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May/June 1996

Before diving into the Notes for this issue, I wanted to remind all of you to send in your pledge money for the class gift. It must be received by June 30 to qualify for the current fiscal year. Remember that we are supporting a great cause--the Class of 1995 UROP Scholarship is already helping one student; hopefully, the fund will grow so we can support many more.

Thanks to Fouad Saad, who sent me a great update on many of the people who are currently in the MIT Chem Engineering Practice School. After his trip to the practice-school stations this summer, Fouad's fate seems as of yet undetermined, but it will probably consist either of working in engineering as he was trained to do or going off on a tangent into the realm of public policy or government. . . . Brett Bader, Marcus Frank, and Ian To have headed off to practice-school stations for this term, and will be receiving master's degrees in June. . . . After finishing practice school this summer, Anna Chwang will be leaving MIT to attend the University of Minnesota, where she plans to pursue a PhD in chemical engineering. She says: "Boston winters aren't bad enough for me; I want more snow!"

Many people are still in and around MIT this year: Stephanie Shaw says that she was "one of those sick people who decided to stay on at MIT," but she did switch departments. She is currently a grad student in the Center for Meteorology and Physical Oceanography in EAPS and plans on getting a doctorate in atmospheric sciences. . . . Steven Johnson is back in the graduate program in theoretical physics. . . . Stephen Li and Dexter Mootoo are both in the master's program in mechanical engineering. . . . In Course VI, Tim Derksen, Manish Muzumdar, Ray Tai, and Edward Tau are all pursuing graduate studies. Ed is currently working in the AI lab doing research on a dynamically programmable gate array for which a patent was filed in January 1995. . . . Jesse Hull and Mark Story are back from their VI-A internships on the West Coast. Jesse was working at Xerox PARC, and is now finishing his thesis and living with Arte Merritt, '96. Mark, who was working for Tektronix in Oregon, will be staying for two terms to finish his thesis. . . . Also back from a VI-A internship is Sahana Sarma, who was working for Motorola in Schaumburg, Ill. Sahana got together with Jahnavi Swamy (working at Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati), Ish Modak (at UT Houston medical school), and Damon
McCormick, '94, for a New Year's Eve celebration in Chicago. They all visited the sites and enjoyed exploring the city.

Nicole Gotti has returned to MIT after her internship at the Los Alamos National Lab, and is now completing work towards a master's in environmental engineering. Nicole and Edward Hernandez, who lives in Blacksburg, Va., and works as a production engineer for Hoechst Celanese, were engaged on January 1 and plan to marry on November 30 this year. . . . Tresa Vidayathil is back at MIT to finish her last term, and is currently living with Miranda Fan off campus. . . . Also finishing up his last term is Joseph Baca. . . . Morgan Slade is in the fifth-year master's program in materials science, and Janet Woods is currently working at the MIT Language Lab and living with Jim Gouldstone. . . . After finishing his MNG degree, Hung-Chou Tai plans to work for a small startup company. . . . Sherry Wu is currently finishing a master's in nuclear engineering and is looking forward to starting work at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
in Washington, D.C., this summer as a general engineer. . . . In July, Yeh-Jiun Tung will be leaving Lincoln Labs (where he is doing work related to Theater Missile Defense) for UC Berkeley, where he will begin a master's in EE. . . . Rich Damaso recently returned from Chicago (where he was a singing waiter) to Boston and is now working with Will Lee at the Whitehead Institute. . . . Rebecca Hill is working as a research assistant in the memory disorders group at the VA hospital here in Boston and applying to medical schools. . . . Ken Lin will be working at MGH in the
Molecular Biology Department for a month and then will be attending the Berklee School of Music. After that Ken expects to go to grad school in botany at UT Austin. . . . Steve McNamara is pursuing a PhD in economics at Harvard, while Alex Peterson is in the PhD program in chemistry at George Washington University.

More on the school scene: Jessie Browning is in medical school in New York City, and Anna Fortunato is in grad school at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in the integrated molecular, cellular, and biophysical studies program. . . . In UPenn's Materials Science and Engineering Department, Joyce Espiritu recently found a husband-and-wife thesis advisor team of Dr. Russell Composto and Dr. Karen Winey. She will be working with them on a phenomenon
known as dewetting. Joyce was a little disappointed that she missed the Blizzard of '96, since she was in Guam and the Philippines at the time, but I have the feeling that she's gotten her fair share of snow since! . . . Out in California, Andrew Kim is enjoying wine, fun, and the Pacific Ocean while working towards a PhD in electronic materials at Stanford. . . . Mariah Manzanares is attending UC San Francisco's medical school, while
Jose Mur-Miranda is doing a master's at Stanford. Jose plans to return to MIT to do a PhD in EE after finishing up at Stanford. . . . Colin Page, who is currently at Georgetown Law School, recently got engaged to Jennifer Minnerly, a grad student at Boston College. . . . Chadwick Trujillo is at the University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy, pursuing a
PhD in astronomy/astrophysics. . . . Andrew Carnell was commissioned as ensign in the U.S. Navy and is going to flight school to be a naval aviator.

Although many in our class decided to stay in school, a sizable number went into the workforce as well: Robert Barrimond is a participant in the engineering-leadership development program at Lockheed Martin Corp.'s
Management and Data Systems. . . . Derek Cedillo is working for GE Aircraft Engines while Rebecca Fahrmeier is at Comsat Labs in Maryland. . . . Garlen Leung joined GE Research and Development Center as a materials scientist. . . . In New York City, Nancy Ho is working for New York Consulting Partners. . . . Jock Jones is an analyst for Lehman Brothers, and Jeffrey Schwartz is working for Japonica Partners in Rhode Island. . . . In the Boston area, Ketaki Patel is at Raytheon, and Paulo Pereira is living in New Bedford, Mass., and working as a customer support engineer for Teloquent Communications, a computer-telephony firm located in Billerica. Paulo's play Amarelo was
produced on campus last fall, directed by Dr. Brenda Cotto-Escalera of the MIT Theater Arts faculty. When Paulo was writing to me, he was on the phone with Richard Davis, who is now on the "left coast" working at
Intel. Richard says he's "living the life of a Q&R grunt" and describes San Jose as being "flat, crowded, and smoggy," but invites Paulo to come join him there. (Paulo declined, saying he'd "take blizzards over earthquakes anyday!")

Also on the West Coast: Brian Carlstrom is working for General Magic in Sunnyvale, Calif. . . .Jennifer Tschudy is working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Quoc Tran is currently in transit from one job in Chicago to another closer to his home near San Jose. Quoc is happy that he is finally returning to warmer climates and looks forward to his new job, but he could use a roommate out there! . . . And to finish up the rest of the country: Amy Swanson is working as a production engineer at Honeywell Inc.'s Home and Building Control Division manufacturing plant in Golden Valley, Minn; Jefferson Howell is at Allied Signal Automotive in Dearborn, Mich.; and William Zhou is at AT&T in New Jersey.

That wraps up this column. As always, please send me info/pictures/comments/questions! -- Ranjini Srikantiah, secretary, 21 Beacon St, Apt. 2T, Boston, MA 02108; e-mail: srikantiah@idx.com