Trojan Family Magazine Autumn 2014 by University of Southern California

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F A M I L Y T HE RISE OF T ROY USC Village will reshape how generations of Trojans live and learn on campus.

scene Tese formulas may look complicated to the uninitiated, but to many chemists, physicists and engineers, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all in a dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. Here Sahand Pirbadian, a graduate student in the laboratory of USC Dornsife physicist Moh El-Naggar, explains a theory of how electrons hop between iron atoms in proteins, which is critical to understanding natural processes ranging from photosynthesis to respiration.

PHOTO BY ALISON V. SMITH

Editor’s Note Celebrating the time-honored traditions of residential college life.

President’s Page To enrich the student experience, USC embarks on its biggest building project ever: USC Village.

Mailbag Pats, pride and other observations from our readers.

News What Marc Beniof learned from a guru in India, why soft drinks might pack a hidden punch, and a “New Movement” in dance.

Tailback U By Diane Krieger Javorius “Buck” Allen is a familiar face at the Coliseum—and in the front row in class.

Movers and Shakers By Jessica Raymond Te USC Iovine and Young Academy’s frst class of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs has arrived—and they’re ready to disrupt the status quo. Matters of the Heart By Hope Hamashige Keck Medicine of USC surgeons lead a revolution in advanced cardiac surgery.

59 Alumni News

Grading USC in the Alumni Attitude Survey, catching up with USCAA Board of Governors President Amy Ross, and saying goodbye to Olympian and WWII hero Louis Zamperini.

67 Class Notes

Who’s doing what and where.

inside

USC Village will rise to the north of the University Park Campus.

Dawn Patrol Historian Peter Westwick chats about the unconventional rise of surfng and what the sport tells us about California’s socioeconomics and pop culture. By Agustin Gurza

Visionary Science At USC Eye Institute, doctors and engineers are doing what was once impossible—restoring lost sight. By Katharine Gammon

Te Rise of Troy USC Village, a 1.25-million-square-foot, residential-retail space, will form the pinnacle of undergraduate life at USC. By Diane Krieger

Te Secret Life of Bacteria Peering under the microscope, USC researchers harness the power of tiny bacteria to do everything from boosting immunity to producing sustainable electricity. By Cristy Lytal

76 Trojan Tribute

Friends remember a young man with a passion for technology and helping others.

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e d i t o r’ s n o t e

Old School Will Be New School The Oxford that sprawled before me was exactly as I imagined. Te academic buildings were stately, church bells peeled and young men gamely tried their luck at punting on the River Cherwell without falling in. My husband, Paul, had lived and studied at St. Peter’s—one of the University of Oxford’s 38 residential colleges. Some 23 years after he graduated, we returned to visit. Oxford’s colleges ooze with history, rooted in rituals such as formal meals. Tese dinners, Paul remembered, were served in the college’s grand dining hall, where the faculty held court at a high table and students had to wear gowns and ties or skirts. Each week a student was drawn at random to say grace in Latin. Paul miraculously avoided selection. He tested his academic mettle and sipped tea during chats with professors at the college, surrounded by towering shelves of leather-bound books. He was immersed in a community devoted to learning. He also formed friendships at the college and shaped habits that survive to this day. So when I heard about plans to create residential colleges at the new USC Village, the mission made sense. For undergraduates, USC Village will serve as more than a place to live. Residential colleges become the center of a university experience that remains relevant today because it shapes and supports intellectual, emotional and social development. If you visit the University Park Campus this fall, stop by the USC Village site and imagine its brick walls, Gothic windows and clock tower rising before you. For tomorrow’s Trojans, this will be home. Alicia Di Rado Editor-In-Chief, USC Trojan Family Magazine

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

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

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p r e s i d e n t’ s p a g e

Student Life, Reimagined

PHOTO BY STEVE COHN

b y c. l. m a x n i k i a s Niki and I hope you had a wonderful summer. We enjoyed bike riding in Southern California and Idaho —and covered 416 miles! Everywhere we went, we were thrilled to meet so many Trojans for the frst time. And as we continue to meet alumni all over the world, we’re always touched by their keen interest in our current students. Trojans are so curious about life at USC, and understand that the four years our students spend here are tremendously formative. Tey surely know from experience: It is during the undergraduate years that many lifelong friends are made. Perhaps no one understands this more thoroughly than USC Trustee Kathleen McCarthy. Tis past summer—as we cleared the way for construction of the new USC Village, preparing the vast expanse north of the University Park Campus to accommodate as many as 2,700 students—Mrs. McCarthy stepped forward with an extraordinarily generous gift, showing singular leadership in her commitment to both our students and USC Village. Her exceptional gift will name the Tomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation Honors Hall, which will anchor the west side of USC Village and include space for honors seminars and one-on-one advising, as well as ample opportunities for students to interact outside their classes. Mrs. McCarthy’s philanthropy will touch generations of students, and represents a remarkable investment in their future success. USC Village will make the university fully residential—a long-standing ambition of our community. Our larger goal is to nurture our students’ intellectual and creative growth, and ensure they have a safe atmosphere in which to explore who they are and to become independent adults. In doing so, we’ll bolster all aspects of our students’ education. At the heart of USC Village will be a central plaza that will come alive with concerts, outdoor lectures and special events. In addition to this plaza and the Leavey Honors Hall, USC Village will include eight undergraduate residential colleges. Tese will foster camaraderie among our undergraduates as soon as they arrive at USC. Each college will provide unique opportunities to develop friendships and participate in extracurricular activities. In this setting, students will continue the conversations they begin in their classrooms, perhaps bringing a question they raised in a biology class to the dorm’s dining hall, where they can further explore it tfm.usc.edu

among friends studying music, business or philosophy. Tey might have an impromptu concert, or fnd that they share a passion for a certain writer or flmmaker. Tey might toss around ideas for apps or plan a trip to the Getty. Te residential colleges will also emphasize themes based on some of USC’s major interdisciplinary strengths: the arts and humanities, informatics and digital knowledge, convergence of science and engineering, and health across the lifespan. I am confdent that each year, as our accepted students consider their options, our residential colleges will be a significant draw, allowing us to enroll even more top-level students. As a community, we eagerly anticipate the addition of USC Village, and as alumni, you especially understand how it will profoundly enrich our undergraduates’ experience. Niki and I are so grateful for your continued support of your alma mater, and for all that you do for USC. As we begin a new academic year at the university—our ffth as president and frst lady of USC—we send you our warmest personal regards.

On their summer travels, C. L. Max Nikias and Niki C. Nikias encountered alumni who are curious about student life at USC.

Fight On! usc trojan family

mailbag We welcome your feedback. Submit your letter to the editor at tfm.usc.edu/mailbag.

Trojan Hero I had planned to write an article on Louis Zamperini (Summer 2014, Social Media, p. 6) when I heard of his passing. I had the pleasure of meeting and spending hours with him when I was the track and feld coach at Aviation High School in Redondo Beach, California. Our frst meeting was when I competed in the 1953–54 and ’57 seasons running for Jess Mortensen. Mr. Zamperini was such an inspirational speaker at our athletic banquets, never failing to mention his experience in Berlin in 1936 and the adversity that he had to overcome in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. We lost a true war hero.

Absent are statistics on how many of the inmates released—by the eforts of USC Gould School of Law faculty and students —again committed one or more crimes, therefore this article remains unconvincing. It documents justice denied for the families of those who died at the hands of these criminals. George Reppucci MS ’64 (eng) Manhattan Beach, CA

It’s great to receive your wonderful magazine digitally. Much as I love traditional print, this format is so much easier to read while on the go. Te article “Brain Trust” (Summer 2014, p. 26) was particularly fascinating and inspiring. S t e v e n Sm it h ’ 8 6 ( sc j ) West Toluca Lake, CA

Heidi Rummel, co-director of the PostConviction Justice Project (PCJP), replies: To date, only one of the 87 life-term inmates paroled through the eforts of PCJP has reoffended, and no one was injured or killed. Tis is true beyond our clients—the recidivism rate for “lifers” in California is less than 1 percent. Te majority of released PCJP clients are actively giving back to their communities as certifed drug counselors, mentors for atrisk youth, restorative justice advocates and church ministers. California’s high incarceration rate, extreme sentencing laws and unconstitutional prison conditions are shameful. I did not mean to suggest otherwise. But California was the frst to reduce extreme sentences for youth, and other states have followed our model. It is an encouraging f irst step, but there is certainly much more work to be done.

Poetic Justice

Shooting Star

Regarding “Long Journey to Justice” (Summer 2014, p. 52), I applaud the eforts and successes of the Post-Conviction Justice Project on behalf of juvenile ofenders. However, California’s incarceration rate remains higher than the majority of states and higher than any other country in the world. Te cause is not an increasing crime rate. It is the direct result of extreme sentencing for all ofenders and the state’s misguided and unfair three-strikes law. Until this far greater injustice is addressed, California is not, as Ms. Rummel states, “the model for other states right now.” L . L aum an n M ba ’ 7 2 ( b u s) Irvine, CA

My daughter Madison Scheckel ’14, pop music singer/songwriter graduate, is writing a song with Disney’s award-winning creators Dan Povenmire, Jef “Swampy” Marsh and Martin Olson for their hit television animated series Phineas and Ferb. Te song will be featured in a new episode in 2015 with an iTunes release. Because of USC’s incredible pop music program and its leadership, namely Chris Sampson and Patrice Rushen (“Top of the Pops,” Summer 2014, p. 36), Madison’s songwriting talents have fourished, as well as her music business savvy. B eni ta Sc h ec kel Pasadena, CA

Hank Ketels ’58, MS ’60

Nevada City, CA

Pick Your Brain

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S O C I A L

M E D I A

USC President C. L. Max Nikias has joined Instagram (instagram.com/uscpres). Follow him and experience a day in the life of the busy USC president, from taking selﬁes with Trojan grads at commencement (pictured) to chatting with President Barack Obama at a USC Shoah Foundation gala.

2,093 C O U N T I N G

C L I C K S

Tweets that included #USCgrad. During commencement, the hashtag was used so often that it became one of Twitter’s top trending topics in Los Angeles.

2.63

times more inﬂuential

According to a tweet from Time, USC alumni are 2.63 times more inﬂuential than Notre Dame’s. In May, @TIME scored the two schools’ inﬂuence based on Wikipedia content about their alumni.

906 Number of “Likes” on USC’s Facebook page announcing a $50 million gift from Gary Michelson to create the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience.

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What was, is

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BORN TO RIDE Like swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano each spring, bicycles return en masse to the University Park Campus every fall. While road bikes and hybrids can be spotted here and there, the dominant two-wheeled breed on campus remains the beach cruiser. Baskets are optional, but for today’s Trojans, ﬂip-ﬂops are a must.

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trojan news

ON ATTENDING THE PRESIDENT’S SUMMIT FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE AND FINDING INSPIRATION:

Marc Benioﬀ ’s Five Life Lessons A pioneer of cloud computing, Marc Beniof ’86 revolutionized the software industry in the early 2000s as chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com. In the process, his “1-1-1 model” also pioneered a new model of integrated corporate philanthropy: Contribute 1 percent of product, 1 percent of equity and 1 percent of employee hours back to the community. Here are fve lessons Beniof shared at USC’s commencement in May about achieving success—and how to fnd happiness along the way. Watch Beniof ’s full commencement speech at bit.ly/MarcBeniofUSC.

ON THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FULFILLMENT:

After a decade of success at Oracle, “I felt unmotivated, unenergized, not very excited, not very inspired. So I did what all lost 30-somethings do: I went to India.”

“General Colin Powell said, ‘The business of business is not business. Your companies are some of the richest, most powerful resources we have, and we need to put them to work to help everyone in this great country.’ I said to myself, ‘Well, I think I have a second guru.’” ON BEING A TROJAN:

“One of the things that’s most beautiful about USC is its commitment to service. Three hundred service organizations have just in the last year delivered more than 765,000 hours in community service. That’s what makes this university so great.”

765,000 ON THE SOURCE OF HAPPINESS:

“I’ll tell you why that integrated business, that integrated life, is so important. It’s because the real joy in life comes from giving, it comes from service, it comes from doing things for other people.”

“My friend and I were sitting in a little hut with a guru in the south of India. … At the very end, she said this: ‘While you are working so hard to change the world and create all this great technology, don’t forget to do something for others.’ At that moment, I felt like I had just found what I was looking for.” 10

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BENIOFF AP PHOTO/CHRIS STEWART

ON HIS LIFE-CHANGING EPIPHANY:

Javorius “Buck” Allen is racking up success on the football ﬁeld—and in the classroom. By Diane Krieger Last year Javorius “Buck” Allen roared from the bottom of USC’s depth chart, rushing for 785 yards and scoring 14 touchdowns to help the sanction-hampered Trojans fnish the season with a 10-4 record. Tose touchdowns, executed “all in spectacular fashion,” according to a Los Angeles Times profle published days before the Trojans’ epic victory over No. 5 Stanford, helped spark a U-turn for USC’s 2013 season. But to people who know the 6-foot-1inch, 220-pound tailback from Tallahassee, Florida, the most inspiring turnaround didn’t take place on the feld. It happened in the classroom. “Te football part I knew I was prepared for,” says Allen, now a fourth-year junior. “But the academic part hit me kind of hard.”

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Within weeks of starting his freshman year, Allen struggled with college coursework. Denise Kwok, a learning specialist and director of athlete academic support with USC’s Student-Athlete Academic Services, saw his difculties frsthand. “When Buck got here,” Kwok says, “he didn’t realize how college works in general, how quickly it goes, the level of academic rigor.” Allen had come from a rough background. Growing up poor in Miccosukee, a rural town in northeastern Florida, and raised from a toddler by his grandmother, he was only 12 when his older brother Devon—the only father fgure he’d ever known—went to prison for attempted murder. Football ofered Allen structure. With the help of Alice and Mickey Cullen, friends who took him under their wing

from middle school on, Allen graduated from Tallahassee’s Lincoln High School and received scholarship ofers from football powerhouses like Alabama, Auburn and USC. Signing with the Trojans meant he’d have to take additional high school math and chemistry to meet NCAA eligibility clearinghouse requirements. By the time he fnished those courses, the fall 2011 semester was already underway. He’d missed football training camp and didn’t know the playbook, which meant redshirting his freshman year. But the young man in the No. 37 jersey has gone from a D average to a B average. With help from Kwok and others, the sociology major has transformed from a silent, back-row sulker to an intense, front-row learner who consistently shows up during faculty ofce hours. “It was pretty cool to see,” Kwok says. “Since he’s developed more self-confdence on the feld, his academic confdence has increased.” Professional football looms large in Allen’s near-term plans, but down the autumn 2014

PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

Tailback U

Watch Buck Allen tell his story on video at bit.ly/BuckAllen.

road he sees himself working with children. Maybe he’ll go for a master’s in social work, he says. Bursting into the Trojan football limelight last winter—just as he reached NFL draft eligibility—Allen admits he was tempted to quit school. Driving him was the knowledge that he could fnally provide for his family fnancially. “It just hurts to go home and see the situation they are in,” he says. “Everybody’s counting on me.” But he resisted the temptation. “You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of somebody else— my grandma told me that,” he says. “I knew if I stayed I could get my degree in a year, and then I could help my family.” Allen hasn’t seen or spoken to his brother Devon since starting USC, and a ban on cellphone use by inmates keeps the brothers from talking. “I write him, though. He just wrote me back recently,” says Allen, smiling. He knows Devon has access to television. “I always wondered, this past season, is he watching me playing?” Younger brother Deonshaye, now 18, also weighs on his mind. After Allen left for USC, the teenager got into trouble with drugs and fghting. But now his older brother’s success in school may be serving as an example. Deonshaye has signed up for the ACT college admission exam, Allen says. “I’m proud of him.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLIAM J. MCMORROW

Q U OTAT I O N

“As you go through challenges, remember that grit is real. It’s about competing, it’s about pushing yourself, it’s about striving to be your best. The thing that’s great about grit is that no one else controls it but you.” Pete Carroll, head d coach of the Seattle Seahawks and former USC football coach, to business students during a return visit to USC tfm.usc.edu

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USC Marshall Gets a Global Boost Undergraduates at the USC Marshall School of Business will soon be exploring the world’s real estate markets, thanks to a generous gift from William J. McMorrow ’69, MBA ’70. Te William J. McMorrow Global Real Estate Program will provide a home for business majors eager to learn about the diverse aspects of international real estate. “We do an outstanding job of providing our graduate students with broad training in real estate,” said James G. Ellis, dean of USC Marshall. “Tis generous gift gives us a way to extend this education to students in our undergraduate programs as well.” Students will learn about global real estate frsthand through trips across the United States and abroad. Initially, the program will focus on markets in Europe and Asia. Te program will also connect students with industry mentors and targeted internship positions, and a speaker series will feature professionals with insight into navigating international real estate markets. For McMorrow, establishing the program will pave the way for future innovators who share his passion for the industry. McMorrow serves on the executive board for the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, and, as chairman and CEO of Kennedy Wilson, he oversaw the company’s transformation to an international real estate investment and services leader. “My education at Marshall showed me the importance of excellent teaching,” McMorrow said. “I am very excited and proud to partner with the school in preparing students for success in the globally interconnected marketplace.”

H E A LT H F I L E S

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If you’ve ever wondered why certain diets never seem to work for you, two USC scientists might have an answer. Their research suggests that the body may be genetically predisposed to thrive on a speciﬁc diet—and one day a simple blood test could help identify which one works best for you.

T U R F

The USC-UCLA game has long been one of college football’s—and LA’s—most celebrated rivalries. Since 1929, the week leading up to the event has been marked by spirit rallies, pranks and lots of crosstown swagger, but on game day, it all comes down to what happens on the ﬁeld. In this photo from 1955, Coliseum

staff prepare for the big game by carefully blanketing the field with canvas to ensure that it’s pristine for the closely watched match-up. Preparation traditions may have changed over the years, but not LA’s passion and anticipation for a hometown game that looks to only grow more significant in the coming seasons.

National Championships … and Counting USC’s men’s tennis team has again earned its moment in the spotlight. In May, the team fought out of a 0-2 hole to beat Oklahoma 4-2 and take frst in the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship—the 21st national title for the Trojan men’s tennis squad. Te team previously won in 2012.

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Te win was historic for all Trojan student-athletes: It marked USC’s 100th NCAA championship victory. Counting 22 titles in non-NCAA competitions, USC has won 122 national championships in all.

Hydrogen sulﬁde may be a toxic, smelly gas, but a study by the Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC shows it’s critical to bone health. Stem cells need the chemical to form bone tissue, suggesting a new target for osteoporosis treatment.

COLISEUM PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

T R O J A N

Neuroscientists at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have created an experimental drug that may aid in the ﬁght against Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In the lab, they found that the drug, 3K3A-APC, protects the bloodspinal cord barrier, delaying the onset of paralysis.

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Ping-Pong One of the top college teams in the country, the USC varsity team competes in nationals every year. Its 20 members include beginners, who get tips from the club’s top players. TEAM CAPTAIN KAYLEE HO: “I was able to stay competitive with table tennis because I had the opportunity to train with nationally and internationally ranked players every week during practice.”

Quidditch Players mix rugby with dodgeball as they run with broomsticks and throw volleyballs through goal posts to score. The USC team (which adamantly emphasizes Quidditch is a sport, not a Harry Potter fan club) started in 2010 and beat 19 teams to win the 2012 Western Cup. TEAM CAPTAIN NICTÉ SOBRINO: “We provide a new challenge for most people, since the rules are a mixture of many diﬀerent sports. I’ve never met anyone who tried it and didn’t enjoy themselves.”

Dragon Boat

Te Wide World of Sports With 100 NCAA titles for top-tier sports programs, it’s easy to overlook USC’s thriving community of club teams. Take a look at just a few of USC’s lesser-known sports.

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TEAM CAPTAIN HARRISON LEE: “There is no greater feeling than to be out there on race days knowing that everyone on the boat has your back and has put in the necessary work to perform at the highest level.”

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ILLUSTRATION BY JOE CIARDIELLO

Founded in 2005, this student-run team with more than 40 members is one of the best in California. Originally from China, dragon boats include a rhythmic drummer, steersman and team of paddlers who compete to cross the ﬁnish line.

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B E YO N D

As part of National Robotics Week, thousands of students, teachers and parents attend the annual USC Robotics Open House, sponsored by USC Viterbi’s Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center. The open house is part of the ongoing outreach efforts of VAST—the Viterbi Adopt-a-School, Adopt-a-Teacher program—with the goal of inspiring youth with the creative possibilities that can happen through science, technology, engineering and math.

Sugar-coated Facts You might be getting more of a sugar rush out of your soft drinks than you bargained for. Researchers at the Childhood Obesity Research Center (CORC) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC found that in sodas and juices, all sugars are not created equal. Their study showed that most soft drinks contain more high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) than many consumers are led to believe. “We found what ends up being consumed in these beverages is neither natural sugar nor HFCS, but instead a fructose-intense concoction that could increase one’s risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and liver disease,” said study lead author Michael Goran, director of CORC. “The human body isn’t designed to process this form of sugar at such high levels. Unlike glucose, which serves as fuel for the body, fructose is processed almost entirely in the liver, where it is converted to fat.” Results were consistent among the 34 beverages the researchers studied: In beverages with HFCS, the average sugar composition was 60 percent fructose and 40 percent glucose—considerably higher than the equal proportions found in sucrose (natural sugar), and challenging the industry’s claim that “sugar is sugar.”

40% GLUCOSE

60% FRUC TOSE

ROBOT PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

Long-distance Learning Professor Stephen Lu started his class on global innovation by checking in on his students. “Students in Technion, Haifa, can you see and hear us too? What about the students in Goa and Hyderabad?” Lu asked from his classroom on USC’s University Park Campus. “Yes,” came the prompt reply, as a video screen beamed images of eager students in India and Israel. Welcome to iPodia, USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s digital platform that creates a classroom without borders. Already linking universities in countries including Germany, Uganda and China, iPodia recently expanded to India. During spring semester, students at Birla Institute of Technology & Science campuses in Goa and Hyderabad, India, learned alongside peers from USC Viterbi and Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Te students discussed lectures and worked together on projects remotely in groups spanning all participating countries. “It is the next wave of distance learning,” Lu said. “Not only is USC going to the world, iPodia brings the world to USC, giving our students a global experience.”

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Being Human Once a year, around Halloween and Día de los Muertos, we dwell on death. That isn’t nearly often enough, according to Megan Rosenbloom, for whom the “undiscovered country” is a year-round scholarly pursuit. The USC medical librarian heads Death Salon, a collective of morbidly curious artists and intellectuals. Last year, the group held its first event, a three-day conference that was such a hit that Rosenbloom has taken it on the road. A London Death Salon sold out in April. A live-streamed event in San Francisco will be held on Oct. 11, followed by a meeting in New York in 2015. “Questions about death and mortality are really in the zeitgeist right now,” said Rosenbloom, who oversees the history of medicine and rare book collections at USC’s Norris Medical Library. She’s currently writing a medical history about eﬀorts to lengthen life, focusing on ethical and cultural implications. There is nothing creepy about Death Salon. Inspired by theorist Ernest Becker’s 1974 book The Denial of Death, the group is on a mission to bring back the dead as a perfectly respectable and crucial topic of conversation. Rosenbloom’s group focuses purely on historical and anthropological aspects of mortality, rather than the spiritual or paranormal. Pop horror does, however, help shed light on “our culture of death denial,” she noted. “The fact that zombies are so popular right now, I think, has a lot to do with our disconnection with what real dead bodies look like.” Rosenbloom documents how and why death went underground. Until modern times, she explains, Americans died at home, in plain view, and were buried in shallow graves wrapped in a cloth shroud. Two 19th-century developments put a stop to such “natural burials,” killing oﬀ our healthy acceptance of death as an ordinary part of life.

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The first was the flowering of medical schools, which produced an oversized demand for cadavers. A dearth of dissectible corpses spawned the profitable new profession of “resurrectionists”—or grave robbers. Enterprising merchants responded with cast-iron coffins and cement vaults, antitheft measures that soon became ubiquitous in the American funeral industry. The second development was the Civil War. In only four years, 620,000 soldiers were killed—and the undertaker’s profession was born. Bodies embalmed on the battlefield

could be safely shipped home for proper burial. Embalming remains part of traditional American burials to this day. But these practices are being challenged as baby boomers confront their own mortality. Having lived their lives by their own rules, Rosenbloom said, this generation is questioning the need for toxic formaldehyde and steel and concrete enclosures. There is increasing demand for “natural burials.” Rosenbloom advocates for similar introspection at USC, where she organized a Visions and Voices event in 2013 with

science writer Mary Roach, whose irreverent New York Times best-seller Stiﬀ: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers has done a lot to demystify death. As for Halloween and Día de los Muertos, Rosenbloom is a fan. “Having children engage with death is great,” she said. “If they’re exposed at an early age, in a nonthreatening way, that’s way healthier than trying to shelter children so much they feel they can’t ask questions.” DIANE KRIEGER

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PHOTO BY ELLI & POLLY PHOTOGRAPHY

Death Salons examine the cultural and anthropological history of mortality.

THE FIRST WAVE: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Paintings in the USC Pacific Asia Museum Collection The Changing Exhibitions Galleries: North Gallery Sept. 26, 2014 through Feb. 22, 2015 Drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, The First Wave features modern and contemporary Chinese paintings from the second half of the 20th century. The exhibition will examine Chinese art during a period when art was created to meet political demands and explore how the art of this period fits into the continuum of Chinese art history. GENG Jianyi (b. 1962), Salon de Beauté, China, 1985, oil on canvas, USC Pacific Asia Museum Collection, 1987.52.4

46 N. Los Robles Avenue Pasadena, CA. 91101-2009 Open Wednesday - Sunday 10 am - 6 pm | (626) 449-2742 paciﬁcasiamuseum.usc.edu

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Movers and Shakers The USC Iovine and Young Academy welcomes its ﬁrst class of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs. By Jessica Raymond When the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation started taking applications for its frst class, Erica Muhl was unsure what to expect. Muhl, the program’s executive director and dean of the USC Roski School of Art and Design, knew that diverse applicants would apply, but would they understand the nature of the program? As applications poured in, the admission committee breathed a sigh of relief. Soon that turned into what Muhl calls “delirious delight.” “We are in awe of who these students are and what they have accomplished,” she says, “and it’s much more than their academic stats, which are very impressive. Tey’re unafraid to question assumptions and to create entirely new paths for themselves, and others, to follow.” As part of the application, students submitted a 60-second video detailing an original idea for a product, system, technology or other potential solution for an existing problem. Applicants presented so many outstanding pitches that administrators expanded this fall’s entering class from 25 to 31. “We wanted the USC Iovine and Young Academy to be a home for students who can merge disciplines and who are not afraid of creative risk taking,” says co-founder Jimmy Iovine. “Te profle of this new class matches that perfectly.” Adds co-founder Andre Young (aka Dr. Dre): “Tese students have incredible talents, great ideas and a desire to change the world. We can’t wait to see what they’ll do.” NOT JUST DREAMERS, BUT DOERS Some students’ careers have had a jumpstart. At age 12, Macki Alvarez-Mena caused a sensation at her school with her

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hand-painted tote bags. Te demand triggered such a school-wide distraction that her principal issued a moratorium on sales. Undeterred, Alvarez-Mena quickly found a new way to distribute her bags. Her fedgling company, Macki & Co., scaled up in partnership with a screenprinter and sold bags in over 30 stores along the East Coast. “I want to create something great, and I know that if I work hard and never take no for answer, anything is possible,” she says. In seventh grade, Arjun Mehta cofounded PlaySpan, a Web marketplace that evolved into a digital payment platform. Visa acquired it in 2011 for nearly $200 million. Mehta later built Stoodle, a free online learning platform now used by tens of thousands of students and teachers around the world. “I want to use technology and entrepreneurship to make the world a better place,” Mehta says. He wrestled with skipping college to launch more startups, but the unique educational experience swayed him to come to USC. Serene Boachie is an artist, singer and musician long fascinated by electronics. While still in high school, she started an engineering club and took nearly all the engineering classes ofered at a local technical school. Her USC application video pitched her concept for a battery-powered infant car seat that would stay cool even in extreme temperatures—a project inspired by research she’d conducted for her digital electronics class. With Luke McGartland’s talents spanning design, flmmaking and robotics, no college programs piqued his interest— until he found out about the USC Iovine and Young Academy. McGartland is a consummate problem solver. Dissatisfed with the dictionaries used in his Latin classes, he founded Appineering LLC in eighth grade and launched Pocket Latin, a Latin-English dictionary app. “Every

problem has a solution,” he says. “And every solution can be improved.” BRIGHT FUTURES AHEAD Te centerpiece of the students’ frst year is the Innovator’s Forum, a yearlong workshop series with innovators who challenge students to solve problems. As they progress, the students will choose an area of focus: visual design, technology, venture management, audio design or communication. In the fourth-year “Garage” experience, they’ll take concept to prototype, using a state-ofthe-art workspace to create and test new products, systems and business solutions. “We feel tremendously fortunate and honored,” Muhl says, “to be part of the future of these remarkable students.”

CLASS PROFILE Class size: 31 Internal USC transfer: 1 USC SCions: 8 First-generation college goers: 1 GENDER Women: 32%; Men: 68% ETHNICITY African-American: 10% Latino/Hispanic: 6% Asian: 26% Asian-Indian: 3% Caucasian: 52% Decline to state: 3% GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY International countries: 3 U.S. states: 14 RANKINGS Average GPA (unweighted, 4.0 scale): 3.75 Average SAT: 2126 National Merit Finalists: 2 Gates Millenium Scholars: 1

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CREATIVITY WITH NO LIMITS

Te USC Iovine and Young Academy’s students can seamlessly merge disciplines as they take creative risks. Te 31 incoming freshmen traverse the worlds of entrepreneurship, public service, creative arts, technology and beyond.

MONTANA REED Reed has started two businesses: one that creates outdoor furniture from found materials, and another that provides home repair and maintenance, while employing six people from his local community. He plans to use 3-D design and fabrication in his next venture.

LUKE MCGARTLAND Unhappy with the dictionaries in his Latin classes, McGartland created his own Latin-English digital app.

JENNIFER HAACK A world-class guitarist with a passion for social justice, Haack has set the ambitious goal of becoming a “humanitarian rock ‘n’ roll star.”

PUBLIC SERVICE

LOUIS HARBOE Harboe got his ﬁrst freelance tech job at age 12, designing the interface for an iPhone game. Last year, he was one of the youngest developers ever to be invited to attend Apple’s exclusive Worldwide Developers Conference.

MACKI ALVAREZ-MENA At age 12, Alvarez-Mena launched a successful tote bag company, and sold her designs in 30 stores on the East Coast.

CREATIVE ARTS

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

JARED BASS Bass has won national recognition from Scholastic Books for his writing and is also a talented mechanical engineer. One of his recent design projects involved the complete restoration of a 1971 Corvette.

TECHNOLOGY

SERENE BOACHIE Boachie is an artist and musician with a ﬂair for engineering. She wants to build a battery-powered car seat to help infants stay cool.

tfm.usc.edu

JANE BYON An artistically minded scientist, Byon dazzled the application review committee with her product proposal, which not only incorporated sophisticated graphics, but also anticipated every possible hurdle in development, demographics and marketing.

ARJUN MEHTA Mehta has already created two hugely successful online platforms, including one that was acquired by Visa in 2011.

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trojan news

Monumental Tasks Every September, America remembers the lives lost on 9/11—and grapples with how best to honor them. Alison Hirsch, USC assistant professor of landscape architecture and author of City Choreographer: Lawrence Halprin in Urban Renewal America, discusses the challenges and purpose behind public memorial monuments.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE POLITICAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN DESIGNING SOMETHING SO PAINFUL? Inevitably, memorials trigger controversy, but this is what is exciting about them. They stimulate public debate and activate the public sphere. The biggest challenge for designers generally is whose history and memory are represented and what gets forgotten. … Should memorials confront the historical or political context of why these events occurred, or should they prioritize healing? Though the city of Berlin is sometimes criticized over making a tourist industry from the memorialization of the Holocaust, the palpability of the painful past preserved in the built fabric makes it a strong example of a place that is striving to recognize and confront its history. ALLISON ENGEL

#1 Flight 93 National Memorial in central Pennsylvania #2 Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. #3 World Trade Center Memorial in Manhattan, New York

A Beacon of Hope “If the memories of the Shoah survivors teach us anything, it is that silence is evil’s greatest coconspirator,” said President Barack Obama after he received the USC Shoah Foundation’s Ambassador for Humanity Award in May. In front of a star-studded audience that gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the USC Shoah Foundation, President Obama also thanked the foundation for “setting alight an eternal fame of testimony that can’t be extinguished.” And that fame is growing. Founded by USC Trustee Steven Spielberg, the USC Shoah Foundation—Te Institute for Visual History and Education has collected more than 52,000 audio-visual Holocaust survivor testimonies in 34 languages, making it the largest archive of its kind in the world. But it’s just getting started. Te foundation took another step forward with its recent creation of the Center for Advanced Genocide Research. Te center will boost scholarship on the vast store of information contained in the archive. By studying survivor stories on a large scale, researchers hope to uncover patterns that will reveal the complex causes of genocide, with the ultimate goal of preventing future tragedies. Trough its fellowship program and yearly conferences, the center will shape research and form a global network of leaders in Holocaust and genocide scholarship. Since joining USC in 2006, the foundation has progressively expanded its scope. It has documented survivor accounts of the Rwandan genocide, as well as the Nanjing massacre. Testimonies from the Armenian and Cambodian genocides will be added next year. At the press conference announcing the center, Spielberg shared his vision for the foundation’s newest expansion: “Te world now has a beacon of hope in breaking the cycle that leads to mass violence. Te USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research is where steps both incremental and monumental will be made in this march to make ‘Never Again’ a reality.” J E S S I C A R AY M O N D

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MEMORIAL PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALISON HIRSCH; OBAMA PHOTO BY JEFF KRAVITZ

WHAT MAKES FOR AN EFFECTIVE MEMORIAL? Several of the reasons why the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., works are that it’s open, it’s accessible, it’s public and it allows you to leave offerings. You can just go there and have the experience you need to have. At the World Trade Center Memorial you have to go through layers of security and stand on numerous lines, since only so many can go in at once. In other words, it’s a highly controlled experience. I visited the Flight 93 National Memorial in central Pennsylvania, which is dedicated to the plane on 9/11 that was diverted by the passengers. I wouldn’t cite it as a strong memorial, but the designers have left a number of open areas along the primary processional route that are clearly intended for people to leave oferings, kind of like shrines. In a sense, like memories, these oferings shift and change over time. The actual act of designing a memorial has to be open enough to adapt to diferent ways people interpret history or past events.

Celebrating 60 Years of helping people

Design Philanthropy. Project 25

Provide funding to establish the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC The Ostrow family, working with The Foundation for many years

What will you design?

www.jewishfoundationla.org (323) 761-8701

trojan news

Leap Forward

USC Trustee Glorya Kaufman couldn’t be happier to see construction begin for the future home of USC’s newest school, the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. “It is my hope that this magnifcent building will be a place where dance students can express themselves and explore new ways to enhance the art of dance in the 21st century,” said Kaufman at the May groundbreaking. As the USC Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center rises this fall, so grows the school’s teaching philosophy. USC Kaufman’s innovative educational model, dubbed the New Movement, will combine rigorous dance training with a fuid and interdisciplinary curriculum. Te program will also encourage students to cross disciplines through partnerships with the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the USC Tornton School of Music. “By working side by side with people in media and in music, our students will be the creators of the next wave of art in dance,” said USC Kaufman Dean Robert A. Cutietta. Te interdisciplinary aspects of the New Movement approach will nurture

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versatile performers and insightful choreographers, while also cultivating well-rounded individuals who can use their training in a broad range of felds. “Maybe our students will work in the nonproft sector or create dance-related outreach programs in after-school programs. Maybe they will develop new art forms or create new jobs, such as choreography for animation or physical therapy that is specifc to dancers,” said Jodie Gates, the school’s vice dean and director. “Tere are endless possibilities for how they will make a diference in our society.” Expect unique faculty and student research projects through partnerships with USC Dornsife’s Brain and Creativity Institute and Cedars-Sinai/USC Glorya Kaufman Dance Medicine Center. And USC Kaufman students will work with professional dancers through the school’s relationship with Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, which brings several major companies to Los Angeles each year. Te school’s doors also will open to students beyond USC Kaufman. Courses for nondance majors and dance-related

minors will invite USC’s entire student population to experience the art of movement. “I want students across our campus to understand how dance can help them think diferently and lead them to innovation,” Gates said. Te open invitation begins with the center itself. Architect William Murray of Pfeifer Partners designed a building with graceful lines to evoke the form of dance. Te ground foor will contain fve dance studios, including two for non-dance majors. Te second and third foors will house dressing rooms, a wellness center and space for future classrooms. Te top foor’s collaborative workspace will be open 24 hours a day for dance majors. Another feature is the Wall of Firsts, which will commemorate milestones in the school’s history—and they plan to have many. With construction just started, leaders announced that esteemed choreographer William Forsythe will join the faculty for the school’s entering class in 2015. Said Gates, “Tere is a renaissance happening in the dance feld, and we will lead the way.” J E S S I C A R AY M O N D

PHOTO BY ROSALIE O’CONNOR

The USC Kaufman School of Dance is poised to transform the world of dance education.

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BEYOND EXCEPTIONAL MEDICINE TM

Listening. Learning. Leading. On a quest to make health care better for everyone. Unwavering in our desire to heal. Unrelenting in the face of challenges. United for the greater good. At Keck Medicine of USC, we are not practicing medicine, we are redeﬁning it. For appointments, call: (800) USC-CARE See how we’re improving lives: KeckMedicine.org/beyond

07 0157 AD TFM CORP AD indd 1

7/15/14 2:38 PM

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

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trojan health

Matters of the Heart Keck Medicine of USC surgeons make once-extraordinary heart surgeries refreshingly routine.

STARNES PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING. OPPOSITE: PHOTO BY ADAM VOORHES, STYLING BY ROBIN FINLAY

by hope hamashige As recently as a decade ago, fixing someone’s leaky heart valve was a major repair. Surgeons had to make as much as a 5-inch-long incision in the chest and cut through the breastbone to reach that most vital of vital organs, the heart. And even when the surgery was over, it wasn’t over. Recovery from open surgery took weeks, sometimes months, and during that time patients and doctors waited and hoped there would be no complications. Times have changed. Tere have been breathtaking changes in heart surgery in the past few years, says Vaughn Starnes, an internationally recognized cardiovascular surgeon with Keck Medicine of USC. Today, Starnes routinely performs lifesaving valve repairs through a few incisions not much more than an inch long. By performing repairs and implanting replacement valves with slender instruments inserted between the ribs, surgeons can greatly reduce blood loss, risk of infection and pain after surgery. “Te changes in heart surgery in recent years have been nothing short of revolutionary,” says Starnes, chair of the Department of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Many of his patients now bounce back so quickly they often ask if they can return to work or travel before their frst postoperative visit. Surgeons at USC’s CardioVascutfm.usc.edu

lar Toracic Institute (CVTI) saw the potential of less invasive surgery in the early 2000s. Tey decided to become experts in minimally invasive valve repair, becoming some of the frst in the nation to embrace and perfect the technique. At the time, minimally invasive heart surgery had promise, but not much in the way of a track record—so it was a bold move. Today, minimally invasive surgery is

the standard for most valve replacements. CVTI surgeons now perform more than 150 such surgeries a year—more than any group in Southern California. Keck Medicine of USC heart surgeons have a history of adopting innovative techniques they believe will signifcantly help patients. Tey were among the pioneers of robotic heart surgery. Tey were among the frst in the western United States to

“The changes in heart surgery in recent years have been nothing short of revolutionary,” says USC’s Vaughn Starnes.

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trojan health

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CVTI’s heart surgeons recently started performing even less invasive operations called percutaneous procedures. Using catheters threaded up to the heart through a vein in the leg, the surgeons performed their frst percutaneous valve replacement in 2011. Since that time, Keck Medicine of USC surgeons have performed more than 200 of these procedures, which may pose even less risk than today’s typical minimally invasive operations. Tey have also used percutaneous techniques to repair aortic dissections—potentially fatal tears in the wall of the aorta—with high survival rates and fewer complications. “It has been an exciting few years in cardiac surgery,” Baker says, “and we see many more exciting changes on the horizon.”

Help for the Tiniest Hearts

“We treat every patient as unique and every patient as an individual.” CRAIG BAKER

They’re the words no expecting mom or dad wants to hear about their soon-to-be-born child: “We need to run some tests.” But for parents grappling with the prospect of heart-related birth defects, Keck Medicine of USC physicians offer expertise during a difficult time. Congenital heart defects are among the most common birth defects in the United States. Nine out of every 1,000 live births, or 36,000 babies born in the country every year, have a congenital heart disorder, according to the American Heart Association. And while children can develop problems such as arrhythmias, the vast majority of heart problems in kids are due to congenital defects. These range from holes in the heart to severe malformations, such as missing one of the chambers or valves. A hole in the heart, which physicians call atrioventricular septal defect, is the third-most common birth defect behind Down syndrome and cleft palate. The news is steadily improving, though. Many children born with heart problems are surviving into adulthood, and for the first time ever, adults now make up more than half of the living population born with a heart defect. Contributing to the advances: Some surgeons, including a team at Keck Medicine of USC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), can now operate on the hearts of unborn babies and perhaps even prevent a heart defect. In 2013, Keck Medicine of USC surgeons became the first in Southern California to perform what’s called an aortic valvuloplasty on a 25-week-old fetus. The fetus’s heart had a valve that had become so narrowed it was keeping a chamber from developing correctly. The procedure involved inserting a special needle through the mother’s belly, into the womb, through the fetus’s chest, and into the fetal heart. They threaded a wire the width of a hair through the needle and inserted a tiny balloon to open the aortic valve, which is about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. It’s a delicate surgery with significant risks, but without it, the baby would likely have been born with the lifethreatening heart condition known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Only a few hospitals perform heart surgery on fetuses, says Ramen Chmait, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of Los Angeles Fetal Therapy. In some cases, physicians perform surgery to make babies strong enough to survive the additional surgery they’ll need after they’re born. “People come to us when their babies are very sick,” says Chmait, noting that for most parents the decision to operate on an unborn child is one of the hardest they will ever make. “There is great synergy here because we all work together to find the best solution. It’s great when we can help babies and then turn them over to the care of other doctors at CHLA knowing they’re in the very best possible shape they could be.”

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PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

implant an artifcial heart in a patient and, using new technology, discharged her safely to the comfort of home. And as much as technology is driving the practice of medicine, Keck Medicine of USC surgeons understand that providing top care means never losing sight of the basics: solid diagnoses, comprehensive treatment plans and teams of health professionals dedicated to the needs of each patient. Craig Baker, associate professor of surgery at Keck School of Medicine of USC and chief of cardiac surgery at LAC+USC Medical Center, says the tailored team approach applies to all cardiac patients seen at Keck Medicine of USC. “We treat every patient as unique and every patient as an individual,” Baker says. Keck Medicine of USC’s Ramen Chmait, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of Los Angeles Fetal Terapy, grabbed headlines last year for performing what’s called an aortic valvuloplasty—the use of a balloon to open a narrowed heart valve—on a fetus for the frst time in Southern California. Chmait consults with USC cardiac surgeons and pediatric cardiologists at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), who are Keck School of Medicine faculty, to create a plan with the best chance of success. (See sidebar.) “We work together to diagnose the conditions and come up with a plan so that at birth the baby is in the best condition that is possible,” Chmait says. Advances in operating on both fetuses and babies means that more infants and children with heart problems are surviving, and it’s now typical for Keck Medicine of USC surgeons to continue to care for them as they age. Tere are now more adults living with congenital heart disease than children, says Baker, who also serves as surgical director of the Adult Congenital Heart Program at Keck Medicine of USC. “We have established a transition clinic at CHLA to facilitate the care of congenital heart disease patients as they mature into adulthood,” he notes. At a time when technology has allowed for revolutionary changes in heart surgery, Keck Medicine of USC’s team says the revolution is just beginning.

H E A LT H

T H E

N U M B E R S :

H E A R T

Keck Medicine’s Heart and Thoracic Surgeons • Southern California’s FIRST PERCUTANEOUS HEART VALVE SURGERY, a minimally invasive procedure using a catheter threaded through a groin artery, was performed at Keck Medical Center of USC in 2011. • In 2011, they performed the FIRST ARTIFICIAL HEART SURGERY ON THE WEST COAST on a patient who was able to leave the hospital. • They conduct about 200 MINIMALLY INVASIVE PROCEDURES EVERY YEAR, more than most academic medical institutions. • The FIRST ROBOTIC HEART SURGERY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA was performed at Keck Medical Center of USC in 2001. • THE FIRST LIVE-DONOR DOUBLE LOBAR LUNG TRANSPLANT on a patient with cystic ﬁbrosis was done in 1993.

2,000

Heart surgeries performed each year by Keck Medicine of USC cardiovascular surgeons at three primary hospitals: Keck Hospital of USC, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and LAC+USC Medical Center.

WHY FAULT Y VALVES MAT TER Most people with heart valve issues have only a heart murmur. But valve disease can cause these problems: • Shortness of breath • Heart palpitations • Edema (swelling from ﬂuid retention) • Dizziness • Quick weight gain • Chest pain • Heart attack, if left untreated

5MILLION

A Top Stop for Valve Repair

S U R G E R Y

Americans diagnosed with heart valve disease each year.

Heart Chart: The Valves PULMONARY VALVE Allows blood to move from heart to lungs

MITRAL VALVE Allows blood to ﬂow from top left chamber to bottom left chamber

AORTIC VALVE Allows blood to go to rest of body

TRICUSPID VALVE Allows blood to ﬂow from top right chamber to bottom right chamber

tfm.usc.edu

N E A R LY

80%

Percentage of total procedures performed by Keck Medicine of USC cardiovascular surgeons that involve repair or replacement of heart valves

Aging As the population grows older and people live longer, the risk of developing heart problems increases, and more people are developing heart valve disease.

600

Heart operations performed annually by Keck Medicine of USC surgeons at hospitals including Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, Garﬁeld Medical Center in Monterey Park and Citrus Valley Medical Center in Covina. “We have always had a strategy of bringing our concepts to the community,” says Vaughn Starnes, Hastings Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Surgery and director of the CardioVascular Thoracic Institute.

FOUR VALVES KEEP BLOOD MOVING THROUGH THE HUMAN HEART But sometimes valves fail to fully close, causing blood to flow backward. Stiff valves can also block blood ﬂow. These valve problems can start from birth or might be caused by infections, heart attacks or heart disease. Some valves just get leakier as we age.

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autumn 2014

Dawn Patrol Trojans weigh in on that most quintessential of Southern California sports: surﬁng. by Agustin Gurza

the idea came to them, appropriately enough, while they were surf ng, bobbing on the ocean and daydreaming about how to combine work and fun—the classic surfer’s dream. Longtime friends, surfers and family men Peter Westwick and Peter Neushul also have a profession in common: historian. So, they thought, why not explore the past through surfing, the sport they love? Westwick, USC assistant professor of history, and Neushul, researcher and lecturer in history at UC Santa Barbara, did just that, first through a class at UCSB and then through their 2013 book, The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing. It’s considered, as one former pro surfer put it, “the most scholarly and comprehensive history of the sport.” tfm.usc.edu

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Peter Westwick conducted research for his book in the ﬁeld, including surﬁng the waves of Hawaii.

Surﬁng is woven into the Southern California mystique, even though the sport originated thousands of miles away.

Did you worry that your colleagues in academia would look down their noses at a project conceived on a surfoard? We worried about that at frst, that surf history would be seen as kind of dilettantism. And sometimes sports history in general is viewed that way, though that’s changing, thankfully. But when we approached [UCSB] about ofering this class, they were all for it. And then we got this tremendous response and had to turn away hundreds of students. So obviously a lot of students wanted to learn about this stuf, and while they were there, we also taught them important history on serious subjects: colonialism, race and gender issues, the military-industrial complex, modern technology, commercialization, globalization. We hear a lot nowadays about the decline of California, with the housing crash and industry leaving. Has that hurt surﬁng? Well, it certainly afected the surf industry. People stopped buying everything, from surfboards to T-shirts, and the major [surf ] frms took a huge hit in the recession. But this is not the frst time the state has been through one of these dips. When California came back before, the surf community came back with it. As historians, we want to explain why a particular event happened in this

particular time and place, and not earlier or later, and not somewhere else. Why, then, did this Polynesian pastime become so identifed with California? Tere are a number of reasons. One is the development of defense industry technologies. Te invention of the wetsuit, for use by Navy frogmen, was huge for California. You hear stories about guys surfng in the winter back in the ’50s, pre-wetsuit, who’d go out for 10 minutes, catch one wave and then be back on the beach in front of a fre because they’d be hypothermic. Even in summertime, the water’s not that warm. So surfng in California would be tenuous without the wetsuit. But then there’s also the demand, which comes from all these kids whose families have been lifted up into the middle class by that tremendous infusion of defense money. Tey are the ones who are then going out and buying surfboards, and they have the time and the money to go hang out on the beach. Surfng has been this leisure-time activity that depends on a certain amount of afuence in society. The picture you portray in the book is not the idyllic “Surﬁn’ U.S.A.” Did you worry about creating a negative image of the sport? We were very conscious that there were some myths out there in the surf literature that needed to be punctured. Maybe we’re not sufciently—I’m trying to think of the right word here—reverent about surfng. We love surfng. We’ve been surfng for over 30 years, each one of us. We’re teaching our kids to surf. But we also think there are things in surfng’s past that need to be talked about, like issues of race, gender discrimination, even environmental activism, or the lack of it. Everybody in the book seems to have a ﬂaw or a downfall or a sad ending. We weren’t consciously trying to write an antihero, critical book. We fnd many surfers to admire, starting with Duke Kahanamoku. As historians, though, we understand that people are complicated. Existing surf books have presented the heroic side. So in a sense we’re kind of a corrective for the promotion of heroic legends like Miki Dora. Dora, dubbed the king of Malibu, was infamous for painting a swastika on his surfboard. Te guy was a fantastic surfer, but he was a bigot. He was

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WESTWICK PHOTO BY MEDEIGHNIA WESTWICK; POSTCARD COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

Here, Westwick discusses how surfing changed—and was changed by—shifting world tides.

A pool that delivers every surfer’s dream curl on demand? It could happen.

WAVE MACHINE RENDERING COURTESY OF KELLY SLATER WAVE COMPANY; SLATER PHOTO © KYLE SPARKS/AURORA PHOTOS/CORBIS; TEAM PHOTO USC VITERBI / NOÉ MONTES

Engineering Perfect Waves USC engineering researcher Adam Fincham PhD ’94 has been designing a machine to create the perfect wave every surfer dreams about. Turns out that was the easy part. The bigger challenge has been to churn out waves like the ocean does, in diferent sizes, shapes and intensities. “Initially, we just were out there to create the best possible, biggest kind of wave,” says Fincham, an associate research professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. “And now we realize what people really want is this variability in the wave. So we’ve been able to devise a system that lets us have better control of the waves and really tailor them for the level of the surfer, from a professional to a beginner.” Fincham is an aerospace engineer specializing in geophysical fluid dynamics—the study of fow and motion in large bodies of liquid, like oceans. Seven years ago, Fincham teamed with legendary pro surfer Kelly Slater on a quest to create a Magic Mountain of surfing: a park for the public ofering a circular pool that delivers a perfect wave on demand. The alluring vision of the Kelly Slater Surf Experience, complete with its own island, promises a celebration of beach culture and surf lifestyle. The project is close to fruition, says Fincham, now part of the Kelly Slater Wave Co. Testing in Los Angeles on a prototype 40 feet across shows that “everything will scale up as we predict” in a full-size wave pool, which requires fve acres, he says. “We’re 100 percent confdent it will work.”

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To create waves, the system uses a unique system of hydrofoils that run along a track around the perimeter of the circular pool. Ideally, two waves would be created simultaneously at opposite points on the pool. Surfers who wipe out would have enough time to get up before the next wave comes around. But funding is less predictable. Skeptics see an endless wave machine as a pipe dream. The team is working on a less expensive system that could be implemented sooner, Fincham says, though details on that technology are confdential. The wave pools will be ideal for training, Slater has said, because surfers won’t have to wait for the next perfect ocean wave to practice advanced maneuvers. According to Fincham, even the large circular shape simulates the peak surfng experience because “it’s very similar to a continuous point break.” Surfers seek out natural point breaks on the coast because “the wave kind of curves in … and focuses the energy into a tighter spot, creating a slightly bigger wave.” Still, can the real surf experience, often described as a spiritual communion with nature, be replicated on a man-made wave? “We don’t see it so much as an amusement park,” says Fincham, a native of Jamaica and self-described amateur surfer. “We try as hard as we can to create a vibe that is along the spirit of true surfng, as well as you can in an artifcial environment.” AGUSTIN GURZA

MIDDLE: Kelly Slater, the most-crowned champion in pro surfing, dreams of pairing technology with surf culture at a unique park.

ABOVE: USC’s Adam Fincham (third from left) and his team want to create the perfect wave machine.

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Read more from Peter Westwick at tfm.usc.edu/2014-surfng. Learn more about the club at facebook.com/usc.surfteam.

Surfin’ USC Even though USC’s campuses are located downtown and in east Los Angeles, the university has a thriving surfing community— and chances are some of the surfers you see zipping up their wetsuits to paddle out at area beaches might just be Trojans. SURFING FOR CREDIT For students enrolled in Physical Education 115 (aka Surfing), life’s a beach—but that doesn’t mean they won’t be tested on it. “The for-credit class is a unique thing. I get the chance to see students progress for 16 weeks in every stage and to teach all aspects,” says Ian Culbertson, instructor for this fall semester. A lifelong surfer with a BS in marine biology from UC Santa Cruz, Culbertson wants to teach students about the sport’s many dimensions. “It’s not just all about surfing,” Culbertson says. “It’s about wave forecasting, ocean geography and how we protect our coasts.” On Friday mornings, the class meets at Lifeguard Tower 26 in Santa Monica, less than 15 miles from the University Park Campus. Provided with foam boards and wetsuits, students learn the fundamentals of surfing, from paddling out to popping up on the board and riding waves. The syllabus also includes surf etiquette, ocean safety, coastal geography, tide and wind forecasting, surfoard anatomy, the history of the sport and, yes, written exams. Not surprisingly, the 19-person course fills quickly. COMPETITIVE SURFING If you’re looking for students who balance surfing with term papers and organic chemistry, look no further than the USC Surf Team.

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As a club with a limited budget, it pays for its travels through funding from alumni and sponsors and by giving surf lessons. “There are a lot of recreational surfers on campus and others who want to learn,” says Zach Emge, team co-captain. The junior business major from San Diego took surfing into consideration when he was looking at colleges. “USC had an active surf team and that’s what sold me,” he says. About 50 students make up the co-ed club, with a core group of 20 who compete seriously. Trojan surfers take part in National Scholastic Surfing Association competitions at beaches from Ventura to San Diego. For the 2013–2014 season, Trojans advanced to the final rounds at the Interscholastic State Championships, where sophomore Casey Powell placed second in the longboard competition. Surfing as a sport is different than, say, football. The surfers’ practice field—the ocean—is shared by everyone, so competitors hit the surf in small groups of two to four for safety. Time plays a role as well, as surf conditions and class schedules provide small windows of opportunity. “It means we work a lot harder to get to the beach, but it’s worth it,” Emge says. The team maintains a Facebook page with updates and recently collaborated with film students from the USC School of Cinematic Arts to create surf videos. Team members might be relatively low-profile, but they’re proud of their sport. “A common question you get when you’re out and meeting people is, ‘What [Greek] house are you in?’” Emge says. “We all just say, ‘Surf Team.” STEF MCDONALD

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PHOTO BY SCOTT WINER

Zach Lana, co-captain of the USC Surf Team with Zach Emge, takes on a wave. The team was refounded in 2009 as an oﬀshoot of the USC Surf Club.

charismatic and a lot of people loved him. But you have to call him out when he’s just spouting racist garbage. You mention that other surfers were largely silent about Dora’s racism. What does that say about the surf community in general? We don’t want to say that surfers are racist. Surfng came out of Hawaii and dark-skinned people were its originators. Later, there are instances of Hawaiians going to South Africa under apartheid, and the South African surfers sticking up for them. So we want to be careful about using a broad brush. But the fact remains if you go surfng in most lineups in California, it’s a lot of white faces. As historians, we step back and say, well, what are the reasons for that? Is it because surfers are racist, or is it because of socioeconomic reasons? At one time, people had high hopes for surfng to mature as a professional sport. Did it fall short of its ambitions? Yes, and this connects to one of the really big themes of the book, which is this tension between two images of surfng. One is really a romantic view that goes back to its Hawaiian roots—the surfer as individual, out there alone in the elements, just you and nature, almost quasi-spiritual. Te other is the modern version—the middle-class, mainstream, commercialized, professionalized sport using high technology. Surfng has always really wrestled with these competing

images. Every time surfng starts becoming more mainstream and commercial, there’s a little bit of an undertow or backlash within the surfng community. It almost seems like there’s a built-in governor on how big surfing gets, because as soon as it starts to get more mainstream, surfers start pulling back. Which image do you personally buy into: the romantic or the modern? One of the occupational hazards of being a historian is cynicism. And so you see this romantic image and you think, OK, the surf industry is packaging this and selling it to the public to make money. But we had this experience while we were in Hawaii doing research. One evening, we just jump in the ocean right at Waikiki, the cradle of surfng, where all the old legends say ancient Hawaiians went surfng. We paddle out, warm waters, setting sun. We hear the ukulele music coming from the beach and we’re out there catching these fun little waves. And it was just this—I don’t want to say magical—but just a fantastic experience. And that reminded us why people still believe in this romantic image, because there is this grain of truth in it.

Miki Dora, photographed here in Malibu in 1963, was an antihero of the surfng world.

I still sense a little intellectual hesitation, like it’s hard for you to just say you were stoked out there. Yeah, we were stoked! Tat’s a great way to put it. It was an amazing experience. It was a blast. We were out in the water high-fving each other. Tat’s what it’s all about.

Malibu became the epicenter of surf culture in the 1950s.

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VISIONARY SCIENCE at usc eye institute, stem cells, wearable computers and biomedical implants are doing what was once impossibleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;restoring lost sight. B Y K AT H A R I N E G A M M O N

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As the researcher and his postdoc turn their eyes to the screen before us, everything fades to black. Ten 60 pixels appear, in varying shades of gray. Tis is a hint of what it’s like to be blinded by retinitis pigmentosa—and then to regain that stolen vision with the help of technology.

THE USC EYE INSTITUTE AT A GLANCE MAIN LOCATION Keck Medical Center of USC, east of downtown Los Angeles, with satellite centers in Pasadena, Beverly Hills and Arcadia RANK Top 10 ophthalmology program by Ophthalmology Times and U.S.News & World Report for the 24th year RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS • Therapy for corneal disorders through PROSE (prosthetic replacement of the ocular surface ecosystem) • The FDA-approved Argus II retinal device • Clinical trials for severe uveitis, infammation of eye tissue • The latest surgical techniques for glaucoma LEGACY Ten former faculty members and graduates from USC Eye Institute training programs currently hold ophthalmology chair positions throughout the nation.

Te pixels are difcult to parse, but when a little blur is added, I can make out the image on the visual prosthesis simulator’s screen: It’s a smiling face. For people regaining the ability to see, this simple grin could transform their ability to interact with the world. It’s all thanks to a retinal prosthesis system called Argus II, one of the high-tech tools developed partly through the USC Eye Institute at Keck School of Medicine of USC. Researchers at the institute are rapidly advancing the science of vision and bringing together physicians and scientists to develop treatments through optical, electronic, biomedical and materials technology. Teir work has a potentially huge impact: More than 4.1 million Americans over age 40 sufer from some vision impairment, including serious eye diseases such as glaucoma, which afects 2.7 million people. Nearly 1.3 million people in the U.S. can’t see at all. Now new devices and treatments are countering once-incurable eye diseases. Te world’s frst retinal prosthesis and artifcial retina, Argus I (manufactured by Second Sight Medical Products), was researched and developed by Mark Humayun, USC professor of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, and cell and neurobiology, who frst implanted it in patients in a clinical trial in 2002. Te updated version, Argus II, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients in 2013. Te device provides limited but useful vision to patients with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative disease that afects the light-sensing cells of the retina. During the simulation, I experienced the world from the point of view of a person who suddenly receives sight thanks to the Argus II. Te demonstration can’t exactly replicate what that person sees—how we see the world difers from person to person—but it illustrates the experience powerfully.

THE SYSTEM The Argus II uses a camera mounted on special glasses that sends a video signal to an electronic receiver connected to a 60-electrode array implanted in the eye. EYE Camera mounted on glasses

Transmitting antenna

Retina

Implanted electrode array

Photoreceptor cells

Receiver

CROSS SECTION OF RETINA

RPE cells damaged by disease Electrode array Retinal ganglion cells

To microprocessor worn on belt (NOT TO SCALE)

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A tiny camera could one day be placed directly in the eye to bring sight to the blind.

THE VISION

VARMA PHOTO BY VAN URFALIAN; ELECTRODE PHOTO BY PHILIPPE PSAILA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

ROHIT VARMA, DIRECTOR OF THE USC EYE INSTITUTE, AIMS TO BRING VISION TO THOSE MOST IN NEED.

Te retinal prosthesis uses a camera mounted on glasses that sends a wireless signal to an electronic receiver with 60 electrodes implanted in and around the eye. Te electrodes send controlled electrical pulses to stimulate the remaining neurons in the otherwise blind retina. Wearers can make out large objects and see light and dark. In the next generation, the 6-by-10-pixel grid will likely grow to 12 by 20 pixels, adding further clarity to the picture. Because the camera is mounted on glasses, the wearer must turn her head where she wants to look. But Humayun and his colleague, Armand Tanguay, USC professor of electrical engineering-electrophysics, biomedical engineering and ophthalmology, are already working to improve on that. Tey’re developing a tiny camera that could be placed inside the eye along with the electrode array. Tat way, the wearer’s perspective would be synced with the eyes instead of the head. But making an ultra-miniature camera is no trivial task. “We have to violate most of the principles that we teach in class to fgure out how we’d make a camera this small,” Tanguay says. Measuring about 3 millimeters by 4.5 millimeters, it’s a third the size of a Tic-Tac. It’s designed to ft inside the crystalline lens sac, just behind the iris in the eye. BATTLING BLINDNESS, ONE COMPUTER AT A TIME Blending science, health, technology and research was key to developing the complex retinal prosthesis, and USC researchers aren’t stopping there. One project in development takes a complementary approach to wearable visual aids. It uses a wearable computer that can interpret the visual information captured by several miniature cameras mounted on a pair of glasses. James Weiland, USC professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering, who has helped develop intraocular retinal prostheses, explains how it could work. “Let’s say I work as a receptionist and someone comes up to me,” he says. “Te system would alert me that you’re there and instruct me to look up. Or I could ask it, ‘Where’s my phone?’ And the system would say, ‘It’s down and to the right.’” Research shows that blind people follow simple voice commands to navigate through complex environments, Weiland says. Te system would work like a more sophisticated pedestrian GPS, advising the wearer to go left or right to avoid obstacles. Te team tfm.usc.edu

Rohit Varma wants to help the world get a little crisper and clearer. When he was growing up, he was enraptured with his uncle, an ophthalmologist. “I would spend vacations with him, learning about his surgery and research. I was completely fascinated with vision and how important it was,” Varma recalls. He earned a master’s degree in public health at Johns Hopkins University. After his medical residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, he joined a project to analyze images of the optic nerve, which connects the back of the eye to the brain. Varma’s interest in public health quickly crept into his research. During his 19 years at Keck School of Medicine of USC as a professor, he launched the infuential Multiethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study and the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study, as well as studies into African-American and Chinese-American groups, to understand the impact of eye disease in ethnic communities. After spending two years at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infrmary at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Varma in February returned to the Keck School as chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the USC Eye Institute. The ability to work in Los Angeles’ diverse communities was a big draw. “I’ve had numerous collaborations with faculty and staf, and most of the community work is done in LA,” Varma says. “I wanted to look into the burden of eye disease on infants and preschool children in Glendale, Monterey Park and Inglewood, older African-Americans in Inglewood, Latinos in La Puente, and Chinese-Americans in Monterey Park and Alhambra.” His own experiences inspired some of his work. When Varma’s son needed glasses, Varma had no idea until the boy’s school notifed him. “That highlighted the problem to me: If even I didn’t notice vision problems, how would people not related to an ophthalmologist get the care they need?” he says. “One of the interesting things we found in our study was that 90 percent of children who had a need for an eye exam had never been seen by an eye doctor. There’s a real need for getting better school vision screenings to identify these vulnerable children.” In many ways, the Los Angeles area is a microcosm of the United States, and it’s tough to fnd any other place with so many ethnic communities, Varma says. “That’s why Los Angeles is such a wonderful community laboratory for us. It provides us with so much insight into people in a relatively small geographic area.” An expert in glaucoma, Varma helped pioneer the development of imaging techniques that aid in the early diagnosis of glaucomatous optic nerve damage. He also is involved in developing pressure sensors and drainage devices that could be implanted inside the eye, with the potential to control or improve glaucoma. While all medical research seeks to make a diference in people’s lives, Varma is proud that ophthalmology has a unique ability to change a patient’s day-to-day quality of life. “We are fortunate in ophthalmology that we have some of the most impactful surgical procedures, like cataract surgery, that bring back vision people had lost,” Varma says. “It’s almost like a miracle—the world all of a sudden is clearer and crisper and colorful and meaningful.”

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Mark Humayun, left, and James Weiland bring engineering together with medicine to fnd answers for vision problems.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD THROUGH AN ARTIFICIAL RETINA The Argus II retinal prosthesis allows patients with retinitis pigmentosa—a degenerative eye disease that impairs vision and eventually leads to blindness—to regain the use of their vision. But doctors caution that they’ll be gaining limited computer vision, not the human vision they may remember. The Argus II allows blind patients to see monochromatic shades of gray and black at a 6-by-10 pixelation, though a few have reported seeing some colors. Humayun and his team are currently working on next-generation intraocular retinal prostheses that will hopefully at least double the resolution to a 12-by-20 pixelation and potentially allow patients to see in color.

Normal Vision

Retinitis pigmentosa with a currentgeneration retinal prosthesis

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Retinitis pigmentosa with a nextgeneration retinal prosthesis

HOW WE SEE All of these technologies rely on an understanding of how vision works. Te retina, multiple layers of tissue along the back wall of the eye where light-sensing cells are housed, is actually part of the brain. Light is detected by 100 million photoreceptors in the back of the eye and translated into electrical signals. One of the reasons that so much of the brain is devoted to vision is the staggering amount of information transmitted. In contrast, the ear only has about 50,000 sound-detecting hair cells. “We get so much of our information to function in the world from vision. We really are visual animals,” Weiland says. Humayun’s research into prosthetics began when his grandmother started to go blind. His research showed that despite near-total loss of the light-sensing cells in patients with retinitis pigmentosa, working neurons still remained in the inner part of their retinas. “Tese were retinal ganglion cells that had been sitting there dormant for three decades,” Tanguay says. “Yet they were still viable. If you lay your arm down and leave it for three days without moving autumn 2014

PHOTO BY CHRIS SHINN

SEEING THE FUTURE

is developing novel cameras and biologically inspired algorithms to take video and reduce the complexity of the world down to the essentials: where a sidewalk is, where a stop sign is or where an obstacle is. Te glasses could be paired with a smart vest that gives physical signals, guiding a person toward something (like a particular product in the supermarket) or away from danger. Function is only half the equation when it comes to designing a wearable biomedical device or product. “Cosmesis—how something looks—is really important,” Weiland adds. “Sunglasses would probably be OK. But anything that has a large, obvious piece of hardware isn’t going to fy.” Te team has tested a complete prototype system with people who use a smartphone interface to navigate a course or try to reach for a particular object. Funding from the U.S. Army supports this research; traumatic brain injuries are the signature injury of the Gulf wars, and 30 percent to 50 percent of people with brain injuries have visual symptoms that range from blurred or double vision to more debilitating injuries, Weiland says. Wearable devices could aid people with a wide range of visual impairments, the researchers say, including low vision, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, which renders people blind by damaging the blood vessels of the retina.

PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

it and try to pick it up again, you’ll defnitely notice that the muscles start to atrophy. But these output cells were still viable 30 years after they stopped getting signals.” In 1992, Humayun found that stimulating a tiny region of these cells with an electrical signal allowed a patient to see light. “When the patient could see an electrical pulse from the electrode as a spot of light, that turned everything,” Humayun says. “Tat made me realize that we have to develop this. Clearly the brain can receive the signal, and this electrical current is not spread everywhere in the eye, but can in fact be confned to a very small area, directly corresponding to where on the retina we put the electrode.” A healthy eye has a resolution of about 4,000 by 4,000 pixels, and a laptop screen is 1,000 by 1,000 pixels, but USC research shows that a person only needs about 25 by 25 pixels (625 pixels) to function in daily life. Right now, patients with the Argus generally see grays and blacks, although some have reported seeing a few colors. Increased resolution and color vision are on the wish list for future generations of prosthetic devices. Researchers are studying other strategies as well. In the future, the need for retinal prostheses might be avoided through early interventions and genetic therapies. Te earliest changes in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss after age 50, occur in what are called retina pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. In advanced AMD, patients lose RPE cells in the macula, a central part of the retina that’s critical to seeing precisely. In lab studies, David Hinton, professor of pathology, neurological surgery and ophthalmology at Keck School of Medicine of USC, and his team have grown stem cell-derived cells that can be surgically implanted under the retina, replacing diseased cells and preventing further damage to the photoreceptors, the light-sensitive cells of the macula and rest of the retina. Tey’ve been able to delay degeneration and restore vision in lab models. Te researchers hope to open the investigational treatment to patients in a clinical trial in spring 2015. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE With an aging population, eye-related diseases are likely to touch a growing number of people every year. AMD currently afects more than 2 million Americans over 50. By 2020, another 2.95 million are expected to be diagnosed with the disease. Te need for solutions to vision problems will only keep mounting, but the scientists are readying for the call. Tey might even make artifcial vision more powerful, in some ways, than the original. Back at the visual prosthesis simulator screen, Tanguay shares some other high-tech ways the scientists are trying to restore sight. For one, they’re designing an ultra-miniature, wide-view camera that can provide eye-directed vision when it’s linked with an eye tracker and a prosthesis implanted in the eye. He shows me a picture of a kitchen, and I can make out the stove, table and chairs. “Now imagine if something were dropped in the kitchen,” he says. “You’d be able to fnd where it rolled.” Te simple act of fnding an escaped carrot—a difcult task for a blind person—could be nothing short of revolutionary. tfm.usc.edu

THE ROAD AHEAD AFTER RECEIVING FDA APPROVAL, THE ARGUS II IS FITTED FOR ITS FIRST PATIENT AT USC. When she was a kid, Lisa Kulik used to watch “Romper Room,” a children’s TV series that aired from 1953 to 1994. “Every episode used to end with the lady looking into her magic mirror and ‘seeing’ all the children around the world,” Kulik says. “I used to think she could see me too.” It’s been 30 years since Kulik has been able to see into any mirror. Kulik has retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which steadily stole her eyesight starting at age 21. “The doctors told me there was no cure for RP,” Kulik says. She has lived quietly with her family, never venturing alone past her driveway. In 2000, she had the last real glimpse of her sons: 6-foot Joey receiving his high school diploma; blue-eyed Danny’s thrilling ninth-inning RBI in the season’s fnal baseball game. Then, in 2012, her husband, Ed, saw a news story about the Argus II retinal prosthesis system developed by the USC Eye Institute. Perhaps this could be Kulik’s real magic mirror. PATTERNS OF LIGHT It’s June 2, 2014, and Kulik prepares to become only the second patient nationwide to undergo the procedure to implant the Argus II since its Food and Drug Administration approval. During the surgery, Lisa Olmos de Koo, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Keck School of Medicine of USC, makes a tiny incision into the sclera—the white part of Kulik’s eye—to slide in a 60-electrode array. Some fve hours later, Kulik wakes. Soon she’ll be ready to see her new world with computer vision—essentially a 6-by-10 grid that shows patterns of light. In Kulik’s frst Argus II “ftting” session, James Weiland, USC professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering, helps her fne-tune the device. “It was a quick fash—more of a straight line to the left. It went from here over to here. Like a snake, kind of,” Kulik says, as he tests the electrodes. Pleased, Weiland declares the frst ftting a success. “It’s really artifcial vision,” he explains. “You’ll learn to use it in a whole new way.” On her last day at Keck Hospital of USC, Kulik takes her Argus II glasses outside for the frst time. When her husband lets go of her arm, Kulik’s confdence falters. A guiding hand, whether it belonged to Ed or her friends and family, has accompanied her for more than 15 years. Then, using a controller at her waist, Kulik adjusts the Argus II’s settings. She begins to notice the contrast of the road—dark asphalt on the street, the lighter pavement of the sidewalk, the dark shape of a bush. As Ed watches proudly, Kulik uses her “magic mirror”— and slowly takes her frst steps toward a new life. ADAM SMITH

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the rise of troy BY DIANE KRIEGER

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Cars once drove the streets by the Bovard Administration Building, as seen in this image from the 1920s. Over time, the campus has consolidated and thoroughfares became pedestrian walkways.

says USC President C. L. Max Nikias, who spearheaded the USC Village planning effort. “We are growing to the north in a big way. USC Village will no longer be adjacent to the campus. It will be the campus.” It’s not only USC’s largest building project; it’s the most expansive development project in the history of South Los Angeles. In their initial reviews, city planners projected it would pump $5.2 billion into the local economy. “USC Village will provide the rich, academically focused, living-learning environment our outstanding undergraduates deserve,” Nikias says. Construction has already started. Occupying a 15-acre site bordered by Jefferson Boulevard, McClintock Avenue, and Hoover and 30th streets, the $650 million development project replaces the outdated University Village mall. Built in the 1960s and owned by USC since 1999, University Village’s restaurants, cinema, market and shops were demolished earlier this year. While it expands USC’s usable building space at University Park by about 20 percent, USC Village also will change Trojan academics and the student experience, becoming central to university life. “Te USC Village,” says Ainsley Carry, vice provost for student afairs, “is going to be a game-changer for our campus. We are creating a residential community that all students, faculty, staf and friends of USC can enjoy.” USC AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD, TRANSFORMED “USC Village will be transformative not only for USC but also for our neighborhood,” says Tomas Sayles, senior vice president for university relations. What used to be an ofsite shopping center will become an integral part of campus. But it goes beyond academics. USC Village will mean growth and retail amenities for neighborhood residents. At street level, restaurants, a grocery store and dozens of shops and businesses will cater to USC students, faculty and staf as well as neighborhood residents, with plenty of parking.

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HISTORIC PHOTO COURTESY OF USC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

Imagine a bustling, welcoming residential community where Trojans can eat, sleep, study, play, dream, mingle and, above all, discover themselves. Picture inviting residence halls with private courtyards opening onto an inviting town square. A scholarly enclave churning with possibilities—outdoor concerts, poetry readings, street theater. A place where undergraduates can hang out with distinguished faculty outside the classroom. Where students can stargaze or sip a latte, strum a guitar or cram for fnals, take a cardio class or doze under a shady tree. USC Village will bring this vision to life—and revolutionize the landscape of the university. Tis 1.25-million-square-foot, residential-retail center on the north side of the University Park Campus will feature a cluster of fve-story residence halls encircling a grand plaza that will form the pinnacle of student life at USC. For up to 2,700 students each year, USC Village will be home away from home. “Tis is by far the biggest thing USC has ever done, and probably ever will do,”

THE NUMBERS Total USC investment and expenditures on USC Village

650

MILLION

Entirely funded by USC, the USC Village project will stimulate LA’s economy. It will create thousands of jobs, many of them permanent, and boost tax revenues by millions of dollars. USC aims to fll at least 30 percent of the jobs with local residents. USC Village will bring “real, tangible benefts to our community and the entire city,” says Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price, whose district includes USC. “It’s also going to act as a catalyst, I think, to encourage additional businesses to invest in the area.” In connection with the project, USC will provide more than $40 million in community benefts. Te university will spend nearly $20 million to upgrade roads around USC Village, especially Jeferson Boulevard—eliminating parking lanes, widening sidewalks, planting trees and creating bikeand pedestrian-friendly crosswalks. USC also will contribute as much as $20 million to a housing fund managed by the city to support afordable housing in the surrounding area. USC will fund a law clinic, a small business adviser and ombudsmen. Businesses that left the area received relocation assistance from USC as well. Te neighborhood also will likely see more rentals open to residents in 2017, when about 900 private rental units that are currently occupied by USC students become available as USC Village opens. “We want to thank the city leaders who diligently reviewed this project over the last 10 years. Ultimately, virtually all the stakeholders came together and enthusiastically supported this project,” Sayles says. “I am enormously proud to be part of a university that has the commitment and fortitude to work through a very difcult process and bring thousands of good jobs, badly needed shops and restaurants, and a new center of community life here.” A PLACE TO LIVE AND LEARN Welcoming entrances will funnel pedestrians and cyclists to crosswalks connecting USC Village to the rest of the campus tfm.usc.edu

Students in USCowned housing (now)

7,000

Students in USC-owned housing once USC Village opens in 2017

9,700

Beds on campus now

3,500

Beds on campus including USC Village

6,200

across Jeferson Boulevard. Some areas of USC Village, though, are meant only for students. Among them: a new ftness center, basketball courts and playing felds, study halls, lounges and green spaces. After 9 p.m., the paseo gates will close and USC’s campus-wide security measures come into play. Between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily, only students, staf, faculty and registered guests will be able to enter the area. Thousands of undergraduates will make their home on the secured upper levels of the USC Village residence halls. Each residence hall will have a single entryway, card-key lobby access, 24-hour security guards and fngerprint-scanning elevators. Even bikes will be secure, with 1,500 covered spaces near building entrances. “During the day USC Village will be a vibrant hub of activity,” Sayles says. “However, it is important to remember that at night it will also be home for up to 2,700 students.” USC Village is about more than creating housing. It also refects a desire The driving design principle for this massive residential-retail center was to create a to foster tight-knit Trojan communities. “Te USC Village project is a win-win village that connects to the existing campus. “That is accomplished with broad, tree-lined opportunity for undergraduates and grad- pedestrian pathways leading to a central plaza organized around fve new residential uate students at USC,” Carry says. Te project will expand availability college buildings, with a sixth building housing central support services,” says Lloyd to more than 10,000 beds owned and Silberstein, USC vice president of capital controlled by USC, bringing on-campus construction and facilities management, who housing to more students during the for- is responsible for USC Village’s design and construction. mative years of their lives. It will create “The architecture balances the need for greater fexibility to allow some students to modern interiors and technology with a deep live on campus all four years. In addition, as respect for history and USC traditions,” he says. “We are building for the next 100-plus undergraduates move into USC Village, the years, and looked to the university’s core project creates spaces for graduate students historic structures for the right combination to move into apartment-style housing that of timeless design and high functionality.” USC Village’s plaza will feature a uniquely was previously designated for undergradu- Trojan design element: a statue celebrating ate students, Carry says. the women of Troy. It depicts Hecuba, wife After successful experiences with its of King Priam of Troy and mother of his 19 President C. L. Max Nikias says. frst two residential colleges on the Uni- children, Her mythological story comes to us versity Park Campus, USC designated all through Homer and Euripides. “Wife of Priam, mother of Hector, Hecuba freshman housing as residential colleges in 2012. Best known as the Oxford model, this would defend her children and her city with ferce passion and loyalty,” Nikias says. “She centuries-old system assigns students hous- would urge the Trojans to fght on, even when ing in a “college” where day-to-day contact they were outnumbered, exhausted, facing with other students and faculty mentors impossible odds. The spirit of Hecuba always inspired them to achieve great triumphs.” forges intellectual and communal bonds to Hecuba will serve as an anchor to conlast a lifetime. American Ivy League insti- nect USC Village with a storied past.

Design Is in the Details

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THE DETAILS PROJECT MILESTONES Demolition and site preparation: summer and fall 2014 Building construction begins: late 2014 Completion and occupancy: fall 2017 VILLAGE AMENITIES • 30,000-square-foot ftness center • 115,000 square feet of space for a grocery store, drugstore, restaurants, banking, cleaners, beauty, bike repair and other food, beverage and general retail. Bank of America, Starbucks and others have already committed to being part of USC Village. • Trojan Town—the ultimate USC fan experience in retail—will be one of the major retail spaces. • Mobility Hub—a space ofering information on local transit

For more information on USC Village, go to village.usc.edu.

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tutions have used this approach since the 18th century. Today, 22 senior faculty masters and junior faculty fellows live alongside freshmen in USC’s eight on-campus residential colleges. Supported by USC housing staf and resident assistants, these facultyin-residence organize lectures, group outings and dinners. Some, like Parkside International faculty master Oliver Mayer, have been involved for almost a decade. In a residential college, “there’s a sense of belonging, a sense of security, and a sense of bravery and excitement about what we can do together,” says the dramatic writing associate professor, who experienced the traditional model as a graduate student at Oxford in the 1980s. “We are taking some of the best elements of that really old model, but it’s California, and it’s also the 21st century. We

have to make it ft this metropolis,” Mayer says. For example, because Parkside is the international residential college, it celebrates most cultural holidays, including Chinese New Year and Diwali. Tere’s also a weekly dinner series featuring local leaders from academia, business and professional sports. In this way, the residential college becomes a gateway between scholarly life and the vibrant, diverse city of Los Angeles. AN EVOLVING IDENTITY USC Village’s planned 600-bed Kathleen L. McCarthy Honors College, part of the Tomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation Honors Hall, has a classic clock tower and dining hall reminiscent of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. It’s designed for freshmen who want a rigorous academic experience combined with a commitment to community service and a rich cultural life. A home for autumn 2014

Gift Builds New Home for Top Scholars It Takes a Village 2

USC Village is designed in the Collegiate Gothic style, inspired by architecture found in early English universities. Wrapped in USC’s signature brick and cast stone, the new buildings and grounds will blend and connect seamlessly with the existing University Park Campus.

MCCARTHY PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

#1 Restaurants, a grocery store and shops will serve the community on the frst level. #2 Underground customer parking will accommodate 460 cars. (A new 1,300-car structure will go up next to the Shrine Auditorium to serve increased USC parking needs.) #3 Students live on upper levels of the residence halls. #4 Residence halls will have a single entryway, card-key lobby access, 24-hour security guards and fngerprint scanning elevators. (Even the bikes will be secure, with covered spaces near building entrances.) #5 Nine private courtyards, three large multi-use classroom spaces, and more than 20 study-lounges will be accessible only to residents. #6 Peripheral fencing will funnel pedestrians and cyclists to three-way crosswalks, creating safe areas to cross Jeferson Boulevard. #7 A statue of the female counterpart to Tommy Trojan will stand in the grand plaza. She is Hecuba, “queen of the ancient city of Troy, mother of all Trojans, the beating heart of the Trojan Empire,” explains President C. L. Max Nikias. #8 A bridge will connect two residential colleges. #9 The Honors College features an iconic clock tower. #10 A 30,000-square-foot ftness center, basketball courts and green space will expand access to recreation and exercise for USC students.

academically exceptional students, it will ofer dedicated space for seminars, studying and faculty advising. An ornate bridge between the Leavey Honors Hall and the largest neighboring upperclass residence hall will provide student lounges and study areas. Te rest of USC Village’s housing— about 2,100 beds—will accommodate upperclassmen. Regardless of their class, all students will live in suites, with bedrooms attached to a common area. “Some aspects of the housing, like each of the halls’ unique identities, remain purposely vague. Tat identity can’t be imposed—it must evolve from the students themselves,” says Romando Nash, executive director for residential education. Many students in USC’s current South Residential Colleges, for example, have been gravitating toward a social justice theme. tfm.usc.edu

Since 2012, they’ve organized their elaborate College Access Day event to introduce neighborhood middle and high school students to USC. If enough upperclassmen from these colleges wanted to stay involved in that social justice community, says Nash, “USC Village creates an opportunity for us to continue the experience with, say, 100 students moving as a collective.” What’s certain, according to Provost Elizabeth Garrett, is that USC Village will be a signature element of the campus, galvanizing opportunities for learning and engaging as an academic community. “Our ambition is bold—to become the leading global research university of the 21st century with a unique residential experience,” she says. “We are committed to creating the distinctive environment that sets us above the rest.”

Every student who has thrown a Frisbee across McCarthy Quad or had a late-night study session in Leavey Library has benefted from the generosity of USC Trustee Kathleen Leavey McCarthy ’57 and her family. As chair of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation, which was created by her parents, McCarthy helped fund these two hubs for student activities. Her latest commitment goes a step further: It supports an iconic part of future undergraduates’ lives. The Leavey Foundation dedicated $30 million for the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation Honors Hall at USC Village. The building will house the Honors Residence Hall, as well as the Kathleen L. McCarthy Honors College. “This is going to be a very special place for these students who are so bright and accomplished,” McCarthy says. “I know that being part of this community will be a transformative experience in their lives.” Living on campus is an important part of the college experience, says McCarthy, whose husband, Frank Kostlan ’62, is a devoted USC alumnus. “USC Village will provide that opportunity for students who want to live on campus and can’t now because there aren’t enough beds,” she says. “It’s going to be an extremely special addition to the university.” McCarthy knows her parents would be thrilled to see the family’s legacy of giving continue at USC. Her father, Thomas Leavey, co-founded Farmers Insurance, and together with his wife, Dorothy, he established the Leavey Foundation in 1952 to help others. What began as a tiny family enterprise grew into one of California’s largest philanthropic organizations. Over six decades, the foundation has donated extensively to higher education, medical institutions and children’s causes. The foundation also endowed USC’s frst trustees chair at the USC Gould School of Law in memory of McCarthy’s late husband, attorney and devoted USC alumnus J. Thomas McCarthy ’53, LLB ’56. McCarthy treasures her long relationship with USC, which began in 1953 when she moved into her freshman dormitory in Hubbard Hall. She was welcomed into the USC community and found her niche as a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. Some of her fondest memories include her many friends and her crowning as USC’s 1954 homecoming queen. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in education, McCarthy maintained her strong ties to the university through her active involvement in Trojan Junior Auxiliary and Trojan League of Los Angeles. She was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1986, making her one of USC’s longest-serving trustees. Her pride in her alma mater is evident in everything from her glowing words about USC to her cardinal-colored car with its personalized, USC-themed license plates. “Seeing the university evolve over the years has been nothing but a joyful experience,” McCarthy says. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” JESSICA RAYMOND

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Te Secret Li 50

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autumn 2014

T H E M OV I E STA R S (MICROORG A NIS MS)

fe of Bacteria tfm.usc.edu

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Get to know the tiny beings that live all around us—and how USC researchers are understanding and harnessing their powers. B Y C R I S T Y LY TA L

(Pages 50–51) CLAIM TO FAME: The April grand opening celebration of the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco featured bacteria and microorganisms projected on a grand scale, covering and interacting with the façade of the building. These diminutive divas also star in the ultra-highresolution or “4K” short ﬁlms In the Pond and MicroOrganisms. THE BIG PICTURE: Richard Weinberg of the USC School of Cinematic Arts pioneered digital cinema microscopy, bringing moviemaking into the world unseen by the naked eye. He’s been honored for developing technology that streamed ultra-highresolution microscopy live from USC to Toyko, and he’s collaborated with USC biologist David Caron, who provided the marine life featured in MicroOrganisms.

Richard Weinberg (top) and David Caron

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Most species on Earth are invisible to the human eye—but this hasn’t stopped USC researchers from seeing their signifcance. Among the frst forms of life to emerge on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago, bacteria can live inside rocks, in subzero climates or without oxygen, and eat unappetizing dishes such as metal, sulfur or arsenic. Tey defne the limits of where life is possible, from the depths of Earth’s oceans to the seemingly barren soil of Mars or other planets. Tese colorful microorganisms form a biomass that far exceeds that of plants and animals combined. Even in our own bodies, there are more bacteria than human cells, including benefcial species that boost immunity, make vitamins, ferment indigestible carbohydrates and convert sugar to lactic acid. Other species are pathogens that cause diseases ranging from tuberculosis to leprosy. With their unique abilities, bacteria have become an important tool for how we live. We use them to treat sewage; break down oil spills; produce wine, cheese, pickles and soy sauce; create medicines and more. At USC, researchers are pushing the possibilities of what bacteria can do and teach us. Here are a few of the big ideas inspired by these Lilliputian life forms. autumn 2014

THE EXTREMOPHILE ( SERPENTINAMONAS)

CLAIM TO FAME: Serpentinamonas uses explosive hydrogen gas as an energy source. Three Serpentinamonas strains were recently discovered in inhospitable, highly alkaline ponds in The Cedars, California, by the laboratory of Kenneth Nealson, Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. THE BIG PICTURE: Serpentinamonas ofers a window into how life might have looked on the early Earth, when hot mantle rock frequently raised the pH of ocean water to alkaline extremes.

THE LIVE WIRE ( SHEWENELLA ONEIDENSI S)

CLAIM TO FAME: Another species discovered by the Nealson laboratory, Shewenella oneidensis, can “breathe rocks”—using iron or manganese oxides as a substitute for oxygen in respiration, and dissolving the minerals in the process. The bacteria also possess conductive “nanowires” similar to tiny nerves. THE BIG PICTURE: Nealson is studying S. oneidensis to create a living “bacterial battery” together with USC Dornsife physicist Moh El-Naggar. Bacteria-powered batteries could ofer one answer to the energy crisis—producing electricity to light houses or fuel for cars. S. oneidensis also holds clues to new methods of bioremediating wastewater and combating corrosion.

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CLAIM TO FAME: This slimy bacterial community or “bioflm” of Actinomyces and other species lives in the human mouth. Its bacterial residents work together as a colony.

THE JAW BREAKER (ACTINOMYCE S)

THE BIG PICTURE: Oral bioflms contain networks of bacterial nanowires, according to research by a team including El-Naggar and Parish Sedghizadeh, assistant professor at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC. Bacteria might use these wires to communicate with each other. Bioflms can infect the jawbone and lead to bone death, so the USC team’s discovery could be the frst to link nanowires to human disease. Disrupting these networks could make resilient bioflms easier to kill.

CLAIM TO FAME: Mariprofundus gets its energy by rusting iron-rich rocks near Hawaii’s Lō’ihi Seamount and other volcanic and hydrothermal environments deep in the ocean.

T H E I R O N E AT E R (MA RIP ROFU ND US)

THE BIG PICTURE: Mariprofundus not only alters the shape of mineral formations on the ocean foor but also afects the function of ecosystems, according to research by Katrina Edwards, professor of earth sciences and biological sciences at USC Dornsife. The health of plants, fsh and other sea creatures that need iron depends on the whims of this small but mighty bacterium.

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autumn 2014

THE ODD COUPLE ( THIOPLOCA AND ANAMMOX)

CLAIM TO FAME: William Berelson, chair of USC Dornsife’s Department of Earth Sciences, and colleagues discovered an unusual partnership between underwater bacteria Thioploca and Anammox. Thioploca forms long chains that tiny Anammox cells ride like an elevator into the marine sediment. Then, happily ensconced in the mud, Anammox consumes Thioploca’s waste: biologically available or “fxed” nitrogen. THE BIG PICTURE: The symbiosis between Thioploca and Anammox changes the chemistry of the ocean by locking up fxed nitrogen. Algae and other sea plants need nitrogen to grow, and nitrogen then makes its way up the food chain, reaching organisms from sponges to spearfsh.

THE CRIMSON TIDE (TRICHODESM IUM )

CLAIM TO FAME: With a knack for using nitrogen gas to fuel its photosynthesis-based growth, Trichodesmium can thrive in nutrientpoor surface waters in the tropics. Visible from space, its massive blooms earned it the nickname “sea sawdust” and give the Red Sea its signature hue. THE BIG PICTURE: Douglas Capone, chair of USC Dornsife’s Department of Biological Sciences, studies how Trichodesmium fertilizes the ocean by converting nitrogen gas into the fxed form used by other organisms.

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CLAIM TO FAME: In a single teaspoon of seawater, there are at least 5 million bacteria—including Pelagibacter, Actinobacteria, Flavobacteria, various photosynthetic bacteria, the odd pathogen and many others.

THE MARINERS ( PEL AGI BACTE R, ACTINOBACTE RIA AN D FLAVOBACTE RIA )

THE BIG PICTURE: Marine bacterial communities keep the water clean by decomposing organic matter, reduce greenhouse gases through photosynthesis and even degrade oil. Biologist Jed Fuhrman of USC Dornsife studies the unique roles and responsibilities of these bacteria in the local ocean ecosystem.

CLAIM TO FAME: This bioﬁlm of bacteria including Escherichia coli likes to lunch on toxic pesticides such as alachlor.

THE CLEAN-UP CREW (BACTE RIA L BIOFILM)

THE BIG PICTURE: Environmental engineer Massoud “Mike” Pirbazari of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering is exploring how bioﬁlms can clean up the toxic wastewater produced by manufacturing pharmaceuticals, plastics and other industrial products. The trick is to spend days or weeks gradually acclimatizing bacteria to accept the nasty nibbles as a food source. As increasingly hearty servings of chemicals are dished out, the bacteria that survive alter their digestive enzymes to suit their new diet.

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autumn 2014

T H E RO C K STA R S (ST ROMATOLIT ES)

CLAIM TO FAME: Bacteria rarely fossilize, but they do leave signatures in the rock record. Throughout the ages, communities of photosynthetic bacteria have formed thick microbial mats that cause sediments to deposit in telltale configurations called domed stromatolites and wrinkle structures. THE BIG PICTURE: Earth scientists Frank Corsetti, left, and David Bottjer interpret what stromatolites and wrinkle structures say about the history of life on Earth and other planets. Abundant on Earth during the Precambrian era and mass extinctions, and still present in environments such as Yellowstone National Park, the structures could be a biosignature—or sign of life—if found on Mars.

T H E E V O LV E R ( ESCH ERICH IA COLI)

CLAIM TO FAME: Because Escherichia coli cells spawn a new generation every 20 minutes, populations can undergo signifcant evolution in just two weeks. THE BIG PICTURE: USC Dornsife biologist Steven Finkel has genetically engineered E. coli to fuoresce, allowing him to see how bacterial parents difer from their “evolved” ofspring. Subjected to pressures such as food shortages or high salinity, bacteria adapt to like new foods or tolerate a tough environment. By better understanding how bacteria evolve, scientists can harness their power to do everything from cleaning up oil spills to producing drugs, laundry detergent or dairy substitutes.

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1964 1974 1984 1989 1994 2004 Is this your year to celebrate? Register now and join us on October 17-18 for Reunion Weekend as we celebrate undergraduate classes reaching their 50, 40, 30, 25, 20 and 10-year anniversaries. Relive Trojan memories, create new ones, celebrate Homecoming and support USC with your class, family and friends! For details, registration and reunion class giving information, visit http://alumni.usc.edu/reunions or call (213) 740-2300.

October 17-18 HTTP://ALUMNI.USC.EDU | TO MAKE A GIFT ONLINE: HTTPS://GIVETO.USC.EDU OR CALL TOLL FREE: 877-GIVE-USC

FA M I LY

PHOTO BY STEPHEN BLAHA

WELCOME BACK If itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fall, it must be time for Reunion Weekend. Held on Oct. 17-18, the event brings the classes of 1964, 1974, 1984, 1989, 1994 and 2004 back to Troy. Get ready for receptions, speakers, dinner and after-parties, as well as a football game against Colorado. Learn more at reunions.usc.edu.

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WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE SURVEY?

USC’s Poll Position A survey illuminates the opinions and attitudes of thousands of Trojan alumni. Are you among them?

• Four out of ﬁve gave their age as 31 or older. • Almost one in two reported a household income of $100,000 and above. • Almost half live within 50 miles of campus; two out of three live in California. • Out of 150,000 alumni with email addresses, 8,000 alumni responded to the survey.

by christina schweighofer USC alumni care deeply about their university, their communities and their careers. And while they believe that USC prepared them well for their professional life, they also expect the university to continue to support their careers and enrich their lives long after graduation. Tese are just some of the overall fndings of the USC Alumni Association’s most recent, expansive survey of Trojan alumni. Conducted every two years, the survey helps the USCAA gauge alumni satisfaction in three ways: as it is now, as it has changed over the years and as it compares with alumni attitudes at similarly ranked universities. “Te Alumni Attitude Study is a critical tool that helps us fulfll our mission to advance USC. Tis biennial survey gives insight on how we’re doing as a university in the eyes of our alumni and how we can continue to enhance their professional and personal lives,” says Patrick Auerbach EdD ’08, associate senior vice president for alumni relations. More than 8,000 degreed alumni responded to the online questionnaires in 2013—a big enough sample to make the survey statistically reliable. Here’s what the results showed, and how USCAA is responding. LOYAL FAMILY For USC, alumni loyalty manifests in various ways: Tey’re likely to contribute to the university and promote their alma mater, but even those who don’t contribute fnancially to the university still have a notable rate of promoting their alma mater. When asked to rate their current opinions of USC, their own decision to enroll at the university and their overall

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student experience, they overwhelmingly respond with “excellent” or “good.” And most of them attribute their positive opinions about the university to the value of their USC degree. CAREER PATHS Alumni believe their highest USC degree prepared them well for their careers or for their subsequent education. Tey also want to keep tapping into USC for one of its recognized advantages—networking among the Trojan Family—and for job listings. Te younger the alumni, the more important these services are to them. “Typically, young alumni tend to seek career placement and development assistance as they fnd their footing,” Auerbach says. “As generations grow older, they become more established in their own careers and networks but still value the notion that the Trojan Family is a key part of their professional and personal path.” USC, by way of its Career Services Center and partnership with the USC Alumni Association, has seen its marks for career oferings rise signifcantly since the previous survey. As a result of alumni interest, USCAA plans to enhance career development opportunities, including developing alumni industry networks that tie Trojans together by career felds, not which USC program they completed. Te frst such group, the Trojan Entertainment Network (TEN), developed independently and quickly grew to several hundred members. TEN eventually sought university assistance to strengthen its infrastructure, and USCAA chartered TEN this year, creating a model for future alumni industry network development.

COMMUNITY PRIDE About one in three respondents reported participating in community outreach activities as students, one of the highest rates of all activity categories in the study. Tey give the university an “excellent” grade for how well it has prepared them to serve their communities, and they care more about their university’s community outreach than do alumni at comparable universities. In 2012, USC introduced the USC Alumni Day of SCervice, a way for Trojans and friends of the university around the world to organize local volunteer projects. Alumni participation has grown dramatically each spring, from 50 sites involving 800 alumni in the frst year to 80 sites involving 2,400 alumni this year, making it one of USCAA’s fagship events. Expect the event to continue and grow. REACHING OUT Alumni are fnding it easier to engage with the university now, and that’s by design. Events like the USC Alumni Day of SCervice provide friendly, welcoming ways to meet other alumni. And online engagement opportunities, such as the recently launched USC Alumni Mobile App, allow today’s busier and more mobile Trojans to easily stay connected with USC. “Listening to what our alumni care about is the best way to keep them engaged as lifelong members of the Trojan Family,” Auerbach says. “Our goal is to help them grow, whether it’s in their careers, their communities or their personal connections. Together, we’re all invested in making USC the best it can be.”

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How loyal are USC alumni to their university?

Current opinion of USC is “Excellent” or “Good”

Describe decision to attend USC as “Excellent” or “Good”

Describe student experience as “Excellent” or “Good”

Describe alumni experience as “Excellent” or “Good”

Promote USC “All the time” or “Regularly”

How do USC alumni plan to support the university fnancially? Non-contributors

Might contribute in the future

Contributors

The Trojan Family carries a strong sense of pride. About 96 percent of alumni see their decision to attend USC as “excellent” or “good.” Nearly as many rate their current opinion of USC and their student experience as “excellent” or “good.” Three in four alumni say they promote USC “all the time” or “regularly,” and about the same number have an “excellent” or “good” opinion of their alumni experience.

More than half of all respondents say they currently donate to the university and plan on doing so in the future. Almost one in 10 wants to increase his or her contribution. Only 12 percent say they have never donated and do not plan to do so. *Comps refect responses from comparable institutions including UCLA, Cornell University and Emory University.

Never/do not plan to in the future

Have/do not plan to in the future

Have never but plan to in the future

Currently and plan to continue

Currently and plan to increase

How well does USC prepare its alumni for success after school? POOR PREPARATION Further graduate education

Current work status

Getting a job or entering the advanced degree program I wanted right after graduation

FAIR PREPARATION

GOOD PREPARATION

EXCELLENT PREPARATION

Alumni are very satisfed with how well their highest USC degree prepared them for the future. They gave their highest marks to the university for helping them fnd their career track and for positioning them for continued higher education. *Comps refect responses from comparable institutions including UCLA, Cornell University and Emory University.

Contributing to my community

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#1 Voice-actor JAMES MATHIS ’96 starred in the VH1 series I Hate My 30s. He’s voiced characters for Marvel’s The Avengers and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, among others. #2 NICHELLE PROTHO ’92 is currently vice president of Sander/ Moses Productions (TV) and COO of its sister company, SLAM

(digital). Credits include Reckless and Ghost Whisperer and the flms Loveless in Los Angeles and Undercover Brother. #3 3 Actor JAMES LESURE ’95, known for his role as Mike Cannon on the hit series Las Vegas, recently starred in TBS’s Men at Work. Credits include the flms Loveless in Los

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Angeles and the TV shows Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip and Alias. #4 J.D. COCHRAN ’93 is an independent editor and director whose feature credits include Paved with Good Intentions. #5 EDU BLACK ’93 freelances in production with the NFL Network, among others. #6 Producer-turned-

writer MARK HASLETT ’95 wrote the original draft of The Last House on the Left. Television writing credits include SyFy’s Helix. #7 CHRISTINE LOJKO HASLETT ’96 is a flm editor at DreamWorks Animation SKG, with credits including How to Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians and Home.

#8 JEVON PHILLIPS ’93, MPW ’96 is a staf writer/producer for the LATimes.com Calendar section. #9 Actor-turnedwriter TERENCE PAUL WINTER ’96 has been a supervising producer on Castle. #10 Writer TALICIA RAGGS ’94 was coproducer on NBC’s Ironside, with past

writing credits on Commander in Chief and Saving Grace. #11 Children’s author KYMBERLI WINTER is currently working on her frst adult fction novel. Previous children’s works include Clyde the Cloud Who Always Cried. #12 Showrunner DAYNA LYNNE NORTH ’95 is currently co-writing

autumn 2014

Family in Film

TWO DECADES IN, FRIENDSHIPS FORMED THROUGH CINEMA ONLY GROW DEEPER.

PHOTO BY CURTIS BECHDHOLT

a miniseries for OWN. She recently served as head writer on the third season of the VH1 series Single Ladies. Writing credits include Lincoln Heights, Veronica Mars and Any Day Now. #13 Executive producer PRENTICE PENNY ’95 recently won a Golden Globe for his work on Brooklyn Nine-Nine after stints on Happy

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Endings, Scrubs and Girlfriends. #14 YOLANDA T. COCHRAN ’93 is executive vice president at Alcon Entertainment, maker of such flms as Prisoners, Transcendence and The Blind Side. #15 Actor J. AUGUST RICHARDS ’96 was a fan favorite on Angel and Raising the Bar be-

fore his breakout role as Deathlok on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He also stars in The Lottery and Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce. #16 Entertainment executive ANGELA NORTHINGTON ’95 oversees content acquisition for the multiplatform music network startup Revolt TV.

#17 Actress TANEKA JOHNSON ’94 has had recurring roles on ER, Chicago Hope and Any Day Now, as well as guest stints on Castle, CSI and 24.

They’re writers. Producers. Actors. Directors. Individually, each one of them has name recognition in Hollywood. As a group, though, they have another identity: The USC Clique. From Dreamworks Animation to Fox TV, these Trojans have the entertainment industry covered. Lifelong friends, they bonded in the mid-1990s through USC’s African American Cinema Association. Twenty years on, the 17-member group has spawned three happy marriages, 16 children and hundreds of screen credits. “Since we graduated college, we have been each other’s friends, husbands and wives, cohorts, collaborators and fercest protectors,” says Dayna Lynne North ’95, head writer on the VH1 series Single Ladies. “Through it all, we’ve stayed as tight as we were when we hung out in Webb Tower or Regal Trojan.” The club grew out of USC Professor Todd Boyd’s popular course on race and gender in cinema. “We wanted to expand on that and keep the conversation going,” North says. Association leaders organized special screenings, guest lectures and panel discussions about issues in black cinema. Once they staged a basketball tournament with the cast of Boyz n the Hood. Members—who were mostly, but not exclusively, cinema or theater majors— partnered creatively as well. “We held lights in each other’s short flms, painted sets for each other’s plays, stage managed and starred in each other’s productions,” North says. Today all the Clique members have successful careers in the entertainment world, whether it’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine producer Prentice Penny ’95 or Los Angeles Times Calendar section writer Jevon Phillips ’93, MPW ’96. “Even though everything has changed, nothing has changed,” says North, whose writing credits include the television series Veronica Mars and Lincoln Heights. The group gets together for poker tournaments, board games, karaoke nights and, naturally, Trojan football. Each summer there’s a rowdy July 4 picnic at Cochran Ranch, the Valencia, California, home of producer Yolanda ’93 and writer-director J.D. Cochran ’93. Come Thanksgiving, the Cochrans welcome Clique members staying in town for the holiday. “The Clique is home. It’s family. It’s dogged, unrelenting, unapologetic honesty. It’s a plethora of opinion and a love of debate,” says Yolanda Cochran, executive vice president at Alcon Entertainment, whose production credits include the movies Transcendence and Dolphin Tale. “In Hollywood, you’re up or you’re down,” North says. “One day you’re working, then you’re not working. One minute you’re being celebrated on the red carpet, the next minute the phone’s not ringing. Yet what has been a constant is the love and support and faith that we all have in each other.” Actor J. August Richards ’96 notes that it’s tough to make friends in the industry. “The friends I made at USC are still my closest,” says Richards, currently in ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. “I can’t imagine surviving in this town without them.” DIANE KRIEGER

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Te Power Couple Two Trojans translate their marketing smarts into careers in the sports and beauty industries. Ilan Ben-Hanan ’00 and Sara Happ ’01 might not think of themselves as a “power couple,” but the label fts. As vice president of programming and acquisitions for ESPN, Ben-Hanan oversees a department responsible for scheduling 400 college football games a season across the ESPN and ABC networks. Happ is successful in her own right, running her innovative beauty company in Redondo Beach, California. She gave birth to the couple’s daughter in 2013. Teir path started at USC, where they were both broadcast journalism majors, and it grew out of their determination. As a student, Ben-Hanan dreamed of landing

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a job with USC Athletics. After calling the department every week for nearly a year to ask about job openings, he scored an interview and was hired as a marketing manager. Tat experience proved to be a stepping stone to a position with ESPN in Connecticut, and in 2002 he and Happ moved east. Happ initially worked in marketing for ESPN—“I was not the hard-news type,” she says—but quit in 2006 when her beauty label, Sara Happ, became an overnight sensation. Happ’s business started with cold Connecticut winters and a persistent case of chapped lips, which the Chicago native cured by inventing a new product, the Lip

Scrub. Clueless about cosmetics compositions or chemistry, but knowing exactly what her scrub should feel, taste and smell like, she created it by trial and error from basic ingredients in her kitchen. “It was sugar, essential oils and vanilla extract,” Happ says, laughing. “I was whipping up lip scrub like other people bake or cook.” She got her exfoliating product into stores by going door to door at small, exclusive cosmetics shops. Her big break came when People magazine received a tip that actress Reese Witherspoon loved the scrub. In one weekend so many customers placed orders that Happ’s website crashed. Fast-forward eight years, and Happ employs seven people, three of them Trojans. Nordstrom and J.Crew sell her products, and the beauty line is now available in 20 countries. Te couple gives back where and when they can. A two-time cancer survivor, Ben-Hanan came up with the idea for ESPN’s Jimmy V Week. During the annual weeklong fundraiser, the network drives donations for the Jimmy V Foundation, a nonproft dedicated to cancer research in memory of famed college basketball coach Jim Valvano. Ben-Hanan and Happ also return to USC yearly to speak to students at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the USC Marshall School of Business about their fast-track careers. So what’s the secret to their ascent? “Persistence,” she says. “Perseverance,” he adds. Whatever they call it, the former USC Annenberg students took to heart what their professors used to tell them: “Te person who digs hardest gets the story.” And for this couple, it’s a story of success. autumn 2014

PHOTO BY GUS RUELAS

by christina schweighofer

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Above and Beyond From developing cancer diagnostics to serving as president of the USCAA Board of Governors, Amy Ross finds ways to help others. scholarship, which was renamed the Amy Ross Scholarship in LGBT Health Studies in 2011. ALUMNI NETWORKS USCAA’s first alumni network based on industries and affinity groups, the Trojan Entertainment Network, has been a great success and counts hundreds of alumni who work in entertainment. Working with the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors, Ross plans for USCAA to launch at least two additional alumni networks in the coming year.

PHOTO BY CHRIS SHINN

ALUMNI MOBILE APP A new mobile app lets you locate fellow Trojans wherever you are in the world, instantmessage with others and connect to employment opportunities. The app is scheduled to roll out in time for Homecoming 2014—making USC the ﬁrst PAC-12 school with a GPS-based alumni mobile app. Together with alumni networks, it’s part of an eﬀort to bring more alumni and volunteer leaders into the USCAA family.

Amy Ross PhD ’86 has never been the type to stand aside and conform to other people’s expectations. Whether it’s rising from lab tech to cancer-focused research pathologist, or helping to establish USC’s ﬁrst alumni group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Trojans, Ross has blazed trails to help others. In May, she stepped into her newest volunteer role: president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors. Ross could have settled into early retirement instead of returning to campus—she hung up her lab coat three years ago—but she sees alumni leadership as a chance to pay forward a debt. “Quite honestly, if it hadn’t been for the wonderful education I received at USC, I

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would not have had this career,” she explains. The La Crescenta, California, native the was ﬁrst in her family to attend college (she graduated from Cal State Northridge) and became a technician on USC’s Health Sciences Campus with no thought at the time of graduate school. But encouraged to apply by Nancy Warner, then the chair of the pathology department at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Ross was admitted to the PhD program in experimental pathology. “On paper maybe I wasn’t the strongest candidate,” she says. “But Dr. Warner took a chance on me, and I’ll never forget that.” Her career highlights have included becoming a Caltech biologist and senior vice president at Nexell Therapeutics.

Ross also was one of the founders of USC’s Lambda LGBT Alumni Association in 1992, when few alumni, faculty or students were “out.” The group has supported countless Trojan Family members since then. These experiences shaped Ross’ life and now inﬂuence her four-point agenda to create opportunities for others through USCAA: SCHOLARSHIPS “USC is halfway through The Campaign for USC now, and it has been very successful,” Ross says. “But through USCAA, one area we want to put additional emphasis on is increasing contributions toward scholarships.” It’s a personal passion as well— in 2000, she endowed her own

BEST PRACTICES Along with leadership of the USCAA, Ross is reaching out to alumni leaders at other universities to share ideas for delivering a great alumni experience. When she showed Yale leaders the USC mobile app prototype, they gazed in wonder. “I didn’t think I was going to get my iPhone back,” Ross laughs. While these university alumni associations can compare notes, there’s one asset unique to USC: the Trojan Family. “What makes our alumni association so vibrant and so strong is that everybody feels a sense of ownership,” Ross says. “Whether you’re doing a Senior SCendoﬀ, spraying over graﬃti on the Alumni Day of SCervice or lucky enough to be on the board of governors as I am, all our volunteers go above and beyond what is expected.” DIANE KRIEGER

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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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Stephen Fryer â&#x20AC;&#x2122;60 (ENG) is CEO of SC Capital Partners Inc., an Irvine, California-based investment banking frm that works with both U.S. and international companies.

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June Simmons MSW â&#x20AC;&#x2122;70 (SSW) received the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Council on Gerontology and Geriatrics. She is president and chief executive of the Partners in Care Foundation, which she founded in 1997 to pioneer the use of evidence-based research in health care management for chronic conditions and coordinated care. Robert Berkes â&#x20AC;&#x2122;73 (LAS) was accepted as a member of the American Board of Trial

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Advocates. He is also a fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and practices as a trial lawyer with his frm, Berkes Crane Robinson & Seal, in downtown Los Angeles.

National Academy of Public Administration in March. He also served as city manager-in-residence at the USC Price School of Public Policy in April.

David Morales MM â&#x20AC;&#x2122;73 (MUS) received the Chorus America Education and Community Engagement Award, honoring his leadership in the Cantare Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Choirs of Oakland, California. Te award was presented in Washington, D.C., at the 2014 Chorus America Awards Conference in June.

Dale Mitchell â&#x20AC;&#x2122;75 (LAS) retired in September as superintendent of the Fallbrook Union High School District in California. Steve Cuden â&#x20AC;&#x2122;78 (DRA) published his frst book, Beating Broadway: How to Create Stories for Musicals Tat Get Standing Ovations. He also created the long-running Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde, writing the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original book and lyrics, and he is on the board of directors for Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Teatre.

Ed Poll MBA â&#x20AC;&#x2122;73 (BUS) of Venice, California, is the author of Te Attorney & Law Firm Guide to Te Business of Law, 3rd Edition, released by the American Bar Association. He also created a new website, lawbizregistry.com, to help lawyers buy and sell law practices.

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John Shirey MPA â&#x20AC;&#x2122;73 (SPP), the city manager of Sacramento, received the National Public Service Award from the American Society for Public Administration and the

Ralph Wescott â&#x20AC;&#x2122;81 (BUS) of Roxbury, Connecticut, received the inaugural Peter Hallson Sales Excellence Award at Nalco-

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A LU M N I P RO F I L E M Y I E S H A TAY LO R , M D ’0 0

Acute Intervention

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Doc’s stay-at-home dad, Taylor’s husband, William Schlitz, works from home and takes care of their three children (and their three dogs). “It’s awesome to have your family legitimized through mainstream media. Children see this as normal, having women physicians in society,” Taylor says. To thank Disney for the show, she collected photos from 131 black female doctors on Facebook to create a “We Are Doc McStufns” collage. Soon the McStufns movement took of, motivating Taylor and 11 other African-American female physicians to start the Artemis Medical Society, an organization that ofers networking and mentoring opportunities for black female physicians, who represent less than 2 percent of the medical workforce. Taylor, 40, was born in Inglewood and grew up in Long Beach. She chose emergency

medicine after the tragic death of her father, Dwight Taylor, who was killed by gunfre during the 1992 LA riots. He was taken into a hospital without a trauma center, where he died hours later. It set her on her path at age 18. “I wanted to be the one who steps in at a time of great need and hopefully make a signifcant diference in that time for as many people as I can,” Taylor says. “My father—had he gotten that, maybe he would have survived.” She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in chemistry from Xavier University of Louisiana, in New Orleans, and returned home in 1996 to attend the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “USC felt like a family, a community,” Taylor says. Learning from students of diferent backgrounds and cultures at USC has helped her be a more culturally competent physician.

These days, being a mom by day and an emergency physician by night keeps her busy. “What’s rewarding is the balance that’s achievable with this profession,” she says. “I get to go home each day and say that I’ve made a diference.” MARY MODINA

Myiesha Taylor, seen here with her children (from left) Ian Taylor Schlitz, now 8, Haley Taylor Schlitz, now 12, and Hana Taylor Schlitz, now 6, supports strong black female role models for kids.

autumn 2014

AP PHOTO/LM OTERO

At a young age, Myiesha Taylor MD ’00 knew she wanted to be a doctor. When the ear of her beloved toy rabbit, Bunny, came of, she performed triage and sewed on a new ear made of yarn. She even created a medical record for her patient—one of the many toys in her playroom under her care. It’s like a scene from Disney Junior’s Doc McStufns, the animated children’s TV series about its title character, a 6-year-old African-American girl. On the show, Doc emulates her physician mom by opening up a clinic in her playhouse where she “fxes” toys. The similarities are striking, says Taylor, an emergency room physician in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Taylor’s mom, who was a registered nurse at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, and her grandmother, who was a vocational nurse, nurtured her love for medicine. And like

We welcome updates from our fellow Trojans. Go to tfm.usc.edu/classnotes to submit news for consideration through your school’s online form or to your school’s listed contact.

EcoLab, which recognizes best practices in sales and account management. Margo Wheeler MURS ’81 (SPP) was named to the American Institute of Certifed Planners’ College of Fellows for her outstanding achievements in urban planning professional practice. She is the director of planning for the city of Palm Springs, California.

ager at Smith Co., formerly Ascentium, a digital experience agency in Seattle. She is responsible for the successful delivery of all projects in the company’s U.S. ofces. Daniel Handjojo MS ’88 (ENG) works at Applied Materials, a semiconductor-equipment manufacturer, in Santa Clara, California.

New Chef Same G re a t B a r Same Beau tifu l Ne a p ol i s

1 9 9 0 s Richard Murphy PhD ’82 (LAS), director of science and education at the Santa Barbara, California-based Ocean Futures Society, has been a senior marine biologist for Jean-Michel Cousteau and formerly for Cousteau’s father, Jacques Cousteau, for more than 40 years. Ray Lowe ’84, MS ’93 (ENG) of Los Angeles is a member of this year’s 30-Year Homecoming Reunion Committee. His daughter Jacquie is currently a USC Viterbi School of Engineering student.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RIA BERGER

Ria Berger Ria Berger (née Maria de Guzman) MPA ’85 (SPP) has been named CEO of Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County. Te Garden Grove, Californiabased nonproft is a major provider of oral health care for the region’s underserved children. A startup, turnaround and growth expert, Berger has a 25-year career that spans three continents. Years ago, she opened Art 4 Fun Cafe, a London-based do-it-yourself ceramics studio with franchises in Europe and the Middle East. A resident of Irvine, California, Berger started her career in Los Angeles as a budget analyst for the 1984 Olympic Summer Games. Most recently, she was vice president of human resources at Vanguard Health/Tenet and Hospital Corporation of America. Berger also has taught human resources and business courses at USC, UC Irvine and Chapman University. Cherie Martin Irwin MA ’85 (SCA) was recently promoted to senior delivery mantfm.usc.edu

Millicent Accardi MPW ’93 (LAS) has been selected as a 2014–15 Fulbright Scholar for a poetry and research project in the Azores. She was a visiting writer at the Nimrod Writers Conference, the Austin Poetry Festival and the Spanish/Portuguese PhD Program at University of Texas at Austin. Mark Battjes ’99 (ENG) was selected for the U.S. Army Advanced Strategic Planning and Policy Program. He will begin his studies for a PhD in history at the University of Texas at Austin this fall. Lisa Gopman ’99 (DRA) recently cofounded Oh My Ribs!, a theater in Hollywood, California, that hosts a variety of artistic endeavors including standup comedy, improv, music, plays, musicals, one-person shows and flm screenings.

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Eric Batch MPP ’00 (SPP) was honored for his outstanding community leadership at the annual gala of 100 Black Men of Orange County (California), part of a national alliance of leading African-American men of business, industry, public affairs and government who devote their skills and resources to confronting the challenges facing African-American youth. Matt Matros ’01 (SCJ) opened Protein Bar, a restaurant and catering business focusing on healthy, on-the-go, high-protein meals, in Chicago in 2009. After a $22 million investment from Catterton Partners in 2013, the restaurant has expanded to additional locations in Chicago, Washington, D.C.,

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A Vinyl Goldmine

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artists like Bryan Adams, Janet Jackson and The Police. In 1990 he joined Warner Bros. Records, working with R.E.M., Madonna and Prince, and ultimately was named executive vice president/general manager. Gold earned four Grammy nominations for art direction; he won in 1990. Those were heady days. “I remember going to show Prince an album cover,” Gold says. “He said, ‘Sit on that couch,’ and did a dress rehearsal of his entire show for me and three other people. I was maybe eight feet away from him.” In the mid-1990s, the man obsessed with retro discs quickly recognized the power of the online world. He struck a deal with America Online (before the World Wide Web) to establish a presence for Warner Bros. where fans could chat with artists. Warner Bros. became an early online leader among record companies.

Gold also was instrumental in a campaign launched by the voting advocacy group Rock the Vote in the ’90s to pass the “motor voter bill,” which allowed citizens to register to vote at the same time they applied for a driver’s license. Gold proposed printing a “Dear Senator” postcard on the cardboard packaging for CDs that consumers could mail in to support the bill. Artists loved the idea, and hundreds of thousands of postcards were forwarded to Congress. “A few months later, we found ourselves at the billsigning ceremony at the White House,” Gold says, “where Bill Clinton name-checked Rock the Vote as a big reason it got passed, and said, ‘I flled out one of those postcards myself.’ It was the most surreal thing imaginable.” Along the way, he’s curated exhibits, donated memorabilia to the Rock and Roll Hall of

Fame and written the book 101 Essential Rock Records. And he’s returned to his frst love— buying and selling rare records and music memorabilia—but has pushed it into the 21st century through his website recordmecca.com. “This was going to be my retirement hobby,” he laughs, “and very quickly it got out of control— in a good way. “I’m at the point in my life where I only want to do what I want to do. Fortunately, there’s plenty I want to do.” TIM GREIVING

PHOTO BY EILON PAZ

A preserver of rock ’n’ roll history, Jef Gold ’79 is a gift to the vinyl revival. Gold has been obsessed with music since his childhood in Los Angeles, where he drifted asleep every night listening to Top 40 radio. As a kid, he collected records and then resold them—developing a shrewd comprehension of vinyl currency. He even traveled to Europe to fnd rare albums for his mail-order business, all while he was still a teenager. At USC he majored in business (“I realized I didn’t want to be looking for used records at the Salvation Army when I was 40”) and kept growing his enterprise, which was pulling in $40,000 a year by the time he was 25. His acumen caught the eye of the president of A&M Records, who hired him and eventually named him vice president of marketing and creative services. He worked with

autumn 2014

family class notes Boulder, Colorado, and Denver, with a goal of reaching 40 locations by the end of 2015. Jeﬀ Toyne GCRT ’01 (MUS) of Vancouver, British Columbia, composed the movie score for the thriller Te Privileged. Andrew Norman ’02, MM ’04 (MUS) premiered his latest piece, Release, with Emanuel Ax and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in May. Lucinda Carver DMA ’89 (MUS), vice dean of the Classical Performance and Composition division at the USC Tornton School of Music, interviewed him in a pre-concert talk. Jonathan Weinman ’02 (LAS) recently cofounded Broslavsky and Weinman LLP, a civil litigation frm in Los Angeles. He has been recognized for two consecutive years as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers and has been featured in Los Angeles Magazine, Los Angeles Daily News and Los Angeles Business Journal. Marissa Aho MPL ’06 (SPP) has been elected by California and Nevada members of the American Institute of Certifed Planners (AICP) as commissioner for AICP Region VI. Jason G. Billing ’06 (ENG) of Houston recently earned his professional engineer license in Texas. Jessica Rose Cambio MM ’06 (MUS) made her U.K. debut as Mimi in the Francesca Zambello production of Puccini’s La Bohème at the Royal Albert Hall in London. She received critical acclaim after performances in Italy and Israel and in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Alan Reynolds ’06 (ENG) ran as an independent candidate for California lieutenant governor. Christian Campos MM ’07 (MUS) conducted the Los Angeles County-based Horizon Chamber Players on April 4 in secular cantatas by J.S. Bach. Joining the ensemble were several USC Tornton School of Music alumni: soprano Diana Newman ’12, MM ’14 (MUS), soprano Amelia Tobiason ’14 (MUS), tenor Jon Lee Keenan MM ’09, DMA ’13 (MUS), and world-renowned tfm.usc.edu

baritone and USC Tornton faculty member Rod Gilfry MM ’83 (MUS). Eric Guinivan MM ’08, DMA ’11 (MUS) and Sarah Rimkus ’13 (MUS) received the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ Morton Gould Young Composer Awards for 2014. Tey were recognized at the annual ASCAP Concert Music Awards at Merkin Concert Hall in New York in May. Lili Fuller ’09 (DRA) premiered Complete Works, her independently produced comedy set in the world of a collegiate Shakespeare competition, on Hulu on April 23—Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. Te show features USC alumni and faculty in all areas of production. L E G E N D

LAS ACC ARC BUS SCA SCJ 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 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

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Susan Bell, Carrie Banasky, Wendy Gragg, Katherine Grifths, Maya Meinert, James Morse, Jane Ong, Kristi Patton, Kathleen Rayburn, Mara Simon-Meyer, Stacey Wang Rizzo and Teresa Marie Whitaker contributed to this section.

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Scott Evans MHA ’10 (SPP), CEO of Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital, was named Hospital CEO of the Year at the annual Healthcare Leadership Awards in April, held by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Carrie St. Louis ’12 (MUS) made her Broadway debut on April 21 as Sherrie in Rock of Ages, a role she originated in the Las Vegas production. Manako Yabe MSW ’13 (SSW) was accepted to a PhD program in disability studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Disability and Human Development in the College of Applied Health Sciences. While at USC, Yabe, who is deaf, successfully encouraged the university to provide captioning on all large-screen televisions at commencement services.

practical knowledge, Evans hopes they will learn tools that will improve their selfesteem. Te city of Chicago took notice of his eforts, and Evans recently received an Individual Artists Program grant from the city’s Department of Cultural Afairs and Special Events to help fund the project. Until then, the Braniac Project had been funded largely through his own savings, donations from friends and an online crowd-funding campaign. With the project in its second year, Evans has partnered with Little Black Pearl Art & Design Academy, a Chicago charter school, and hopes to expand to additional schools. Sussanne Martin MSW ’14 (SSW) started a multinational nonproft organization, Semillas de Educación & Desarrollo (Seeds of Education & Development), to facilitate community outreach in El Salvador, her home country. She has assisted the small town of Nuevo Cuscatlán with training its police force on confict resolution and how to gain the trust and respect of the community.

M A R R I A G E S

Anshual Bansal MS ’06 (ENG) and Himanshi Agarwal.

B I R T H S

Jabari Evans

Jabari Evans MSW ’14 (SSW) grew up witnessing the street violence of Chicago frsthand. Rather than become a statistic himself, he took action. Evans, who goes by the stage name Naledge, is one half of the hip-hop duo Kidz in the Hall. In 2012, he launched the Brainiac Project, a creative outlet and safe haven for at-risk youth who are interested in the music industry. Evans mentors students and teaches them the ins and outs of the music industry, giving them a hands-on education in recording studio technology, networking skills and music writing. By equipping students with

usc trojan family

Jessica Budway ’98 (SCJ) and Sean Budway ’98 (SCA), a daughter, Savannah Rose. She joins brothers Jack and Luke and sister Emily. Jared Yeager ’02 (SCA) and Anne-Elisa Yeager ’03 (SCA), a daughter, Tesla Anne. Matthew Weir ’03 (LAS) and Annie Weir ’04 (LAS), a daughter, Grace Elizabeth. Caryn Weghorst MBA ’09 (BUS) and Matt Weghorst, a daughter, June Annabelle. She joins sister Violet Estelle. She is the niece of Jason Ginsburg ’96 (BUS).

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William M. Keck II, 72

Philanthropist and longtime USC Trustee William M. Keck II ’64, MBA ’66 (BUS) passed away at his home in Los Angeles on May 7. He was 72. He was president of the Coalinga Corp. and led two family philanthropies: the W. M. Keck Foundation, named for his grandfather, and the William M. Keck Jr. Foundation, named for his father. Te W. M. Keck Foundation made two landmark gifts to USC: Te frst was $110 million in 1999 that named the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and the second was $150 million in 2011 that united the medical school, USC’s hospitals and patient-care practice under the Keck Medicine of USC banner. He served on USC’s Board of Trustees for 32 years, until 2011. He helped secure federal funding for science and technology centers, and also supported USC Athletics’ Scholarship Club, the USC Price School of Public Policy and the USC Marshall School of Business. A computer classroom in USC Marshall’s Hofman Hall bears his name. Te many gifts from the Keck Foundation and the Keck family have placed them among USC’s most generous benefactors. He is survived by his wife, Nicole, and sons William, Teodore and Stephen ’97, MBA ’05. autumn 2014

EVANS PHOTO BY JOHN STURDY MAGNUM

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

Robert Erburu, 83

Robert Erburu ’52 (SCJ) died in Los Angeles on May 11. He was 83. He was the editor of Te Daily Trojan while at USC, and went on to earn a law degree at Harvard Law School in 1955. Te last chairman of Times Mirror Co., he joined Times Mirror, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times, in 1961 as a legal adviser to then-chairman Norman Chandler. He was promoted to general counsel that same year. He was named president of Times Mirror in 1974, chief executive in 1980 and chairman in 1986. He retired in 1996. A prominent patron of the arts and a civic leader, he served on the boards of numerous nonproft organizations, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Pacifc Council on International Policy, and the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, which dedicated the Lois and Robert F. Erburu wing in 2005. He is survived by his wife, Lois, children Susan Reardon and Lisa Erburu,and four grandchildren.

F A C U L T Y, S T A F F A N D F R I E N D S Mel Patton of Fallbrook, California; May 9, at the age of 89. Paul Salamunovich of Los Angeles; April 3, at the age of 86.

Arthur P. Adamson ’41 (ENG), Philadelphia; May 3, at the age of 95. George Winslow Hyde ’52 (MUS), Spokane, Washington; March 24, at the age of 92. Dennison C. Herring ’59 (ART), Grass Valley, California; May 2013, at the age of 92. Akira Endo ’62, MM ’64 (MUS), Boulder, Colorado; April 3, at the age of 75. Jim Crown ’63 (BUS), Santa Monica, California; May 1, at the age of 76. Alicemarie Huber Stotler ’64, JD ’67 (LAW), Santa Ana, California; June 9, at the age of 72.

PHOTO BY PHILIP CHANNING

Charles Warren ’65 (LAS), Enfeld, New Hampshire; Oct. 31, 2013, at the age of 71. William “Bruce” Arnold ’73 (BUS), Reno, Nevada; March 29, at the age of 65. Irene L. Dallianis Sics ’89 (SCA), Evanston, Illinois; April 25, 2013, at the age of 45. tfm.usc.edu

Warren Bennis, 89

Warren Bennis, a USC Distinguished Professor and an internationally recognized authority on leadership, passed away in Los Angeles on July 31 at age 89. Bennis stood among the world’s leading experts on leadership. A prolifc author, he wrote nearly 30 books on business administration, management theory and organizational leadership, including On Becoming A Leader, which is widely considered to be a seminal text. Te majority of his works were published during his 35-year tenure at USC, including An Invented Life, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination. He served as an advisor to fve United States presidents. “Professor Bennis was one of a rare and esteemed group of pioneers, able not only to anticipate the demands of a changing world, but also guide the direction of this change through his exceptional scholarship, teaching and mentoring,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias. Credited as the progenitor of some of the foundational principles of organiza-

tional management, he constantly sought to expand the boundaries of his feld. Most recently, he had been working closely with USC President Emeritus Steven B. Sample on a book about the challenges of democratic organization and business administration. Bennis joined USC in 1979 as professor of business administration, and was the founding chairman of the USC Marshall’s Leadership Institute, which is dedicated to preparing future generations for the business and public sectors through real-world training. He held the Joseph A. DeBell Chair in Business Administration from 1982 to 1997 and received USC’s highest honor, the Presidential Medallion, in 2001. Born in New York City, Bennis grew up in Westwood, New Jersey. He served in World War II as an infantry ofcer, and was awarded both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He received his bachelor’s degree from Antioch College in 1947, and his PhD from MIT in 1955. It was in Cambridge, while serving as a faculty member, that Bennis and colleagues frst began articulating what would become a groundbreaking set of theories on management. He served as provost of the State University of New York at Bufalo from 1967 to 1971, and as president of the University of Cincinnati from 1971 to 1978. He is survived by his wife, Grace Gabe; his adult children Katherine, John, and Will; and grandchildren Luke and Anya Movius, Devin Bennis, and Daniel, Adam and Hanna Bennis; step-daughters Nina Freedman and Eden Steinberg; and step-grandchildren Nathan and Oliver Muz, and Eliana and Abraham Freedman.

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Unbroken Spirit

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The incredible journey of a Trojan Olympian and war hero lives on. Before he became a record-breaking runner, Olympian, World War II hero, motivational speaker and the subject of a big-screen biopic directed by Angelina Jolie, Louis Zamperini ’40 was just a young troublemaker at a crossroads. The son of Italian immigrants, Zamperini struggled to fit in and got into fights with neighborhood bullies. To help channel the energies of the wayward boy, his older brother Pete encouraged him to take up running, and Zamperini soon found his calling on the track at his high school in Torrance, California. In 1934, he set a world interscholastic record and won the California state title in the mile, helping to earn a scholarship to USC. Zamperini would go on to finish eighth in the 5000 meters in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. His speed impressed Adolf Hitler, who asked to meet the young runner. “It wasn’t until many years later that I looked back and realized I’d shaken hands with the worst tyrant the world has ever known,” Zamperini would later recall. Zamperini returned to USC, where he set a national collegiate mile record that stood for 15 years. When World War II began, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was flying on a routine mission when he and his crew crashed into the Pacific Ocean. He and two survivors spent 47 grueling days drifting on a life raft, only to be captured by the Japanese military. He and one remaining survivor were held captive and tortured for two and a half years until the war ended in 1945. Initially reported as killed in action, Zamperini was able to prove his identity by showing his USC Silver Life Pass. He eventually returned to California with three Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Prisoner of War Medal. The years following were tumultuous, as Zamperini battled posttraumatic stress, depression and alcoholism. He eventually turned his life around and became a public speaker, frequently discussing the topics of motivation and reconciliation. Zamperini died July 2 in Los Angeles at the age of 97, but his life will continue to inspire others. His story was chronicled in the popular book Unbroken, and the film adaption will premiere this December.

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Louis Zamperini’s running talent earned him a scholarship to USC.

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Remembering Xinran Ji

“If you’re going through adversity, keep going.” That was Xinran Ji’s way of solving problems, according to Jiaming Kong, a close friend from his undergraduate days at Zhejiang University in China. Ji, a graduate student in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering who tragically lost his life on July 24, is remembered by friends as “amiable, willing to help all the time” and possessing an almost encyclopedic knowledge of bikes, cars, trains and planes. He was someone “always smiling, modest, positive and hard working.” It was that last part that particularly stood out to Kong, who saw in his friend “a young star who had a passion about his work,” an engineer who showed “unremitting efort in putting pieces together and making them dance.”

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Even before entering USC Viterbi, Ji had distinguished himself. His undergraduate research for quad-rotor aircraft earned him a First-class Scholarship for Excellence in Research and Innovation from Zhejiang University. His love of building things told the tale of an evolving, talented engineer. First, there was a simple but elegant feed forward controller model; a car that navigates itself by seeing in infrared; a clock that tells international time in a more human way; and fnally, a drone that can fy sideways and park itself. USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos noted that, like many gifted engineers, Ji “combined analytical and mathematical skills with creativity and synthesis: A balanced blend of left and right brain skills.” Among his professors at USC Viterbi, the loss of such a

remarkable talent was beyond comprehension. “He was one of the best students I had in class,” said Shahin Nazarian, one of Ji’s electrical engineering instructors. “They were given a very challenging project [and] his teammates told me he was really the main driver; he wanted to make it perfect. In the end, his team was in the top four among 60 to 70 teams.” According to Ehsan Pakbaznia, a fall 2013 lecturer who now works at Intel: “His overall performance in my class was incredible. I looked at him as a top designer.” Ji’s creativity also had a chance to shine with photography. He served as senior press photographer of the QSC website, a student portal ranked among the top 100 student sites in China. He loved outdoor photography, perhaps owing to his home in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous

Region, an area known for its grasslands and forests. Said Fangyue Zhan, a fellow USC Viterbi graduate student in electrical engineering: “Photography was not just an interest, but also a way to help friends. I remember when I asked him if he was available to help me take a passport photo. Immediately, he said yes. It turned out to be better than a professional one.” To honor his memory, Yortsos announced the establishment of the Xinran Ji scholarship, to be awarded annually and in perpetuity to an electrical engineering graduate student at USC Viterbi who comes from China, Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan. He was also posthumously awarded his MS degree, which Yortsos presented to his family on August 1. ADAM SMITH

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PHOTO COURTESY OF FRIENDS OF XINRAN JI

Friends recall a budding engineer and “young star” who wanted to record the world, then make it better.

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