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class notes : june 2002
by mimi yang, alumni class secretary
Dear classmates, as usual, before we proceed to the rest of the class notes, there are always weddings and engagements to announce. Sneha Madhavan and John Reese '98 were married on Aug. 4, 2001. They both changed their last names, so they are now John and Sneha Madhavan-Reese. In the wedding party were Katherine Koch, Kelly Druzisky '99, Melissa Barbagelata, Rob Pinder '99, Peter Finch '98, and Scooter Fezzie '97. There were several other alums in attendance, and a great time was had by all. Sneha and John also enjoyed their fabulous three-week honeymoon in Bali and is currently a PhD student at the University of Michigan, where she works in the same lab as Jesse Kirchner. For all you romantics out there, Rob White, MEng '99, and Jane Hsu got engaged a week before Christmas. He brought Jane to a riverside on a rainy night, and proposed with a song on his guitar and a dazzling ring! They are getting married on Aug. 10 of this year in Bolton, MA. They are both currently in the second year of graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Rob is working towards a PhD in mechanical engineering, specializing in MEMS devices, while Jane is doing a PhD in organic chemistry. They are looking forward to seeing lots of old MIT friends at their wedding. Ophelia Goatson, who just sent in her first ever class notes, stayed in the area and lived in Boston after graduation with her longtime boyfriend, Jason M. James '01, during which she worked as an Environmental Engineer for the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge. In August 2001, after Jason graduated, they moved to Prescott, AZ. She now works for Prescott National Forest as a Civil Engineer. Jason works for a consulting firm, Claycomb/Rockwell/Woodson Associates, as a Civil Engineer. They recently got engaged in December, 2001, and are planning to have a traditional Navajo wedding in September 2002 in Ophelia's hometown (Kaibeto, AZ) followed by a second wedding in April 2003 in Jason's hometown (Atwater, CA). Every month they drive down to Phoenix to hang out with their friends, Olivia Scott '97 (now living in Tempe, AZ) and Marlene Platero-Allrunner '98 (now living in Tucson, AZ) and her husband, Ed, to have dinner, go clubbing, and do all the fun things in life worth living for.
Now, for you alums abroad, Berta Liao writes that she is really enjoying her time at AmCham Taipei, where she has a newfound joy for journalism. She has reported on Taiwan politics and technology industries. Also, as the resident MIT young alumni, she is seen as the tech guru and has been put in charge of overseeing their webpage, which she thinks is pretty funny, since compared to the rest of MIT, she does not consider herself a tech guru. Danai Kuangparichat '98 came to Taiwan from Japan over New Year's, so Berta got a chance to play tour guide with her elementary Mandarin and basic Taiwanese. He made it back to Japan, so Berta assumed her language skills were not that bad, although they were afraid for awhile that they might be stuck on a (small) mountain because Berta misunderstood a bus driver. Berta has also been hanging out with Jennifer Hu '94, who she met in Taiwan last January at a totally non-MIT related event. She's also met lots of other (mostly graduate) alums at MIT Club of Taiwan events. Incidentally, one of AmCham's newly elected Governors is Phee Boon Kang, MBA '75. Lillian Kiang recently moved back to Hong Kong to take on a new role as a financial consultant at Merrill Lynch. Lillian writes that being back after 8 years of studying/working abroad is quite a dramatic change, but she is starting to enjoy it and that it is great to be with family again. Lillian also got to meet up with a bunch of MIT people in Hong Kong: Paulo Pong has now started his own wine futures trading company; Teddy Pun is over in australia partying away at Outward Bound; and she also saw Winston Wei over New Year's Eve. Chad Talbott was working as a software engineer at SGI in Mountain View, CA, until last June when he was laid off as the economy began showing visible signs of stagnation. Autumn Steuckrath started working for TI in Santa Cruz, CA, in January, 2001, as a Process Engineer and was officially laid off in August, but they spent the next few months planning a trip around the world and have since embarked on their great adventure! Their first stop was Alaska where they saw polar bears munch on whale carcasses and the aurora illuminate the sky. Next stop: Fiji for a month. Then they move onto New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Japan, China, Europe (including Russia if they can get their visas), and back to the Tech for a nostalgic visit. They plan to travel for 9 to 10 months or until the bank account runs dry. They write: "Cheers to those in the working world; we will join all to soon!"
David Manz writes that last fall, he gave up his cushy but boring job at Oracle for a much more demanding job at a video compression startup named Pulsent. After 4 months, he does not yet regret making the switch, but he doesn't know if he would have it in him to join another startup after this. He has also moved in order to be closer to the new job and is renting a room in Wes Chao's house. He is also training for the Los Angeles marathon in March.
For my friends who are in New York: Ozge Gozum and Natasha Iliouchina had a
house warming party at which they hosted a large MIT crowd including Renee Bowen Robin Chiu, Rania Khalaf, Liz Krams, Morris Tao, Sonya Tulyani, Sally Yu. Daniele de Francesco and Radhika Dutt '99 visited Ozge and Natasha in early February. Ozge also ran into Jason Vivas when having dinner with Ana Salles, and Pallavi Dandu and Desiree Syn at a friend's party which proves even NYC is not big enough for Class of 2000. And Gillian Deutsch, who lives down the street from me (!) will be working at an Intellectual Property firm in NYC this summer, Pennie & Edmonds, in their patent law department. She celebrated her birthday in February at the crazy Culture Club, complete with a Boy George impersonator and all the 80's music one can stomach in one evening. And even though she knew nothing about securities law, she is competing for her law school's moot court honor society in a securities law competition. Good luck, Gilly!
And on a final note, for those who participated in the Senior Gift Fibonacci Challenge, please remember to make your annual contribution by June 30, 2002. Please help us keep our participation levels up! Questions? Comments? Contact giving@mit.edu or call Heather Kispert at 617-452-3375.
Mimi Yang, secretary
e-mail: galaxie@alum.mit.edu
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