Class of 1980

Tim Boyd
Email: tboyd@coas.oregonstate.edu

After over 13 years in an oceanographic research position at Oregon State University, I'll be moving with my family to Scotland next year to take a position at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, which is on the west (i.e., rainy) coast, north and west of Glasgow. I'll be primarily doing physical oceanographic research, with a focus on polar oceanography, and some teaching.
After living and working in the same spot for 10 years, I'm both excited and nervous about the upcoming big move. The position is open-ended, so if everyone likes the change - and I'm guessing that my 8- and 10-year old daughters will adjust to the changes better and more rapidly than my wife Cat and myself - we'll be in Scotland for the next several years.

Class of 1981

Elizabeth Beise
Email: beise@umd.edu

Hello from the DC area. I've just completed a 2-year semi-hiatus from the University of Maryland to serve as a program director for Nuclear Physics at the National Science Foundation. It was a great experience, I learned a lot, particularly about "making sausage", but it was otherwise a great opportunity to broaden my horizons even within my own field. I'm back in College Park now, still working on various experiments in the structure of neutrons and protons, and am starting to dabble in experiments in fundamental symmetry tests. Lots of fun and lots of opportunities. I'm looking for graduate students!

Thomas Carroll
Email: carroll@anvil.nrl.navy.mil
Phone: 202-767-6242
Address: Code 6362
Naval Research Lab
Washington, DC 20375

I've been working on an internal proposal with some engineers from our electronic warfare division to actually apply some of my research to a real problem. It's only taken me 20 years to get their attention. The one thing I have to say so far about the progress of this proposal is: engineers- ARRRRRGH!!! (Of course, this doesn't apply to Carleton alumni who are engineers).
I have experienced a real culture clash in working on this proposal. As a physicist, I want to present my ideas in as simple a form as possible at first, and then move up to more complex versions. The engineers want to first show a godawful complex system diagram to impress you with how smart they are, and then maybe they will explain some of it, but in as much detail as possible. I get the impression there is a real macho attitude behind this, a sort of "my equations are bigger than your equations". Possibly some of you who are engineers have to deal with this often, but this is my first time.
As for the more important stuff, I still go out to the mountains and work on old houses. One of our projects is a log cabin built by a former confederate soldier. I don't know what's more impressive, the age of this cabin, or the fact that it was still occupied until recently. The cabin is way back in the mountains, with no electricity within miles, but these old buildings only survive if someone lives in them- otherwise, there is no maintenance, and the cabin collapses. It is amazing how people still live within 100 miles of Washington.

Bob Shively
Email: rshively@enerdynamics.com

I enjoyed visiting Carleton this summer for reunion. Campus is still a nice place to be. Got to see Tom Carroll and meet his wife as well as attend Bruce Thomas’ event. The cafeterias have definitely improved but the dorms seem like they haven’t changed a bit! Still living in and loving Colorado, and keeping busy raising two kids (now 9 and 11), managing the energy education company Enerdynamics, and occasionally finding time to enjoy the mountains.

Class of 1982

Paul Erdman
Email: perdman@uwc.edu
Phone: 715 735-4238
Address: 750 W Bay Shore St.
Marinette, WI 54143

When I was tenured at University of Wisconsin – Marinette two years ago, I finally bought a house and ended my life of nomadic apartment dwelling. I have since found that house upkeep is yet one more distraction from the joys of research. However, yard work has become an excellent weight loss program. So between house and job you can picture my life as battling a replenishing supply of grass, leaves, snow, and paperwork. The last two need a shovel. I look forward to seeing the usual gang at our upcoming reunion.

Carol Federighi
Email: Carol.federighi@usdoj.gov
Phone: 202-2334-5550

Hi there -- Somehow I let myself get roped into helping with our 25th Reunion. Is it a physics thing? because other physics grads are helping too. So please come, and we can have a physics mini-reunion! It was totally fun being back on campus for the planning workshop so I can hardly wait! (well, perhaps I'm overstating my level of excitement just a bit...) As for what's up with me when I'm not planning reunion, I'm writing immigration briefs for the government and hauling my horse up and down the Eastern seaboard for jumping (actually, eventing) competitions. If you want to read more, see my entry in the bio book on the alumni page. And please don't hang up on me when I call to beg for you to come to reunion, or for money.

Class of 1983

Louise Bretz
Email: psdance@pacbell.net
Phone: 805-644-4223
URL: www.ConnexionsDanceStudio.com

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written! I've been married ten years to my husband Woody, and we have 5-year-old twin girls, Charlotte and Marina. We live in Ventura, California, which to us is like paradise.
My career is definitely not what I expected when I left Carleton to study Marine Engineering. I got into West Coast Swing dancing, and have been teaching it about 12 years now. About a year ago, Woody and I opened our own dance studio. This has been quite an adventure, entering the real business world. Sometimes I love it, and sometimes I want to go crawl under a rock!
Sometimes I miss my technical self, but luckily a lot of engineers and tech types dance, so once in awhile I just have to talk about conservation of angular momentum while I'm teaching spins, or else I liken their movement to sine vs. square waves!
Aside from the stress of business, life couldn't get much better as we guide our girls through kindergarten. Always happy to hear from anyone, or come to the next reunion ...I'll be there!

Steele Stewart
Email: steelestewart@yahoo.com
Phone: 913-248-8616
Address: 13915 West 76th Circle
Lenexa, KS 66216

Joyful year to you all. Another full year. Our son Steele A is now in 3rd grade, enjoying Cub Scouts and life. My wife and I are loving life together. The paper I mentioned last year on the Uninsured was published see:
http://www.actuary.org/pdf/health/uninsured_dec05.pdf
I've spoken at one conference on using Predictive Modeling and one conference on disease management for diabetics. Went to a Wild at Heart boot camp in May. Very fulfilling see more at www.ransomedheart.com I'm finding the seminar by Bruce Wilkinson "The Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth" most insightful and rewarding. More than ever know that as friends come and go in life, Jesus is always there, accepting, loving and desiring to see me grow. Psalm 117 favorite chapter right now. All the Best to you!

Dave Wiesler
Email: davewiesler@earthlink.net
Phone: 302-369-3218
Address: 28 Blue Jay Drive
Newark, DE 19713

I'm still in Newark, DE, part-time stay-home dad for my one-year old son Samuel, part-time handyman, and part-time folk musician. I have had a great year watching Sam growing up, and now that he's walking he can help me get back into some semblance of shape as I chase after him.

Rob Jones
Email: Rob.b.jones@lmco.com
Phone: 805-687-1176
Address: 2610 Orella St
Santa Barbara, Ca 93105

Still alive. Still living on the coast. Still testing infrared detectors for Santa Barbara Focalplane (13 years now). Still doing lots of gardening and various other outdoor activities. Designing/building furniture and rebuilding the house to my own taste, post-divorce. Not stuck in a rut, much….

Class of 1985

Tom Albrecht
Email: ctalbrecht@yahoo.com
Address: 6469 Oberlin Way
San Jose, CA 95123

I'm still with Hitachi Global Storage Technologies San Jose Research Center, managing our company's research on patterned magnetic recording media. As our conventional granular media "runs out of steam" in five years or so, we're planning to phase in the use of patterned media, where each bit of data stored on the disk will have its own pre-patterned magnetic island. Sounds simple enough -- but these islands need to be about 20 nm in diameter, and we "only" need about 1 trillion of them on each disk. All this needs to be done in really high volume (200 million disks per year) and for very little additional cost. It's a very difficult technical challenge, but the project is proving to be most enjoyable. Times of radical technical change can be the most exciting.
Making patterned media involves many new technologies. One piece of the puzzle is the use of e-beam lithography to create master patterns. We have to push e-beam lithography absolutely to its limits, and we need to use a specially designed rotary-stage machine (unlike the typical X-Y machines used for mask making in the semiconductor industry). We will probably also need to call on Nature to help us out with self-assembly of block copolymers or highly uniform nanoparticles. Once we have a perfect master pattern, we'll replicate it cheaply on millions of disks using the newly developed technique of UV-cure nanoimprinting.
We've just moved into a new Hitachi-only research center (over the past several years we've shared space in the Almaden Research Center with IBM, our previous parent company). It's great to have a brand new facility with labs designed just the way we want them. One cloud on the horizon, however, is that our company is losing money right now at a ferocious rate, so we hope that gets corrected soon or else our long term future with Hitachi may not be so certain.
Our girls are now 4, 5, and 6 years old. Family life continues to be very nice! I'm still playing around with antique radios and TVs in my spare time, along with various musical pursuits. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

David Wilson

I’ve been with the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, NH, for over four years now. Time really has passed quickly! I continue to work on acoustic/seismic research that spans a spectrum from basic to applied. Among my current projects are: determining predictive skill for models of outdoor sound propagation, modeling of intermittent (spatially uneven) cascade processes and their effect on wave propagation, and production of “wind noise” by turbulent flow over microphones. I’m also serving as the Editor of Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Express Letters, which is a new, open access, rapid publication section of the Journal. My four kids are now between 4 and 11 years old. They are at the age now where my wife and I are very busy shuttling them between activities. We’re all in good health and enjoying life in northern New England. Happy Holidays!

Class of 1986

Steve Cederbloom
Email: cederbse@muc.edu
Phone: 330-337-3631
Address: 329 West 14th Street
Salem, OH 44460

Some things change, and some do not. I am still the department chair (and younger half) of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Mount Union College in northeast Ohio. Stacey is still teaching math part-time at Mount Union. But we now have two boys – Matthew was born the day after Christmas and joins Justin, who will turn four in January. Going from one to two is an exponential change!
The Department was “observed” by a nuclear physicist from Hope College as a part of our first-ever program review. It will be interesting to see what she says about us. Last spring, I got a small grant to get observe variable stars in the globular cluster M14 using a robotic telescope in Arizona.

Michael Gentile
Email: mjgentilepe@mac.com
Phone: 951-276-1787
Address: 5796 Grand Avenue
Riverside, CA 92504

I went into business for myself on October 1. I’m now an independent Civil Engineer consultant, and the freedom is tremendous, but there are so many more things to keep track of. Most of my work is in preparing drainage plans and hydrology calculations and reports. The new storm water treatment requirements are really a challenge, but a much needed improvement in the regulation. I still spend off hours golfing, gardening (native plants only please) and cycling. It was great to see everyone at reunion, especially Bruce for his retirement.

Tara O’Brien Pride
Email: mezzotara@hormail.com

Greetings to all. It's been an interesting and somewhat surprising year. After my spouse got downsized, he decided to start his own company and work from home. Life actually got a bit easier with that change, partly because his commute is so easy and partly because childcare relief is now only a shout away. We also decided to make a schooling change for our daughter. After K-3 in Spanish Immersion in the public school system, we felt she would benefit from a more challenging, yet still nurturing, environment. In May we practically stumbled upon an opening in a nearby independent school (no one looks at private schools in May!), and there she goes! She's in a great class of 4th graders with a fantastic teaching team. We're trying to keep up the Spanish with some extracurricular activities, which is tough. Overall, though, I think it was a good choice for us. I continue to volunteer, sing, create the occasional art or jewelry piece, supervise my daughter's education, and generally maintain the domestic scene. Every now and then I check to see whether I still remember what hc is. (1240 ev-nm, of course.)

Brian Potter

This was the year of big changes for me. Last year's temporary work stint in Seattle became permanent, and I am now the team leader for the Forest Service's AirFire research team. I went back to Michigan from December through March, and then Lori and I drove back to Seattle (in 2 cars, with 2 cats, in the middle of winter) and I started work in late March.
We got to experience the adventure of house hunting in Seattle while living in an efficiency hotel room (with the 2 cats). After failing to sell our souls and my son's future to pay for a house, we did find one we liked that only cost 1 soul. Don't ask whose we used, but we're very happy here now.
For the next 4 or so months, Lori took the lead on wrapping up wedding plans, and in late July we had our wedding celebration back in Michigan so that we could be among our friends and family back in the Midwest. It was a great party, and I was thrilled that Brian Christensen, Joanna Bare, and Tim Soulen (all Carls) made it for the event. Lori said it was the best wedding she'd ever been to, which I told her was probably a good thing.
We postponed our honeymoon until September, when we took a cruise to Glacier Bay in Alaska. It was the last week the ships were running, so it wasn't very crowded. We had some serious rain, but we were able to spend an entire hour sitting less than a mile from the glaciers in Glacier Bay, watching them calving into the ocean.
Wrapped around all of this is my new job. I've had to take on more administrivia, which gets annoying, but I have to say that the support staff I work with have been very willing to take on anything I've said I just don't have time for. It may have helped that I made a couple of major budget blunders early on - they probably had more work fixing that up than they would've had doing things at the start. I have been forcing time for research, but it seems so fragmented that I sometimes feel I'm not getting anywhere. I'm also forcing time in my schedule for more involvement in tech transfer and education - teaching the fire behavior and management people more about the science they can use, and applying the basic science in ways they can use it more easily. It's an ideal liberal arts sort of situation, though being more the theorist than the experimentalist, and still very much the physics geek, it sometimes seems an odd combination of activities for me.
I hope everyone is well, and if you're ever in Seattle, look me up - my email should be in the hardcopy of this newsletter, and the team's website is www.airfire.org.

Frank Pugh
Email: frank.pugh@acs-inc.com

My wife Theresa and I are living in Tallahassee Fl. She runs a database team for Workers Comp Data and I lead a team that runs a large database for Florida Medicaid. We both are a long way from our academic roots (she is a geologist) but mathematics and mystery are still parts of our daily lives. We miss Iowa and Minnesota summers and falls.

John Robinson
Email: John.robinson@kla-tencor.com
Phone: 512-342-0029
Address: 4000 North Hills Drive
Austin, Texas 78731

The semiconductor industry continues to provide challenges that keep things interesting: don't forget that we could almost double the number of transistors on a chip since the last holiday newsletter, and plan to do the same again this upcoming year! My wife, Andrea Abel (also class of 1986), is blooming into a freelance writing career. My daughters, Anna (12) and Sydney (10), are as fun and challenging as ever: the good news is that I'm still very capable at helping my daughters with their homework, at least in terms of subject matter expertise, in spite of what they might think. I manage to bike, hike, and/or sea kayak almost every week. Any spare time that I might have is for planning or going on adventures.

Class of 1987

Christopher Carlson
Email: ccarlson@fs.fed.us
Address: 13825 Bison Court
Silver Springs, MD 20906

The adjustment process to all the change my wife, Martha Anderson, and I injected into our lives last year (new house in a new place - Washington, DC, new jobs with the US Department of Agriculture - Forest Service for me and Agricultural Research Service for Martha, and a new son – Niklas Alexander Carlson, born November 28, 2005) continues. Life in the DC area is quite different than that we were used to in the bucolic upper midwest. The overriding aspect to doing anything or going anywhere here is the time it takes to get from point A to point B, whether driving or taking the great public transit system. Add to that the challenges of a new child, and one really must restructure and recalibrate one's expectations in order to maintain even a modicum of sanity. That said, we are beginning to make the adjustments to our new reality. We are looking forward to getting out to the wonderful cultural opportunities in the area, all of the historical sites, and experiencing the coast and the Blue Ridge this next year.
Last summer, I began working for the US Forest Service as its first ever, national ground water program leader. In this position, it is my responsibility to finalize internal agency policy on ground water resource management and introduce that policy to the regions and forests/grasslands. That has proven to be one part technical expertise and nine parts communication and marketing. I have to be the face of and advocate for ground water and related issues across the agency until the message gets disseminated and assimilated. My primary goal is to convince technical staff and decision makers that ground water deserves consideration along with the other recognized forest/grassland resources during project and permit evaluations. This may seem a bit odd in an agency that was created, in part, to manage water on national forest lands, but to date the USFS has focused its water management activities on surface waters. In fact, much of the agency has no concept of the importance of ground water for maintenance of surface waters and water-dependent ecosystems across much of the landscape. For an agency that has had a strong surface water focus for 100 years, adjusting to address this largely invisible component of the terrestrial hydrologic system is proving to be a major paradigm shift. Luckily for me and this fledgling ground water program, there are many folks in the upper echelons within the agency that recognize that water and the availability of high-quality supplies for human use has the potential to be the single most significant resource issue for the agency in its second century - since the agency manages the headwaters and recharge areas of many locally and regionally important stream and aquifer systems across the country.
DC is definitely a great place to visit. Hope to see you here sometime soon.

Randy Ellingson
Email: toozie@yahoo.com

My family (wife Marie and our beautiful 81/2 month-old daughter Anna) and I have enjoyed the late summer here in Denver, with walks in City Park and to the nearby restaurants. As new parents, life is more hectic (surprise!) but very fun. My work at NREL has me focused on the physics and chemistry of solar energy conversion processes in nanomaterials (semiconductor nanocrystals, carbon nanotubes, and other molecular/ polymeric materials. It keeps me busy!

Eric Jensen
Email: Jensen@hven.astro.swarthmore.edu

Although I enjoy reading the newsletter every year and seeing what others have been up to, somehow I never quite seem to find the time to contribute myself, so here's an attempt to fill in the blanks since I last wrote.
I'm still teaching astronomy in the Physics and Astronomy department here at Swarthmore College, and enjoying it very much. I got tenure a few years ago, and my wife Julie Nishimura-Jensen (also '87) now has a steady job at the University of Pennsylvania directing and teaching in their post-baccalaureate program in Classics, so I think we're here for the long haul.
I continue to enjoy doing research on the formation of other planetary systems, and more generally on the early evolution of Sun-like stars. Most of this research occurs over the summers, in collaboration with undergraduates. I'm still working on finding the best way to give them productive research experiences and yet still to move the many interesting projects we work on forward to publication at some point; more of the projects than I would like fall by the wayside in the busy-ness of the following academic year, and then gearing up for the next batch of students the following summer.
The past two years I've enjoyed getting a somewhat broader view of the College here, as both a member of a high-level committee on educational policy, and as a faculty observer on the Board of Managers. Seeing the College from these perspectives, I find, makes me less stressed about day-to-day ups and downs in my own department, as I can see better how things that don't look perfect from the departmental level fit in overall to the College as a whole.
The past six months I've benefited greatly from some of the best new technology I've seen in my 12 years with Type 1 diabetes - I wear a small sensor with a subcutaneous wire and a wireless transmitter, which gives me my blood glucose readings every five minutes. Compared to my previous dataset of 5-7 readings per 24 hours, this is a scientist/geek's dream in terms of trend analysis! It has really allowed me to do a much better job of controlling my blood glucose, even with my relatively active and irregular schedule. I played ultimate regularly this summer for the first time since grad school (but discovered that the students have more stamina than me for some reason!)
My sons Alex (8) and Tim (5.5) are healthy, active, and generally fun to be around (the occasional brotherly fight notwithstanding). I hope this newsletter finds all of you healthy and happy.

Steve Thorsett
Email: thorserr@ucolick.org
Phone: 831-459-2931
Address: 209 Segre Place
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

We (Rachel Dewey, visiting faculty ’87) are in our eighth year now in Santa Cruz, feeling very much at home. I'm now the dean of the science division at UC Santa Cruz, spending far more time thinking about biology than about physics or astronomy, but also looking forward to the launch next fall of the GLAST gamma-ray satellite, which I've been working on for many years now. Rachel continues to teach the advanced lab course for physicists on the astrophysics track, and was re-elected this fall to the city school board. Odds are she will be the board president by the time you read this, so we're looking at another very busy year. Laura is in 5th grade, still loving math and reading, and looking forward to middle school next year. I'm doing a lot of running to stay sane, having survived long enough to compete for age group awards in very small races, and am looking forward to an upcoming 17-km trail run with Laura Ruetsche '87. Happy New Year to all!

Class of 1989

Mark Anderson
URL: Shakespearebyanothername.com

The big news this year is that Dec. 9, after the last newsletter went to press, my wife Penny gave birth to a daughter, Astrid -- our first. I've been enjoying my job as part-time daddy day care since April. I've also been freelancing on and off for various publications like New Scientist, Rolling Stone, Science and Wired and National Geographic online. And helping two filmmakers set up (we hope) a couple films based on my first book, which was published last year. (cf. www.devere.ws) We're learning to crawl and then walk, each of us. Happy 2007, y'all!

Eve Fillenbaum
Email: fillenbaum@earthlink.net
Phone: 612-789-1608
Address: 2543 Cleveland St NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418

The biggest news of the year is definitely our new daughter, Eleanor Lyra Maddison, born 5/26/06. Right now she's working hard on learning to roll over, grab anything within reach, and exude adorability. Her big sister Amethyst likes the baby but wishes that she were still the sole focus of attention.
I’m still working on database stuff for what is now Oracle (which gobbled up Retek last year). Not sure where to go from here, but it’s not my long-term career choice. Also still playing flute, biking, and contra dancing on the rare occasions that I get a chance to!

Mark Lagerquist
Email: Lagerquist@verizon.net
Phone: 802-655-2004
Address: 40 Tower Ridge
Colchester, VT 05446

Life continues to be good in Vermont. Lisa (Keil '90) and I celebrated 15 years of marriage with a little getaway to Stowe, Vermont. The kids dominate our lives otherwise. I spent much time coaching Erik (9) and Megan (6) in baseball, basketball, and football (Erik only). I also enjoy going into their classrooms for environmental and engineering/science lessons. Pulled out Newton's F=ma for a wind-powered paper car lesson (the wind provided by the kids' blowing on their own designed cars). We used Wintergreen lifesavers for the wheels, and almost ran out due to the kids eating them! Other milestones for me personally were turning 40 years old, and being a manager for IBM for 10 years now. Wow! Where did the time go? I am switching management jobs at IBM Vermont as I write this, leaving a film deposition department and taking on managing an inline device characterization/process integration team. (As a reminder, we build semiconductors out here - many going to computers, cell phones, Internet routers and videogames.) I look forward to the new challenges.
Hope all is well with everyone else. I wish Bruce Thomas well in his retirement! His role as advisor set me on a good path, and for that I am thankful. If anyone is finding his or her way to Vermont, look us up!

Kevin Pettit
Email: kevin.pettit@comcast.net
Phone: 720-565-0858
Address: 1782 Yaupon Ave
Boulder, CO 80304

I continue to live in Boulder, CO – the nicest city in the country, I think. I continue to tutor physics both privately and for the Denver University Learning Effectiveness Program – a program to help students challenged by disabilities of various sorts (www.du.edu/disability/lep/). At the end of the last school year, I applied to Colorado Vocational Rehabilitation for assistance reaching toward a new career. Having thought a lot about my vocation and writing a pretty extensive application for Voc. Rehab, I have switched my vocational goal from becoming a chaplain to becoming ordained with the United Church of Christ – a very progressive and inclusive denomination – and working with churches of the UCC denomination, churches of other Christian denominations, and other faith communities to help the become more aware and welcoming to people who are differently-abled.