for the 30th annual Big Red Freakout Jan. 20. The ...€¦ · 22 Unraveling Proteins ... 4...

A SOLD-OUT CROWD ROCKED THE HOUSTON FIELD HOUSE for the 30th annual Big Red Freakout Jan. 20. The Engineers tied with St. Lawrence, 3-3, preserving their 17-game unbeaten streak in Freakout games (12-0-5). Rensselaer’s Red Army, a new student club on campus devoted to “promoting schoolspirit and energizing traditions,” helped turn the arena into a sea of red.

Rensselaer (ISSN 0898-1442) is published in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter by the Office of Strategic Communications and External Relations,Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy,NY 12180-3590. Periodicals postage ispaid at Troy, N.Y., and additional mailingoffices.

Postmaster: send address changes toRensselaer, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, NY12180-3590. Rensselaer PolytechnicInstitute is an equal opportunity/affirma-tive action institution.

Opinions expressed in these pages do notnecessarily reflect the views of the editorsor the policies of the Institute. ©2007Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

VICE PRESIDENT FORSTRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONSAND EXTERNAL RELATIONS

William Walker

MANAGING EDITOR

Tracey Leibach

ART DIRECTOR

Diane Piester

ALUMNI NEWS EDITOR

Meg Gallien

FEATURES EDITOR

Clorinda Valenti

WEB DESIGNER

Jeffrey Caron

CONTRIBUTORS

Amber ClevelandJason GorssEllen JohnstonNancy KellyJessica Otitigbe

PHOTOGRAPHERS& ILLUSTRATORS

Gary GoldLonny KalfusTom KillipsMark McCartyKris Qua

ON THE COVER: Troy middle schoolstudents Meaghan Gallagher andSanghai Kamara. Photo by MarkMcCarty.

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Architect’s rendering of the proposed East Campus Athletic Village. See page 8.

www.rpi.edu/magazine

Please let us know your new address. Update it electronically on AlumServ, e-mail us at [email protected], or write to: Rensselaer Magazine, Office of Strategic Communications and External Relations, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 or fax to (518) 276-3715.

Moving?

FEATURES

16 Pipeline to the Future Rensselaer programs inspire the next generation to pursue careers in engineering, technology, math, and the sciences.

22 Unraveling ProteinsTwo Rensselaer researchers team up to conduct ground-breaking biotechnology research—and to attract more young people to their fields.

28 Urban PioneerStephen Chung ’91 is bringing modern design to historic Boston—and architectural savvy to a television audience.

DEPARTMENTS

4 President’s View

5 MailAn entrepreneurial culture.

6 At RensselaerMaking a Difference 8In the News 9Research Roundup 13Focus On: Don Fry 14

34 Staying Connected

35 Calendar

36 Class NotesIn Memoriam 55

56 One Last ThingMusical memories of Joel Dolven.

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A Vexing Problem!

In December, approximately 150 stu-dents from Rensselaer and three localhigh schools came together on campusto compete in an unofficial competitioncalled “The Game,” which incorporatedthe Vex Robotic Design System. Vex isused by the FIRST (For Inspiration andRecognition of Science and Technolo-gy) organization in its competitions forhigh school students.

FIRST, founded by inventor DeanKamen in 1989 to inspire young peo-ple’s interest and participation in sci-ence and technology, sponsors aseries of challenges and competitionsfor K-12 students involving LEGO andVex robotic technologies.

Nine teams—including four Rensse-laer teams that included students inIntroduction to Engineering Design(IED)—took part in the competition,which required each team’s robot toretrieve balls from a loading station,negotiate one of several obstacle paths,and place the balls in a scoring contain-er. According to Paul Schoch, associateprofessor of electrical, computer, andsystems engineering, the Vex event wasset up to do two things: to give studentsin IED a fun challenge, and to give thehigh school teams a warm-up exerciseto prepare for the FIRST Robotics Com-petition (FRC) later in the year.

“In terms of complexity and difficultythere is a progression from FIRSTLEGO League to Vex to FRC,” saysSchoch. “There is also a progression instudent ages. What we do is to extendthat pipeline into college with our stu-dents being mentors for the LEGO andFRC teams,” he says. “We hope thatwhen they leave Rensselaer, they willcontinue to mentor teams, helping togrow a bigger pipeline with larger num-bers of students excited about science,technology, engineering, and math.”

To learn more about Rensselaer’soutreach efforts, see “Pipeline to theFuture” on page 16.

SNAPSHOT

RENSSELAER/WINTER 2006-07 3

PRESIDENT’S VIEW | SHIRLEY ANN JACKSON, PH.D.

4 RENSSELAER/WINTER 2006-07

T he following is excerpted frommy keynote address “Scienceand Society: A Nexus of

Opportunity,” which I delivered at theconference SCIENCE+SOCIETY: CLOS-ING THE GAP this January in Boston.The conference drew more than 1,500educators from 34 states and 20 coun-tries to explore the importance of sciencein national and international issuesand to consider strategies for improv-ing science literacy among young people and the general public. At theconference I shared the stage with for-mer Vice President Al Gore, who deliv-ered the other opening keynote address.

The world has undergone extraor-dinary changes within the lifetimesof everyone in this room—mostbrought to us through science andtechnology. The world has becomesmaller, human societies bumpagainst each other, the global econ-omy is expanding.

The changes have broughtunprecedented challenges to ournation and to our world—changesthat demand the most potent inno-vation, if they are to be resolved. I

contend that the changes and thechallenges—when fused with dis-covery and innovation—will offerunmatched opportunities. I am anoptimist.

But, how are we to get there?How are we to think about thechallenges before us?How are we to closethe gap between sci-ence and society?

Of course, therecannot be societywithout science—orvice versa. They areintegral. There shouldbe no gap. Our challenge, today, isto think in new ways and map newpaths to erase the sense that thereis a gap.

For context, I pose a simplemetaphor—the marketplace, orwhat classical Greece dubbed the“agora.” The agora was the heartof ancient Athens society. Inter-actions occurred, there, betweenpeople and all societal sectors—government leaders and legisla-tors, commercial, administrative,political, academic, and social

activity. The agora provided a reli-gious and cultural center. It was theseat of justice. The agora was thesocietal nexus.

Our contemporary agoraincludes these—and more: pro-fessional societies, unions, thinktanks, commercial marketing, themedia, the entertainment indus-try—and science and technology.And of course, we have the Inter-net—an engine of informationand disinformation without equal.Global in its reach, staggering in itspower, it is transforming the Age ofInformation. The agora—thenand now—is where the publicselects its “truth,” where societyaccepts what it will regard as “fact,”where leaders make public policydecisions.

What happens when the agorais populated with self-proclaimed“experts,” with “authorities” sup-porting every view? The result is thedevaluing of information—thedevaluing of science. The trendundermines the scientist as the dis-passionate, objective voice of rea-son, and weakens science as theauthority for sound public policy.

On issues ranging from geneticengineering and stem cell research,to the value of conservation and

the reality of global warming, ourpublic discourse abounds with con-troversy—and, the volume andpassion of the rhetoric sometimesdrowns the voice of science itself.

How, then, are we to educatestudents for leadership in the glob-al marketplace? How do we instillthe capacity and the motivation toaddress the global asymmetries?

We want our students toacquire a multicultural sophisti-cation, an intellectual agility, andenough knowledge of science and

technology to enable them to takewhat they know and to apply it indiverse arenas. Innovation needsthis cross pollination. A globalexperience—either throughsemesters of study abroad or byutilizing the Internet for coopera-tive, collaborative projects—isbecoming an essential part of arobust educational experience. Asfor broader public education andappreciation of science, the sci-entific community itself, throughits professional societies, mustengage the public and make sci-ence more accessible.

It can help people, not only tosee the fun of science, but also tounderstand what science is, whata scientific theory is—as opposedto belief—how science is done,that accepted scientific models ortheories are based on evidence,the testing of hypotheses by exper-iment, and that theories change asnew evidence emerges.

Science-rooted governmentagencies and businesses have aneducational responsibility, as well,to speak in plain language to sup-port public understanding of sci-ence and to support scientistsspeaking about their work. This isimportant in overcoming mistrust

of science, distrust ofscientists, and a shiftaway from under-standing the impor-tance of science tomodern life. It isimportant, also, thatwe address the ethicsof the application of

science in key areas, and how it tiesto people’s core beliefs. It is a two-way street which needs to be trav-eled more frequently to bringlight—and less heat—to issues.

We must understand that thenexus of science and public policy,inherently, means its nexus withpublic values, meeting peoplewhere they live. Scientific per-spectives will not prevail in all are-nas, at all times, but we mustengage, nonetheless.

On issues ranging from genetic engineering and stem cell

research, to the value of conservation and the reality of

global warming, our public discourse abounds with con-

troversy—and the volume and the passion of the rheto-

ric sometimes drowns the voice of science itself.[ ]

Science and the Global Marketplace


MAIL [email protected]

Kudos to Provost RobertChernow and Trustee PaulSeverino for their efforts in

building an entrepreneurial cultureat RPI (“Ideas in Action”). It takesa while to make it happen, but itwill build like a snowball rollingdownhill.

Having started as an entrepre-neur in 1968 and part of the start-up in Silicon Valley in the 1970s, Iknow it takes a number of factorsto grow the culture. A strong uni-versity base, a free enterprise sys-tem, good ideas well presented, thewillingness to work long hours, ven-ture capital, good marketing, goodpeople, a network of like-mindedpeers, and some luck are some ofthe ingredients necessary to be suc-cessful globally.

The greatest contributions theUnited States can make to theworld economy are teams of high-ly educated entrepreneurs whodream up the high value ideas thatmake the world take notice tomor-row. Bono said it best: “The USAis not just a place, it is an idea.”

DON SEEHUSEN ’61Boise, Idaho

A Place for Hope

We read with much inter-est the article on LindaLayne’s pregnancy loss

research [“Motherhood Lost”].Like Linda, our own devastatingexperiences with miscarriage com-pelled us to search for informationand support. We turned to the Internet for help, but searched fordays only to find sites that left usfeeling cold, empty, and drained.Additionally we found very fewpeople knew how to offer comfort,and many were scared they mightsay the wrong thing. Frustrated, wemade a choice to help make achange. Based on a 20-year friend-ship, sisterhood (we are sorority sis-ters), and a special bracelet of hope,we created www.OurHopePlace.com, a site dedicated to friendshelping friends through the devas-tation of miscarriage. The site offersreaders guidance about how tocomfort a loved one who’s experi-enced a miscarriage, as well as infor-mation about our own experiencesso that women who’ve suffered aloss know that they are not alone.

While we wish miscarriage didnot exist, the fact of the matter is itdoes—and it is common. With OurHope Place we aim to providewomen with some peace of mind,some help, some sisterhood, and hope. We applaud Linda Layne’swork. Her tireless advocacy to bringbetter support and care options towomen who have experienced aloss gives us hope—every day.

SHARON (LICHTEN) STENGER ’87and LAURA (SVEDA) RACANELLI ’88Wilton and Darien, Conn.

Girl Scouts Count

I just received the Fall 2006issue, and I love to read thestats of the incoming classes.

However, I’ve noticed one key sta-tistic missing over the years. Youlist 67 Eagle Scouts in the Class of2010, but I have never seen anystatistics on Girl Scout GoldAward winners. As an Eagle Scoutand father of three Girl Scouts, Ican say the Gold Award is in everyway a representation of leadershipskills as is the Eagle Scout award.When we as engineers are strug-gling to recruit more women intoour ranks, we should recognize theaccomplishments of those who arejoining us, and hopefully we have afew in our incoming classes!

LOU LILLEY ’93Azores, Portugal

Reason, Not Faith

Many of the letters attack-ing Prof. Sloboda (“Sci-ence Can Explain Every-

thing”) assert that science is basedon faith. This assertion is arbitrary;there is no reason to believe sci-ence is based on faith. Quite thecontrary, science is based on rea-son—using the evidence of thesenses, directly or indirectly, toderive valid concepts and princi-ples using logic. Science is basedon the evidence and its results canbe logically proven to be true bytying them back to directly per-ceived facts of reality. Faith is belief

without or in spite of the evidence.Ideas taken on faith are not prov-able or connected to reality in anyway. The method of faith directlycontradicts the method of science and reason.

If RPI truly wanted to be aleader, rather than just swallowingwhole the latest politically correctfad—such as worshiping the“beauty” of religious diversity—Iwould teach that reason is man’ssole means to knowledge, his pri-mary means of survival, and theonly basis for science.

DANIEL CALESS ’85Gloucester, Mass.

Contemporary science willnever explain everythingbecause the majority of

contemporary believers can alwaysfind some unexplained event oruntestable concept to counter theargument that “Science can or willexplain everything.”

I suspect if one asked the pro-ponents of intelligent design to listthe top 10 reasons why there mustbe an intelligent designer, thatwithin 50 years, science, if proper-ly funded and inappropriately dis-tracted, could logically explaineach reason. However, I’m equal-ly sure that another comfortableconcept, perhaps “pre-conceptu-al brainstorming,” would surfaceand provide the necessary basis foranother 50 years of smoke.

RANDY BROWN ’76 Newton, Mass.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks for all the spiriteddebate on this topic! The full text of these let-ters and additional letters on the topic can beviewed online at www.rpi.edu/magazine.

We’d love to hear from you! To providespace for as many letters as possible, weoften must edit them for length. Pleaseaddress correspondence to: RensselaerMagazine, Strategic Communicationsand External Relations, Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, e-mail to [email protected], or call(518) 276-6531.

An Entrepreneurial Culture

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NINETEEN ENGINEERS AND MAN-agers from China Three GorgesProject Corporation (CTGPC)—known for the construction of theworld’s largest hydropower damlocated in the Xilingxia gorge—were the first participants in anew executive education programdeveloped by the Lally School ofManagement & Technology.

The “Leadership for Innovationand Growth in the Energy Indus-try” program seeks to providebusiness professionals in the ener-gy industry with “best manage-ment practices” by addressingleadership skills, emerging tech-nology, innovation, and large-

scale project management.Participants from CTGPC

spent four months in a residencyprogram at Rensselaer, whichconsisted of tailored academiccoursework, corporate site visits,cultural experiences, and interac-tion with industry leaders.

“The need for an adequate sup-ply of affordable, accessible, sus-tainable energy is the overarchingissue of the 21st century. Achiev-ing a sustainable global energyframework, capable of meetingthe energy needs of citizens, with-out causing irreparable environ-mental damage, will require con-tinued technological advances,

and business management prac-tices,” said David Gautschi, deanof the Lally School. “The ChinaThree Gorges Project serves as amodel that we can learn from asacademic and business profession-als, and the program developed bythe Lally School allows for thiskind of global exchange.”

Thomas Triscari, clinical asso-ciate professor of managementand academic director for theprogram, worked to introduce andconnect the participants to life inAmerica through activities andprojects inside and outside of theclassroom.

“The Three Gorges Project has

given us an opportunity to explorethe potential uses of naturalresources to provide green, envi-ronmentally friendly energy thatbenefits our people, society, theenvironment, and the economy,”said Wan Qizhou, division chief of CTGPC’s construction depart-ment. “The hands-on approachinvolved in the Lally School’s pro-gram allows us to engage in real-istic and complex exercises in anumber of areas that will help usto work on developing our leader-ship skill sets needed to effectivelymanage the future of our businessin today’s rapidly changing globalmarketplace.”

LALLY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY

Energy Program Draws Participants From China

QUANTUM BIOLOGY

Powerful Computer Models Reveal Key Biological Mechanism

USING POWERFUL COMPUTERS TO MODEL

the intricate dance of atoms and mole-cules, Rensselaer researchers haverevealed the mechanism behind animportant biological reaction. In collabo-ration with scientists from the WadsworthCenter of the New York State Depart-ment of Health, the team is working toharness the reaction to develop a“nanoswitch” for a variety of applications,from targeted drug delivery to genomicsand proteomics to sensors.

The research is part of a burgeoningdiscipline called “quantum biology,”which taps the skyrocketing power oftoday’s high-performancecomputers to precisely mod-el complex biologicalprocesses.

In the February 2007issue of BIOPHYSICAL JOUR-NAL, the researchersdescribe a mechanism toexplain how an intein—a type of protein found insingle-celled organisms andbacteria—cuts itself out ofthe host protein and recon-nects the two remainingstrands. The intein breaks a protein sequence at twopoints: first the N-terminal,and then the C-terminal.This aspect of the project,which is led by Saroj Nayak,associate professor of physics, appliedphysics, and astronomy at Rensselaer,focuses on the C-terminal reaction.

The researchers revealed the details of the reaction mechanism by applyingthe principles of quantum mechanics—a mathematical framework thatdescribes the seemingly strange behaviorof the smallest known particles. Forexample, quantum mechanics predictsthat an electron can be in two differentplaces at the same time; or that an imagi-nary cat can be simultaneously dead andalive, as suggested by one famous

thought experiment.Until recently, scientists could not

apply quantum mechanics to biologicalsystems because of the large numbers ofatoms involved. But the latest generationof supercomputers, along with the devel-opment of efficient mathematical tools to solve quantum mechanical equations,is making these calculations possible,according to Philip Shemella, a doctoralstudent in physics at Rensselaer and cor-responding author of the current paper.

Quantum mechanics allowsresearchers to do things that can’t bedone with classical physics, such as mod-

eling the way chemical bonds break andform, or including the effect of proton“tunneling”—allowing protons to movethrough energy barriers that normal logicwould deem impossible.

The research was funded by a grantfrom the National Science Foundation toGeorges Belfort—principal investigatorfor the project and the Russell Sage Pro-fessor of Chemical and Biological Engi-neering at Rensselaer—and a grant fromthe National Institutes of Health to Mar-lene Belfort at the Wadsworth Center.

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INCUBATOR PROGRAM

“Best of What’s New”

CELERY LLC, A COMPANY IN RENSSELAER’S INCUBATOR

Program, was selected as one of the winners of the2006 “Best of What’s New” award by POPULAR SCI-ENCE magazine. Each year, the publication’s editorsreview thousands of products in search of the top 100tech innovations of the year—breakthrough productsand technologies that represent a significant leap intheir categories. Celery has developed a mail servicedevice that allows users to send and receive e-mailwithout the use of a computer.

The company was founded in 2003 by Rensselaerstudent Adam Wishneusky, currently a senior majoringin the Product Design and Innovation program (PDI).He serves as the company’s chief technology officer.Rensselaer graduate Neil Grabowsky ’04, who alsomajored in the PDI program, is the vice president ofsales and customer service. Based on his research find-ings, Wishneusky decided to create the device in aneffort to address a growing need among senior citizenswho were unfamiliar with computer technology, andtherefore not included in e-mail exchanges betweenfamily and friends.

“We are delighted to be among a group of top techinnovators recognized for developing cutting-edge tech-nologies and products,” said Andrew Gibson, chiefexecutive officer of Celery LLC. “We live in a net-worked world, and our mission in developing the deviceis to include seniors and others in the process of com-municating with family members and friends via e-mail, so that nobody is kept out of the loop.”

The award was presented to new products and tech-nologies in 10 categories: Automotive, Aviation &Space, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, GeneralInnovation, Home Entertainment, Home Tech, Person-al Health, and Recreation. Celery LLC was recognizedin the Computing category. The winners were featuredin the magazine’s December issue.

Intein crystal prior to protein splicing

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RENSSELAER RESEARCHERS HAVE DISCOVERED A KEY

molecular mechanism that allows tiny flies to whirltheir wings at a rate of up to 1,000 times per sec-ond. Reported in the PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (PNAS), the findings will helpscientists gain a better understanding of how chemi-cal energy is converted into muscle movements, suchas the human heart muscle pumping blood. Theresearch could lead to novel insights into heart dis-ease, and might ultimately serve in the developmentof gene therapies targeted toward correcting muta-tions in proteins that detrimentally alter the speed atwhich heart muscle fibers contract.

The research is focused on a key component ofmuscle called myosin, the protein that powers mus-cle cell contraction. The Rensselaer team focused

its efforts on the fruit flyand asked a basic ques-tion: Why are fast mus-cles fast and slow onesslow? They discoveredthat the reaction mecha-nism in insect flight mus-cle on the molecular lev-el is different from howslower muscle typeswork.

“Most research hasfocused on slower musclefibers in larger ani-

mals,” says Douglas Swank, assistant professor ofbiology and lead author of the paper. “By investigat-ing the fastest known muscle type, the mechanismsthat differentiate fast and slow muscle fiber typesare more readily apparent.”

In general, myosin breaks down adenosinetriphosphate (ATP), the chemical fuel consumed bymuscles, and converts it into force and motion. To dothis, myosin splits ATP into two compounds, adeninediphosphate (ADP) and phosphate. Each compoundis released from myosin at different rates. In slow-muscle contraction, ADP release is the slow-est step of the reaction, but in the fastest musclefibers, Swank’s team has discovered that phosphaterelease is the slowest step of the reaction.

The project is supported by a three-year $240,000grant from the National Institutes of Health and afour-year $260,000 grant from the American HeartAssociation. The Rensselaer team is conducting thisresearch in conjunction with scientists from the Uni-versity of Vermont.

BIOLOGY

Key Components of Insect Flight

THE $1.4 BILLION RENAISSANCE AT

Rensselaer: The Campaign for RensselaerPolytechnic Institute momentum continueswith the launch of the Renaissance Chal-lenge. With more than $1.2 billion in giftcommitments already secured, the cam-paign aims to raise the balance by June2009 to support the initiatives of The Rensselaer Plan.

Through the Renaissance Challenge, a core group of leadership donors will con-tribute up to $25 million, and they are chal-lenging others to join them by giving—withthe goal to raise a total of $50 million tosupport the “Five Frontiers of Excellence”at Rensselaer. These include: scholarshipsand fellowships; constellations and facultychairs; athletics and the East Campus Athletic Village; teaching and research in biotechnology and the life sciences; and experimental media and the arts.

As President Jackson described, “Wefocus in these areas because they move us in new directions, they build on ourstrengths, and they are undergirding.Together with our classic strengths in engineering, science, architecture, manage-ment, humanities, and social sciences—and other new thrust areas in nano-technology, energy and the environment,media and the arts, and IT and computa-tion—we are transforming Rensselaer.”

Throughout the challenge period,

which lasts until December 2007, all giftsof $100,000 or more that support the“Five Frontiers” will count toward the $50 million goal.

Leading the way are RensselaerTrustees Jeff Kodosky ’70 and Tom Iovino’73, who have pledged an additional $2 million each as unrestricted gifts to theendowment to support the RenaissanceChallenge. Kodosky and his wife, Gail,were the first to support The RensselaerPlan with their earlier gift of $5 million to establish a faculty constellation inphysics, information technology, andentrepreneurship. Iovino and his wife,Judy, also made an earlier commitment to support a career development profes-sorship in civil engineering.

“Gail and I believe strongly in the ‘renaissance’ happening at Rensselaeracross the campus,” says Kodosky. “Youhave to come back to Troy and see it foryourself—there is a real excitement todayabout innovation and research, abouteducation, and about moving Rensselaerforward in many new ways.”

Iovino agrees. “As a civil engineer, I feela connection with the great engineers ofthe past, and as a trustee, I share Gail andJeff’s excitement about where RPI is head-ing. We know that giving to the endow-ment is going to make a difference for thestudents.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Renaissance Challenge Heats Up Campaign

Architect’s rendering of the proposed East Campus Athletic Village.

Michael Symans (left) was interviewed by CNN Headline News.


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The Computational Center forNanotechnology Innnovationswill feature Blue Gene super-computer technology.

NATIONAL RECOGNITION

Rensselaer in the News

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SUPERCOMPUTING

New Equipment Advances Frontiers of Computational Biology

RENSSELAER RESEARCHERS HAVE

received a powerful new Blue Genesupercomputer from IBM. Awardedunder the company’s Shared UniversityResearch (SUR) program, the equip-ment will provide a resource for scien-tists to gain experience with the BlueGene computing environment, whilealso supporting a project to develop newsimulation technologies for understand-ing biological systems. The work willhelp researchers develop algorithms andsoftware that run efficiently on BlueGene technology, which is a key part ofRensselaer’s new Computational Centerfor Nanotechnology Innovations.

As biology becomes a more quantita-tive field, researchers need new simula-tion technologies to understand howproteins, DNA, and other biological systems behave at the molecular level,according to the Rensselaer researchteam. The new SUR award is designedto help develop simulations for prototyp-ing medical devices in “virtual patients,”with potential applications in targeteddrug delivery systems such as drug elut-ing stents, transdermal patches, andinhalers.

To be successful, these simulationsmust run efficiently and effectively on the latest generation of high-perform-

ance computing equipment. The projectwill help researchers develop criticalcomputational biology tools that operateon the Blue Gene system, with the goalof making these available to a broadcommunity of users.

The project’s principal investigatorsat Rensselaer are Angel Garcia, seniorconstellation chaired professor in bio-computation and bioinformatics; MarkShephard, the Samuel A. Johnson ’37and Elisabeth C. Johnson Professor ofEngineering and director of the Scientif-ic Computation Research Center;Shekhar Garde, the Elaine and Jack S.Parker Career Development Professor

of Chemical and Biological Engineering;and Kenneth Jansen, associate professorof mechanical, aerospace, and nuclearengineering.

The new Blue Gene system consistsof a single rack with 1,024 dual proces-

sor compute nodes, 32 I/O nodes, aservice node, a front-end node, andmultiple terabytes of SAN-baseddisk storage. This $2.23 milliongift complements the $100 millionpartnership between Rensselaer,IBM, and New York state to cre-ate one of the world’s most pow-erful university-based super-computing centers.

NEWS OUTLETS ACROSS THE NATION HAVE CONTINUED

to report on Rensselaer’s research and people.Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson dis-

cussed what can be done to maintain U.S. strength in science and technology in a Dec. 13 question-and-answer interview with INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY.President Jackson also was featured in a DecemberDENVER POST story about the need for energy security.

CNN Headline News featured a live, three-minuteinterview with Michael Symans, associate professorof civil and environmental engineering. Symans dis-cussed the final test of the NEESWood experiment—an international research project designed to safelyincrease the height of woodframe buildings in activeseismic zones.

BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE interviewed DavidGautschi, dean of the Lally School of Management & Technology, about the school’s executive educationprogram for business professionals in the energyindustry, which provided 19 managers and engineersfrom China Three Gorges Project Corporation with a four-month residency program at Rensselaer (see,also, page 6).

The distributed computer vision research ofRichard Radke, assistant professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering, was highlightedin a Dec. 2 story from THE ECONOMIST about newtechniques to analyze two-dimensional pictures toproduce three-dimensional models of the world.

Jim Nondorf, vice president for enrollment, wasrecently featured on the front page of the WALL STREET

JOURNAL in a story about early college admissions. Pulickel Ajayan, the Henry Burlage Professor of

Materials Science and Engineering, was featured in an extensive interview about nanotechnology with THE

REDIFF newspaper, one of India’s largest news outlets.

As biology becomes a more quantitativefield, researchers need new simulation tech-nologies to understand how proteins, DNA,and other biological systems behave at themolecular level. To be successful, these sim-ulations must run on the latest generationof high-performance computing equipment.

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A RENSSELAER TEAM RECENTLY REPORTED

two new techniques for placing carbonnanotube patterns on metal surfaces of just about any shape and size. Theirmethods could help overcome some ofthe key hurdles to using carbon nano-tubes in computer chips, displays, sen-sors, and many other electronic devices.

The super-tiny cylinders offer promis-ing applications in fields ranging fromelectronics to biotechnology, but sincemany of these applications are based onthe superior conductivity of carbonnanotubes, good contact between nano-tubes and conducting metal componentsis essential.

As chip makers seek to continuallyincrease computing power, they arelooking to shrink the dimensions of chipcomponents to the nanometer scale.Communication between componentsbecomes increasingly difficult at thisincredibly small scale, making carbonnanotubes a natural choice to replacemetal wires, according to theresearchers. Both of the newly devel-oped techniques could bring the use ofnanotubes as interconnects on comput-er chips closer to reality.

The first technique—dubbed “float-

ing catalyst chemical vapor deposition”—involves heating a carbon-rich com-pound at extremely high temperaturesuntil the material vaporizes. As the sys-tem cools, carbon deposits directly onthe metal surface in the form of nan-otube arrays.

In the single-step process, nanotubesattach to the surface with much greaterstrength, and excellent electrical con-tact is established between the twomaterials. Chemical vapor deposition isa high-temperature process, however,which makes it incompatible with somesensitive electronic applications.

The Rensselaer team worked with astaff research engineer in the Compo-nents Research Division at Intel Corpo-ration to develop an alternative proce-dure that mimics the way photographsare printed from a film negative. Theyfirst grow patterns of carbon nanotubeson silicon surfaces using chemical vapordeposition, and then the nanotubes aretransferred to metal surfaces that arecoated with solder—a metal alloy that ismelted to join metallic surfaces togeth-er. The nanotubes stick in the solder,maintaining their original arrangementon the new surface.

BY STUDYING THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF THE FED-eral Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) andthe United States Coast Guard, as well as each orga-nization’s response to last year’s Hurricane Katrina, ateam of Rensselaer researchers has begun to developa dynamic model of organizational processes with thecapacity to predict how an organization’s culture willaffect its ability to respond to an extreme event.

In the wake of Katrina, a category 5 hurricane thatdevastated much of the nation’s Gulf Coast region inAugust 2005, three Rensselaer students traveled toNew Orleans to collect documents that could providethem with information about how each organization

reacted to any giventask during the dis-aster. The recoveredpaper trail also pro-vided the researcherswith insight into avariety of culturaland organizationalcharacteristics thatimpacted both agen-cies’ ability to actduring the disaster.

Throughout the group’s research, a vast dichotomybetween the cultures of FEMA and the Coast Guardbecame increasingly evident, according to William“Al” Wallace, professor of decision sciences and engi-neering systems and principal investigator on theproject. The researchers believe these cultural factorsultimately dictated how well each organization wasable to carry out its function and responsibilities.

Today Wallace’s team is constructing a computer simulation that models an extreme disaster situationwhere decision-makers are forced to shift their atten-tion from one dimension to another, responses oftenplay out over long durations of time, and informationdemands vary between interacting response organi-zations.

They’ll then input a series of “what if” scenariosrelated to organizational structure and culture into thedisaster model. Algorithms, or automated reasoning,will predict how each organization’s constraints wouldaffect its ability to effectively react to an emergency.The organizational factors observed by the researcherswhile studying FEMA and the Coast Guard will beused to test the model and to set the parameters.

The researchers see the model as a diagnostic toolthat could help local, state, and federal governmentsshed light on the vulnerability of certain organization-al features.

DECISION SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING SYSTEMS

Predicting DisasterResponse

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Techniques Pave Way for CarbonNanotubes in Electronic Devices


ATRENSSELAER

Carbon nanotubes offer promising applications in fields ranging from electronics to biotechnology.

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RENSSELAER ALUMNUS JOHN E. KELLY III ’78 WAS

presented with the Davies Medal for EngineeringAchievement from the Rensselaer Alumni AssociationDec. 7. The award recognizes alumni with a distin-guished career of engineering achievement, publicservice, and technical and managerial accomplish-ments.

In his role as senior vice president of technologyand intellectual property at IBM, Kelly is responsiblefor the company’s technical and innovation strategiesas well as companywide policies on open standardsand intellectual property. He played a leadership rolein establishing the recent $100 million partnershipbetween Rensselaer, IBM, and New York state to create the Computational Center for NanotechnologyInnovations.

Prior to assuming his current role in September2004, Kelly was group executive for IBM’s Technolo-gy Group. He joined IBM in 1980, after receiving abachelor’s degree in physics from Union College in1976, and a master’s degree in physics in 1978 anda doctorate in materials engineering in 1980, bothfrom Rensselaer.

Rensselaer established the Davies Medal for Engi-neering Achievement in honor of one of the Insti-tute’s most accomplished, active, and loyal alumni,Clarence E. Davies ’14. In April 2006 the medal wasawarded to world-renowned biomedical scientist andengineer Van Mow ’62.

Kelly (right) with Engineering Dean Alan Cramb and ProfessorMinoru Tomozawa, who was Kelly’s thesis adviser.

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DAVIES MEDAL FOR ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENT

Honoring Achievement

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Rewarding Ideas

FOUR STUDENT IDEAS WERE RECOGNIZED

as the winners of the fall 2006 “Changethe World Challenge” idea competitionduring a celebratory breakfast held onJan. 24 in the Heffner Alumni House.Created in 2005 by Rensselaer alumnusSean O’Sullivan ’85, the competition isintended to support entrepreneurshipeducation and inspire ideas to improvethe human condition by providing a$1,000 cash award for ideas that willmake the world a better place.

Each semester, students select a topicfrom a list of challenges to use scienceand/or engineering to improve human life,and offer an innovative and sustainablesolution to that challenge. Examples ofthe challenges include decreasing anation’s energy use, increasing energygeneration, and improving the water con-servation, purification, and recyclingefforts in underdeveloped countries. Sub-missions are judged on both novelty andsensibility, and up to 10 entries eachsemester are selected to receive an award.

Winning ideas from the fall 2006 competition are: an invention that usesreverse osmosis to remove viruses, bacte-ria, and hard metals from the water in theAmazon, developed by freshman engi-neering students Michael Chung-HuaDoo, Alexandra Lamparski, ChristopherByung Min, and Oliver Williams; a planto use a naturally occurring, inert, andplentiful mineral as a source of householdinsulation for heating and cooling,

devised by senior science and technologystudies major Eben Dutcher Bayer; awater purification device that boils bacte-ria-laden water while simultaneouslycooling already purified water, developedby junior mechanical engineering majorSamuel Harrington; and a proposal tocreate a form of refrigeration independ-ent of electricity to help preserve foodand medicines in Third World countries,created by freshman engineering studentsAndrew Cunningham and Adam Kell.

“Through his generosity, vision, andpersonal examples, Sean O’Sullivan hasinspired the next generation of scholarsto apply their skills for the good ofmankind, and to become socially respon-

sible entrepreneurs,” said Robert Cher-now, vice provost for entrepreneurship. “I applaud this group of winners for theirinnovative ideas and inventions—theytruly embody Rensselaer’s ‘Why notchange the world?’ attitude.”

These winners also received the fund-ing necessary to secure provisionalpatents for their ideas.

“Through his generosity, vision, and per-sonal examples, Sean O’Sullivan hasinspired the next generation of scholars toapply their skills for the good of mankind,and to become socially responsible entre-preneurs.”[ ]

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ATRENSSELAER

IN 1981, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR PETER PARSONS

and 10 architecture students traveled to Romefor a semester of study in the Eternal City. Theinaugural year of the international study pro-gram was “started on a shoestring,” accordingto Parsons, who says for four months the stu-dents studied design, history/theory, and theItalian language in a small, cramped studiospace furnished with enough desks for onlyhalf the class.

“The space was so small,” he recalls, “thatwhenever possible we held our lessons outsidein the street.”

The first semester of the program was “fair-ly informal,” says Parsons, who taught the stu-dents’ design studio, hiring an Italian to teachthe language course and a historian to lecturethe group on Roman history. When the stu-dents were required to travel to central andnorthern Italy to explore the varying architec-ture, they all had to make the trip together in

one small van with Parsons serving as driverand tour guide.

Although it cost less to live in Rome thanit did to live in Troy during the program’s firstyears, the experience didn’t come without a few challenges.Students wereresponsible for find-ing their own hous-ing for the durationof the semester, andfor learning to com-municate and inter-act with the city’sresidents.

“They had to learn the language and adaptto the Italian culture very quickly since theywere in such a small group,” says Parsons. “But the students never complained about the demands of the program, because they werethrilled to be experiencing an opportunity none

before them had—and they all just loved it.”The Roman Studies program was the vision

of Patrick Quinn, a former dean of the Schoolof Architecture, and became fully realizedunder the leadership of Quinn’s successor,David Haviland ’64. When it started, Rensse-laer was one of only two or three Americanschools of architecture with international stud-ies programs in Rome.

Today the program has doubled in size, withthe most recent Roman Studies class totaling22 architecture students. Just as Parsons did in

1981, one professorfrom the Troy campusstill accompanies thestudents to Rome eachsemester. Additionally,Rome resident andRensselaer ClinicalProfessor of Architec-ture Cinzia Abbate-

Gardner serves as a full-time coordinator forthe Institute’s Roman Studies program, help-ing students arrange housing and adjust to theItalian culture.

For 25 years students have taken the sameclasses while studying abroad in Italy,although the cramped classroom they were

first taught in has fallen by thewayside. Today’s travelers aretaught in spacious studios locat-ed in the upper rooms of thePalazzo Pio—a structure which

some scholars believe sitsupon the foundation ofthe ancient Roman tem-ple of Venus.

This fall, a group ofalumni, members of theRensselaer community, and friends of the School of Architecture traveled to

Italy in celebration of the pro-gram’s 25th anniversary. Withthe students acting as their tourguides, the travelers explored theexquisite architecture of theEternal City.

Today the School of Archi-tecture’s international studyoptions have expanded toinclude programs in India andChina.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Roman Studies Program Turns 25

Today the program has doubled in size,with the most recent Roman Studies classtotaling 22 architecture students. Just asParsons did in 1981, one professor fromthe Troy campus still accompanies thestudents to Rome each semester.[ ]


ALUMNI MUSICFEST

Gathering Hits High Notes

NEARLY 75 ALUMNI WHO HAD PARTICIPAT-ed in music groups as students returnedto a campus community that not only waspleased to see them; it was equallydelighted to hear them.

Homecoming ’06 included the first-ever Alumni MusicFest the weekend ofOct. 13-15. A highlight of the gatheringwas a sing-along at the Heffner AlumniHouse, at which many former members of the Glee Club, joined by alumni of the Pep Band and other organizations,sang forth the tunes they loved from theircollege years. Rod Blumenau ’65, whohad accompanied the Glee Club in theearly ’60s, reprised his role at the key-board.

The next day, in addition to cheeringthe Engineers in their match-up againstBoston University, a sold-out HoustonField House applauded the alumni musi-cians’ performance of the Canadian andAmerican national anthems and Rensse-laer’s alma mater at the hockey game.

The visiting alumni enjoyed campuspresentations, including a private tour ofthe Experimental Media and Performing

Arts Center (EMPAC) construction site. The Rensselaer Archives had pre-pared a special display, “From A Cappellato Zip Serenaders,” on exhibit in the Folsom Library.

At a reception for “Friends of Joel Dol-ven,” plans were discussed for a fund-rais-ing effort to name the Conductor’s Suitein the new EMPAC for Dolven who, aslongtime music director at Rensselaer,instilled a lifelong love of music in genera-tions of students.

“Professor Joel Dolven was my mentor,friend, and counselor. By a wide margin,he influenced my young life more thananyone else on campus during those fouryears,” says Jim McCallister ’51. (Formore memories of Joel Dolven, see page56.)

The music gathering was the brain-child of Howard Henze ’69, a former GleeClub member. He says the group thatattended was so enthused, they voicedsupport for making the MusicFest a semi-annual event.

“It was a wonderful success and metevery expectation I had!” says Henze.

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BREAKTHROUGHS

Research RoundupImproving Traffic Management

A team of researchers is deploying an array of wire-less, solar-powered readers to monitor traffic flowand collect traffic data during the morning commuteon busy Capital Region roads. The portable units,based on the same technology as E-ZPass tag read-ers, could eventually be used to provide valuable datafor a variety of applications, from decreasing conges-tion in work zones to assisting emergency evacua-tions. The portable units could be particularly usefulfor decreasing congestion and providing travel timeestimates in work zones, at special events, and dur-ing emergency evacuations, and is funded through a $3.9 million grant from the Federal HighwayAdministration to Rensselaer’s Center for Infra-structure and Transportation Studies.

Improving Biological Separations

A team of Rensselaer researchers has received a four-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study improved methods forbiological separations. Led by Ravi Kane, the MerckAssociate Professor of Chemical and BiologicalEngineering, the group plans to develop nanoscalesurfaces that actively reassemble in the presence ofDNA, which could eventually lead to more efficientseparation tools for genomics and proteomics. Theoverarching goal is to understand how biologicalmolecules of all types move across the surface oflipid bilayers.

New Molecular Pathway

Rensselaer researchers have found a new pathway by which cells change their adhesive properties. With a $1.4 million grant from the National Insti-tutes of Health, they plan to fill in the details behindhow cells decide to stick to a surface, which couldlead to a better understanding of the importance ofthis pathway to the physiology and development oforganisms. Principal Investigator Andrea Page-McCaw, assistant professor of biology, has focusedon matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)—proteinsthat play a role in development and immunity. Thejob of MMPs is to cleave other proteins that reside in the space in between cells. Page-McCaw has pre-viously identified a specific protein, called ninjurin,that gets cut by MMP. Now she is working out theinterplay between MMPs and ninjurin, with the goalof characterizing this previously unknown pathwayby which cells signal to each other.

A sing-along in the Heffner Alumni House was one of the highlights of the Alumni MusicFest.

FOCUSON:

Donald Fry couldn’t have joinedthe Rensselaer community at amore exciting time—constructionof the Experimental Media andPerforming Arts Center is pro-gressing at a dizzying pace; plansfor the East Campus Athletic Vil-lage are under way; the spirit ofexploration, collaboration, anddiscovery are alive in the labs oncampus; and the goal of the Insti-tute’s fund-raising campaign,Renaissance at Rensselaer: TheCampaign for Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute, has expandedfrom $1 billion to $1.4 billion.

Fry says there are close to

90,000 alumni worldwide in theRensselaer family. In his new roleas vice president for instituteadvancement, he’s committed toengaging and energizing each ofthem about the evolution of theiralma mater.

Since arriving at Rensselaer inJuly, Fry—a retired Army major,former director of advancementfor the College of Engineering atPurdue, and most recently vicepresident for development andadvancement at Colorado StateUniversity—has been a tirelessadvocate for the Institute, workinghard to open lines of communica-

tion and build relationships withRensselaer’s many constituencies.

“I’m here to expand the cultureof engagement with the institutionand to help those outside of Rensse-laer understand the great thingshappening here,” he says. “I see myjob as finding ways to reach out topeople, including those who’ve losttouch with the Institute; under-standing what’s meaningful, impor-tant, or unique about this place tothem; and then helping them thinkabout the ways in which Rensselaercould be a partner for them in avariety of collaborations.”

Fry says part of Institute

Advancement’s charge is to spreadthe word about the many changesthat have taken place and toincrease the philanthropic invest-ments made at Rensselaer.

“Rensselaer today is a very different place than it was 20 or30 years ago. I want to make sureeveryone has an opportunity totake a look at the strides the Insti-tute has made and the positivedirection it’s headed.”

Fry says the campaign—whichfunds the initiatives laid out by THERENSSELAER PLAN—will require acampuswide effort in order to reachits goal of $1.4 billion by 2009.

Like most campaigns of thismagnitude, the majority of Rensse-laer’s funding has come from gen-erous commitments and gifts froma small portion of donors, accord-ing to Fry. Now, he says, “is thetime to make sure everyone under-stands what the campaign isabout, because we’ll need every-one’s participation in order toreach our goal.”

“The purpose of the campaignis to build excitement, create ener-gy, and raise awareness,” he says.“The campaign keeps us in thenational spotlight, it shows that wehave the financial backing of ourconstituents, and allows us to fundnew initiatives, which helps usmove up in the national rankingsand remain competitive.”

Building lifelong relationshipsand encouraging alumni to getinvolved and excited about Rensse-laer’s evolution, Fry says, is just as important as meeting the cam-paign goal, funding new initiatives,and growing the endowment.

“Under Dr. Jackson’s leader-ship the Institute has become ahighly regarded, top-tier institu-tion, and I know our alumni cantake pride in their alma mater’sprogress,” says Fry. “It’s not justabout how much money we’veraised or need to raise, it’s aboutencouraging our graduates tocome back to campus, to getinvolved, and to be a part of thephenomenal transformation that’staking place at Rensselaer.”

Donald Fry: Engaging and Energizing Alumni

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MILESTONES

WEI ZHAO has beenappointed dean of the School ofScience. Prior tojoining Rensselaer,Zhao served assenior associate

vice president for research at TexasA&M University. In 2005, Zhaobecame director of the Division ofComputer and Network Systems atthe National Science Foundation.Last year, his division awardedresearch grants of more than $190million, comprising 80 percent oftotal federal research funding in thearea of computer and network sys-tems. Zhao received his bachelor’sdegree in physics from the ShaanxiNormal University in 1977. Heearned a master’s degree in com-puter science in 1982 and a doctor-ate in computer science in 1986,both from the University of Massa-chusetts.

PULICKEL AJAYAN,

the Henry BurlageProfessor of Mate-rials Science andEngineering, wasnamed by SCIEN-TIFIC AMERICAN

magazine as a Research Leaderwithin the 2006 “Scientific Ameri-can 50”—the magazine’s presti-gious annual list recognizing out-standing acts of leadership in sci-ence and technology. He alsoreceived the MRS Medal from theMaterials Research Society.

FRANK SPEAR, professor and chair ofearth and environmental sciences,has been elected a fellow of theAmerican Geophysical Union(AGU). This designation is con-ferred upon not more than 0.1 per-cent of all AGU members in anygiven year, and new fellows arechosen by a Committee of Fellows.According to the organization, theAGU is “a worldwide scientificcommunity that advances, throughunselfish cooperation in research,the understanding of Earth andspace for the benefit of humanity.”

JOHN GOWDY, the RittenhouseTeaching Professor of Humanitiesand Social Sciences, was appointedtreasurer of the International Soci-ety for Ecological Economics(ISEE). The ISEE facilitatesunderstanding between economistsand ecologists and the integrationof their thinking into a trans-disci-pline aimed at developing a sus-tainable world.

SHIRLEY ANN

JACKSON, presidentof Rensselaer, hasbeen elected a fel-low of the Ameri-can Associationfor the Advance-

ment of Science. She was cited for“her exceptional support of nation-al education efforts, for her out-standing contributions to the fieldof physics, and for her exemplarynational leadership.” PresidentJackson also was appointed by theNational Governors Association toa 17-member task force to guidethe INNOVATION AMERICA initiative.The task force brings together abipartisan group of governors andmembers of the academic and busi-ness communities to oversee effortsto strengthen the competitive posi-tion of the United States in theglobal economy by improving thenation’s capacity to innovate.

LINDA SCHADLER,professor of mate-rials science andengineering, hasbeen elected a fel-low of ASM Inter-national, a world-

wide network of materials engi-neers and scientists dedicated toadvancing industry, technology,and applications of metals andmaterials. Schadler was cited for “outstanding contributions to understanding of the nano andmicromechanical behavior of poly-mer composites, and for educa-tional leadership in materials sci-ence and engineering.”

WILLIAM WALKER

has been appoint-ed vice presidentfor strategic com-munications andexternal relationseffective Feb. 1,

2007. Walker is responsible formanaging this new Institute divi-sion, created to advance pubicunderstanding of and advocacy forRensselaer, and to ensure robustcommunication with the Institute’sconstituencies. Walker was mostrecently vice president for publicaffairs at Dartmouth College, andwas responsible for public relationsprograms for the institution, aswell as overseeing media relations,publications, periodicals, Web sitedevelopment, conferences and spe-cial events, internal communica-tions, community relations, andphotography. Walker received hisbachelor’s degree in journalismfrom the University of Missouri.

GWO-CHING WANG,department chairand professor ofphysics, appliedphysics, andastronomy, hasbeen elected a

fellow of the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science(AAAS). She was cited for “distin-guished contributions to the fieldsof surface and overlayer phasetransitions and dynamics of thinfilm growth using electron diffrac-tion.” President Jackson andWang are two of 449 fellows elect-ed this year in recognition of theirscientifically or socially distin-guished efforts to advance scienceor its applications, according toAAAS.

JOHN BRUNSKI, professor of bio-medical engineering, received the 2006 Jerome M. and DorothySchweitzer Research Award fromthe Greater New York Academy ofProsthodontics. He was the 39threcipient of the award and only thethird engineer to receive the acco-

lade. Previous recipients include P-I Brånemark, the originator ofmodern oral implants, and formerDirector of the National Instituteof Dental and CraniofacialResearch Harold Slavkin.

LINDA LAYNE, the Alma and H. Erwin Hale ’30Teaching Professorin Humanities andSocial Sciences,has received the

Council on Anthropology of Repro-duction’s (CAR) “Enduring Influ-ence” book prize for TRANSFORMA-TIVE MOTHERHOOD (NYU Press,1999), a collection of case studiesthat she edited. Layne received thehonor at the CAR meeting in SanJose, Calif., in November.

WARREN CADY

STOKER ’33, ofManchester,Conn., died onNov. 16, 2006.Stoker enjoyed a long career at

Rensselaer, in which he held manypositions. A year after graduatingfrom the Institute, he became aprofessor in Rensselaer’s electricalengineering department, a positionhe served in until becoming head ofthe computer lab in 1952. In 1955he moved to Hartford, Conn., tobecome founder of the HartfordGraduate Center. Stoker served inthat position for two years beforebecoming associate dean of theHartford school in 1957; he laterwas appointed vice president of theHartford Graduate Center, and in1975 he was appointed president.In 1976, Stoker was appointedpresident emeritus and trustee ofthe Hartford Graduate Center. TheHartford Graduate Center—nowcalled Rensselaer at Hartford—celebrated its 50th anniversary inMay 2006. During the ceremonyStoker was awarded the Rensselaerat Hartford 50th AnniversaryMedal.


On a recent day during an after-school program at Troy’s Doyle Mid-dle School, two seventh-grade girls cheerfully greeted a visitor,eagerly explaining their newest robotic creation, “the plug,” a nanodevice used to repair blood vessels.

Of course, the colorful model, made from child-favorite LEGO® plasticbricks along with the toymaker’s sophisticated computer technology, wasn’tsmall enough to fit inside an actual vein or artery to plug up tissue damage. Butthe imagination and the students’ ability to grasp the concept behind thenanorobot model, and their determination to build it, constitute the epitomeof what Bill Clark has worked to accomplish in his eight years as a technologyeducation teacher at the middle school.

“These two girls took it upon themselves to conduct research via the Internetand come up with what they thought would be a good solution to a medicalproblem using nanotechnology. I was amazed,” says Clark, who coached the twogirls along with six other students as a team for the international LEGO FIRSTNano Quest Challenge. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science andTechnology) was founded by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen.

In early December, after months of preparation and practice, the studentsjoined 23 teams of youngsters ages 9 to 14 from around the Capital Region tocompete in the regional competition that took place at Rensselaer’sDarrin Communications Center. Thefinalists will attend the FIRSTLEGO League World Festival atthe Georgia Dome in Atlanta inApril. BY JODI ACKERMAN FRANK

Pipeline to the future

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Rensselaer programs inspire the next generation to pursue careers in engineering, technology, math, and the sciences.

LIGHTING THE SPARK Rensselaer’s Center for Initiatives in Pre-Col-lege Education (CIPCE) has adopted the event in partnership withGeneral Electric for the last three years to spark an interest in mathe-matics, science, and engineering among local middle school students.The competition is one of a number of K-12 pipeline programs acrosscampus that build upon the Institute’s traditional strengths to fosterinnovations in interactive learning, educational technologies, andteacher education.

“What we do is take what Rensselaer does so well in science, tech-nology, and engineering design and transfer that to the elementary andsecondary classrooms,” says Lester Rubenfeld, professor of mathemati-cal sciences and director of CIPCE.

For the Nano Quest Challenge, the student teams designed, built, andprogrammed a set of LEGO MINDSTORMS™ robots to explore the usesof nanotechnology. The teams focused on areas in which nanotechnolo-gy could have or is already having an impact, such as medicine, comput-ers, and the environment. The robots were made from standard LEGOparts and a computerized unit that controls the motors and sensors.

The programs were written by the students using the ROBOLAB™software developed by LEGO and Tufts University that incorporates a spe-cial version of the software LabVIEW created by Rensselaer trustee Jef-frey Kodosky ’70, co-founder of National Instruments, who has been anenthusiastic supporter of CIPCE’s K-12 robotic efforts.

“Building robotics is a great way to inspire students, boys as well as girls,to learn science, technology, engineering, and math,” Kodosky says. “Bymaking software that is accessible to our young students, we at NationalInstruments are learning how to make our professional tools even easierto use. And, working on robotic toys is just plain fun—for students andfor us as the developers.”

The same day as the LEGO regional contest, another smaller, butequally as engaging competition took place between Rensselaer sopho-mores and high school students nearby in the George M. Low Centerfor Industrial Innovation. About 150 students competed against oneanother in “The Game,” which incorporated the Vex Robotic DesignSystem (see, also, page 2). The technology is similar to LEGO’s, but theprogramming is more advanced, and the robots are larger, made of metal,and have more motors and sensors.

When Rubenfeld learned about the Vex competition, he approachedthe organizers, Larry Ruff, systems engineer and laboratory supervisor,and Paul Schoch, associate professor of electrical, computer, and systemsengineering, to investigate whether Vex would be a good technology toincorporate in a summer program to attract students in grades 8-10.

“So far Vex been a good fit with all the teams, and I think it would beappropriate for the younger students as well,” says Ruff, who incorpo-rated the contest as part of his Introduction to Engineering Design course.

Schoch, who also is involved with CIPCE’s LEGO Robotics Program,

adds that the introduction of Vex technology provides the next levelof a continuous K-12 pipeline effort.

For the LEGO program, Rensselaer undergraduates work in localschools and Boys and Girls Clubs to facilitate after-school robotics activ-ities. While there, they mentor students on how to design, construct,and program robotics to accomplish engineering challenges, and at theend of the fall term, these students get to test their skills with one anoth-er during the FIRST LEGO League Tournament.

“These and other K-12 programs that Rensselaer offers are opportu-nities to engage students in technology and science,” Schoch says. “Theysee it, feel it, and get immediate feedback that they can take back to thedrawing board. That’s something they’re not getting enough of in theclassroom.”

THE QUIET CRISIS For several years President Shirley Ann Jackson hasbeen warning of a looming gap in the science and engineering work-force, driven primarily by three factors. Those who responded to Presi-dent John F. Kennedy’s historic call to action following the launch of the

Sputnik satellite and became the scientists and engineers whose workhas fueled the U.S. economy for a generation are on the verge of retiringin record numbers. As a nation of immigrants, the United States hasrelied on students, professors, and researchers who came from abroadto study and remain, but in a “flattening” world offering expanding oppor-tunities, their numbers are decreasing. In addition, not enough youngpeople in this country are being excited and prepared to pursue careersin science and engineering. These factors, in combination with thedecreasing federal commitment to funding basic research, are what Pres-ident Jackson describes as the “quiet crisis.”

“It is quiet because it takes decades to educate a scientist, mathe-matician, or an engineer, so the true impact unfolds only gradually, overtime,” says President Jackson. “It is a crisis because the discoveries andinnovations of our science and engineering workforce create the newopportunities and industries which keep our economy thriving, providefor our security, and mitigate the global scourges that breed suffering andglobal instability.”

President Jackson has been actively involved with other academic,corporate, and government leaders to bring national attention to thislooming crisis. Numerous reports and policy papers—including from theNational Academies, the Coun-cil on Competitiveness, and theAAAS—have documented theproblem, and detailed recom-mendations for change whichinclude significant enhance-ments in math and science edu-cation and investments in

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(Top) In the spring, 11th grade girlstook part in the 10th annual DesignYour Future Day. (Bottom) During thesummer, nearly 75 middle school stu-dents came to campus to take part inCIPCE’s LEGO Robotics EngineeringAcademy.

“If we are to succeed in closing this emerging gap, all of us must get engaged in the effort to

excite, encourage, and prepare young people to pursue careers in science, math, and engineering,”

President Jackson says. “We must have a cadre of teachers and mentors at all levels who have the necessary

skills to help these students excel. And it must be a priority. Society must value science and those who do it.”

research. Legislative proposals based on recommendations in these reportshave been introduced by bipartisan coalitions in the Congress and byPresident George W. Bush.

“The national conversation on this issue is now engaged,” PresidentJackson says. “Now it is time to turn rhetoric into reality. The clock isticking. It is time to implement solutions, and those solutions must comefrom all sectors—academic, business, and government—and from alllevels—national, state, and local.”

She urges a national focus on energy research as a focal point to exciteand encourage greater interest in science and engineering careers. “Justas President Kennedy galvanized the nation in response to the Sovietlaunch of Sputnik, so too could the President around energy security,” shesays. “Energy security is the space race of this millennium.”

“If we are to succeed in closing this emerging gap, all of us must getengaged in the effort to excite, encourage, and prepare young people topursue careers in science, math, and engineering,” President Jackson says.“We must have a cadre of teachers and mentors at all levels who have thenecessary skills to help these students excel. And it must be a priority.Society must value science and those who do it.”

Closing the gap, President Jackson argues, also will require a nationalcommitment to develop more of the talent of all citizens, especially whatshe calls the “underrepresented majority”—women, minorities, and thosewith disabilities who traditionallyhave been a disproportionatelysmall part of the nation’s science,engineering, and technology work-force, but who now comprise thedemographic majority in the U.S.

“There has been a huge demo-graphic shift in our country, withwomen and minorities represent-ing the new face of America. Along with this new reality, we have thisenormous amount of talent that hasn’t been tapped,” says Kenneth Dur-gans, vice provost for the Office of Institute Diversity, which hosts Rens-selaer’s annual Black Family Technology Awareness Day.

Earlier this year, more than 450 area students and their families par-ticipated in the event, which featured 19 workshops. Led by Rensselaerprofessors, students, and community organizations, the workshops includ-ed building roller coasters, creating a hot air balloon using householditems, hands-on interactive sessions exploring engineering and chemistryscience experiments, and a CIPCE robotics session.

“This is a special day designed to help eliminate the science and tech-nology gap for members of the minority community,” Durgans says. “Byshowcasing science and technology in a fun and interactive way, we hopeto motivate more minority students to pursue careers in these fields.”

WOMAN POWER Women now outnumber men in undergraduate col-legiate enrollment and, together with minorities, make up more thanhalf the U.S. workforce. Yet, they remain underrepresented in scienceand engineering careers.

“This really is a societal issue,” says Barbara Ruel, director of womenin engineering and diversity at Rensselaer. “We need to spread the mes-sage that women can perform equally as well as men in science, tech-nology, and especially in the engineering fields.”

Ruel has worked to effectively spread that message by recruiting andretaining women students, and by developing engaging programs that


(Top to bottom) LEGO Robotics sum-mer camps, Exploring Engineering Day,Black Family Technology AwarenessDay, and Design Your Future Day arepart of Rensselaer’s effort to interestyoung people in pursuing occupationsin the fields of science and engineering.


help them develop the skills and self-confidence they need to success-fully enter and stay in these disciplines.

Ruel oversees the popular “Design Your Future Day.” Established in1997, the program introduces 11th-grade girls with high aptitude andinterest in math and science to a variety of academic degree programsand career paths in engineering, science, architecture, and technology.

More than 120 11th-grade girls from around the Northeast take partin the day’s workshops, led by Rensselaer faculty, staff, and graduate stu-dents. Last year, the program featured more than a dozen fun and inter-active workshops, including the “Body Bag” in which students learned howscientists and engineers can impact human health and quality of life. Thestudents also participated in the “Engineering at Rensselaer is Sweeeeet!”workshop, where they learned how to assemble a box of candy in theAdvanced Manufacturing Laboratory, and saw firsthand different man-ufacturing processes including robotics and automation, plastic injec-tion molding, three-dimensional printing, and water-jet cutting.“Rensselaer recruits 10 to 12 young women annually from this one-dayprogram,” Ruel says.

Each February during National Engineers Week more than 250 GirlScouts and Boy Scouts take part in “Exploring Engineering Day,” whichoffers myriad hands-on learning activities.

“Since its inception, the program has increased in both size and diver-sity,” Ruel says. “This year, children participated in a variety of activi-ties that covered a wide range of disciplines, including electrical,aeronautical, and materials engineering.

When Exploring Engineering Day was first established in 1997, most-ly boys participated. Since 2000, participation has doubled and half ofthe registrants have been girls. Last year, the Scouts participated in activ-ities such as the “Gak,” a lab exercise in which they combined materi-als to witness chemical reactions and analyze material properties.

“Seeing the creativity and imagination that the kids bring to the activ-ities is inspiring,” says Tara Clancy, environmental engineering majorand member of the Society of Women Engineers, one of several studentclubs that helped organize the event. “Working with the young studentsat Exploring Engineering Day also reminds me of why I first becameinterested in engineering. I love engineering, and events like this aregreat opportunities to share the fun that I have solving engineering prob-lems with others.”

Ruel believes programs like this are part of Rensselaer’s mission. “It’sour job as higher education institutions to work with industry to helpthese youngsters learn about emerging technologies and to teach themabout what engineers do,” she says. “New technologies create the needfor new jobs and job skills. Guidance counselors and parents may notbe familiar with cutting-edge careers, new emerging technologies, andthe interdisciplinary research that goes on at the best universities.”

A RENSSELAER TRADITION RENEWED The idea that higher educa-tion can play an important role in helping students attain the skills andknowledge they need for careers in engineering, science, and technol-ogy is nothing new for Rensselaer. Some of the Institute’s earliest pipelineprograms for underrepresented and underserved groups have been inexistence for decades and continue to be run largely through the Officeof Minority Student Affairs (OMSA).

PREFACE, one of the oldest programs, established nearly 30 yearsago, is a highly selective, all-expense-paid, two-week residential sum-mer program for talented high school sophomores entering 11th grade.

The students take part in lab exercises, discussions, and field trips, andtake classes in core disciplines, from electrical engineering and com-puting to leadership and career development.

“The focus is really on trying to develop a means to not only identifypotential applicants for Rensselaer, but to lay a foundation for pursuingcareers in the sciences and engineering,” says Dean of Students MarkSmith, who oversees OMSA and served as its director during the 1990s.Smith has been at the forefront of the Institute’s curriculum develop-ment for pre-college and pipeline initiatives and has established manycorporate and professional contacts for minority students seeking intern-ships, co-ops, and job placement.

In partnership with the New York State Education Department, OMSAalso established the Rensselaer Science and Technology Entry Program(STEP) in 1986. Through STEP, 150 underrepresented and economical-ly disadvantaged 7th- through 12th-grade students in five area middleand high schools participate in a range of after-school enrichment activ-ities, summer programs, research labs on college campuses and industry,and career development experiences. The same students have the oppor-tunity to attend year after year to advance their skills and knowledge.

“Rensselaer is spearheading an effort to build a national network of K-12 pipeline partnerships with organizations that are focused on the iden-tification, nurturing, and educational development of women andunderrepresented minority groups in order to facilitate their access tohigher education in the fields we offer,” says Eddie Ade Knowles, vice pres-ident for student life. “And, we are reaching out to our alumni to becomeactive participants in this national effort as mentors and as activerecruiters of talented high school students.”

A NEW VISION Alyssa Pasquale ’05 recalls a time several years ago whenshe figured out, with a little help, how to connect a clapper circuit for alight switch. The experience was one of Pasquale’s first glimpses intothe real world of engineering as an Averill Park high school senior par-ticipating in New Visions. The program is a partnership between CIPCEand Questar III (formerly called BOCES, serving Rensselaer, Greene,and Columbia counties) that provides hands-on, university-level expe-rience to high school students considering a college major in math, engi-neering, information technology, or science.

“When I was in high school, I had no idea what engineering was,”says Pasquale who, because of her experience in New Visions, stayed asemester ahead in earning her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineer-ing at Rensselaer, where she also recently completed her master’s degreein the same field.

“Through New Visions, I discovered that engineering wasn’t just onediscipline,” she adds. “I learned about each type of engineering through soilanalysis labs, fiber optic and laser experiments, working with electronics,and other activities. The experience helped me decide that I definitelydid want to be an engineer, and what sort of engineering I wanted to study.”

Up to 15 high school seniors are selected for each New Visions class.On weekday mornings during the school year, the students are exposedto labs and coursework, tour local companies, and interact with numer-ous professionals in various fields of work.

“New Visions gives students the opportunity to gain valuable insightinto careers and research. And, as with all Rensselaer’s K-12 pipelineprograms, it gives our young people a tremendous opportunity to see afuture in technology and science careers they never could have imaginedbefore,” Rubenfeld says. “That’s Rensselaer’s ultimate mission.”

Two Rensselaer researchers team up to conduct groundbreakingbiotechnology research—and to attract more young people totheir fields.

Unraveling


Wilfredo Colón and Christopher Bystroff make a formidable research team,bringing together their individual expertise in biochemical techniques andcomputer modeling to better understand why proteins sometimes becometrapped in a specific structure—knowledge that could lead to early detectionfor diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) andAlzheimer’s.Colón,associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology,andBystroff, associate professor of biology, are prime examples of the multidisci-plinary research teams supported by the Center for Biotechnology and Inter-disciplinary Studies.

“This is exactly what the biotechnology center was intended to do,” saysRobert Linhardt, the Ann and John H. Broadbent Jr. ’59 Senior Constella-tion Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering and acting direc-tor of the center. “To bring groups from different disciplines together.”

Rensselaer’s emerging biotechnology enterprise seeks to break down thetraditional walls between researchers.“It’s interesting how few biologists real-ly talk to chemists,” Linhardt says. “This way of working that we have now atRensselaer basically cuts down those barriers.”

Colón and Bystroff are extending their collabo-ration to helping attract and mentor the next gener-ation of researchers—especially young people fromunderrepresented groups in the sciences and academia.

Students speak highly of the researchers as teachers and colleagues whose talent,energy,and commitment to leading-edge discovery is drawing promisingundergraduates and graduate students to Rensselaer. BY JILL U. ADAMS

Proteins

THE PROTEIN DANCE Proteins are essential to life.They participate in every biological process in thebody. They are carriers like hemoglobin deliveringoxygen to every cell, enzymes like DNA polymeraseaiding gene replication, structural elements like actinand myosin responsible for muscle contraction, sig-naling molecules like insulin and endorphins, andantibodies that target foreign substances in the bodyfor destruction.

Learning the structure of proteins provides cluesto their function. And yet, proteins are by no meansstatic creatures. They fold and unfold, they glom onto one another and let go. Dancing, tumbling, andpartnering with others, these are dynamic, interac-tive molecules. All the time, they obey the laws ofphysics. Despite the remarkable diversity in func-tions of which proteins are capable, they have a majorliability—they are marginally stable. Stable proteinswould be highly valued in a variety of industrial appli-cations—think insulin with a long shelf life.

It’s easier than ever to decipher the linear sequenceof proteins—imagine a string of pearls, each bead anamino acid. The challenge for researchers is deter-mining the three-dimensional shape that proteinswill assume in the cell—picture that pearl necklacein a velvet pouch. Figuring out protein conforma-tions—both good ones and bad ones—will answerso many important biological questions and improvethe practice of medicine.

“I’ve been looking at proteins now for 20 years,”says Bystroff. “I was always curious about how thesethings got into their convoluted state.”

Both Colón and Bystroff have received NationalScience Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards to sup-port their protein folding research and educationalactivities.

Protein folding has been a major research field forsome time, with tens of thousands of published arti-cles in the scientific literature—hundreds this yearalone—and numerous well-funded laboratoriesaround the world. Bystroff has found his own nicheby seeking out a less-studied problem—unfolding.

However, protein unfolding happens fast.

“Too fast,” says Bystroff. “And once it starts, it does-n’t stop.” It’s extremely cumbersome to analyze usingbiochemical methods and even then, one only getsa blurry picture.

“Scientists have no clue of what the details are,”says Bystroff. “And that’s my justification for doingit computationally. We have a very detailed look atwhat’s happening in the computer. And the trick is,to prove to people that what we’re doing in the com-puter is the same thing that’s happening in the cell.”

Meanwhile, Colón is interested in proteins thatmisfold. He seeks to understand the fundamentalsof protein folding and has zeroed in on the issue ofstability.

Most proteins spend most of the time in their fold-ed state, says Colón, but they’re in equilibrium, goingback and forth. “During that fraction of a second thatthey may be unfolded, that’s where they could mis-fold,” he says. If the misfolded state is more stablethan the folded state, then that’s going to be the pre-ferred form—and likely a problem. Thermodynam-ics are one factor; kinetics (i.e. how fast?) also plays arole. “Is it faster to fold this way or that way?” he asks.Proteins that are prone to misfolding are often trappedin their native state so that they cannot unfold at allduring their lifetime in the cell. This property devisedby nature is known as kinetic stability.

Mistakes in protein folding are increasingly seenin neurological disorders, like Alzheimer’s and LouGehrig’s diseases. Misfit proteins are biological mark-ers for these diseases at the very least, and manyresearchers are seeking to understand whether theyhave a causative role as well.

Colón compares a protein to a toddler to illustratethe difference between thermodynamic stability andkinetic stability. “If you have a toddler in a room withlots of toys and the door is open, chances are the tod-dler is going to stay, even though he may briefly leavethe room,” he says. “That’s an example of a ther-modynamically stable toddler. He’s there—notbecause he can’t get out—but because he wants tostay there.”

Put a gate across the door to keep the toddler outof trouble and “then he’s kinetically stable,” Colónsays. “It doesn’t matter if he cries and wants to get


Learning the structure of proteins provides clues to their function.And yet,

proteins are by no means static creatures.They fold and unfold, they glom on

to one another and let go. Dancing, tumbling, and partnering with others, these

are dynamic, interactive molecules.All the time, they obey the laws of physics.

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At left, Christopher Bystroff and Wilfredo Colón.


out. He’s kinetically trapped. Sometimes nature must puta ‘gate’ on proteins, an energy barrier to keep them out oftrouble (i.e. misfolding). If one could figure out how naturedoes this, we may be able to use the same strategy to con-fer kinetic stability upon proteins.”

The collaboration with Bystroff happened when Colónfound a way to identify kinetically stable proteins and need-ed some way to characterize their common features. Bystroff,with his expertise in computer modeling and his drive tomake his models relevant, was the perfect partner.

“It’s a really great situation to have somebody doingexperimental work in the same area that we’re doing com-putational work,” says Bystroff.

THE TWO-STEP With the wide variety of sizes, shapes, andcharged characteristics of proteins, no one would thinkthere’s a simple way to categorize the molecules based ontheir dynamic properties. But that’s exactly what Colón hasdeveloped.

Adapting an everyday method that is used time andagain in biology labs, Colón has fashioned an assay, a reg-imented laboratory procedure that effectively separateskinetically stable proteins from all others. In a paper pub-lished two years ago with then graduate student MartaManning ’03, Ph.D. ’06, Colón showed that proteins thatdon’t easily unfold in nature were also resistant to a com-mon laboratory treatment.

When proteins are unfolded or denatured, they can besorted by running an electric current across a length of gel.Colón developed a simple assay on a gel that involves com-paring the migration of heated and not heated protein sam-ples containing a common chemical denaturing agentknown as SDS. Most proteins migrated to the same loca-tion on the gel regardless of whether or not the sample washeated. In contrast, kinetically stable proteins exhibited aslower migration when the sample was not heated.

At first, Colón used purified proteins to make his casethat kinetically stable proteins were resistant to unfoldingwith SDS treatment. Now, with one clever quarter turn ofhis gel, Colón has streamlined his procedure so that proteins,even messy mixtures of thousands of proteins, can beprocessed via a high-throughput assay, to identify thoseproteins that are kinetically stable.

With this method, he can screen the protein soup of anentire organism, as he has recently done with the bacteri-um E. coli, for kinetically stable proteins. Identifying theproteins that were sorted involved a series of biochemicalmethods and the help of Qishan Lin, director of the Uni-versity at Albany’s proteomics facility.

Ultimately, Colón wants to use this method with humanplasma where it might be used to diagnose medical condi-tions. “For example,” Colón says, “we hope to be able toidentify whether any disease may be linked to the loss or gain

of protein kinetic stability. The gel becomes almost like afingerprint of kinetically stable proteins in human plasma.”

“We have now what we didn’t have before, what nobodyhad before: a list of kinetically stable proteins with known3-D structures,” says Colón. “Chris is analyzing the struc-ture of these, looking for common features that may beresponsible for kinetic stability.”

Proteins that resist unfolding are a small minority innature. “Proteins are in the stomach, in Yellowstone gey-sers, harsh environments like that,” says Bystroff, describ-ing environments so harsh, it’s hard to imagine any dancingmolecule surviving.

As an expert in protein unfolding, Bystroff is discover-

Last summer, 24 internsfrom the Howard Hughes

Medical Institute (HHMI)Minority UndergraduateResearch Program in Bio-science and Biotechnologydid research in 18 labs on

the Rensselaer campus. Theprogram is funded through a

$1.2 million, four-yeargrant in the UndergraduateBiological Sciences Educa-tion Program from HHMI.


ing how these proteins are kept folded. “I categorized thingsaccording to the topological features these proteins had,”he says. Categories include “tucked in,” where ends of thechain were buried like a tab, “latches,” a long piece of chainthat goes around the molecule like a belt, and “blocking.”

“If you have a box that can only open one way and it’spacked up against another box,” like a hinge that can’t move,“I call that blocking,” Bystroff says.

“I’m interested in being able to design proteins,” Bystroffsays. “Proteins are incredibly flexible molecules,” for whichthere are lots of industrial uses. To look at a protein andbe able to make that protein kinetically stable, “it’s sortof natural nanotechnology.”

For all his modeling and computational expertise, Bystroffis not afraid to rely on his visual sense. “He does want topicture things,” says Mohammed Zaki, an associate profes-sor of computer science, who has worked with Bystroff onmodeling protein unfolding pathways projects. “It’s a veryhard problem, a grand challenge, so one really needs all theingenuity that we can get.”

“The good thing about Chris is he has the ability and theskills to handle both the wet lab side of things as well as thecomputational side of things,” says Zaki. “He’s pretty welldiversified in his interests. It allows him to collaborate withFreddie on the dynamic side and with me on the data-min-ing side.”

INSPIRING FUTURE RESEARCHERS Colón and Bystroff arenot only interested in creating scientific results, but also innurturing the next generation of scientists.

Marta Manning began her career in Colón’s lab as anundergraduate volunteer and then was welcomed to stayon as a graduate student. “He is an excellent person to workwith,” Manning says of her former mentor. “He is very friend-

ly, great sense of humor, very open to students. He was anexcellent mix of someone that let students work inde-pendently, but also offered support [when needed].” Man-ning is now doing postdoctoral work at Penn State.

Bystroff also inspires the next generation. “Chris alwayshas a bunch of undergrads working for him,” Zaki says.“They go on to do Ph.D.s or master’s, either at RPI or else-where. From a training point of view, that’s a really greatthing.”

A summer internship program seems a natural exten-sion of this training mindset. Colón and Bystroff have takenthe existing program—funded by an educational grant fromthe Howard Hughes Medical Institute and directed by Act-ing Provost Robert Palazzo—to the next level. Not onlyare they seeking undergraduates who are interested inresearch experience, they are intent on reaching studentswho might otherwise have little exposure to academic sci-ence at a research institution.

“I have enjoyed working with Freddy and Chris onlaunching an important effort to recruit exceptional womenand minority students to Rensselaer for an undergraduateresearch experience,” says Palazzo. “This program, fundedby the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, provides supportfor a high-quality research experience for truly exception-al and gifted undergraduates from diverse backgrounds.Already some of these students have shown interest in apply-ing to our own graduate programs and I am sure that manydecided to attend graduate school somewhere after theirexperience at Rensselaer.”

“We want to attract the best students we can,” says Colón.Too often, he says, students have to make their decisionsbased on paper or what they see on the Internet. “The ideawas to bring them here so they can experience what it is tobe at Rensselaer,” he says. “We all felt that would be a veryeffective recruiting strategy.”

Their efforts have caused a ripple effect as fellow facultyin the biotechnology center take undergraduate interns intotheir laboratories—with the goal of identifying potentialgraduate students before the formal application process.

“This has been a wonderful thing that they’ve done,” saysLinhardt. “I had two students in my laboratory last summer.Both had very successful projects and I expect I will pub-lish papers with both of them as co-authors.”

For the students themselves—many from Puerto Rico orhistorically black colleges—a fascinating and challengingnew world awaits, as the internships give them direct expe-rience with the realities and the demands of experimentalresearch—all with the goal of attracting them to careers inthe sciences.

Exposing students to the life of a researcher in the sci-ences is the first step toward expanding the pool of youngpeople who choose careers in these fields. “We hope thatwe tempt them to take research paths,” Linhardt says.

STEPHEN CHUNG ’91 knows that beneath the surface of the

buttoned-down, traditional style of Boston lies a yearning

for modern design that will bring the city’s historic struc-

tures into the 21st century. | As the

design director of Urbanica, a Boston-

based design/development firm, he’s

helping to spearhead a modern design

revolution in the city—breathing life

into Boston’s deteriorating buildings

by transforming the underutilized spaces into icons of

modern living. | A dramatic conversion of Boston’s for-

mer D-4 police station (left)—built in the 1930s—into

26 luxury residential units is currently the firm’s most

high-profile project. Called YooD4, the undertaking is a

collaborative effort between Urbanica and world-

renowned designer Philippe Starck, best known for his

highly acclaimed hotel designs, including The Hudson

in New York City, The Mondrian in Los Angeles, and

The Delano in Miami, as well as restaurants, retail

spaces, and products for the home. BY AMBER CLEVELAND

Stephen Chung ’91 is bringing modern

design to historic Boston—and architectural

savvy to a television audience.

PIONEERURBAN

Urbanica’s most high-profile project, YooD4.


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Chung is designing the work being done tothe building’s exterior architecture, whichentails carefully restoring the existing structure,as well as fabricating a steel and glass addition—he’s converting the one-time jail cells into anivy-covered, four-story, glass courtyard locatedin the middle of the building. The new spacewill provide each YooD4 resident with a smallgardening plot and an abundance of naturalsunlight.

The building’s interior design—styled byStarck in collaboration with Chung—is as dra-matic as the edifice itself. A model unit show-cases black crystal chandeliers, marble-coveredbathrooms, an alcove that reads “SweetDreams” in one wall of the master bedroom,mirrors that flash words in pink or blue neon,bamboo floors, and (of course) Starck’s signa-ture oversized flowerpots.

Scheduled to open this spring, YooD4 hascaused quite a stir, and the units are selling rap-idly. And while the Starck-styled interiors, thevibrant courtyard, and the adaptive reuse of theone-time empty building have been drawingpraise, some are hesitant to embrace the pro-gressive design.

“I’ve found that homeowner clients typical-ly are far less adventurous than commercial orinstitutional clients,” says Chung. “I think somehomeowners are wary of non-traditional design.They tend to look at their house as an invest-ment, and worry about standing out too much.”

Chung’s career has been about educatingand inspiring ever-widening audiences—fromBostonians to prospective television viewersacross the country—about the beauty and liv-ability of modern architectural design.

He started his first practice,called MODA Architects, dur-ing the height of the Internetboom in the late 1990s. A soar-ing stock market, an emerging

class of young people with money to spend, anda growing interest in home renovation anddesign presented Chung the perfect environ-ment to start a practice that capitalized on hisspecialty in high-end, modern design—a stylenot often associated with the historic, conser-vative architecture in his hometown of Boston.

“There were a lot of young people in Bostonat that time who wanted to build really inter-esting, edgy residential loft spaces, especiallywhere I was in the artistic South End,” herecalls. “For me, as a modernist, it was a greattime to be practicing because there was so muchhappening in the city.”

The subsequent Internet bust and econom-ic downturn shifted the priorities of prospec-tive homebuilders from spectacular spaces tomore conventional quarters. But the residen-tial market in Boston continued to thrive, andChung’s passion for progressive design had onlybegun to flourish.

After a few years of practicing design on asmaller scale, Chung began working with devel-opers on the construction of large multi-unitresidential buildings which housed condo-miniums, lofts, and townhouses. He quicklyfound himself frustrated.

As a designer, his involvement with the proj-ects didn’t start until well after the construc-tion was under way, leaving him littleopportunity to make an impact on the final out-come of each endeavor.

“Developers really ran the show when itcame to the construction aspects of new proj-ects—at a certain point I felt more like a deco-rator, coming in after the building wasconfigured and then essentially styling it. To methat was a real problem,” he says. “Some archi-tects might equate working with developers to‘getting their hands dirty,’ but I’ve found it tobe a proactive way to get more involved andgain more control in the process—as strictly anarchitect I was frustrated by not having enoughdecision-making capabilities.”

Then he met Kamran Zahedi, now presidentof Urbanica, who at that time was a local realestate developer. Chung says Zahedi “reallycared about the quality of the design in his proj-ects and wanted to be involved in the archi-tecture aspect as well as development.” Thetwo agreed to start a partnership.

“Essentially Urbanica takes over buildingsin disrepair, restores the outward historic shell,and infuses them with modern design,” saysChung. “It’s a formula that works really well inBoston because the city is so conservative, andpeople like the look of the old shell. At the

same time, I don’t feel like I’m betraying myselfas a modernist because I get to do progressivedesign on the interiors.”

Chung is quick to point out that wheneverpossible Urbanica tries to go beyond simplyrestoring the outside of the buildings.

“We try to push for building additions asmuch as possible, and we work out our sugges-tions with the local government and historiccommissions on a case-by-case basis, becausewe need to preserve the exteriors of the build-ing,” he says. “When we get approval to add amodern addition, we’re very mindful aboutdoing it artfully so that it respects the existingstructure, but also possesses its own identity atthe same time.”

Unlike typical architectural firms, Chungsays clients generally don’t call Urbanica; thecompany generates its own work. Many of theirprojects are obtained through design competi-tions that make vacant city-owned buildingsavailable for development. Other times thecompany partners with outside design/devel-opment firms in the private sector.

Along with YooD4, Urbanica’s work can befound across the city in a range of revampedspaces—from a dilapidated 24,000-square-footwarehouse that was converted into 22 artist loftspaces with a ground floor gallery in Chelsea;to a decrepit police station in Somerville thatwas revamped into 14 residential units withhigh ceilings and minimalist detail; to a formerfire station in Belmont currently being trans-formed into six townhouse units with oversizedwindows and a striking copper addition.

Chung calls some Bostonians “closet mod-ernists.” Citing an example, he says, “Outwardlymany of the city’s residents live in historicbrownstone homes and seem to favor very tra-ditional design, but in contrast to the classic-looking exteriors, the interiors of their homeare distinctly modern.”

School of Architecture Dean Alan Balfouragrees. “In all ways—including architecture—Boston seems conservative, but increasingly,just below the surface is a sense of a new andyouthful reality that will slowly transform thecity,” he says. “Stephen’s work is very much apart of this transformation. He has created atruly innovative practice.”


“ESSENTIALLY URBANICA TAKES OVER BUILDINGS IN DISREPAIR, RESTORES

THE OUTWARD HISTORIC SHELL, AND INFUSES THEM WITH MODERN DESIGN.

IT’S A FORMULA THAT WORKS REALLY WELL IN BOSTON.”

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The Engine1 project will convert a former fire stationinto six townhouse units.

The interiors of YooD4 (above) and Engine1 (right) share Urbanica’s

trademark progressive style.


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Finding humor in the city’s striking dichoto-my of old style versus new, Chung says, laugh-ing, “People want to get the latest sports carwith a streamlined design and every conceiv-able gadget, and then they want me to design ahouse for them that looks like it was built 100years ago—but they want it to have a five-cargarage to house their fleet.”

Chung says that slowly, through the pro-gressive architecture of its new retail, hospital-ity, and municipal spaces, the city is becomingmore and more receptive to modern design.

“Boston is booming and much of the newconstruction in public places like airports,stores, and restaurants is very modern. I thinkthe city is making strides,” says Chung. “Someof the best modern architecture is on collegecampuses—like MIT or Wellesley—and I don’tthink the students at those schools will havethe same style issues that this generation has,because they’ve been surrounded by contem-porary, cutting-edge designs.”

Chung is quite familiar withWellesley’s architecture—hewas there a few months ago toshoot a pilot for a television pro-gram he’s hosting, co-producing,

and co-writing. Called It’s A Cool World, thepilot highlights the innovative design of the col-lege’s new campus center among other pro-gressively styled locations in the Boston area.

An on-camera expert for HGTV programsranging from Small Space, Big Style to Bed andBath Design, Chung is no stranger to television,but says “it was never an interest of mine to beon TV.”

Teaching, however, has always been a pas-sion for Chung, who’s been an architectureinstructor at Cornell, Yale, and the Rhode IslandSchool of Design among others schools. Withthis new show as his vehicle, he hopes to educatean audience of non-architects about the mar-vels of modern, public-space architecture.

“I’ve been practicing for a long time, and I’vemet so many really bright people along the waythat don’t know much about architecture—Ithink they find it intimidating,” he says. “As aneducator I feel we’re doing a real injustice toour architecture students by educating them in

the classroom and then sending them out intoa world that doesn’t understand what they do.In many cases, the conditions are not set up forthem to succeed.”

Trying to think of ways to make architectureaccessible to a wider audience, Chung turned totelevision.

“A long time ago, cooking was perceived asthis very unapproachable discipline practicedonly by standoffish chefs in their pristinekitchens. Then one day someone like RachaelRay came along and said ‘hey, you could do thistoo—you just mix it up like this, it’s not so hard,’and people’s anxiety toward the subject melted.Now there are cooking shows on every station.Most people can even name 10 chefs. I say howcome no one knows an architect?”

Chung hopes his new show will do for archi-tecture what celebrity chefs were able to dofor cooking. It’s A Cool World will take view-ers to a different city every episode—shootsin New York, Austin, Montreal, Miami, andChicago are already being planned—whereChung will take viewers on a tour of five or sixpublic locations that showcase the city’s newarchitecture.

“In one day we want to give viewers a senseof each city’s style. Maybe in the morning we’llstart at a cool hotel, and then visit a contem-porary museum, followed by lunch at a chiccafé. Later we might visit a couple retail stores,go to a funky restaurant for dinner, and end the

show looking at the design of a fabulous newclub or lounge,” he says, describing the formatof the show.

The real strength of the program, Chungsays, is that all of the places he’ll showcase arepublic, so viewers can actually go visit them andexperience them for themselves. “It’s very dif-ferent than the home shows on television,because those are private houses—I want view-ers to say ‘I could go to that restaurant, I couldvisit that museum.’ That’s the major point ofthis project.”

After a few episodes Chung hopes viewerswill start to get a feel for the different styles ofeach city, and eventually be able to distinguishhow the architecture of one place is differentfrom the next. Above all, he wants the shows tobe entertaining and understandable.

“It’s not a show about me standing in front ofa gorgeous building talking about its design inarchitectural jargon that people don’t get. It’sme taking you inside fabulous spaces and saying‘hey, this place is pretty cool—you should comesee this building and participate with this archi-tecture.’”

Chung hopes viewers find the show light andenjoyable as well as educational. “A show likethis could really turn people’s perceptions aboutarchitecture around,” he says. “Because rightnow, this idea that people have of the arrogant,intellectual architect is not helping us.”

Although he may soon be a star of the smallscreen, Chung will always first refer to himselfas an architect, something he knew he wantedto be from the time he was very young.

“Being an architect makes me who I am, andimpacts the way I see the world around me,”says Chung. “Sometimes I’ll watch my 3-year-old son use a bed sheet to make a little tent onthe floor, and because I’m an architect by train-ing, I’ll think to myself, ‘Why does he like thisplace? Is it because it’s small and protected? Orthat the material is soft and pliant?’”

Chung finds the same impetus drives hiswork. “On a very basic level there’s somethingreally fulfilling about shaping your environment,or finding that special place—that tent—thatyou like to go,” he says. “I am privileged to havethe opportunity to create those spaces for peo-ple every day.”


“WHEN WE GET APPROVAL TO ADD A MODERN ADDITION,

WE’RE VERY MINDFUL ABOUT DOING IT ARTFULLY SO THAT IT RESPECTS

THE EXISTING STRUCTURE, BUT ALSO POSSESSES ITS OWN IDENTITY.”

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Urbanica50, a former Union Square police station, has been convertedinto 14 residential units.


RAA NOMINATIONS

Do you want to have an impact on campus?Do you have ideas about alumni programsand services? Then get involved with theRensselaer Alumni Association (RAA). The RAA board, working in conjunctionwith the Alumni Relations Office, meetsthree times per year in Troy and serves asthe voice of alumni to the campus. Nomin-ations to serve on next year’s board andcommittees are now being accepted. Tonominate yourself or another alumnus/a,send a brief statement of support to JoyceKelly Martin at [email protected] by March15, or call (518) 276-6208 with questions.

REGIONAL ALUMNI CHAPTERS

The relationship that Rensselaer has withits graduates extends far beyond the cam-pus. Currently there are 24 regional alum-ni chapters across the United States andPuerto Rico and seven international chap-ters. To see if there’s a chapter near you,go to www.alumni.rpi.edu/involved/chapters or contact Susan Haight [email protected] or Suzanne Turcotte [email protected].

ALUMNI DOWNLOADS ON DEMAND

Visit the “Downloads on Demand” Webpage to see videos of recent Rensselaerprograms such as President Jackson’s

Reunion 2006“State of theInstitute”address or theRAA’s MarsRover program,to hear audio

clips of various presentations, or to download RPI images to use as back-grounds for your computer. Available at www.alumni.rpi.edu/ondemand/.

RAA VISA® CREDIT CARD AND FINANCIAL SERVICES

The RAA Visa Card, issued by U.S. Bank,provides competitive rates while at thesame time supporting the programs of theRAA. Apply online at www.alumni.rpi.edu/service/visa.html.

STAYINGCONNECTED

WHAT DOES REUNION MEAN

to you? Reconnecting withclassmates? Time to visitfamiliar places? That’s part of it. But this year, Reunionalso will be a chance for youand for the potential engineeror scientist in your family toexplore the wonders of tech-nology. New programs will bebringing Renaissance at Rens-selaer: The Campaign for Rens-selaer Polytechnic Institute tolife for returning alumni.

“Those who don’t come back will really bemissing out,” says Jeff Schanz, director of alum-ni relations and annual giving. “Seeing oldfriends is fun, but there’s so much more toReunion than that. Rensselaer has changed so much, and it will be exciting for our alumnito experience new facilities and technologyfirsthand.”

On Friday, enjoy “Breakfast with theDeans,” and learn what’s new inside Rensse-laer’s labs and classrooms. “Technology andInnovation Tours” and the “Technology Fair”will showcase facilities and research made pos-sible by the historic $1.4 billion capital cam-paign now under way, such as the O.T. Swan-

son MultidisciplinaryDesign Laboratory and theExperimental Media andPerforming Arts Center.

On Saturday, PresidentShirley Ann Jackson’s“State of the InstituteAddress” will detail theprogress the Institute hasmade toward the goal ofbecoming a top-tier, world-class research universitywith global reach and global

impact. Later, alumni, families, and childrenfrom pre-K through middle school will learnscience, technology, engineering, and mathconcepts with the LEGO® Robotics Program.

Old favorites will still be part of the program:tours, a golf outing, a dinner cruise, the Paradeof Classes, and the picnic. New events havebeen added, such as a luau followed by fire-works, the Red & White Reunion Bash(games! movies! non-cash Alumni Casino!), an admissions program for families with college-bound students, a pool party, and plenty of timeto enjoy friends and to explore dear old RPI.

For more information on Reunion, visitwww.alumni.rpi.edu/reunion, or contact KathyKinsey at [email protected], (518) 276-2832.

Alumni can learn more about new facilities and exciting research at the Technology Fair during Reunion ’07.

Reunion: Experience the Renaissance!New programs for families with college-bound students

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7 Rensselaer Alumni Reception at theGame Developers Conference. Featuring

John Harrington, dean of humanities and so-cial sciences. Hotel Palomar, San Francisco,Calif. 6-9 p.m. Contact Kathy Kinsey at [email protected] or (518) 276-2832.

7 Rensselaer in Your Region Comes to New Jersey. Featuring Vice President

for Student Life Eddie Ade Knowles. Formore information, contact Susan Haight at [email protected] or (518) 276-6042.

14 Professional Leadership Program(PLP) in New York City. The PLP

Alumni Network welcomes former PLP Director Marsha Hall ’94 to BearingPoint, 3 World Financial Center, New York, NewYork. Students from the current PLP classes will also be in attendance. For moreinformation, contact Geoff Seber at [email protected] or (518) 276-2324.

14 Career Development and Networkingin Baltimore/Washington, D.C.

Keynote speaker is Paul Chan, former CIO of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-ministration. Stuart Shapiro ’86 of Edell,Shapiro, Finnan, Lytle LLC, will discuss“Engineers and Patents—Turning Ideas IntoMoney.” Also, a panel made up of recruiterswill field questions pertaining to mid-careerchanges. 6 p.m. at the Hall of States, 400North Capitol St., Washington, D.C. Formore information, contact Kathy Kinsey [email protected] or (518) 276-2832.

23 Grand Marshal Week. Variety of activities all week leading up to

Rensselaer’s annual student governmentelections. Troy campus.

A P R I L

17 Rensselaer in Your Region Comes to Northern California. Featuring

Vice President for Student Life Eddie AdeKnowles. For more information, contactSusan Haight at [email protected] or (518)276-6042.

M A Y

7 Alumni Reception at BIO2007, Boston.Join us to network with other alumni in

the biotechnology field. Contact Kathy Kinseyat [email protected] or (518) 276-2832 if youare interested in attending, or visit the discus-sion group at groups.yahoo.com/group/rpi-lifesciences.

17 RAA Worldwide Travel ProgramVisits Spain. Visit the modern city

of Barcelona and the contrasting, charmingAtlantic coastal town of San Sebastian. Delight in the peaceful countryside and inthe magnificent works of art by masterssuch as Picasso and Gaudi. Contact travelprogram coordinator Mike Wellner ’64 at(212) 486-3064 or [email protected] more information.

19 Commencement 2007. Rensselaer’s201st graduation exercises.

Harkness Field, Troy campus. 9:30 a.m.www.rpi.edu/academics/commencement/.

22 Rensselaer in Your Region Comes toBoston. Featuring School of Engi-

neering Dean Alan Cramb. For more infor-mation, contact Susan Haight [email protected] or (518) 276-6042.

J U N E

4 Academic Short Course on Solid-StateLighting. This two-day Summer@

Rensselaer course presents the history, op-erating principles, fabication process, andapplications of light-emitting diodes (LEDs)with emphasis on solid-state lighting appli-cations. Intended for scientists, engineers, technicians, and managers working on LED application areas. Instructor: E. FredSchubert. For more information, go towww.rpi.edu/summer.

5 RAA Worldwide Travel Program Visits Iceland. Experience a landscape

truly unique in the world: active volcanoesand steaming lava pools; massive glaciers;thundering waterfalls; a capital city heatedalmost entirely by natural geothermalsteam; and nonstop night life. Stops includethe capital city of Reykjavik, the world-famous Blue Lagoon, an Icelandic horsefarm, and much more. Contact travel pro-gram coordinator Mike Wellner ’64 at(212) 486-3064 or [email protected] more info.

7 Reunion 2007. Classes ending in 2 or 7,mark your calendars for June 7-12, and

plan to join us for your milestone Reunion.Contact Kathy Kinsey for more details at [email protected] or (518) 276-2832.

19 RAA Worldwide Travel ProgramBaltic Sea Cruise. Sail with us from

Stockholm, Sweden, aboard the six-starCrystal Symphony. Cruise to destinations inEstonia, Russia, Finland, and Denmark.Contact travel program coordinator MikeWellner ’64 at (212) 486-3064 or at [email protected] for more info.

EVENTSCALENDAR



ONELASTTHING...

IN OCTOBER, RENSSELAER HOSTED

the first-ever Alumni MusicFest,which brought nearly 75 formermembers of music groups back tocampus (see page 13). Some whoattended, and many others who didnot, penned memories of theirmusical experiences, and in par-ticular, their devotion to the manwho inspired their lifelong love ofmusic—Joel Dolven, who led cam-pus music groups, notably the GleeClub, from the ’40s until he retiredin 1970.

“I think all of us who sang for JoelDolven in the Glee Club had thesame experience, namely, that hewas one who helped lay the foun-dation of our whole person. Of allmy activities at RPI, I think my fouryears in the Glee Club are proba-bly my fondest memories.”

TOM DONNELLY ’50Western Springs, Ill.

“Joel Dolven was my greatest musi-cal influence. I learned a great dealfrom him especially about the greatclassical works we played…TheTuesday night session was the high-light of my busy week. To immersein music was a great relief from thepressures that an RPI educationrequires.”

ALLAN SPERBER ’64Bethpage, N.Y.

“He made the music very person-al for all members of the musicorganizations, and this provided ahelpful balance for the technicalstudies of us engineering types.”

J. DAVID BENEDICT ’49Holland, Mich.

“Professor Joel Dolven was mymentor, friend, and counselor. Bya wide margin, he influenced myyoung life more than anyone elseon campus during those four years.From him I learned not only aboutmusic, but also about integrity andmaturity—areas where under-graduates need plenty of help. Imastered Kirchoff’s Laws, LaplaceTransforms, and Celestial Naviga-tion with the help of the rest of thefaculty, but Joel helped me with thefoundation of my whole person. I’mnow retired from a satisfying careerin computer research, productdesign, and manufacturing, whichwas central to my life. But eversince graduation in 1951 I have alsobeen involved, in some capacity(singer, director, accompanist,manager, etc.) in choral music,right up to the present, and per-haps that is Joel’s final—and mostabiding—gift to me.”

JIM MCCALLISTER ’51Johns Island, S.C.

“Campus Carols was a communi-ty tradition in early to mid-Decem-ber on a Sunday night. It was morethan a campus event since theField House was filled. It was dark-ened as we filed onto the ice towardthe stage singing Adeste Fidelis inLatin, unaccompanied. We madeour way to the stage and wheneveryone was there we went tofour-part harmony in English andfilled that barn!”

HOWARD HENZE ’69Arden, N.C.

“My longest-lasting relationshipfrom RPI (outside of a great edu-cation) is as a founding member,along with Jim Moore ’50, of theFour Horsemen Quartet. With JoelDolven’s blessing, we put togeth-er the group to augment the GleeClub programs. During the next50-plus years, the Four Horsemensang on and off at various func-tions. I also learned my choral con-ducting ‘skills’ at Joel Dolven’selbow.”

BOB WASSUNG ’50East Lyme, Conn.

“At RPI, Joel further expanded mymusical horizons and equallyimportant my growth as a person.”

JOHN FOEHL ’53Medway, Mass.

“Joel Dolven was magnificent! He’sthe faculty member who made thegreatest impression on me.”

STEVE SMITH ’50Camden, Maine

“Without Joel Dolven, I neverwould have graduated from RPI.When my GI Bill ran out, he paidmy tuition out of his own pocketin exchange for teaching some ofhis Music Appreciation classes.Without Joel Dolven, I neverwould have met my wife of 57years. Joel encouraged the RussellSage girls to come up and play inthe RPI orchestra and she was oneof them. (Joel sang at our wedding.)Without Joel Dolven, I wouldnever have tried to live my life byhis example of kindness, high stan-dards, and great musicality. With-out Joel Dolven, the Four Horse-men would not have maintainedtheir close relationships, and wecontinued to sing and promote RPIfor over 56 years.”

CHUCK KELLY ’50Lake Placid, N.Y.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Chuck Kelly ’50 con-tributed time, recordings, images, andmuch enthusiasm to the inaugural Alum-ni MusicFest, and was helping to spear-head the fund-raising effort to name theConductor’s Suite in the new perform-ing arts center for Joel Dolven. Chuckpassed away suddenly Dec. 15, 2006.

Music director Joel Dolven (fourth from left) inspired generations of music-lovers at Rensselaer.

Musical MemoriesAlumni pay homage to longtime music director Joel Dolven

We welcome contributions to “One Last Thing.” Send personal essays of 750 words or less to [email protected].

WRITE TO US!

FRONTIERS OF EXCELLENCE

Join The Renaissance Challenge

The Renaissance Challenge From now until November 1, 2007, a core group of extraordinary leadership donorsare willing to contribute up to $25 million, and they will be asking alumni and friends to join them in this effort to raise $50 million in total for the Five Frontiers of Excellence at Rensselaer. Donors of a new gift of $100,000 or more will, ineffect, double the impact of their gift, if they choose to support one of the Institute’s top priorities. For more information,contact the Campaign Office at (518) 276-2566.

Fuel the Five Frontiers of Excellence

Biotechnology and the Life Sciences

East Campus Athletic Village

Experimental Media and the Arts

Scholarships and Fellowships

Constellations and Chaired Professorships

We value every contribution to the campaign. If you would like to give to one of the frontiers at any level, please give online at rpi.edu/campaignand designate one of the five Frontiers of Excellence.

Why do you give to the endowment?

“Rensselaer and chemistry have always been an important part of my life and career.”

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | www.rpi.edu110 8th St., Troy, NY USA 12180-3590

Now through a charitable gift annuity, Marie Agnew-Marcelli ’48 will be able to contribute to the Walker Laboratory endowment to support a new generation ofRensselaer chemists.This versatile financial planning toolprovides a secure retirement income for Marie while allow-ing her to give to something near and dear to her heart.

To learn more about ways to support Rensselaer, go to www.alumni.rpi.edu/giftplan.

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