennard,” now executive director of the Annenberg Foundation, Chandler says of her time at USC. “And I took an amazing investigative journalism class with [Los Angeles Times reporters] Matt Lait and Scott Glover. It was really about cutting through bureaucracy—and I think that’s also a great life skill, actually.”

After USC, Chandler heard about a job at the Times through the USC Annenberg alumni network. The newspaper hired her as assistant style editor for its Sunday magazine, where, for three years, she covered fashion and planned quarterly issues.

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She also rekindled an earlier relationship with Stanford classmate Otis Chandler—grandson of the Otis Chandler who was once publisher of the Times— who was developing an idea for a new social network. He conceived the idea of an online community for readers, and she soon became his sounding board and collaborator.

“We went on our honeymoon with a suitcase of books,” she laughs. (They married in 2008.)

“Goodreads was his idea but he enjoyed making it something I would want to use. There was a lot of collaboration, and I really

went through the site language with a fine-toothed comb, because language is something I’m thinking about all the time.”

Leveraging her experience as a journalist, Chandler handled Goodreads’ public relations, branding and marketing for the first five years.

In 2012, Goodreads moved its headquarters to San Francisco, where the Chandlers oversee a staff of 140. The site and mobile app allow members to write reviews, track books they’ve read or want to read, and connect with other readers and authors.

Amazon recognized the power of

ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID PLUNKERT; PHOTO COURTESY OF GOODREADS

A journalist with a love for language helped build one of the largest online communities for readers.

the service and purchased the company in 2013. Today, Elizabeth Khuri Chandler continues in her post as Goodreads’ editorin-chief and writes occasionally about arts for other publications.

Her time at USC Annenberg and as a journalist helped make Goodreads a site that the literary community, in particular, can take pride in using, she says.

“These are people who care about language and care about reading, so we have to hold up our end of the bargain.”

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Class notes appear online. Read news about each graduate at tfm.usc.edu/classnotes and send your news for consideration to classnotes@usc.edu.

Paul Epps MS ’89 (ENG), a writer and programmer, recently published Thus Spoke the Programmer: A Fictional Memoir.

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Dave Salo PhD ’93 (LAS), USC’s head swim coach, was named to Swimming World magazine’s “30 Most Swimfluential” list for his innovative coaching approach.

Edgar Landa ’95 (DRA) directed Thin Air Shakespeare’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which featured Malika Williams MFA ’11 (DRA) as Titania. Landa teaches stage combat at USC School of Dramatic Arts.

Felicia Ponce ’92 (SPP) was named the warden of the Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong, in northeastern California.

family class notes

She is the first African-American woman to oversee the medium-security prison.

Thomas Kenna MS ’93 (ENG) is the director of transportation at UC Santa Barbara.

He is continuing his service with the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel and commander in maintenance operations, supporting C-130 J aircraft. He is working on his Air War College studies.

Joseph “Joe” Barry ’94 (LAS) is the defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins. He has been with the NFL for 15 years, serving as the San Diego Chargers’ linebackers coach for the last four seasons.

Jennifer (Nichols) Kearns ’94 (LAS) was appointed director of communications for San Diego City Council President Sherri Lightner. Previously, she was the manager for the city’s corporate partnerships and development program.

Neil Rotter MSW ’94, MSG ’96 (SSW/ GRN), chief strategy officer at Accredited Home Health Services, received the Lois C. Lillick Award from the California Association for Health Services At Home for helping to develop home care associations.

Stephen H. Harris JD ’96 (LAW) was named to the Daily Journal’s 2015 list of “Top Labor and Employment Lawyers.”

Jeff Julian ’98 (LAS), an eight-time All-American swimmer and head coach of Rose Bowl Aquatics, has been joined by hundreds of friends and Trojans for #TEAMjeff, an ongoing campaign to help him fight cancer. A swim fundraiser in March brought together legendary Trojan swimmers including Julian’s wife Kristine QuanceJulian ’99 (LAS), Lenny Krayzelburg ’98 (BUS) and John Naber ’77 (LAS) to help raise funds for his treatment.

Where car time is quality time.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE JULIAN FAMILY

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CLASSICAL 91.5 FM

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Golden Age A tech-savvy gerontologist invests in the future of elder-care apps and services.

Why are there so few smartphone apps and other digital tools for seniors and the family members who care for them?

That’s what gerontologist Katy Thomas Fike MS ’06, PhD ’09 wanted to know. With her background in systems engineering and investment banking, she recognized senior care as a commercial space ripe for a technology boost. Enter Aging2.0, a company she co-founded in 2012 with mobile-health business veteran Stephen Johnston to spur innovative businesses focused on older adults.

The pair started hosting casual meet-up events for gerontologists, entrepreneurs, professional caregivers, software designers, investors and quite a few retirees looking for tech-driven solutions to ageold, old-age problems. After

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the first meet-up in New York City, the events grew quickly to more than 35 cities, and Aging2.0’s network now includes 10,000 members with more than 100 corporate partners.

Through its yearlong startup accelerator program, Aging2.0 Academy, the company has promoted and mentored 31 aging-focused startups. In 2014, it launched Aging2.0 Generator Ventures, an earlystage venture fund.

Products the company has nurtured include ActiveProtective, a “smart garment” that deploys small airbags from a belt in the event of a fall—reducing hip fractures—and CareLinx, an online marketplace to help families find in-home care.

In many cases, a few tweaks to existing services like Uber and Tinder “could be very valuable to seniors,” says Fike, recently named by Fast Company as one of the 100 most creative people in business. Lift Hero, for example, is a platform for Web or smartphones that helps seniors get to doctor’s appointments.

Stitch is an online matching ser-

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vice for mature adults seeking safe companionship.

Originally from Long Beach, California, Fike was drawn to elder care in a roundabout way.

The University of Virginia graduate was a successful investment banker in New York when her life suddenly took a new turn.

Fike was at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001.

The tragedy jolted her into questioning her purpose in life, she says. “I wanted to do work that truly mattered when real life happened.”

After 9/11, her mom sent her a book by geriatrician William Thomas, Learning From Hannah: Secrets for a Life Worth Living. Fike was transfixed by the parable of how an ideal society might treat its elderly.

She started volunteering for Meals on Wheels and visiting assisted-living centers in New York City. “Once I found the topic of aging, I felt it was something I couldn’t get enough of,” she says. In 2004, she moved to Los Angeles to earn her master’s and doctoral degrees at the USC Davis School of Gerontology.

“For me, every class was a light bulb session of ideas, innovations and ideation,” Fike recalls about the program. The school celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Today, Fike, 36, lives in the Bay Area with her husband, Ted Fike, a fellow investor, and their baby. Parenting may give Fike even more ideas. Recently, she took her baby to the local library where she noticed an older man standing alone, beaming with joy during children’s story time.

“He said: ‘This is the highlight of my week. My grandkids live far away, and nothing makes me happier than just watching these little kids.’”

Fike was inspired. “I immediately thought: Why aren’t we doing this at every assisted-living community? Give the moms some free coffee, and have the seniors and the babies hang out.

We should be tapping into the time and wisdom and love of older adults.”

Stay tuned, there might be an app for that.

PHOTO BY MICHELA RAVASIO/STOCKSY

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DIANE KRIEGER

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Scholarships change lives.

Every gift counts. giveto.usc.edu “Having a fellowship allows me to spend my time focusing on the research questions that I’m most passionate about.”

Mark Torres William M. Keck Foundation Graduate Endowed Fellowship PhD in Earth Sciences, Class of 2015

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Class notes appear online. Read news about each graduate at tfm.usc.edu/classnotes and send your news for consideration to classnotes@usc.edu.

Summer Moore ’98 (LAS) wrote, produced and starred in the film The Karma of Happiness, an official selection of the California Women’s Film Festival.

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Eric Batch, MPP ’00 (SPP) was highlighted in an article by Southwestern University for his commitment to service in leadership.

Jarryd Gonzales ’00 (LAS) now serves as head of communications and public relations for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Previously, he served as the media spokesperson for Verizon in California and Texas.

Eric Ladin ’01 (DRA) is featured as Glenn in the HBO series The Brink. He recently played Scott Zoellner in The Power of Duff at The Geffen Playhouse.

Robert Baker ’02 (DRA) was in the 10hour miniseries Texas Rising on the TV channel History, which included an all-star cast featuring Bill Paxton and Ray Liotta.

Terry Carter MM ’02 (MUS) and Brandon Bernstein DMA ’09 (MUS) released BandBlast, a music education mobile app.

Heather Kitching MA ’02, OTD ’10 (OST) is president-elect of the Occupational Therapy Association of California and will begin her two-year term in 2016.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GABRIELLE HAYES

Bear McCreary ’02 (MUS) received an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding music composition for a series (original dramatic score) for Starz’s Outlander.

Maribeth Annaguey JD ’03 (LAW), Ester Chang Weese JD ’02 (LAW), Amber S. Finch JD ’02 (LAW), Vanessa M. Soto Nellis JD ’03 (LAW) and Kathleen P. Wallace JD ’04 (LAW) were named to the 2015 “Southern California Rising Stars Up-andComing 50 Women” list in Super Lawyers.

Jeanne Hoffa ’05 (SCJ) is the founder and CEO of Coast Public Relations Inc. Established in 2011, Coast Public Relations is tfm.usc.edu

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an award-winning, full-service nationwide PR agency with talent from leading global public relations firms and newsrooms.

Bethany Kristovich JD ’05 (LAW) was named as a 2015 “Top 20 Under 40” lawyer in California by the Daily Journal.

Cenk Temizel MS ‘05 (ENG) has worked overseas for Schlumberger and Halliburton.

He received Halliburton’s Technology Innovation Award in 2012. He is a reservoir engineer at AERA (a Shell-ExxonMobil affiliate) and serves as a technical editor for the SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering journal and PetroWiki.

Tayo Agboke MPA ’06 (SPP) is president of Los Angeles Young Government Leaders.

He has served as a board member for the organization since 2012.

Carlos Cortez PhD ’06 (EDU) was named president of San Diego Continuing Education, which serves 45,000 adult education students each semester for the San Diego Community College District.

Duncan Thum ’06, GCRT ’13 (MUS) received an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding music composition for a series (original dramatic score) for the series Chef ’s Table.

Tyler Sabbag ’05 (MUS), Steve Gernes GCRT ’13 (MUS), Pantawit Kiangsiri GCRT ’13 (MUS), Sean Sumwalt GCRT ’13 (MUS) and Dan Blanck ’13 (MUS) also contributed to the score.

Bradley D. Olin MPA ’07 (SPP) is director of budget planning and risk management at San Jose State University.

Lachlan Sands ME ’07 (EDU) was named president of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Los Angeles.

Aaron Hake MPA ’08 (SPP), treasurer for the city of Corona, California, completed a four-year term on the Corona Planning Commission and has been lead legislative advocate for the Riverside County Transportation Commission since 2006.

Matthew Lewis ’09, MS ’14 (ENG) is a lead systems engineer at Delphi Automotive’s

autonomous vehicle development program.

In March, one of Delphi’s vehicles completed the first coast-to-coast autonomous drive from San Francisco to New York.

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Kevin Bragg MS ’10 (ENG) was admitted to the United States Air Force Test Pilot School as a civilian and completed his MS in flight test engineering in 2013. He will pursue a master’s degree in astronautical engineering at USC Viterbi in 2016.

Gabrielle (La Porte) Hayes ’10 (ENG) has worked at J.L. Patterson & Associates designing railroads for freight trains and local passenger rail lines for five years. She is now a project engineer for California High Speed Rail, which will connect Los Angeles to San Francisco in two-and-ahalf hours. In 2014, she married Garrett Hayes ’10 (LAS).

Lewis Powell PhD ’11 (LAS) was selected as lead editor of the American Philosophical Association blog. He is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University at Buffalo—The State University of New York.

Shaheed Sabrin ’11 (DRA) was selected by the U.S. Department of State for the prestigious English Language Fellow Program, an opportunity for highly qualified TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) professionals.

Yolie Anguiano MPA ’12 (SPP) was appointed to the position of North Valley Area planning commissioner by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Nick Brown ’12 (LAS) was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach English at EAN University in Colombia. He is currently a Teach for America member in Mississippi.

Margarita Denenburg DMA ’12 (MUS) was featured on the cover of Clavier Companion, which published her article “Using Video Recording to Improve Your Teaching.” usc trojan family

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A LU M N I

P R O F I L E

The Art of Life

PHOTO BY CHESTER HIGGINS JR./THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

A sculptor’s five-decade journey to create meaningful, dynamic work has earned world acclaim.

After graduating high school in Houston, Melvin Edwards ’65 headed to Los Angeles with two simple objectives: study art and play college football.

Art and football might be an unusual combination for aspiring college students—especially in the 1950s—but Edwards’ prolific career has proved that being typical was never his life’s goal.

After two years at Los Angeles City College, Edwards tried out as a walk-on for the USC football team at the urging of his community college football teammate Don Buford. Edwards knew about USC’s football reputation. Back at his segregated Texas high school, he had heard of Brice Taylor, who in 1925 was the university’s first AfricanAmerican player to be named an All-American.

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M E LV I N

E D WA R D S

Edwards made the team and the following semester was awarded an athletic scholarship.

Edwards enjoyed playing football, but he made time for his other passion. “I was always an art major. I was serious about art from age 9 or 10,” Edwards says. Initially focused on painting and drawing, he was inspired by sculpture professor Hal Gebhardt and introduced to welding by George Baker, a USC graduate student. Something about the techniques spoke to him, and welding would become an important tool for his artistic expression.

“I’m not a painter. I’m not an illustrator,” says Edwards when asked to describe his art.

“I’m a sculptor. I don’t make stuff that’s nice and somebody wants to hang it over the couch. My work is more expressive, more dynamic and industrial. So that’s what I’ve been interested in, and within that, history”—in particular the complex histories of

’6 5

African-American and African experiences.

Edwards left USC in 1960 (he received his fine arts degree five years later, after completing his final graduation requirements with night classes) and had his first solo exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1965. The Whitney Museum of American Art followed a few years later, making him the first African-American sculptor with a solo exhibition at the prestigious museum. He has earned tremendous public acclaim and exhibited at nearly every major art event around the world, in nations from Brazil to Zimbabwe.

A professor of sculpture at Rutgers University in New Jersey from 1972 until he retired from teaching in 2002, Edwards continues to create works, even as he’s dealt with personal heartache after the unexpected death in 2012 of his wife and creative partner, the poet Jayne Cortez. Earlier this year, he had a retrospective, “Melvin

Edwards: Five Decades,” at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas (his exhibit catalogue sold out—a first for the Nasher) and his pieces were showcased during this year’s Venice Biennale.

Every once in a while, young aspiring artists ask him for advice about pursuing a career in art. He strives to be honest about the sacrifices that go along with a creative life, noting that he never planned out his next career move. “I just started making art, had babies and worked.”

For Edwards, the work itself was his driving force: “There are no careers. There never was one.

It’s art.’”

WILMA J.E. RANDLE

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family class notes Steven J. Spielberg MBA ’98 (BUS) and Orly Aviv.

Michael Richman ’05 (SCJ) and Devra Rottman MSW ’10 (SSW).

Amy Klein ’11 (ENG) and Caleb Crain.

VOX

Kait Dunton DMA ’13 (MUS) and her band trioKAIT, which includes Jake Reed MM ’10, DMA ’13 (MUS), were featured in JazzTimes for their third album, TrioKAIT. Kate Williams Grabau MFA ’13 (DRA) recently completed an eight-month national tour of Camelot, playing Lady Anne.

Perla Hernandez Trumkul MPA ’13 (SPP) was promoted to district director for U.S. Rep. Grace F. Napolitano. She was elected council member for the Southern California Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration for 2014–2015.

William Cravy ’14 (MUS) was awarded second place in the 2015 Aspen Music Festival Low Strings Competition.

Marielle Stair MSW ’15 (SSW) leads the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program in Atlanta, an employment-focused program that provides referral resources for veterans and their families facing homelessness.

M A R R I A G E S

Kenneth Post ’75 (ENG) and Karen Schoeman.

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Mark Snow ’95, PhD ’00 (LAS) and Orady Souksamlane ’94 (LAS), twins, a daughter and son, Kaitlyn Allison and Brayden Connor.

Bryan Weaver ’01 (LAS) and Jennifer Shoucair Weaver ’03 (BUS), a son, Oliver Weston Weaver. He joins sister Willa Scott.

Steven Lucero ’06 (ENG) and Danielle Lucero MS ’08 (ENG), a daughter, Olivia Leigh. She joins sister Eva Lynn.

I N

M E M O R I A M

A L U M N I Ruth Byers Rada ’44, MS ’45 (LAS) of Los Angeles; June 1 at the age of 91.

Edward Vierheilig ’49 (BUS) of Century City, California; May 19 at the age of 90.

Gordon Thompson Jr. ’51 (BUS) of San Diego; July 5 at the age of 85.

Jasper Hawkins ’55 (ARC) of Phoenix; Sept. 4, at the age of 82.

Frank Gifford, 84 Celebrated football player and broadaster Frank Gifford ’56 (BUS) of Greenwich, Connecticut, died Aug. 9. He was drafted No. 1 overall by the New York Giants in 1952 out of USC and played both halfback and flanker during his 12-year football career. In 1956, he was league MVP and led the Giants to the NFL championship.

After his playing career ended, he became a sports commentator for CBS.

He then became co-host of the popular Monday Night Football from 1971 to 1985, working with Howard Cosell and Al Michaels. The low-key, likable athlete became a reliable and instantly recognizable presence for millions of Americans.

The son of an oilfield driller who was constantly looking for work, Gifford moved 47 times before starting high school in Bakersfield, California. Bakersfield High School was where his football ascent began—even though he was cut from the lightweight football team as a scrawny 5-foot-2 freshman. But he grew the summer before his junior season and made the varsity team. At USC, he played on offense as a running-passing tailback and on defense as a safety. He also caught passes, punted, kicked field goals and extra points, and returned punts and kickoffs.

He was an All-American as a senior at USC in 1951 before going to the NFL. He is survived by his wife, Kathie Lee Gifford, three sons and two daughters.

Saul S. Kreshek ’57 (BUS), LLB ’60 (LAW) of Los Angeles; Sept. 1, at the age of 79.

David B. Finkel ’59 LLB (LAW) of Santa Monica, California; July 4 at the age of 83.

Marcus O. Tucker Jr., 80 Marcus O. Tucker Jr. ’60 (LAS), the first African-American to serve as presiding judge of Long Beach Municipal Court, died Aug. 8 in Long Beach, California. Tucker was an early advocate of restorative justice for teenage offenders.

Admitted to the State Bar in 1962, he was in private practice in Santa Monica before becoming a deputy city attorney

VOX PHOTO COURTESY OF VOX; GIFFORD PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

B I R T H S

David Castillo MM ’13 (MUS), Arnold Geis MM ’14 (MUS) and Kevin Blickfeldt DMA ’15 (MUS), members of pop-opera group VOX, advanced from the audition round on NBC’s America’s Got Talent before being eliminated on the Aug. 4 episode. Castillo will make his European debut in Paris next year, performing Winterreise. Geis is an active session singer, having performed most recently in Bridge of Spies and Goosebumps. Blickfeldt is on the faculty of the 88 Keys Music Academy.

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Obituaries of members of the Trojan Family appear online at tfm.usc.edu/ memoriam.

there from 1963 to 1965, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California from 1965 to 1967, and a criminal defense lawyer with his own practice in Santa Monica from 1967 until 1974, when he was appointed a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner.

He advocated for teen courts with peer juries, initiated low-cost drug testing that parents could use under the court’s watch, and helped establish a playground facility for children awaiting court action.

Tucker graduated from Howard University School of Law and later earned a master’s degree in criminal justice from Chapman University. In 1976, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Tucker to the Long Beach Municipal Court. He was elevated to Superior Court judge in 1985.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Indira Hale Tucker. He is survived by his daughter, Angelique Chamberlain.

and earned 10 Oscar nominations for his composition work on films such as Field of Dreams, Apollo 13 and Braveheart. His soundtracks also include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Cocoon, The Rocketeer, Patriot Games, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Jumanji, Troy and The Amazing Spider-Man. A pianist since age 5, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, USC and UCLA. He is survived by his wife, Sara, and two daughters.

Janis Ballin MSW ’78 (SSW) of Valley Village, California; Aug. 8 at the age of 78.

HORNER PHOTO COURTESY OF USC THORNTON; LEVENTHAL PHOTO COURTESY OF LEVENTHAL FAMILY

James Horner, 61 James Horner ’74 (MUS) of Calabasas, California, a prolific composer of Hollywood film soundtracks, died June 22. He was widely celebrated for his work on Titanic, for which he won Academy Awards for original dramatic score and original song (“My Heart Will Go On,” performed

by Celine Dion).

He and director James Cameron enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration, which began with Aliens in 1986 and continued through the planned sequels to Avatar in 2009. Over an extraordinary career, he was awarded six Grammy Awards tfm.usc.edu

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Yoshimasa Makino ’98 (SPP), MD ’02 (MED) of Los Angeles; Dec.12, 2014, at the age of 38.

L E G E N D

LAS ACC ARC BUS SCA SCJ

Michael Rudolf Vogel ’63, MM ’66 (MUS) of Prescott, Arizona; Oct. 21, 2014 at the age of 75.

Kléber Tatinge do Nascimento MS ’65, DPA ’66 (SPP) of Manaus, Brazil; Dec. 18, 2014, at the age of 77.

couple’s two sons were born. The venture grew into a major firm specializing in real estate and complex reorganizations. When it merged with Ernst & Young in 1995, Kenneth Leventhal & Co. was the ninthlargest CPA firm in the United States.

Preceded in death by her husband, she is survived by her son Ross ’76 (BUS), daughter-in-law Mary Jo and granddaughter Emma, and her son Robert.

Elaine Leventhal, 97 USC supporter Elaine Leventhal MLA ’15 died Aug. 15. A lover of languages and history, she devoted herself to her family and several philanthropic causes, including USC. In 1995, she and her husband, Kenneth, bequeathed $15 million to the USC School of Accounting. At the time, it was the largest gift ever made to a university accounting program. The school was renamed in their honor the following year.

The couple augmented that original gift with an additional $10 million pledge in 2002, extending their support to the John R. Hubbard Chair in History at USC Dornsife, as well as USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, USC Davis, USC Athletics and USC Eye Institute. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the university for her many contributions.

The Leventhals were entrepreneurs who built their business, Kenneth Leventhal & Co., from a spare bedroom in their rented Los Angeles apartment just days after their wedding. She helped build the business during its first 10 years, working in the office and doing tax returns, until the

DNC DEN DRA EDU ENG ART GRN LAW LIB MED MUS OST PHM BPT SPP SSW

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences USC Leventhal School of Accounting USC School of Architecture USC Marshall School of Business USC School of Cinematic Arts USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism USC Kaufman School of Dance Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC USC School of Dramatic Arts USC Rossier School of Education USC Viterbi School of Engineering USC Roski School of Art and Design USC Davis School of Gerontology USC Gould School of Law USC Libraries Keck School of Medicine of USC USC Thornton School of Music USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy USC School of Pharmacy Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy USC Price School of Public Policy USC School of Social Work

Matt DeGrushe, James Feigert, Harmony Frederick, Wendy Gragg, Deanne Grimes, Elizabeth Hedrick, Maya Meinert, Mike McNulty, James Morse, Erin Nogle, Jane Ong, Kristi Patton, Kathleen Rayburn, and Stacey Wang Rizzo contributed to this section.

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Send your own memories about USC to magazines@usc.edu. Include your name, degree, class year and a way for us to contact you.

Committed to Memory Take a trip through time on campus.

Hints of USC future are in plain sight across the University Park Campus. USC Village’s walls are rising north of Jefferson Boulevard. A new roof now caps the tower of Fertitta Hall at the corner of Exposition and Figueroa. Passersby can even peek through the windows at the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center—at least from a distance.

Cranes twist and turn in the sky, and nothing seems more Trojan than that these days. Come back to USC and you’ll see signs of progress. Lots of you do that every year when you visit the University Park or Health Sciences campuses for classes, games, reunions, shows or time with your sons and daughters.

You might say that USC has been a university under construction since Sept.

4, 1880. That’s when nearly a tenth of the population of the town of Los Angeles gathered to see the cornerstone placed for USC’s first building, now known as the Widney Alumni House. From that first seed, USC never stopped growing.

Sometimes expansion means more than building up and out. It can also require moving pieces around. And that brings us back to the Widney Alumni House. Did you know that the building has changed locations four times throughout the university’s history? It was first built on a site north of Bovard Auditorium, where Founders Park currently sits. In 1907, the house was moved to where you can find the Physical Education Building today.

Some 48 years later it was relocated across from Doheny Memorial Library. The peregrinating structure underwent design changes (and housed the USC Thornton School of Music for decades), but was restored in 1977. It settled into its current home on Childs Way in 1997.

Do you have a favorite building that

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was an unforgettable part of your time at USC? Which space feels timeless and special to you? Are there any USC places that you remember fondly but are no longer with us? Send us your memories of them and we might include some of your recollections in a future issue.

In our Autumn 2015 issue, we asked you about unexpected places where you’ve bumped into other Trojans. It’s no surprise that the Trojan Family extends worldwide —or maybe even universe-wide (we’ve had at least nine alumni astronauts who have gone into space, including Neil Armstrong MS ’70 and Jim Lovell ’61.)

While we didn’t hear about any chance meetings in orbit this time, Trojans did share stories from just about everywhere else. There’s the story about running into

The building now called the Widney Alumni House is the oldest college structure in Southern California.

several members of the Class of 1981 while trekking to Machu Picchu. And there’s one about bumping into the former dean of the USC Gould School of Law in a hotel elevator in India. But one of our favorites had a cross-town twist: Since retiring, my wife and I have traveled extensively. I usually wear my USC Alumni baseball cap, which has gotten us “Fight On!” and “Go, Trojans!” throughout the U.S. and in cities such as Cartagena, Rome and Barcelona.

In Istanbul, however, we were walking on a busy street when I heard someone behind me yell, “Go, Bruins!” I snapped my head around and saw three Turkish bus drivers in their distinctly powder-blue jackets. One pointed at me and said with a smile, “I gotcha. I knew I’d getcha.” He did.

E D W I N C O H EN P H D ’71 (SCJ)

PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

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