Class of 1980

Nick Donofrio
Email: ndonofrio@wi.rr.com
I’m still alive and kicking in Waukesha, WI. Happy holidays to everybody who was at Carleton during the late ‘70’s! Rock on!

Class of 1981

Liz Wolff
Email: Wolff.liz@gmail.com
Phone: 504-866-6366
Address: 8233 Freret St. Apt B
New Orleans, LA 70118
Greetings from New Orleans -- I moved to New Orleans in the spring as the group I work for ACORN, is consolidating all of our national operations here (there were a lot of people here already). The city is still quite something -- steeped in its ways and its history -- and so there is a lot to learn. I'm doing research and policy work for ACORN -- mostly around education, health care and subprime lending -- this has kept me busy trying to figure out how we can have more of a say. Much of the work the last several months has been about trying to get lenders to help people stay in their homes after they've given folks loans that they knew they couldn't pay. We'll see soon if we start to make progress. I hope everyone is well and let me know if you come to the Big Easy.

Class of 1982

Paul Erdman
It was great to see the usual gang at the reunion. Nothing new to report since then. Just paperwork and meetings with some teaching thrown in.

Julie (Mead) Wells
Email: jawells@visi.com
Phone: 952-929-7626
Address: 4048 Quentin Avenue S.
St. Louis Park, MN 55416
It was really fun to see so many classmates at the reunion last June. I can't believe that it has been 25 years! I am currently working at my daughter's elementary school. I work 2 hours supervising the students at recess. It is interesting in the winter in MN since we are outside everyday unless the air temperature is below 0 and/or the wind chill is below -10F. I have mastered the art of layering. I also work an additional 4 hours doing misc. work (copying, laminating, etc.). I really enjoy it (most days)!!!! I have an 11-year-old daughter (5th grade) and a 15-year-old son (10th grade). I do spend a lot of my "free" time chauffeuring them around to their various activities! Now my son drives me around when he has a chance since he has his learner's permit.

Class of 1983

Dave Wiesler
Email: davewiesler@gmail.com
Phone: 302-369-3218
Address: 28 Blue Jay Drive
Newark, DE 19713
Hi! Another year has gone by, and I'm firmly entrenched on the daddy track now. Our son Sam turned two in October, and we have a second child due in March. I've been a stay-home dad for Sam, getting out one weekend or so a month to play some music, but my musical career is quite curtailed these days. (It will be almost nonexistent come spring!) Raising children is an incredible blessing, though, and Sam gets more interesting and fun all the time. Julie's plastic surgery practice is going well. In the spring I will have lived in this house longer than any other place (4.5 years); it's a vaguely odd feeling - or maybe an incipient mid-life crisis.

Class of 1984

Molly (O’Dell) Coulter
Email: Molly.coulter@comcast.net
Phone: 509-443-4168
Address: 1718 West Gail Jean Lane
Spokane, WA 99218-2670
We have been living in Spokane for about a year now. Gary was transferred to the office here. I just started a teaching job at Spokane Falls Community College. I’m teaching classes in the math department as an adjunct faculty member. It’s been a great change working with a new group of learners. Scott, our son, continues to thrive. The new school has been good for him as they are challenging him to meet his learning goals and to become more independent. We still miss Alaska but are beginning to settle in here.

Jay Waldera
Email: walderaj@yahoo.com
Phone: 651-698-8829
Address: 2166 Hartford Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55116
This year, my employer Agere Systems merged with LSI Logic to form LSI Corporation. I'm in the Storage Products Group and work as a market strategist, analyzing long-term dynamics for the hard disk drive and solid state storage markets. I continue to volunteer on the board of Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis, and otherwise am staying busy with my newly adopted 1-year-old lab mix named Sophie. I also had a chance to connect with some former Knights when I converted some of our concert tapes to digital format... now we call all enjoy "Blue Moon" on our iPods. Best wishes to all for this coming year.

Class of 1985

Tom Albrecht
Email: ctalbrecht@yahoo.com
Address: 6469 Oberlin Way
San Jose, CA 95123
My work continues as leader of Hitachi's patterned media technology effort. The team has grown to include quite a number of people in both the U.S. and Japan. While we're still a few years away from delivering a technology that's ready for widespread use in hard disk drives, the science and technology development along the way is quite rewarding. This year, in collaboration with a professor at the University of Wisconsin, we've successfully used guided self-assembly of block copolymer microdomains to produce very high quality periodic patterns in the 20-35 nm period range, which is right where we need to be. It is also a range where e-beam lithography on its own really struggles to produce high quality patterns over large areas. We've also made good progress in bringing UV-cure nanoimprinting to the point that it looks like a winner for low cost replication of master patterns (such as those produced by the block copolymer method mentioned above) over tens of millions of disks. Now all we have to do is get the magnetic properties of our disks where we need them to be, which has proven to be challenging.

On the home front, my wife Catherine (class of '86 - chemistry) finished up her treatment for cancer and is doing well. Our three girls are now in kindergarten, first, and second grade and are having a lot of fun in school. We added on to our house this year to make a little more room for everybody. We were very happy to have Jamie White and his family stop by for a visit this summer while they were vacationing in California. Very nice to see friends from our Carleton days!

Sarah Jamieson Shrum
Email: kwsjshrum@comcast.net
Phone: 970-225-1060
Address: 4255 Fall River Drive
Fort Collins, CO 80526
I've passed my 10-year anniversary with DOE / Western Area Power Administration working with communication to, and data from, electric meters from our transmission lines. It's rather "old hat" with little intellectual challenge left. On the positive side, I'm a recognized "guru" of the software I run and the flexibility of the hours is awesome. The schedule allows for the fairly typical "It's Tuesday: which kid needs to go where?" sort of planning. And I've so far managed to dodge the Managerial Bullet.

Speaking of the kids, they're now 13 & 9. The 13-yr-old is taking (after much arm wrangling by her parents) Pre-AP Science. ("But Mom, I don't LIKE science.") Thank goodness for an awesome 8th-grade teacher; not that I think she'll end up in a science career (that's more in the spirit of our 9-yr-old who's decided on chemical engineering), but at least she enjoys it now. As for the 9-yr-old and her chemistry aspirations, she seems to have the intellect. Though I have told her that she's going to end up failing her labs if she doesn't learn to clean up after herself.

My best fun this past year has been horse-riding lessons. I've watched my elder daughter's lessons for five years and finally finagled some time out of my week to have my own lessons. I enjoy it greatly and the instructor enjoys the fact that I really understand her explanations of momentum, two centers of gravity, and such. Not that the theoretical knowledge translates into elegant riding right off the bat. But it DOES help.

Jamie White
Email: white@juniata.edu
Phone: 814-667-3736
Address: 9892 Old Hawn Road
Huntington, PA 16652
Laura, Sara (11), Joanna (8), and I took six weeks driving and camping in the Northwest this past summer. In addition to visiting the Redwoods, Yellowstone, and Yosemite, we spent a wonderful evening with the Albrecht family in San Jose. For the other ten and a half months of this year, I continue to teach at Juniata College and direct undergraduate research students using diode lasers to study Rb and Cs. It has been particularly fun in lab this year since I have a couple of the best student that I have had in years, and NSF has funded the project. So, we don’t need to skimp on the equipment for a change.

Class of 1987

Christopher Carlson
Email: ccarlson@fs.fed.us
Address: 13825 Bison Court
Silver Spring, MD 20906
Over the last year, I have continued my efforts to develop a ground water policy and foster awareness of ground water resources in the US Forest Service. It can be difficult to convince agency staff that otherwise have not considered ground water as a component of the resources for which the agency is responsible. However, important ground water resources, applicants trying to carry out activities that affect ground water, and other activities taking place adjacent to the national forests and grasslands have helped raise the level of staff awareness of ground water in many areas of the country. Though my crystal ball is very cloudy, I suspect that such activities will only increase for some time to come since in many places in the country Forest Service-managed lands have the only remaining high quality waters left. In addition, the agency has many ground water-related clean up challenges associated with abandoned mines, pesticide use and disposal, etc., which provide some interesting project-level work. Though I has spent a lot of time hike, canoeing, and driving in the national forests before I started with the Forest Service, as I travel the country trying to elevate the importance of ground water within the agency I am continually amazed at the natural features and resources the agency has been entrusted to manage.

I think Martha Anderson '87 and I are finally adjusting to the metro east coast lifestyle (though are not too fond of it), and are having a great time with our nearly 24-month-old son, Niklas. As many of you know better than I, they certainly grow up quickly! If you are going to be in the DC area, look us up.

Class of 1988

Jeff Kouba
Email: jeff@jeffkouba.com
Last year I finished a master’s degree in software engineering at the University of Minnesota. I'm still a software developer, still live in Blaine MN. My kids are age 7 and 6 now, and in first grade and kindergarten. My first published short story was out this year. In a perfect world I'd make a living writing, but alas, we don't live in a perfect world. I hope to see you at the reunion next summer.

Class of 1989

Mark Anderson

Email: mka@markkanderson.com

URL: http://markkanderson.com

It's been a quiet but productive year in Northampton, Mass., this New England college town that has been home for an astonishing 16 years. I continue to work as a freelance science and tech journalist and to promote a recent Shakespeare book (all chronicled on the website). Plus, in 2008, the Science Channel is now slated to air yours truly's first foray into TV writing. More details next year if it actually airs! Life as a father -- minding a toddler two days a week -- is still the best job ever. Sappy but true. Ushering along the next generation of nerds is demanding work. Lots of fun, of course, too. (New favorite thing: http://ParentHacks.com) Life as a science journalist invariably involves keeping watch for great stories, sometimes in unexpected places. So if you have something for a middle-aged physics geek to share with the world, I'm all ears. Thanks and many happy returns (perhaps even some nice electoral college ones too?) for '08.

Joanna Bare
Email: jbare@comcast.net
It's been a very busy year. Liana is well, growing like a weed, and beginning to read everything in sight. Rich Derksen and I got engaged at Christmas. We'll be getting married on July 4, 2008. Woo! Fireworks indeed! I knew I'd marry him the first moment I saw him (what a shock that was), but it has still been a hair-raising ride getting here. Who knew it would take a single passionate kiss on a raw November night, nine months of never saying a word to each other, and finally being pushed into calling each other by a mutual friend who was listening to both of us pining for each other? Funny how life works sometimes. In honor of the place where we finally re-connected in August of 2005, and in honor of the winding -- and yet unbranching -- path towards each other, we completed a year-and-a-day handfasting in that mutual friend's labyrinth in June of this last year. The handfasting was about 40 miles from Carleton, so that evening we drove over, had dinner at Grundy's, and took a long walk on campus. Liana, who is now almost five, loved the Hill of Three Oaks, the echo off of the fitness center, and all the goose droppings along Lyman Lakes. (I carried her after that. Iew!!) Getting back from there to Rich's house was another adventure -- missed the plane, got home very late, slept a bit, got up and drove at 6am, car broke down far from home, accepted help and compassion from complete strangers, rented a car, and waited many hours afterwards until my own car was repaired enough to limp home. The total repair bill was a significant fraction of my first year's tuition at Carleton. Did I mention it's been a hair-raising ride? I thought so. We have a ways to go yet, too. We have four kids, 365 miles, two active careers, one cat, and way too many logistical complexities between us. Someday, though, there will be peace and quiet and two rocking chairs on the front porch... from which we will do our best to make mischief and whoopie until we reach the century mark. Should be a grand, wonderful way to go!

Paul Grossi
Email: pgrossi@aol.com
2007 finds me still working for a Bay Area non-profit agency that supports hands-on teaching (www.raft.net), although the last 2 years have found me in a new role there. After 5 years as Director of Education, I became the IT Director in August of 2005. My daughter Isabel is now 9 years old and in 4th grade attending a parent-participation public school. As a result, Thursday afternoons are now my favorite time of the week, as that is the time I get to spend 3 hours in the presence of 30 very intelligent and creative young minds. My wife Jenny is a nurse at Stanford Hospital, continuing to amaze me with her ability to balance all the duties of being a suburban mom while maintaining a vigorous professional career. My passion for physics and the other useful lessons I learned at Carleton have not dimmed; I remain a passionate reader of Sky and Telescope and of many different books. Just finished reading Jared Diamond's "The Third Chimpanzee", an excellent precursor to his better-known books! The last couple of years have provided our family with several excellent travel adventures, including 3 weeks on a couple of remote South Pacific islands (including one with the dangerous to say name of Fakarava). I had the opportunity to visit Minneapolis for a short time this summer to visit roommates Jim Hilbert and Rich Pihlstrom, both of whom have wonderful young families. My experiences at Carleton continue to resonant in my daily life and I hope all with whom I had the good opportunity to share that portion of my life journey are well.

Mark Mulhern
Email: mgmulhern@hotmail.com
Phone: 612-998-5529
Address: 5735 Minnetonka Drive
Shorewood, MN 5533
After 9 years in the wilderness, my family and I have returned to Minnesota and now live in Shorewood. We are sad to leave friends and a very good job at Zygo in Connecticut, but we wanted to be closer to family and have a better educational situation for the kids. I have taken a new job at Diffraction International in Minnetonka. It is a very small company where I get to be a sort of jack-of-all-trades. My title is Optical Metrology Engineer. We make computer generated holograms (CGH) for use in measuring aspheric pieces of glass. This goes pretty well with my previous career at Zygo where I built and designed the interferometers that are needed to measure optics.

My wife Nancy is very busy being a full time mom and home schooling our middle child (Heather) who is seven. Our eldest daughter (Kate) is ten and attends Eagle Ridge Academy. She loves learning Latin, reading, and listening to music. I keep her well supplied with older music so that she won't start listening to rap. My youngest daughter (Mara) is four, and wants to do everything her big sisters do.

A year ago I started to take classes in Judo. I'm now a green belt and am looking for places to take classes here. I started because my daughter Kate wanted to try it out. It looked so interesting that I thought I had to give it a try. The first few months were pretty hard, being completely out of shape. Eventually it got better, with fewer bruises and aching bones. We had a great dojo that I miss a lot. Other interests are in learning Japanese and Japanese culture. I have gone to Japan a few times for work and it sure helps to speak a little of the language. I'm looking forward to a real winter here. I have been telling my children about the great Minnesota blizzards of the past. Just not looking forward to some serious shoveling of a big driveway. Hope all is well my fellow classmates and profs. If you are in the area, give me a call.