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Alumni and Philanthropy News

Mothersbaugh Named Director of Alumni Relations and Development

10 January 2006—The Office of Alumni Relations and Development of the Eberly College of Science welcomed Robert L. Mothersbaugh as director in May 2005. Mothersbaugh is a seasoned fund-raiser with eighteen years experience at Pennsylvania institutions of higher education. "I am delighted that Rob has joined us as director of alumni relations and development,” says Dean Daniel Larson. “Rob brings with him outstanding knowledge and experience and a deep passion for Penn State. We have a wonderful team in the Office of Alumni Relations and Development which, with Rob’s leadership, will play an ever increasing role in advancing the college."

From 1997 to 2005, Mothersbaugh served as the director of development for the College of Arts and Architecture and its University Art Services, which includes the Palmer Museum of Art, Center for the Performing Arts, and Pennsylvania Centre Stage. Prior to joining Penn State, he was the chief advancement officer and director of development at Lycoming College from 1993 to 1997, and was campaign director and director of development services at Gettysburg College from 1990 to 1993. He also had been director of Penn State Lion Line and assistant director of annual giving at Penn State from 1987 to 1990.

In 1989, Mothersbaugh received the Professional Excellence Award from Penn State’s Division of Development and Alumni Relations. He currently is a member of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Association of Fund Raising Professionals, and has been a member of the American Prospect Research Association and the National Planned Giving Council. He has been an active volunteer with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization, the State College Women's Resource Center, the Marsh Nature Center, the Palmer Museum of Art Advisory Board, and the United Way.

Mothersbaugh received his bachelor's degree in organizational behavior from Penn State in 1987 and has pursued post-graduate studies toward a master's degree in higher education. He received a professional certificate from the Association of Fund-Raising Professionals based on his years of experience, professional accomplishments, and academic background, as well as his continuing education and service.

A native of Centre County, he lives in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania with his wife Lori Marchese, a 1988 Penn State graduate, and their three children: thirteen-year-old daughter Leah, eleven-year-old son Cameron, and eight-year-old son Adam.

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Anonymous Donor Gives $250,000

Penn State’s Eberly College of Science received $250,000 to create a graduate fellowship in the department of biochemistry from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

The gift will endow the William Taylor Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in honor of Taylor, director emeritus of intercollege research programs.

Taylor, who retired from Penn State in 2000, started working at the university as a National Science Foundation fellow and began teaching biophysics in 1963. He had earned bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Manchester University in England.

At Penn State, he studied the cancer-causing and mutation-generating effects chemicals and ultraviolet light have on viruses and mammalian DNA. He also held several administrative positions before retiring.

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Wielands Give $150,000 to Create Scholarship

The Walter K. and LynnMarie C. Wieland Scholarship was created by Walt Wieland, ‘59 Phys, and his wife, LynnMarie, in July 2005 to provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding undergraduate students enrolled or planning to enroll in the Eberly College of Science at Penn State.

Walt Wieland is a physicist specializing in optics who works as a staff engineer at ASML. He stays busy serving as a trustee chief of the fire police in the Ridgefield, Connecticut Volunteer Fire Department. His current work involves designing test equipment and procedures to evaluate lithographic optics used to make computer chips.

LynnMarie is pursuing a master’s degree in anthropology at Hunter College. She is also active in their community, doing research projects for local government officials and serving on the Charter Revision Commission for the town of Ridgefield.

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Pelicks Give $500,000 to Support Chemistry Building

Long-time Penn State volunteers Nicholas and Gelsa “Dolly” Pelick, of Bellefonte, have given $500,000 toward the new Chemistry Building on the University Park campus. The Nicholas and Gelsa Pelick Courtyard, located between the new building and historic Spruce Cottage, was named in recognition of the couple’s generosity.

The Chemistry Building, dedicated in September 2004, contains faculty offices, state-of-the-art laboratories, and classroom facilities.

Nicholas Pelick earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural and biological chemistry in 1959 and a master’s in biochemistry in 1964, both from Penn State. In 1966, he co-founded Supelco, Inc., a Bellefonte-based company that developed and produced analytical products for gas chromatography and lipid biochemicals for medical research and standardization. Supelco was sold to Rohm and Haas Company of Philadelphia in 1986 and Nicholas Pelick retired as president in 1991.

Gelsa Pelick graduated in 1955 from the Wyoming Valley School of Nursing and Wilkes College in Wilkes-Barre, and is a registered nurse.

The Pelicks have a long history of involvement with the Eberly College of Science. In addition to the couple’s philanthropy, Nick Pelick serves on the Penn State Research Foundation Board as an emeritus director. He is also a Presidential Counselor, a member of a group that advises the University on philanthropic issues. He was chair of the college’s component of the University’s six-year Grand Destiny fund-raising campaign, and is a past president of the Science Alumni Society Board. He received the Alumni Fellow award from the college in 1991.

Previous giving to Penn State by the Pelicks has included an endowed faculty chair in the Eberly College, a biotechnology innovation fund in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, and support to such areas as Pennsylvania Centre Stage, WPSX, athletics, and construction of the Bryce Jordan Center.

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Young Alumni Create Trustee Matching Scholarships

Jennifer Sheehan ‘87 HHD, and Jaimie, ‘00 Eng, and Mario Ciabarra ‘99 Sci, recently created Trustee Matching Scholarships in the Eberly College of Science.

Jennifer Sheehan created the Dr. Theodore R. Gelet Trustee Scholarship in the Eberly College of Science in memory of her father, Ted R. Gelet, ‘59 Premed. Dr. Gelet was a cardiologist at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh and an avid Penn State fan. The scholarship was awarded to a student for the first time in fall 2005.

The Jaimie and Mario Ciabarra Trustee Scholarship in the Eberly College of Science was created by Jaimie and Mario Ciabarra to support undergraduates in the college. As young alums, they felt strongly about helping students with financial need receive the high-quality science education that Penn State’s Eberly College of Science offers. The scholarship was awarded to a student for the first time in fall 2005.

The Trustee Matching Scholarship Program features a unique matching component. It works like this: University funds are combined with income from the donor’s endowment when making awards to students, thus increasing the impact of the scholarship. These matching funds—five percent of the gift—become available as soon as the donor completes scholarship pledge forms and guidelines.

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Millennium Society Acknowledges Its Members at Reception

Members and friends of the Millennium Society of the Eberly College of Science gathered on Saturday, September 10, 2005 for an annual reception. The reception took place in the newly-renovated McAllister Building, an historic building on the University Park campus named after Hugh Nelson McAllister, who was essential to the creation of Penn State in its earliest form, the Farmer’s High School of Pennsylvania.

The 2005 Millennium Society celebrated its first five years by recognizing its inaugural members who have supported the college every year since the Society’s inception in 2001.

Vickie and Charles “Bucky” Grier, ‘84 M.S. Micrb, ‘87 Ph.D. Micrb, were welcomed into their new leadership role as co-chairs of the Millennium Society by outgoing co-chairs Susan Grove ‘66 Math, and Cada Grove, ‘66 SecEd.

The Millennium Society is made up of alumni and friends who have donated their financial resources to the college, thereby acknowledging the role that private support plays in the advancement of science education and research in the Eberly College of Science. Annual gifts of $1,000 entitle a donor to membership in the society.

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Shaler and Stith Named Alumni Fellows

Robert C. Shaler, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and director of Penn State's newly formed forensic-science program, and James H. Stith, vice president of the Physics Resources Center for the American Institute of Physics, were among those honored with the Penn State Alumni Association's 2005 Alumni Fellow Award. Established in 1973, the award, which is a lifelong title conferred upon its recipients, is the most prestigious honor given by the association. The awards are administered in cooperation with the academic colleges and are presented annually to alumni who have demonstrated excellence in their chosen professions.

In 1977, Robert Shaler conducted a study on the individualization of bloodstain evidence that led to the development of a bloodstain-analysis system that was used as the standard in forensic laboratories until the early 1990's. He worked as a criminalist at the Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Crime Lab from 1970 to 1975 and was a research director there in 1974 and 1975. He was director of forensic science at the Aerospace Corporation in Washington, DC, in 1977 and 1978. He joined the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City in 1978, where he served as director of serology until 1986. From 1987 to 1989, he was director of Forensic-Science Technical Support, Training, and Business Development at Lifecodes Corporation in New York-the nation's first forensic-DNA laboratory. From 1990 to 2005, he was director of the Department of Forensic Biology at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City, where he performed or directed forensic biological analyses for all homicide investigations until 2005. In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, he implemented a DNA-testing strategy that was key to the identification of 1,592 of the 2,749 people who perished there.

Prior to joining Penn State in 2005, Shaler was an adjunct associate professor of pathology and forensic medicine at the New York University School of Medicine from 1978 to 2005 and an adjunct professor and adjunct associate professor at the City University of New York from 1993 to 1995. He has held several positions at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was an instructor of forensic chemistry and a research assistant professor of chemistry from 1974 to 1977, a clinical assistant professor from 1973 to 1975, and an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry in the School of Pharmacy from 1970 to 1973. He also had been a research associate in the School of Medicine from 1968 to 1970.

Shaler earned an associate's degree at Valley Forge Military Junior College in 1962 and a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Franklin and Marshall College in 1964. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in biochemistry at Penn State in 1966 and 1968, respectively. In 2003, he received an honorary doctoral degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Shaler is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Science, the Northeast Association of Forensic Scientists, and the New Jersey Society for Forensic Scientists.

He has served on the editorial review board of the American Journal of Forensic Pathology and Medicine and was an ad hoc member of the review board of the New England Journal of Medicine. He was a member and chair of the NYS Crime Laboratory Advisory Committee and a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Biological Evidence. Shaler also has been an expert guest commentator for Court TV. Penn State's Graduate School Alumni Society selected him as the first recipient of the GSAS Humanitarian Award in spring 2005 for his humanitarian service to the people of New York City following the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.

James H. Stith directs a broad portfolio of programs and services that include magazine publishing, media and government relations, education and student services, statistical research, career services, and the history center of the American Institute of Physics . Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for programs that ensure ethnic and gender diversity in the sciences. An internationally known physicist and leading authority on physics education, he serves on numerous National and International Advisory Boards. His extensive work with the National Research Council resulted in Science Standards (K-12), the first time national guidelines were established by which exemplary teaching, effective assessment, and student knowledge may be measured.

A retired colonel, Stith spent 21 years on the faculty at West Point and was the first African American in its history to be named to the tenured faculty. He also has been professor of physics at Ohio State University, a visiting associate professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and visiting scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Stith earned bachelor's and master's degrees in physics at Virginia State University in 1963 and 1964, respectively. He earned a doctoral degree in physics from Penn State in 1972. He is past president of the American Association of Physics Teachers and the National Society of Black Physicists. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a fellow of the American Physical Society. He received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Virginia State University. He has been listed in American Men and Women of Science, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in Science and Technology, Contemporary Outstanding Black Scientists, Outstanding Young Men of America, and Who's Who in Society.

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Distinguished Service Award

Richard McCarl and Philip Mohr were named the recipients of the 2005 Eberly College of Science Distinguished Service Award. The award was established in 1979 to recognize individuals who have made exceptional leadership and service contributions to the college.

Richard McCarl, ‘58 M.S., ‘61 Ph.D. ABCH, is professor emeritus of biochemistry. He joined the Penn State faculty in 1961 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1969, and was named professor in 1974. He served as associate dean of the Penn State Graduate School from 1982 until 1991 and was director of Penn State’s Intercollege Research Program from 1985 until 1991. He retired with the title professor emeritus in 1991.

His lengthy Penn State service included service on numerous committees, including the Laboratory Animal Advisory Committee, the Committee on Academic Dishonesty, the Biomedical Review Committee, the University Isotopes Committee, the Faculty Rights and Responsibility Committee, and the Teacher Certification Committee for Students Majoring in Science. He was a member of the Penn State University Senate and the University Faculty Senate Council. He supervised more than 20 master’s and doctoral theses and mentored countless undergraduate students.

During his tenure at Penn State, his research interests included lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in cell and tissue cultures; fatty acid oxidation by beating rat heart cells; myofibrillar proteins, with a special interest in biosynthesis and degradation of cardiac myosin; the use of beating cultured rat heart cells in the study of anesthetic depression of rate and intensity of beating; and the use of heart cells in culture as an alternate model for drug testing.

His professional associations include membership in Sigma Xi, the American Chemical Society, Phi Lambda Upsilon, the Tissue Culture Association, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Philip Mohr is affiliate professor of microbiology and director of the undergraduate programs in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He joined Penn State in 1976 as a lecturer in microbiology, became an affiliate assistant professor in 1982, was promoted to affiliate associate professor in 1990, and was promoted to affiliate professor in 1998.

His service to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology includes membership on the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, the Undergraduate Affairs Committee, the Computer Facilities Committee; and involvement with peer teaching evaluation, departmental strategic planning, and service as a junior faculty mentor. At the university and college level, he has served as a member of the University Hearing Board, the Eberly College of Science Courses of Study Committee, the Health Sciences Preprofessional Evaluation Committee, the Health Professions Advisory Committee, and the Undergraduate Education Advisory Committee. He also serves as a Penn State University Marshal, is the faculty advisor for the Penn State student chapter of the American Society for Microbiology, and was involved in the creation of the new forensic science major in the Eberly College of Science. Recognized for his excellence in teaching, he is a former recipient of the Tershak Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award.

He is a member of the American Society of Microbiology, the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, the Pennsylvania Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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Outstanding Science Alumni Award

Four Eberly College of Science alumni were honored with the 2005 Outstanding Science Alumni Awards. These awards were established by the college’s alumni society to recognize and reward outstanding alumni for their success as leaders in science and for the impact they have had and will continue to have on society and their professions.

Kenneth Adelberg, ‘74 B.S. Bphys, is the president and chief executive officer of the HiFi House Group of Companies, a privately-held diversified distributor and retailer of audio, video, and telecommunications products for industrial, commercial, and consumer markets.

Adelberg’s involvement with private companies includes: founder and director of Newco Partners, Inc., a technology transfer company, as well as a Newco spinoff, OSST, Inc., which provides biometric technologies to secure personal and economic transactions. He is a board member of Interactive Medicine, Inc., which provides internet-based interactive tools and programs designed to innovate the delivery of healthcare, knowledge and services, and a general partner in Anderson Creek Partners, a 1750 acre golf, tennis and real estate development in the Pinehurst-Raleigh area of North Carolina, Fieldpoint Partners SBIC, a venture capital fund providing equity and debt for early and mezzanine stage companies with a focus on technology, internet, and new media markets.

Charles Buchas, ‘71 B.S. Math, is corporate vice president and treasurer of FedEx Corporation, a $24 billion global transportation and logistics holding company. He is responsible for the establishment and execution of all programs for financing the capital needs of the corporation, the design and development of methods of dealing with non-speculative risk confronting the corporation, as well as treasury operations of the corporation’s five business units—Express, Ground, Custom Critical, Freight and Trade Networks.

Prior to his current position, which he assumed in 1998, Buchas was vice president and treasurer of Federal Express Corporation since December 1991. He joined Federal Express as a senior financial analyst in 1980. He became manager in 1981 and a managing director in 1989.

Prior to joining Federal Express, he was a senior financial analyst at General Foods Corporation.

Stephen Mayo, ‘83 B.S. Chem, is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of biology and chemistry at Caltech in Pasadena, California.

Mayo is a pioneer and leading figure in the field of protein design. His work at the interface of theory, computation, and experiment is aimed at understanding the physical/chemical determinants of protein structure, stability, and function. He and his coworkers were the first to show that a quantitative description of protein thermodynamics could be coupled with combinatorial search techniques capable of addressing the enormous combinatorial space available to protein sequences.

He has received a number of honors, including being named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellow, and a Searle Scholar. In 1997 he was recognized for his pioneering work in protein design by being awarded the Johnson Foundation Prize for Innovative Research in Structural Biology. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

Mary Osborn, ‘63 M.S., ‘67 Ph.D. Bphys, is a cell biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, and an honorary professor in the medical faculty at the University of Göttingen. She holds an honorary doctorate from the Pomerian Medical Academy in Sczeczin, Poland, and won the Meyenburg prize for cancer research and the 2002 L’Oreal/ UNESCO Prize given to women for excellence in science.

Her research interests have focused in particular on proteins of the cytoskeleton as well as on certain proteinof the cell nucleus. Her work has stressed the use of antibodies to determine the arrangements of the different cytoskeletal structures in cells and in tissues. Antibodies made in her laboratory have been licensed to many companies in and outside Europe. Two techniques which she was involved in developing—SDS gel electrophoresis and immunofluorescence microscopy—are used worldwide.

Osborn is a trustee of the Swedish Foundation on the Environment, MISTRA, and has chaired both the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, and the Cell Biology Section of Academia Europaea. She is the current president of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, an organization that represents biochemists and molecular biologists in 72 countries.

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C. I. Noll Award

The C. I. Noll Award for Excellence in Teaching is presented annually to faculty members and instructors in the college who demonstrate a record of excellence in both teaching and in interactions with students. The award is the college’s highest recognition for teaching.

Raymond Funk, professor of chemistry, joined the Penn State faculty in 1987 as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 1989. He received his doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh from 1978 through 1979 and was a member of the faculty at the University of Nebraska from 1979 until 1987 before accepting a faculty position in Penn State’s Department of Chemistry.

Over the past decade, Funk has taught a number of sophomore undergraduate and graduate level organic chemistry courses, including Chem 34, Chem 38, Chem 38 honors, Chem 39, Chem 39 honors, and Chem 537. At the graduate level, his teaching style is interactive and focuses on both giving direction and allowing independent thought to his students by providing guidance while allowing the students to develop their own processes of problem solving. When teaching undergraduate students, he promotes class involvement, teaching difficult material sequentially and in a manner that promotes better understanding of chemical reactions and concepts. He also brings undergraduate students into his laboratory to participate in research projects that provide valuable training that is not available in the classroom.

Outside of the classroom, Funk has been a member of the chemistry department’s graduate student admissions committee and the college’s graduate fellowship committee. He has also served his department on the seminar, faculty, search, and safety committees.

An organic chemist, his research interests involve the development of new methodology and strategies for the synthesis of molecules that possess useful biological and/or material properties.

James Strauss, ‘82 B.S. Biol, ‘87 M.S. Biol, ‘92 Ph.D. Phsio, instructor in biology, has been teaching in the Eberly College of Science since 1992. He has developed a diverse array of anatomy and physiology based courses, and has taught students at both upper and lower levels. Most recently, he has taught the upper-level courses of mammalian physiology, histology, and medical embryology; and general education courses in human physiology, human anatomy, and the biology of aging. He has also designed and taught a first-year seminar in premedicine, a course designed to discuss planning and time management skills necessary for academic and social success in the premedicine major. Known by many students as a “good storyteller,” Strauss is able to utilize a good sense of topic organization and unique ways of explaining biological processes using language and examples that all students can grasp.

Outside of the classroom, Strauss has served as interim director of the Premedical Program and chair of the Preprofessional Advisory Committee from 1995-1997 and from 1999-2000, was coordinator of the Freshman Testing, Counseling, and Advising Program for the Department of Biology from 1994-2005, and was advisor to the Eberly College of Science Student Council from 2000-2003. A Penn State Faculty Senator, he has also chaired the Biology Undergraduate Student Awards Committee, was a member of the Course and Curriculum Committee, the Preprofessional Advisory Committee, the Eberly College of Science Committee on Advising, the Instructional Development Program Committee, is an advisor for the biology program, a panel member for the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, and a panel member of the Graduate Student Instructional Development Program.

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Distinguished Alumni Award

Alan Schriesheim, ‘54 Ph.D. Chem, has been named a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus. The Distinguished Alumni Award, Penn State’s highest honor, is presented by the Board of Trustees to graduates whose professional achievements, personal qualities, and community involvement exemplify the goals of Penn State.

Schriesheim was the director of Argonne National Laboratory, the first national laboratory established by the Federal Government in 1946, from 1983 until 1996. Under his leadership, Argonne’s budget increased from $250 million to nearly $600 million, with 500 employees working on multiple research programs. He oversaw projects including developing high-temperature superconductors, research on biological microchips, sequencing the human genome, and work on nuclear engineering. He also championed the design and construction of the Advanced Photon Source, a $456 million accelerator three-quarters of a mile in diameter.

Prior to joining Argonne, he worked for Standard Oil—better known as Esso and then Exxon—for 27 years. He was general manager of Exxon Engineering and director of the Corporate Research Laboratory. During he tenure at Exxon, he won the American Chemical Society’s award for research in petroleum chemistry.

Schriesheim is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and holds 22 U.S. patents. He was recently appointed as chair of the National Academy Committee on Innovation Models for Aerospace Technologies.

He was previously honored as a Penn State Alumni Fellow in 1984 and with an honorary doctor of science degree in 2001. He is a member of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Board of Visitors and delivered the commencement address for the Eberly College of Science in 1995.

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Students Mentored at 2005 Careers in Science

The Eberly College of Science Alumni Society’s “Careers in Science” took place in the Willaman Gateway on the Penn State Campus on October 22, 2005. Careers in Science is a program designed to provide students with information about some of the career options available to graduates in the sciences. Twenty-five alumni participated in the program, which was attended by approximately one hundred students. The program featured panel discussions presented by alumni in the areas of careers in industry, careers in the health professions, careers in education, and careers in government. Sessions were also offered on resume preparation and interviewing skills. Participating students had the opportunity to meet individually with alumni and other members of the Penn State community who are involved with career planning.

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