This month's featured classmate is Julia Rosolovsky Greer

Julia Rosolovsky Greer was born in Moscow, Russia, and attended a "Science and Mathematics High School" as well as the Prep Division of the Moscow Conservatory School of Music where she studied piano. After her family's immigration to the United States in 1992, she attended Penfield High School in upstate New York where she tutored students in Calculus and Differential Equations in exchange for English interactions. She also became the recipient of the Schwabs Piano Scholarship from Eastman School of Music. While an undergraduate at MIT majoring in Chemical Engineering, Julia was awarded a piano scholarship to participate in the Advanced Music Performance program while studying with Professor David Deveau. As a member of the program, Julia gave numerous recitals in the Boston area including the Museum of Fine Arts, MIT's Lincoln Lab, and MIT's Kresge Auditorium.

After graduation, Julia worked as an intern in Components Research Department of Intel Corp. while pursuing a M.S. at Stanford University, where she built a novel X-ray diffraction equipment (Generalized Focusing Diffractometer) in order to study mechanical properties of materials in computer microprocessors. Coincidentally, one of JuliaÕs classmates, Frank Greer (who also was a Course 10!) happened to be pursuing a Ph.D. degree at Berkeley. Julia and Frank discovered that apparently nothing says love better than being stand partners in the last trumpet chair in the MIT concert band. After discovering a Ziploc bag with a ring in her favorite ice cream, Julia of course said "yes," and the two were married in July of 2000.

Subsequently, after working at Intel's Mask Operations Department for 2 years, Julia received a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University studying size effects in mechanical properties of gold nano-pillars with Professor William D. Nix. All throughout her graduate studies, she continued to pursue her musical passion by performing with the Redwood Symphony and at various chamber music. Julia won the 1st prize in the Concerto Division of the US Open Music and Redwood Symphony Concerto competitions. Julia is currently the principal pianist of the Redwood Symphony: she performed the Brahms' 2nd Piano concerto on November 20th, 2005 as a winner of the RWS Concerto Competition. A fellow MIT alum, Grant Ho, and Julia formed the "SoMa Duo" (which stands for South-of-Market Duo) and played violin/piano duets together. They even put on a recital with a full 1-hour program at St. James Church in San Francisco and donated all the proceeds to "Music for Schools" organization.

Currently, Julia is still juggling her research work (now, as a post-doctoral fellow at PARC, Palo Alto Research Center) with her music life. At PARC she is working on flexible electronics and organic semiconductors (to make the displays much lighter, cheaper, and totally compliant!). In June 2007, Julia will join California Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

Between working, practicing piano, owning a house, and hanging out with friends, Julia is an avid skier, roller blader, and hiker, alas, the Bay Area is great for these outdoor-type activities!

Some of my fondest memories of MIT are:

1) During our senior year, it snowed on April 1st, and a bunch of us had JUST gotten back from spring break in 90-degree tropical Cancun. The school was, of course, cancelled (snow day!), and we all went out and built all sorts of snow sculptures outside, it was so much fun!

2) I celebrated my 21st birthday while working on ICE on Athena in Building 37 along with my friends, other fellow "victims" of that class. We ended up taking a break at midnight on November 26th, walked over to Thirsty Ear, where I had my very first LEGAL bottle of Ciderjack!

The most important thing that I associate with MIT is the amazing friendships it helped me form. There is this special connection that we all have Ð maybe it stems from having to go through the same ÒcrapÓ together, but even when we do not communicate with each other for months at a time (due to geographical, etc. reasons), I feel like we can always pick up where we left off. There is just something that unites us all, and having been out of school for almost 10 years made me appreciate ever more how lucky we were to be surrounded by these wonderful people who, since then, have become world-class doctors, top-notch entrepreneurs, rocket scientists, super-Mom and Dads.

There are so many MIT alums in the Bay Area that sometimes I feel like there are more of us here, on the West Coast, than there are back East! Some of the fellow local MIT alums that I have been fortunate enough to spend time with are (or were): Frank Greer ('97), Marnie Harker ('96), Jeffrey Poore ('98), Youssef Marzouk ('97), John Welch ('93), Karen (Chu) Cruden ('98), Brett Cruden (G '00), Rachel (Yudovich) Chou ('97), Paul Chou (G '98), Grant Ho ('97), Laurel Schaider ('97), Stacey Nemeroff, Susan Dacy, etc. Several alums from our class also came to visit: Tina (Pinto) Slottow and Teddy Slottow, Brad Ricketson, and Brian McDonald.