Meet the Class of 1984 recipients of the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award, recognizing outstanding achievement within their particular fields of accomplishment. All three received their awards at Reunion 2009. (And because twenty-five years is a long time since some of us have laid eyes on our esteemed classmates, and just to keep them humble, we’ve included their zoo book pictures!)

Daniel B. Kim-Shapiro ’84

Wake Forest University

An internationally renowned biophysics scholar and lauded teacher, Daniel Kim-Shapiro also is a master collaborator who combines his skills in physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics to achieve significant scientific breakthroughs.

In his research on nitric acid, Kim-Shapiro discovered that as hemoglobin releases its oxygen into our bodies, it also converts nitrite into nitric acid, thereby increasing blood flow to areas of the body with low oxygen. Most recently, Kim-Shapiro and his fellow researchers discovered a novel biological mechanism involving a new hemoglobin-mediated chemistry that can help scientists pursue better treatments for sickle-cell anemia and other cardiovascular disorders.

In February Kim-Shapiro, a member of the Wake Forest University faculty since 1996, was named the school’s first Harbert Family Distinguished Chair for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. The chair recognizes an especially accomplished faculty member whose work is internationally known and who is an outstanding teacher.

In 2007 Kim-Shapiro received the 10-year MERIT Award—reserved for the nation’s most elite researchers—from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in recognition of his pioneering research in sickle-cell disease and nitric oxide blood chemistry.

Upon graduating from Carleton, Kim-Shapiro spent two years in Zaire as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching college physics courses and winning the Peace Corps’ Outstanding Service Award in 1986. He earned an MS in physics at Southern Illinois University–Carbondale in 1988 and a PhD in biophysics at University of California–Berkeley in 1993. Before working at Wake Forest, Kim-Shapiro was a postdoctoral research fellow for Dr. David Kliger at the University of California–Santa Cruz from 1993 to 1996.

Kim-Shapiro is widely praised for his modesty, integrity, productivity, generosity, innovative teaching techniques, commitment to his family, and sense of humor.

Prior to Reunion Kim-Shapiro spoke at a Nobel Forum at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a member of several professional associations and has received numerous grants from the NIH and other foundations.

Kim-Shapiro has three sons with his wife, Lisa. They live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Torsten Kjellstrand ’84

The Oregonian

With as many friends and fans to his credit as photographs, Torsten Kjellstrand is a gifted, award-winning photo-journalist with an eye for the extraordinary.

Kjellstrand spent his first post-Carleton year as a Fulbright scholar in literature at Uppsala University in his native Sweden before returning to the United States to pursue freelance writing and photography. After earning a master’s degree at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1995, Kjellstrand worked as a newspaper photographer in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Jasper, Indiana.

In 1996 Kjellstrand won the prestigious 53rd Newspaper Photographer of the Year Award in the annual Pictures of the Year contest, sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, for a portfolio of 37 photos taken while he was on the job for the Herald (circulation 12,700) in Jasper. It had been 18 years since a small-town photographer received the award, which in the two years immediately prior had gone to Washington Post staffers.

From 1997 to 2003 Kjellstrand was a staff photographer at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, and from 2003 to 2004, he was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University, receiving kudos for his leadership within that competitive program for outstanding mid-career journalists.

Kjellstrand, who has served as an instructor for workshops at the University of Missouri and as a judge for many photography contests, joined the staff of the Oregonian in 2004. He has received other professional awards from the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of American Travel Writers, and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, among others.

Kjellstrand’s supporters note his empathy, professional insight, strong moral compass, and extracurricular abilities—bicycle mechanic, dog trainer, and Nordic skier. Wrote one endorser, “He’s a journalist who can write, photograph, edit, and craft stories with a variety of skills. Photography is simply one of the skills he brings to journalism.”

Torsten is married to Jean Mollenkamp Kjellstrand ’82. The Kjellstrands and their two children live in Portland, Oregon.

Peter Ubel ’84

University of Michigan

Physician, researcher, behavioral scientist, educator, mentor, author—Peter Ubel is each of these, and an international leader in his primary pursuits.

A magna cum laude philosophy major at Carleton, Ubel is credited with changing how people think about a number of key areas in health care and medical ethics.

The author of three books, including Pricing Life: Why It Is Time for Health Care Rationing, Ubel has employed psychology and behavioral economics to research topics such as informed consent, shared decision-making, and health care rationing.

Having obtained an MD degree at the University of Minnesota in 1988, Ubel completed an internal medicine residency at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 1991, a fellowship in medical ethics at the University of Chicago in 1992, and a fellowship in general medicine research at the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. He worked until 2000 at the University of Pennsylvania—as an assistant professor of medicine, a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and a faculty member at the Center for Bioethics—and at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Philadelphia.

In 2000 Ubel received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers—one of the highest honors conferred upon young researchers. He joined the University of Michigan Health System faculty, and the core faculty of the VAMC–Ann Arbor in 2000. In 2007 Ubel was named the George Dock Collegiate Professor of Internal Medicine at Michigan, where he also is an adjunct associate professor of psychology, the founder of the Program for Improving Health Care Decisions, and now the director of the Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine.

Additionally, Ubel is codirector of the Michigan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. He has published more than 150 scientific articles and numerous book chapters, and his work has been widely covered in the popular media, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Talk of the Nation, and many others.

Ubel has many other awards and accomplishments to his credit, but he considers being a father his favorite achievement. Ubel lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife, Paula, and their two sons.