Cahill Promoted to University Leadership Gifts Director

Joanne Cahill, director of alumni relations and development, Eberly College of Science, left the college this summer to become the director of leadership gifts in Penn State’s Division of Development and Alumni Relations. Cahill will bring considerable professional skill and experience to her new position, as well as a great familiarity with Penn State. As director of leadership gifts, Cahill will create and manage a program of leadership gifts at Penn State focused on the identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of University prospects at the highest levels of gift capacity.

After serving in development positions for nearly a decade at Villanova, Franklin and Marshall, and Neumann College, she began her Penn State career in 1989 as director of development in the College of Agricultural Sciences and in 1996 was appointed to her most recent position in the Eberly College of Science. Under her leadership, the Eberly College of Science raised nearly $82 million in gifts and commitments during A Grand Destiny: The Penn State Campaign. Cahill’s fifteen years of experience as a successful director in two of our colleges along with a total of nearly twenty-five years in university fund-raising will serve her well in her new position. Dean Daniel Larson said of Cahill, “I know that alumni and friends of the college that Joanne has met over the years will join us in expressing gratitude for all of her hard work.”

College Celebrates Science Complex Completion

Faculty and staff started moving into the new chemistry building this summer.
Photo: Erica Belser, Penn State

The Eberly College of Science is pleased to announce the completion of the new Science Complex at University Park. The Complex, including the new Chemistry and Life Sciences Buildings, provides a centralized home for the sciences designed to offer students and faculty the space, resources, and equipment to support an integrated learning experience.

In May 2004, the doors of the Chemistry Building opened and faculty and employees moved into the new space. Tenants of the Life Sciences Building occupied that building this fall. The Science Complex also includes the Gateway to the Sciences, a glass-enclosed gathering space and walkway spanning the newly-designed Shortlidge Mall.

The dedication of the Science Complex took place on September 17, 2004 on the Shortlidge Mall between the two new buildings. The Eberly College of Science offered special tours of the new facilities after the dedication ceremony. At the conclusion of the tours, an ice cream social took place outside of Eisenhower Auditorium. President Graham Spanier’s annual State of the University Address, this year entitled, “Building on Tradition to Chart the Future,” followed within the auditorium.

The Sesquicentennial Lecture was also included in the day’s festivities as part of the year-long celebration to mark Penn State’s 150th birthday. It featured Philip A. Sharp, MIT Institute Professor, former head of the MIT Department of Biology, Director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Nobel Prize winning cancer researcher.

For more information on any of the events that surrounded the dedication of the new Science Complex on September 17, 2004, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations and Development at 1-800-297-1497.

Honorary Alumni Award

James Gardner was awarded the Penn State Honorary Alumni Award on May 29, 2004. Honorary Alumni Awards are given by the Penn State Alumni Association to recognize outstanding individuals who, though not graduates of Penn State, greatly enhance the University through their commitment and service.

Gardner is the vice president of investor relations for Pfizer, Inc. Prior to beginning his career with Pfizer in 1977, he had 11 years of military service, retiring from the U.S. Army as a full colonel.
Gardner has been a driving force in the collaboration between Penn State and Pfizer and has used his influence to gain support for a number of University initiatives. He arranged for Pfizer to underwrite the annual Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science series, an outreach effort in the Eberly College of Science.

He is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board and a member of the Board of Visitors of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Gardner and wife, Linda Cuomo Gardner, ‘67 B.S. Sc, have established the Gardner Endowed Scholarship in the Eberly College of Science.

Distinguished Alumni Awards

	Edward Frymoyer	Stuart Seides

Edward Frymoyer and Stuart Seides have been named Penn State Distinguished Alumni. 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 goal of Penn State.

Edward Frymoyer, ‘59 B.S. Eng, ‘67 Ph.D. Phys, is a technology pioneer who works in storage area networks and fibre channels, the high speed links that allow quick access to vast quantities of stored data. He has started several companies, including Infinity I/O, which trains people around the world on storage networking. He has also founded Pulsar Ventures, a venture capital company that funds emerging technologies. He was a program manager of the Fibre Channel Systems Initiative, a joint effort of IBM, SUN Microsystems, and Hewlett Packard, to create standard technical profiles for the fibre channel industry.

He was honored with the Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award in 1999 and the Penn State Alumni Fellow Award in 2000 and is a member of the Eberly College of Science Dean’s Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Fibre Channel Association, the ANSI X3T11 Standards Committee on Fibre Channel, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers, the International Society for Optical Engineering, and Sigma Xi.

The Frymoyer Foundation, established by the Frymoyer family, provides leadership and resources for educational, scientific, and humanitarian purposes. The Foundation has endowed the Frymoyer Scholarship in the Department of Physics to support outstanding graduate students.

Stuart Seides, ‘67 B.S. PM, is the founder of Cardiology Associates, P.C. in Washington, D.C. He has an attending staff and clinical faculty position at George Washington University Medical Center and serves as the senior attending physician of the Cardiac Catheterization lab and as associate director of cardiology at the Washington Hospital Center. He also provides frequent commentary for media outlets such as NPR, CNN, and the New York Times.

He is a former president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia Academy of Medicine; a senior member of the American Federation of Clinical Research; a Fellow of the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention; and a member of the American College of Chest Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association, and the American College of Physicians. Licensed to practice medicine in New York, Maryland, and Washington, he has also been a commissioner of the District of Columbia Health Services Reform Commission.

Annual Millennium Society Event “Takes the Cake”

Guests at the 2003 Millennium Society reception catch up with one another at the Nittany Lion Inn.

The 2003 Millennium Society of the Eberly College of Science had its annual gathering at the Nittany Lion Inn on Friday, April 23, 2004. The reception provided an opportunity for members of the annual giving society to celebrate its accomplishments.

Barbara Scheffler, ‘72 Math, ‘73 M.A. Stat, the 2003 Millennium Society Chair, greeted guests as they arrived. Also welcoming guests were Co-Chairs Susan Grove ‘66 Math, and Cada Grove, ‘66 SecEd, and Vice Co-Chairs Vickie Grier and Charles “Bucky” Grier, ‘84 M.S. Micrb, ‘87 Ph.D. Micrb.

“Both of us want to add our thank you to Millennium Society members for their generosity in supporting the Eberly College of Science. We are honored to serve as co-chairmen of the Millennium Society and look forward to meeting more members at future recognition events,” Susan Grove said during her reception remarks.

The Millennium Society aims to encourage excellence in the college through the annual financial support of scholarships, research funds, and other academic program enhancements. Annual gifts of $1,000 entitle a donor to membership in the Society.

Alumni Notes

1953

Charles R. Fuget, M.S. Chem, ‘56 Ph.D. Chem, was named interim president of Fisk University in December 2003. Fuget had retired in 1994 as deputy secretary and commissioner of post-secondary and higher education with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, where he was the state’s top policy adviser on post-secondary education.

1963

Mary Osborn, M.S. Bphys, ‘67 Ph.D. Bphys, has been a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, for more than 30 years. She is responsible for establishing cytoskeleton research in Europe.

1968

Ronald Yasbin, B.S. Zool, has accepted the position of dean of the College of Sciences at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

1970

Carol Wood Moore, Ph.D. Genet/Bioch, a faculty member in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education/CUNY Medical School, received the 2002 Outstanding Women Scientist Award of the New York Metropolitan Association for Women in Science, a national nonprofit professional society founded in 1971 and dedicated to achieving equity and full participation for women in all areas of science and technology. She was chosen for the award in recognition of her accomplishments in the laboratory, her publications, and her mentorship activities.

1973

Jack DeForrest, B.S. Sc, ‘75 M.S. Phsio, ‘76 Ph.D. Phsio, received the Centennial Fellow Award from Penn State’s Mont Alto campus on April 3, 2004.

1976

Robert J. Petcavich, B.S. Chem, ‘77 M.S. SSS, ‘80 Ph.D. PlmSc, has been appointed chief technology officer at Lumera Corporation, a subsidiary of Microvision, Inc. Lumera is located in Bothell, Washington.

1978

Thomas Colledge, B.S. Biol, ‘79 B.S. Ed, ‘86 B.S. Eng, ‘92 MEng, ‘98 Ph.D. Eng, is assistant professor of engineering design in the Department of Engineering Design, Technology and Professional Programs at Penn State. He has been awarded the College of Engineering’s Lawrence J. Perez Student Advocate Award and the Leadership and Service Award from the College of Education.

Harry DeAntonio, B.S. Biol, former director of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing at University Health Systems of Eastern North Carolina, has been promoted to professor of medicine in the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.

1980

Bruce Bonnevier, B.S. Math, ‘81 B.A. Math/Stat, has been appointed vice president of human resources at Hillenbrand Industries in Batesville, Indiana. He was previously vice president of human resources in Rohm and Haas’ Electronic Materials Division.

1981

Elizabeth C. Squiers, B.S. Sc, was appointed vice president of clinical development at Thios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in Emeryville, California. She is responsibe for the development of TS1, Thios’ lead product candidate for the prevention of delayed graft function in kidney transplantation, the treatment of acute chest syndrome in sickle cell disease, and the prevention of deep vein thrombosis in high-risk trauma patients.

1983

Paul Lavrey, B.S. Math, has been appointed by GEICO as assistant vice president of underwriting research. He was formerly the director of underwriting research.

1984

Mark L. Rohrbaugh, Ph.D. Bioch, has been appointed director of the Office of Technology Transfer in the Office of Intramural Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He will oversee the patenting and licensing of NIH inventions and contribute to intramural and extramural technology transfer policy at the National Institutes of Health and in the Department of Health and Human Services.

1987

Thomas Griffith, B.S. Math, and wife Michelle, announce the birth of their second child and first daughter, MacKenzie Elizabeth, on May 31, 2004. The Griffiths reside in Centreville, Virginia.

1988

Eric Aitala, B.S. Astro, completed his doctorate in physics at the University of Mississippi in December 2003.

1989

David M. DeMay, B.S. Sc, is an attorney in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, specializing in intellectual property, estates, and trusts.

James Ingelese, Ph.D. Chem, has been appointed head of biomolecular screening in the National Institutes of Health Chemical Genomics Center. He was formerly a senior research fellow in the automated biotechnology group at Merck Research Laboratories.

Heather Rayle, B.S. Chem, is business manager of Rohm and Haas in Newark, Delaware.

1990

Shawn P. Gallagher, B.S. Biol, received a doctorate in biological psychology from the University of Delaware in 2002 and is now an assistant professor of psychology at Millersville University.

Gina Reed, M.A. Stat, associate professor of mathematics at Gainesville College, won the 2003 Input Award from the American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges for her innovative use of curriculum and teaching methods in the classroom.

1991

Sonia Leach, B.S. Sc, has recently been promoted from captain to major in the U.S. Air Force.

1994

Peter Emanuel, Ph.D. MCB, was selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans for 2003 by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce for his work in strengthening the nation’s defenses against biological weapons. His pioneering work has focused on developing, building, and patenting technology such as a biological sampling device and a high-throughput robotic system for detecting the presence of bioterrorism agents in the environment.

Jonathan Pritchard, B.S. Biol and Math, is the recipient of a 2004 Sloan Research Fellowship. He is an assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago where he is developing novel statistical methods to model and analyze data on genetic variations in humans and other species.

1995

Christine Callahan, B.S. Sc, ‘99 M.D., finished her glaucoma specialist training at the Bascom Palmer Eye Hospital in Miami, Florida. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She is married to Eric Callahan, ‘95 B.S. Biol, ‘02 Ph.D. Micrb.

Robert Ventorini, B.S. Biol, graduated in 2002 with a master’s degree in biology from California University of Pennsylvania. He is a consulting ecologist and lead ichthyologist with Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2002 he was added to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s list of Qualified Fish Survey Consultants. In 2003 he received the Certified Fisheries Professional designation through the American Fisheries Society. He will begin a doctorate program in biology in fall 2004 at Duquesne.

1996

Bruce Booth, B.S. Bioch, has accepted a position as principal at Caxton Health Holdings, a healthcare investing firm, in New York.

Nicole Ronco, B.S. Sc, of Whitehall, Pennsylvania, announces the birth of daughter, Isabella, on October 12, 2002. Isabella joins brother, Luke, and sister, Alexis.

Christy L. Ventura, B.S. Micrb, received her doctorate in microbiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in March 2004. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the University of Washington in Seattle.

1997

Brian T. Glazer, B.S. Biol, received his doctorate in marine biology/biochemistry from the University of Delaware in May 2004. He specializes in marine geomicrobiology and has accepted a postdoctoral position at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu where he will be working on research within the framework of NASA’s astrobiology program.

1999

Jong-Moon Chung, Ph.D. EE, has been promoted to associate professor at Oklahoma State University. He was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award from Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma State Regents of Higher Education in 2003.

2003

Brian O’Laughlin, B.S. Biol, is a medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine. He is co-president of the Family Medicine Interest Group and the Surgery Interest Group.

Obituaries

Kris W. Barrett, ‘67 B.S. Bioch, died on July 14, 2003. He had been employed by Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., headquartered in Pasadena, California, as corporate director of quality assurance since 1991. He was the manager of Remedial Investigations at the Massachusetts Military Reservation, Otis ANG Base, Massachusetts, for the past five years.

George A. Downsbrough, of State College, Pennsylvania, died on April 4, 2004. The 2003 recipient of the Honorary Alumni Award from Penn State, Dr. Downsbrough was the former president of HRB-Singer in State College. He established the Downsbrough Faculty Development Professorship, the Downsbrough Graduate Fellowship in Physics, and the Downsbrough Graduate Fellowship in Astrophysics in the Eberly College of Science.

Daniel Frankl, professor emeritus of physics in the Eberly College of Science, died June 1, 2003. He was a member of the faculty at Penn State from 1963 until 1988.

Howard G. Hughes, ‘70 M.S. Micrb, died on April 19, 2003. He was a physician in the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania.

Robert J. Levanduski, ‘61 B.S. Chem, of Delaware, died on January 25, 2004. He was a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Air Force and was a retired technical manager with PPG Industries.

Edward Shapiro, ‘37 B.S. Chem, a mathematician and a businessman from New Hampshire, died March 4, 2003. In the Eberly College of Science, Dr. Shapiro and his wife Antoinette, established three endowed funds: The Shapiro Fund, the Shapiro Family Scholarship Fund, and the Shapiro Professorship.

Robert T. Simpson, the holder of the Verne Willaman Professorship in Molecular Biology at Penn State, died on April 21, 2004. An internationally-known researcher, he joined the faculty in the Eberly College of Science in 1995.

Harry Weller, ‘50 B.S. PM, died on April 12, 2003. Dr. Weller spent most of his medical career in the U.S. Public Health Service. He also spent 14 years as a team doctor for Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics, tending to the injuries of Nittany Lion athletes.

Thomas A. Wiggins, professor emeritus of physics in the Eberly College of Science, died June 14, 2003. He was a member of the Penn State faculty from 1953 until 1987.

Ralph Yeager, ‘42 B.S. Chem, died on May 25, 2003. He was one of the founders and co-owners of the Tavern Restaurant in State College, Pennsylvania.

In Memoriam

Robert Eberly

Robert Eberly, ‘39 B.S. CCh, one of Penn State’s most generous benefactors, passed away on May 19, 2004. Following his graduation from Penn State, Eberly worked for the Department of the Navy during World War II and then joined his father, first in the family’s gas well drilling business in western Pennsylvania and other states, and later in the banking business.

On March 17, 1990, Penn State’s Board of Trustees renamed the College of Science to honor Robert Eberly and the Eberly Family Charitable Trust of Uniontown. This formal naming of the Eberly College of Science inaugurated a new chapter in the long and distinguished history of science education and research at Penn State. This event also marked the first time that a public research university named its basic science college for a benefactor.

In addition, in 1986, the Eberly Family Trust gave $10 million to establish a chair in each of the college’s departments, to create endowments for biotechnology and to provide funding for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. This gift was among the largest donations made to the campaign for Penn State, the university’s successful six-year effort to raise $300 million in private support. Trust Manager Robert Eberly served as campaign treasurer. It was the first time in all of higher education philanthropy that an academic college received, in a single gift, endowed chairs for every one of its departments.

Penn Sate Fayette Campus has also been renamed Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, in recognition of the Eberly family. The Eberlys have given about $22.3 million to support scholarships, building construction, faculty endowments and other initiatives. He was also well known for his devotion to helping his native Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and was a major contributor to numerous civic, educational, and economic development programs.

Eberly was a recipient of Penn State’s Distinguished Alumni Award and the Alumni Fellow Award. In 2000—to mark the ten-year anniversary of the naming of the Eberly College of Science and to show gratitude to Robert Eberly and the Eberly Family—the college established The Eberly Family Distinguished Lecture in Science. The annual Eberly Lecture brings back to campus a prominent speaker and presents an opportunity for the entire community to learn about timely and important issues in the field of science.