Jerome L. Ackerman (Ph.D. '76) jerry@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu, www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~jerry/, after a postdoc at UC Berkeley and seven years on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati he was ultimately unable to stay away from the Boston area. Presently he is an Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Biomaterials Laboratory in the Massachusetts General Hospital NMR Center, and a cofounder of SkelScan, Inc." which hopefully will catch the next wave of irrational overexuberance." He is happily married with two children, one parakeet and several fish. 8/2001

Mairin Anderson (B.S. '94) mairin@alum.mit.edu is working for Prof. Brian Hoffman at Northwestern University. "One of the bonuses of my group is a mandatory trip every other year to London to meet with our collaborators. Maybe we aren't allowed to bowl in Evanston (see Sandhya Deo's entry, July 1997), but we have our own private beach on Lake Michigan!" 8/1998

Namik K Aras (Ph.D. '64) aras@bahcesehir.edu.tr is now director of Institute of Science and Technology of the Bahcesehir University. He can be reached at Bahcesehir University, 34900 Bahcesehir, Istanbul Turkey. 11/2001

Ted T. Ashburn (Ph.D. '95) tashburn@dynogenpharma.com He has recently accepted a position as Senior Director of Business Development at a biotech company that he helped to co-found. The company is called Dynogen Pharmaceuticals and it is a neuroscience-based drug discovery & development company targeting novel therapies for genitourinary & gastrointestinal disorders. He finished his MD at Harvard in 1999 then spent 2.5 years at Pfizer (New London, CT) in a strategic planning and business development group in their R&D headquarters. He was married on Sept. 14, 2002. 10/2003

Stephen S. Barshay (Ph.D. '81) SBarshay@ussev.mail.abb.com is working as Supervisor of Analytical Chemistry and Radiochemistry at ABB Combustion Engineering Nuclear Operations in Windsor, CT. 9/1997

Federico Bernal (B.S. '97) federico@scripps.edu is staring a post-doc at Harvard Univeristy. "I got married (two months ago), and I'm finally going back to the east coast. I'm defending my Ph.D. thesis at the end of August. Then, we're moving back east!! I will be a post-doc at Harvard with Prof. Greg Verdine... yes, I'm turning into a biologist... " 6/2002

Keith Beyer (Ph.D. '97) beyer.keit@uwlax.edu Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Environmental Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In the past year I have had two papers published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry part A. One was featured on the cover of the January 25th, 2007 issue. My wife Anne and I now have two daughters: Leah (2 years) and Grace (six weeks).

David Borhani (S.B. '82, Ph. D. '86) david.borhani@alum.mit.edu Research Scientist with D. E. Shaw Research, LLC (medicinal chemistry-oriented molecular dynamics simulations of proteins and ligands.)

Gary Breton (Ph.D. '91) gbreton@berry.edu is married to his college sweetheart, Tami and they now have two children ages 7 and 9. He has been at Berry College for 9 years. He seems to spend most of his time repairing instruments! He has found working with undergraduates on research projects relating to the synthesis of small-molecule heterocycles very rewarding. 10/2003

Robert J. Brown (B.S. '96) rjbrown@mail.med.cornell.edu is in his second year of an MD/PhD program at Cornell University Medical College, the Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He is working in the Laboratory for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at the Rockefeller University under Dr. Paul Greengard. 9/1997

Donald Choi (B.S. '97) donchoi@alum.mit.edu is working this summer as a lab technician in the Clarke Lab at the Merkert Center at Boston College, where he will be entering the Ph.D. program in the fall. 7/1997

Morgan Conn (Ph.D. '94) mmconn@alum.mit.edu is a Senior Scientist in High Throughput Synthesis at PTC Therapeutics. "Last summer I decided to leave Amherst College and academics. I have since been working since at PTC Therapeutics, a privately funded start-up pharmaceutical company targeting RNA-related processes to develop drugs for genetic diseases, oncology, and anti-infectives. I am now living in New York City with my new wife -- we were married in June of this year." 9/2002

Sandhya Deo (B.S. '97) sdeo@chem.nwu.edu is working this summer for Prof. Hilary Godwin at Northwestern, where she will be pursuing her doctorate. "We're starting up a new project (her lab is only 1 year old) using combinatorial techinques to study lead binding for potential lead chelation therapy." Sandhya adds, "The Midwest is, well, the Midwest... bowling is illegal in Evanston. If they had told me that during the preview weekend I might have gone to Berkeley instead (just kidding)." 7/1997

Hisham Eissa (B.S. '97) heissa@axyspharm.com is working for Axys Pharmaceutical in Sunny San Francisco, doing research on the methodology of solid-phase chemistry with the goal of combining solid and solution-phase chemistries to generate combinatorial libraries. 3/1998

Michelle Fisher (M.S. '97) michelle@alum.mit.edu has begun her first year of rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. "I'm having a great time, and am finding it a big change from lab work..." 9/1997

Joel S. Freundlich (Ph.D. '96) joelf@alum.mit.edu is a Senior Scientist at Locus Pharmaceuticals in Blue Bell, PA where he is working on the design and synthesis of small molecule antagonists/agonists for protein targets of interest. He still has the chance to apply some of my organometallic training when doing some catalytic transformations.
"I am quite happy to announce that my wife and I welcomed Madeleine Jane into the world on August 20, 2002. She arrived just in time to celebrate her sister Grace's second birthday. Big sister Grace now recognizes "Daddy's work" when I draw target molecules on her whiteboard!" 3/2003

Jongmin Kang (Ph.D. '97) kang@cnd.bwh.harvard.edu is now working for Dr. Peter Lansbury at Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow. 8/1997

Melissa Hirsch Kuchma (Ph.D. '97) mhkuchma@alum.mit.edu works at the Institute for Defense Analyses where, she reports, "I play with nuclear submarines, submarine systems, and torpedoes." She has other news, as well: "Karl and I would like to announce the birth of our son, Ethan Xavier, on April 25, 1998. Ethan is such a pleasure to be around. There are some pictures posted at www.geocities.com/southbeach/breakers/5907 in case anyone is interested. We are living outside of D.C. in Springfield, VA., which is quite a change from Boston." 8/1998

Joseph Horton (B.S. '69) coyote@alum.mit.edu is Professor of Radiology and Neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Co-founder of the Micrus Corporation. He has been in academic medicine since forever, but still wishes he had gone to grad school. In 1996, he co-founded Micrus Corporation to manufacture and sell some of his IP – he has about 6 or 8 patents, mainly on things to treat intracranial aneurysms. Not, at first blush, exactly what MIT coursework was about for him, but in a global way it was. He solves problems. They’re all different, and these cracked under the same pressure he used in doing problem sets.10/2002

Mankil Jung (M.S. '78) mkjung@alchemy.yonsei.ac.kr is Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. His lab is interested in drug discovery and development based on natural products. 10/2002

Joel M. Kauffman Advisor: Prof. Georg Herrmann Büchi, Ph.D Organic Chemistry, 1963.
With I.C.I./Organics/Inc. for plastics additives, New England Nuclear for first commercial laser dyes and fluors for scintillation counting, Mass. Coll. Phcy. under Prof William Owen Foye for drug development, then Phila. Coll. Phcy. & Sci. (now University of the Sciences in Philadelphia) eventually rising to Prof. Chem., then Research Prof. Chem., now Emeritus. Worked on drug development (patents on anti-tuberculosis drugs) and fluors (patents on proton-transfer fluors and on stable, soluble oligophenylenes as fast fluors for radiation detectors). Turned to exposing misleading claims in mainstream medicine with articles and a book: Malignant Medical Myths, 2006. 10/2007

Koichi Kunitake (B.S. '97) kkunitake@aim.salk.edu is currently working in the Peptide Biology Lab of the Salk Institute studying the binding and signaling transduction of the CRF. 7/1997

Sean Lavin (B.S. '97) lavin@mindspring.com is currently freelancing as a graphics artist. "I have done a lot of work for Runaway Technologies (http://www.photomosaic.com). I will be attending Ohio State's Medical School starting in September of 1998." 11/1997

Julio Mendez (Ph.D. '59) has been teaching for almost forty years in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Concepcion in Chile. 7/2001

Dan Minor (Ph.D. '96) minor@itsa.ucsf.edu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco. "My lab is interested in high-resolution studies of ion channel structures, function, and regulation, http://www.cvri.ucsf.edu/~dminor. 8/2001

David Mueller (Ph.D. '70) dcmu@chevron.com now works for Chevron Chemical Far East. 10/1997

Sumitra Mukhopadhyay (Postdoc) mukherjee_sumitra@yahoo.com was promoted in December 2007 to the position of Senior Product Developer, Research & Product Development Oilfield Chemical Products, at Schlumberger in Sugar Land, TX. Her daughter was born on February 23, 2008. 8/2008

Bessie Nesseler (B.S. '94) enesseler@durapharm.com is a quality control chemist at Dura Parmaceuticals in San Diego. "I'm hanging out here in Sunny San Diego, scuba diving, throwing pots at a ceramics studio here in town, and giving my cat Jose his twice daily shots of insulin. I hope everybody else is doing at LEAST as well as I am." 8/1998

Mark Patterson (Ph.D. '82) markpatt@roanoke.infi.net is a pediatrician in Roanoke, Virginia. "I have not been active in chemical research since my graduation from medical school in 1989, but have been involved in my hobbies of woodworking, flying, and gardening." 8/1997

Bill Rothwell (Ph.D. '80) WPRothwell@alum.MIT.EDU "As of July, 2002 I became Shell Chemicals product Vice President in charge of our global Ethylene Oxide/Glycols business (just under $1bln in annual revenue). With people and operations in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia I am doing quite a bit of travel now in all directions not just back and forth monthly to London as was the case in my previous job. Family wise, I have four great boys ages 10 to 20 who keep my wife and me quite busy." 10/2002

Earle Ryba (B.S. '56) ryba@ems.psu.edu is starting his 38th year on the faculty of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Penn State, where he is working on X-ray crystallography, crystal structures of intermetallic compounds and other materials, quasicrystals, and structure of thin films and interfaces. 8/1997

Karen Sandman (Ph.D. '98) sandman@neb.com returned to New England Biolabs where she was previously a postdoc after a little over a year at Praecis Pharmaceuticals. "My husband, Sandeep Mulgund, and I are keeping busy with our daughter Mira, born August 29, 2000." 11/2001

Roman Shimanovich (B.S. '97) romans@princeton.edu has joined a research group at Princeton. "I'll be working for Professor John T. Groves, who is also an MIT Chemistry alum. Hopefully, I will be working in areas ranging from studying manganese porphyrins to exploring the role of peroxynitrite in apoptosis and its effects on various proteins." 1/1998

Frank A. Smith (M.S. '91) frank1.smith@gepex.ge.com is currently an IP counsel for General Electric Plastics in charge of maters relating to its polycarbonate business. "My wife, Jennifer, and I have two daughters named Lucie (6mo) and Bridget (3 years). I live out in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where the plastics business of GE is located. Love to hear from other alums" 5/2001

Jennifer Sokol (B.S. '97) jen@alchemy.cchem.berkeley.edu is a grad student at UC Berkeley doing magnetism/synthesis work in the Long Group. "Wetchem + Jen = danger, but it is fun." She reports: "Not married, still with the Dude. Papers are online and few. I still get to see lots of MIT people which is good." She also states "I miss Boston's Guiness! :(" 3/2001

Jim Someren (B.S. '86) jsomeren@worldnet.att.net reports: "Since finishing at MIT, I have spent the last 12 years in my hometown, Atlanta, at Emory University (medical school,residency in Internal Medicine, fellowship in Nephrology, and now 2 years on the faculty)." 3/1998

Kingsley Taft (Ph.D. '93) ktaft@earthlink.net graduated from Harvard Law School last spring, and has been clerking for a federal appellate court that is located in Washington, D.C., and that focuses extensively on patent law. "I'm returning to Boston this fall to begin working in a yet to-be determined law firm in its intellectual property department." 4/1998

Lenny Tender (B.S. '86.5) lmt@cbmse.nrl.navy.mil is Senior Scientist at the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. He reports: "I'm alive and doing fine. Two great daughters - Alyssa who is going on 5 and Gabrielle who is going on 2. Happilly marrried. Love my job." 5/1998

Michael Trenary (Ph.D '82) mtrenary@uic.edu is a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he has been on the faculty since 1984. He teaches physical chemistry to both undergraduate and graduate students and conducts research in surface chemistry. "I live in Oak Park, IL with my two children, Eleanor and Russell, and my wife, Wendy Greenhouse, whom I met while in graduate school at MIT. Being a father and a research advisor to a group of graduate students leaves little time for anything else. " 10/2002

C. Reynold Verret (Ph.D. '82) reynold.verret@wilkes.edu has just moved to Wilkes-Barre, in Northeast Pennsylvania, were he serves as as Chief Academic Officer of Wilkes University. He and his wife and their two boys (16 and 11 years) are adapting to the Poconos
8/07

Heather Wages (B.S. '95) heather_wages@hotmail.com says "After two years teaching in Sharon, MA, I have just finished my first year as a chemistry teacher back in the high school I attended in Wilbraham, MA. For the first time, I had not only my own classroom, but also the chance to teach drama and direct our spring play. I chose Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," and set it in a modern high school. I am still looking for anyone who would be interested in an internet correspondence with a high school chemistry class to talk about the applications of chemistry "in the real world." 7/2000

Bill Wagner (Ph.D. '83) billwagner@cox.net is Specialist in IP and technology transfer strategy in the Advanced Products and Device Lab of Hewlett Packard's Imaging and Printing Group. 3/2003

Ned M. Weinshenker (Ph.D. '69) nmw123@attbi.com is President & CEO of two companies: Pharmadigm, Inc., and MantiCore Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He is on the board of directors of two companies: Altea Development, Atlanta GA, and CyDex, Inc, Kansas City, KS. He is also on the board of scientific Advisors of ALEXZA MDC, Palo Alto CA. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. 5/2002