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Jon Colton and Rob Steinberg organized the class reunion symposium on the afternoon of June 9, 2006 in the very cool Stata Center. It was well attended by approximately 50 of our reunion attendees. We had three speakers, who presented interesting and well-received talks. It was great to see how well our class is doing.

Our first speaker was Joan Horvath (SB Course 16), who is the founder and CEO of Takeoff Technologies in Pasadena (www.takeofftech.com). She spoke about her experiences in trying to make nerds cool and her company's work in the entertainment industry. She related many interesting anecdotes about the industry's views of engineers and scientists, and discussed the challenges of getting into the entertainment field.

Our second speaker was Rick Morgan (SB Course 8), who is founder and CEO of Aerospace Missions in El Paso (www.aerospacemissions.com). Rick presented at talk about "The Coming Quantum Leap", or how "Star Trek" got it right! He gave science fiction depictions of photon torpedoes, sub-space communications, warp speed and the ubiquitous transporter, and how recent experiments have demonstrated the quantum physics that underlies and may make possible yesterday's science fiction. He also discussed how commercial quantum physics systems are being developed for the banking, communications and IC manufacturing industries. He even included equations!

Our final speaker was David Summa (SB Course 10, SM TPP), who is president and CEO of Acumen Pharmaceuticals in South San Francisco (www.acumenpharm.com). Dave spoke about his company's efforts in developing a cure for Alzheimer's Disease. He discussed the company's interesting history that involves academic collaborations, failed deals, entrepreneurial passion, and real scientific success. Dave also relayed several important (and humorous) lessons from Acumen's history that may help other biotech entrepreneurs in their endeavors.