Alumni Retorts

1962

Zeb Rike, Ph.D. (Henze) ~ retired from DuPont last year after 40+ years as a chemist in research and qualitycontrol. He is teaching middle school science and math at St. Mary’s School in Orange, after participation in the Accelerated Certification of Educators program at Lamar University.

1963

Dwaine Eubanks, B.A. (Chemistry), Ph.D. (Lagowski) ~ received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Education. He was honored for his "creativity, foresight, ability, accomplishment, leadership and service to the Division of Chemical Education."

Edgar Meyer, Ph.D. (Simonsen) ~ reports he retired from the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department of Texas A&M; after 35 years. In retirement, he "is combining science and art, inspired by the beauties of molecular architecture and the New Mexico mountains." Meyer is creating scaled models and sculptures of molecules (see http://www.tamu.edu/biograph/), including a model of the termite cellulase (presented to A&M; Consolidated High School) and another model of COX-1 (the aspirin binding site of prostaglandin synthetase), which was commissioned by the Boston Museum of Science for an exhibit during summer, 2003.

1970

Jerry A.Broussard, Ph.D. (Pettit) ~ retired from Celanese Corporation after 30 years in various research func-tions in Corpus Christi, TX and Summit, NJ. Jerry, wife Ann (Grusin) Broussard (B.S., 1969; M.A., 1979, Microbiology), and sons Andrew and Matthew have relocated to Marietta, GA.

1979

J.W.(Bill) Rogers Jr., B.S. (Chemistry) 1974, Ph.D. (White) ~ is the new director of the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, A Department of Energy scientific user facility at PNNL.

Nollie F.Swynnerton, Ph.D. (Morgan/Stotter) ~ manages the JACADS (Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System) Laboratory on Johnston Island, 825 miles southwest of Honolulu. The plant completed destruction of obsolete chemical munitions stored on the island since 1970 and is now in the closure phase.Employed by Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, he has spent 7 1/2 years there but will return to the mainland in the fall when the island is returned to the sea birds. He and his wife Julie will live in Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, northwest of San Antonio.

1986

Ted J.Pettijohn, Ph.D. (Lagowski) ~ was named vice president of the fine and industrial chemicals division’s catalysts and initiators business in the NAFTA region at Degussa Corporation. He holds more than 45 patents in chemistry and catalysis.

1989

Edwin Garcia, M.A. (Chemistry) 1985, Ph.D. (White), M.B.A. (UT Austin) 2003 ~ has been named the President and CEO of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (http://www.nshmba.org).

1994

Laura Pressley, Ph.D. (White) ~ was promoted to Senior Member Technical Staff in the Yield Management Engineering Department at Advanced Micro Devices Fab25 in Austin Texas. Pressley is the first Fab25 female engineer to be promoted to this technical level. She has been awarded three U.S. patents and has one pending all related to semiconductor processing.

1995

Matthew Karpinski, M.A. (Gilbert) ~ was awarded the Juris Doctor degree in May 2003 by University of California Hastings College of the Law.

1998

Sanjay Vashee, Ph.D. (Kodadek) ~ started employment in March 2003, with Institute of Biological Energy Alternatives after completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

2000

Terry S.Cohen, Ph.D. (Webber) ~ reports that when she is not busy working at DuPont Performance Coatings, she is working as a crew member on the tall ship, Kalmar Nyckel, Delaware’s sea-going "Ambassador of GoodWill" (http://kalnyc.org/).