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Department Newletter

July, 2004

We want to tell you what is happening in the Chemistry Department at Valparaiso University, and we also want to let you know about your classmates.

Dr. Gil Cook has retired from teaching after the Spring Semester of 2004.  He, however, has been appointed as a Senior Research Professor by Valparaiso University President Alan Harre.  So he will still have an office in Neils Science Center doing research while using his retirement income to support himself and his wife Nancy.  He was co-author with some former VU chemistry students of two professional papers since the last Chemistry Newsletter was written last summer.  One paper appeared in Tetrahedron Letters with Julie Waddle ('03) as co-author, and the other paper appeared in Letters in Organic Chemistry with Karen Switek ('00), Kenneth Cutler ('01) and Allison Witt ('01) as co-authors.  The new organic chemistry professor is Kevin Jantzi who obtained his undergraduate degree from Goshen College and will receive his Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin (Madison) this July.  There are five undergraduate students working on research this summer under the direction of Drs. Steve Engerer, Tom Goyne, Jon Schoer, and Gil Cook.  Dr. Martin Erhardt developed a new course entitled Science, Faith & Vocation, which is a three-week travel course to England.  The purpose of the course is to help students explore how scientists who also are Christians reconcile faith and science, as well as the significance of vocation in the life of Christians.  The students will tour sites of scientific and historical significance in England such as Oxford, London and Cambridge.  Using the lives of distinguished scientists Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell as examples, students will investigate why science is a significant vocation for Christians.  The course runs from May 17 through June 7, and it is cross-listed with the chemistry and physics departments as well as with Christ College and the Graduate School.  Drs. Warren Kosman and Steve Engerer and extensively involved in plans for the new science building.  Dr. Kosman also is continuing his involvement in the pig farm odor abatement project that he has been working on for the past few years.

The VU chapter (Beta Sigma) of Phi Lambda Upsilon, a National Honorary Chemical Society, inducted 14 new undergraduate members at the annual Chemistry Awards Banquet.  The new members are Matt Augustine, Brian Bock, Katie Boone, Jeff Cox, Aaron Gingrich, Kevin Knutson, Jessie Mattmiller, Dawn Mikelionis, Kyle Miner, Laura Nader, Eric Rindal, Tim Rogers, Greg Slavik, and Chris Weber.  The speaker this year was Susan Spaeth ('85) who is Managing Partner for Operations, Townsend and Townsend and Crew, Palo Alto, CA. The next day, Susan spoke at the Chemistry Seminar.  The title of her talk was "What the Heck is a Patent? - and Why Should I Care?"  Susan was joined during the visit to VU by her classmate, Kris (Kolterman) Fox ('85). 

Other awards given at the banquet were as follows: Andrew Mutka (St. Louis, MO) and Amanda Taticek (New Berlin, WI) received the CRC General Chemistry Achievement Award; Pauline Campbell (Warsaw, IN) and Alexis Di Silvestro (New Castle, PA) received the Undergraduate Award for Achievement in Organic Chemistry.  Eric Rindal (Aurora, IL) received the Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry.  Jeff Cox (Auburn, IN)and Aaron Gingerich (Maryville, IL) received the Charles W. Wolf Memorial Scholarship, awarded to the outstanding junior premed-chemistry major.  Elizabeth Baden (Anderson, IN) received the American Institute of Chemists 2004 Award.  Ben Lovaasen (Minneapolis, MN) and Mike Sjoding (Salem, OR) received the Outstanding Senior Chemist Award.

In addition to these awards, our chemistry majors received other honors.  Matt Pappas was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.  Ryan Williams won the concerto competition held in the spring by the Department of Music.  He played a piano concerto by Shostakovich.  Eight junior chemistry juniors received 2003 Lumina Scholars Awards (for juniors who have a GPA of 3.6 or higher).  They are Katie Boone, Jeff Cox, Eleanor Goetsch, Adrian Harvey, Kevin Knutson, Dawn Mikelionis, Tim Rogers, and Greg Slavik.  Fourteen chemistry majors were honored at the 2003 Student Athletes' Academic Honors Banquet for athletes who have a GPA of 3.25 or higher after at least three semesters at Valparaiso University.  The students were Matt Augustine (baseball), Laura Bingham (track/cross country), Katie Boone (basketball), Christopher Butler (soccer), Sean Conrin (swimming), Joseph Dwyer (track), Kevin Knutson (football), Mark Landmeier (cross country and track), Lindsey Moore (volleyball), Lauren Nettenstrom (swimming), Kelly Owens (track), Evan Roller (tennis), Lynnae Skogerboe (soccer and track) and Jenna Stangler (basketball). At this banquet, the Laurel Award is given to the graduating senior student-athlete who achieved the highest cumulative grade point average.  This year chemistry major Mark Landmeier received the award.  In the 13 years that his award has been given (1992 through 2004) there have been 7 chemistry majors who have won the award.  They are Ann (Stein) Schwartz ('92), Debbie (Edmondson) Kinnamon ('93), Marc Riedl ('94), Brad Peters ('98), Mark Kerins ('00), Kristin Nissen ('01) and now Mark Landmeier ('04).  The Finishing at the Top award was begun in 1997 to honor graduating senior student-athletes who earned a cumulative grade point average above 3.9.  Three additional chemistry majors have won this award.  Namely, Matt Dalhgren ('97), Laura Kulans ('97) and Alison Eicher ('99).   This year a Phi Beta Kappa chapter was established at Valparaiso University.  Four chemistry majors were inducted into the Eta of Indiana Chapter.  These students were Mark Landmeier (St. Charles, IL), Brian Linert (Valparaiso, IN), Lauren Nettenstrom (Hartland, WI) and Chris Weber (Waukesha, WI).  Three chemistry majors were among eleven seniors selected for the Alumni Association Distinguished Student Awards. They were Liz Baden,  Samantha Rudzinski, and Mike Sjoding.  Liz Baden was also one of  the five students (out of 120 student entries) selected as having performed the most outstanding undergraduate research in VU's Celebration of Undergraduate Scholarship event.  Liz Baden graduated  with Honors in Chemistry.  The following  twelve seniors graduated Summa Cum Laude (GPA of at least 3.8/4.0): Liz Baden, Pat Butcher, Julie Fisher, Kasey Hammond, Lisa Holmes, Emily Hoovey, Milena Jani, Mark Landmeier, Brian Linert, Benjamin Lovaasen, Matt Pappas and Mike Sjoding.

The Chemistry Department at VU remains in the scholarship program of the Dow Chemical Company foundation.  The program provides four annual $3,000 merit scholarships that are renewable for four years.  Current scholarship holders for 2003-2004 are Greg Slavik (senior), Erin Arndt (junior), Deborah Steffen (sophomore), and Tyler Nusbaum (freshman).

There were 14 chemistry alumni who came to the 25th Annual "Standup" Luncheon.   Be sure to stop by for the 26th Annual "Standup" Luncheon, which will be held in the lobby of Neils Science Center on Homecoming Saturday, October 9, 2004 from 11:00 AM through 1:00 PM.  Be sure to stop in and chat with us and with your former classmates.  On the preceding day, Friday, October 8 we will be having the 8th Annual Premedical Lecture.  This year, Dr. Michael Williams ('81) will be the speaker.  Mike is with Johns Hopkins Hospital Ethics Service and Johns Hopkins Hospital Adult Hydrocephalus Program.  Last year's speaker was Dr. Paul Wischmeyer ('92).

This past spring we had 25 students go on a short-term mission trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua during their two-week spring break for the second year.  These trips are under the auspices of International Service Learning, an organization founded in 1993 by Rev. Michael Birnbaum who is now its Executive Director.  The particular program that these students took part in was the Pre-Health Professions Program which gives an opportunity for premedical, predental and nursing students to "experience field clinical work first hand in the challenging context of both 'outback' and urban international settings".  The students raised their own monetary support necessary for the trip.  But Christ College helped a great deal in this regard by providing the Schweitzer Healthcare Travel Fellowships to Christ College students who took part in the program.  These fellowships paid for two-thirds of the program expenses.  Fifteen of these students were premedical arts students and chemistry majors.  These students were Tim Hadley (Wausau, WI), Dana Hommel (Midland, MI), Emily Hoovey (Yorkville, IL), Ying Jin (Valparaiso, IN), Kathleen Madden (Arlington Heights, IL), Steve McGreal (Louisville, KY), Kyle Miner (Waukesha, WI), Kerri Nanney (Hutchinson, KS), Melanie Ravinera (Chicago, IL), Eric Rindal (Aurora, IL), Karrissa Schmaling (Delavan, WI), Kristi Von Trebra (Cedarburg, WI), Chris Weber (Waukesha, WI), Paul Willis (Gresham, OR) and Cory Wood (Randolph, NH).  A professor from the Chemistry Department, Tom Goyne, and his wife, Cheryl, went along on the trip and enjoyed it immensely.

Two premedical arts students and chemistry majors joined a team making a medical missions trip to Papua, New Guinea over the Christmas break.  They were Chris Weber and Mike Sjoding.  They worked there at Immanuel Lutheran Hospital with Dr. Steve Lutz.

We have two regularly scheduled opportunities for students to hear guest speakers, or to give professional talks themselves.  The Chemistry Department Seminar meets weekly, and we have had some of our alumni as speakers this past year.  These alumni speakers were: Chris Schering ('99), graduate student at Northwestern Univ.; Jim Bohning ('56) Visiting Research Scientist at Lehigh University; Randy Miller ('73), Dermal Systems International; Susan Spaeth ('85), patent attorney with Townsend, Townsend and Crew.  The second opportunity is the Premedical Arts Colloquium, which meets biweekly.  One of our speakers for this colloquium this past year was Nicole Beauvais ('99) who is Organ Procurement Coordinator for Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
    The ISIS Program (Initiative for Schools, Industries and the Sciences) is continuing on with providing modern instrumentation to the middle and high schools in northwest Indiana.  The instruments that are being delivered to the schools are IR spectrometer, UV/visible spectrometer, gel electrophoresis, atomic absorption spectrometer, and gas chromatography with either a thermal conductivity detector or a mass spectrometer detector.

We now have a series of plaques on the wall of Neils Science Center just off the lobby with a listing of the VU alumni who have received M.D. or D.O. degrees.  The plaques have the names, years of graduation from VU, and medical schools attended.  The alumni listed are 1935 through 1997 VU graduates.  There are a total of 391 names listed with 366 of them graduating since 1960.  There are 24 post-1997 VU alumni who have received their medical degree who will be added to a new plaque later as will 36 more who are in the "pipeline".  Be sure to stop in Neils Science Center to see the plaques with the names of this impressive number of VU graduates who have obtained medical degrees.  We have previously recognized those VU graduates who have obtained Ph.D.'s in chemistry with pictorial displays on the Neils Science Center walls near the general chemistry laboratories.  Be sure to stop in to look at those also.  If you have a chemistry Ph.D. and have not sent in a photograph of yourself, be sure to send your picture to me.

A generous chemistry alumnus has established a chemistry endowment fund, which is to be used at the discretion of the Chair of the Department of Chemistry. 

News from the classes is as follows: I recently heard from Theodore Makovsky ('40) who graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1943; Lowell Wiese ('48) is a retired physician and U.S. Air Force colonel.  He was awarded the Legion of Merit.  He also served as the state health director for New Hampshire and Kansas; Roger Riehl ('49) is a consultant after having worked at American Cyanamide; Bob Horvat ('62) is retired from Buffalo State College after 27 years of college teaching.  He received a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Univ. of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1973.  At Buffalo he taught environmental science classes and trained secondary science teachers.  He now resides in Columbus, Ohio; Bill Frank ('62) received a Ph.D. degree from Univ. of Colorado in 1965.  He retired as a chemist from 3M in 1996 where he worked with Tom Geisler ('67) in the Imaging Products Lab.  Bill then returned to college at Univ. of Minnesota and Concordia, St. Paul, to study music composition and performance.  He is teaching private lessons for woodwinds; Lara (Avery) Gundel ('67) is a staff scientist in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  She does research in monitoring air quality; Roland Otto ('68) is Head of the Center for Science and Engineering Education (which he helped to create in 1988) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  He has been at the Berkeley Lab since January, 1974, when he came from Purdue as a postdoc to work with Glenn Seaborg on the new element program; Dick Lessner, Jr. ('68) died in 2002; Marilyn Engelken ('69) retired after teaching for 30 years, and she has spent two summers as an Earthwatch volunteer, digging at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, S.D.  This is a site where many Columbian mammoths were trapped and died 20,000 years ago.  The site was discovered in 1974 when a man in Hot Springs was clearing a hill to make a housing development.

From the 1970's comes the following news: Randy Miller ('73) is President and CEO of Dermal Systems International in San Francisco, CA.  Randy has had 24 years of domestic and international experience in product development and business development in the biopharmaceutical and diagnostic industries.  He spoke at our Chemistry Seminar in April; Roger Schmidt ('73) was awarded the American Society for Testing and Materials Award of Merit and the title of fellow, the highest ASTM honor for individual contributions to standards activities.  He is a technical service manager for RBX Industries in Roanoke, VA; Dave Felgenhauer ('74) has been in private dentistry practice for 15 years in Woodridge, IL.  He is currently an Attending Surgeon at Cook County Hospital in Chicago; Linda Roettger ('74) underwent two surgeries last summer, but she is fully recovered now and back at work.  She has left the corporate office of Thermo and is now working in the Water Analysis group of Thermo in Beverly, MA.  She is "having lots of fun being the teacher again as most of my product managers are bright chemists but inexperienced in many aspects of business"; Suzanne (Klucher) Kasang ('75) went to Univ. of Illinois Dental School after graduating from VU.  She was offered a teaching position upon graduation from U of I Dental School, so she has taught there part time for 24 years and also has a private practice; Matt Bohde ('75) passed away last October.  He was working as a consultant in polyurethane chemistry in Battle Creek, MI; Pat (Thompson) Morris ('75) is a USEPA environmental scientist living in Portage, IN; Ingeborg Bossert ('76) is a visiting professor at Rutgers in the department of biochemistry and microbiology.  Her recent book, along with colleague Max Haggblom, "Dehalogenation: Microbial Processes and Environmental Applications," was published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003; Grant Krafft ('76) is Chairman and Chief Science Officer of Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1996 with William Klein of Northwestern Univ. and Caleb Finch of Univ. of Southern California.  Acumen's founders discovered ADDLs (amyloid-derived diffusible ligands, soluble oligomeric assemblies of amyloid beta 1-42 protein), and they have worked for the past seven years to elucidate the ADDL mechanism and the direct involvement of ADDLs in Alzheimer's disease.  They are increasingly implicated as the molecular structures that cause Alzheimer's disease and trigger early memory-related disorders.  ADDLs are a validated target, and antibodies targeting ADDLs have prevented and even reversed memory deficits in animal models.  In January it an R & D partnership between Acumen and Merck & Co. was announced to develop antibody therapeutics and vaccines for Alzheimer's disease.  Grant's work was written-up in the October 13, 2003 issue of Chicago Tribune Magazine and in the Spring 2004 issue of Valpo: The Magazine of Valparaiso University; Bob Keller ('77) spent 20 years in the technical leadership roles in the elastomeric seal industry at CR Industries in Elgin, IL, Wynn's-Precision in Lebanon, TN and at Parker-Hannifin in Lexington, KY.  Until very recently he was President of Zotefoams, Inc. in Walton, KY.  He is now consulting for several firms in the rubber and plastics processing industries.  He also teaches Statistical Experimental Design, Root Cause Analysis, and Applied Economics.  He is an instrument rated commercial pilot and flies a Mooney M20J which he owns; Jim Wichmann ('77) works with AC Products in Placentia, CA.  They do chemical milling of aluminum for the aircraft industry; Rudolf Beese ('79) is a partner in Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal law firm in Kansas City.  The firm has 600 attorneys in offices across the country, including Chicago and Kansas City.  Rudy is working in large projects for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries.

From the 1980's: Rich Trubey ('80) works for Hamilton Sundstrand, a United Technologies Company, in Pomona, CA.  They develop highly specialized sensors and instruments for various government contracts including the Dept. of Homeland Security; Art Thompson ('81) works for USDA in Peoria, IL; Craig Griebel ('81) lives in Peoria, IL, and teaches in the Univ. of Illinois College of Medicine Family Practice Residency Program; Todd Carlson ('81) was recently promoted to full professor and Chair of the Chemistry Department at Grand Valley State university where he teaches biochemistry and general chemistry; Doug Lehmann ('83) lives with his wife in Rapid City, S.D. where Doug works on the Rosebud Reservation in general practice of rural medicine and childhood obesity management; Carol (Hess) Winters ('84) works in the emergency room at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, IN; Nancy Reeder ('84) is practicing in the Whitefish Bay Medical Clinic in Whitefish Bay, WI; Mike McMahon ('85) passed away last August; Mark Sutton ('85) is Director of Environmental Affairs with Handy & Harman Electronic Materials in Indianapolis, IN.  He is also a Board member of the Indiana Clean Manufacturing Technology and Safe Materials Institute; Carey Gear ('85) graduated from Indiana Univ. Medical School in 1989, had a family practice residency in South Bend, was in private practice for 7 years, and he is now Director of Emergency Medicine/Occupational Medicine for Community Hospital of Bremen, IN.  He has done short term medical missions work in Nicaragua; Susan Spaeth ('85), as mentioned above, spoke twice at VU this spring.  She has specialized in patent litigation since 1989.  She was honored in 2003 by the San Francisco Business Times with its award for "100 Most Influential Women in Business" and by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal with its award for "Top 50 Women in Business."  She has recently been selected as one of the 2004 YWCA Santa Clara Valley Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Honorees; Steve Becker ('87), as the "ink chemist" for the U.S. Government Printing Office, has been working on developing domestic ink companies to enter the security ink market, as for years all the security inks in U.S. passports are made by foreign ink companies; Sandy (Rosenthal) List ('87) was granted tenure last year at Vanderbilt University Chemistry Department.  Sandy is arranging for VU to obtain an atomic force microscope; Eric Bittner ('88) is an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Houston.  He lives in Houston with wife Sarah and twin sons; Andy Flewwelling ('88) obtained a M.D. from Wayne State Medical School in 1992, and he did a residency at Univ. of North Carolina Medical School.  He and his wife Selena live in Peterborough, NH, where he practices internal medicine with a group of 5 internists.
      
From the 1990's comes the following news: Tim Gatz ('90) obtained an M.D. from Univ. of South Florida College of Medicine in 1995, did a residency in family practice at Univ. of Pittsburgh Medical School, and is now a family physician in Kalamazoo, MI; Peter Dull ('90) is an infectious disease physician at Emory University School of Medicine; Ismo Karrianinen ('91) is a nephrologist on the staff of Piedmont Nephrology and Hypertension Associates in Hickory, NC, and is on the medical staffs of Frye Regional Medical Center and Catawba Memorial Hospital; Ann (Stien) Schwarz ('92) is a board certified psychiatrist and staff member at Emory University in Atlanta, where she resides with husband Steve.  She had an article published in 2001 in the American Journal of Psychiatry entitled "Treatment of Conversion Disorder in an African-American Christian Woman: Cultural and Social Considerations"; Brad Johnson ('92) graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin (Ann Stien and he were classmates there), did a radiology residency in Peoria and a fellowship in abdominal imaging at the Univ. of Wisconsin (Madison) where he received a Cum Laude Award from the society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance.  He received a Research Trainee Prize from the Radiological Society of North America for his project on the effects of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation and cryoablation on the renal collecting system. He was able to attend the medical school graduation ceremony of his sister-in-law, Mari Baker ('98), last year.  Brad is currently a radiologist with Central Illinois Radiological Associates and an assistant professor of radiology at Univ. of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria; Rebecca  (May) Jones ('93) is an internal medicine and pediatrics physician with Fairview Lakes Medical Center, Wyoming, MN; Frank Willmore ('93) is pursuing his doctorate in the department of engineering at the University of Texas (Austin); Sara Huegli ('94) has received an M.D. degree from Creighton University School of Medicine this spring, and she will be going to the University of Cincinnati/Cincinnati Children/s Hospital for a 4 year residency in the combined Internal Medicine/Pediatric program.  She and fiancée Jeff plan to get married in June 2005.  Sara spent 6 weeks last June and July 2003 in the Dominican Republic as a part of a 60 member interdisciplinary team that provided basic medical and dental care in rural Dominican villages; Chad Brink ('94) works at the Indiana University Medical Center in the anesthesia department; Kristi Pampel ('94) received her D.V.M. degree from the Univ. of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 1998.  She was in private practice in Chicago for two years.  Now she resides in Urbana, IL, and is a resident in radiology at the Univ. Of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine; Corinne Fribley ('95) graduated from Indiana Univ. School of Medicine in 1999 and has completed a residency in psychiatry at University of Texas-Southwestern in Dallas, TX.  Her main goal was to work with children and their families, so she moved to Boston to begin a two-year fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital; Mary Ellen Cavalier ('95) received an M.D. degree from Indiana Univ. School of Medicine in 1999, finished her pediatrics residency in 2002, and is doing a fellowship at Indiana Univ. School of Medicine in the department of pediatric hematology/oncology; Virginia (Bowden) Lehmann ('95) is working in the faculty development office at the Univ. of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and teaching chemistry at Parkland College in Champaign; Stephanie Moeller ('95) is finishing up her Ph.D. in cancer biology at the Univ. of Minnesota.  She co-authored a paper which appeared last June in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology in which the role of a tumor suppressor protein is redefined.  She has been teaching microbiology part-time at Augsburg College; Heather Duchow ('96) has obtained a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Princeton Univ. and will be doing a post-doctorate in microbiology at Univ. of Oregon in Eugene; Natalie Coyne ('96) received an M.D. from Health Sciences in Antigua, and she is now doing a family medicine residency at Ohio State University Medical Center; Yari Campbell ('96) is doing a residency in internal medicine/pediatrics at Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University; Jukka Kaariainen ('96) will soon be getting married in Finland; Vaughn deGuzman ('97) received his D.M.D. from Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine in 2002, and he now practices in Belleville, IL; Joshua Eskonen ('97) received D.O. from Des Moines University-Osteopathic Medical Center, and he is now doing residency in family medicine with Summa Health System in Cuyahoga Falls, OH; Amy (Mullner) Wiesch ('97) received degree in podiatric medicine from Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago in 2001, and she is doing a residency at the Veterans Hospital in Madison, WI; Bethany Karlin ('97) received a Ph.D. in cell biology from Rice University, and she is continuing on with post doctoral studies there; Jeff Bzdusek ('97) received a D.O. degree from Midwestern University and is now in emergency medicine; Jennifer (Latham) Starke ('98) has gone back to school at Indiana Univ. Northwest for a masters degree in education; Sally (Galen) Wilson ('98) is pursuing a master's degree in curriculum and instruction at the Univ. of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign).  She teaches chemistry and coaches girls' soccer at Central High School in Champaign; Steve and Jenni (Wellhoefer) Boskovich ('98) live in Schererville, IN, and Steve graduated from Midwestern University with a D.O. degree, and he is a resident in emergency medicine at St. James in Olympia Fields, IL; Nick Matzke ('98) received a M.A. in geography from Univ. of California (Santa Barbara), and he lives in Corvallis, OR; Karie Dahlgren ('99) will be entering her 3rd year of medical school at the Univ. of Wisconsin (Madison); Nicole Beauvais ('99), as mentioned above, is working in the Division of Transplant Surgery as Organ Procurement Coordinator at northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago; Mandy (Pencek) Dornfeld ('99) is doing a family practice residency at Ball Memorial Hospital; Tanya Smutka ('99) spent two months in Costa Rica studying tropical biology with the Organization for Tropical Research Institute's Barro Colorado Island in Panama; Grant Olsen ('99) received a M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine this spring graduating in the top one-third of his class.  He will be doing a residency in combined internal medicine/pediatrics at Indiana University.

From the 2000's comes the following: Mark and Jessica (Amrozowicz) Kerins ('00) reside in St. Louis where Jessica is pursuing Ph.D. in genetics at Washington University.  Heidi (Hedstrom) Tuthill ('00) graduated from the Univ. of Southern California Medical School and she is going into radiology; Karen Switek ('00), along with the publication with me mentioned above, has three other papers either published or soon to be published.  One of the papers is based on her summer work with Dr. Gibson at Virginia Tech.  In addition, Karen recently got engaged to a graduate student (in aerospace/mechanical engineering) at the Univ. of Florida.  They met the summer after she graduated at NASA in Virginia; Heather Kerr ('00) is pursuing a master's degree in biblical studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and she will be married this summer; Sarah Olson ('00) is attending University of Wisconsin Medical School (Madison), and she ran the Washington, D.C., marathon in 2002; Veronica Marquez ('00) is pursuing an associate's degree in dental hygiene at Indiana University Northwest; Nate Bowling ('00) is continuing his graduate studies in physical organic chemistry at University of Wisconsin (Madison); Kelly Nofs ('00) is a territory sales manager for Schering; Melissa Neumann ('01) has finished her third year in Pharmacy School at Univ. of Wisconsin (Madison) and has started her rotations.  She will be graduating in May, 2005; Marlowe Djuric ('01) has completed her third year at Univ. of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy.  She is also working in quality assurance for UIC Medical Center Inpatient Pharmacy; Allison Witt ('01) received her master's degree in limnology from Univ. of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign).  She is engaged to be married this August to Andrew, a third year mechanical engineering graduate student at the Univ. of Illinois; Cynthia Zdanczyk ('01) is attending graduate school in psychology at Purdue University; Melissa Vegter ('01) graduated from Valparaiso University School of Law; Tim Nush ('01) is a second year student at Indiana Univ. Medical School who plans to specialize in anesthesiology.  He has joined an amateur hockey team as a goalie; Kenny Cutler ('01) has passed his comprehensive exam in chemistry at University of Pittsburgh Graduate School and is continuing on with his work; Corey Schuler ('02) has been Director of Men's Health with Sigma Phi Epsilon, Inc., and now he is attending chiropractic school in Minnesota.  He will be getting married this August; Nina Bijedic ('02) lives in Evanston and is a radiation safety consultant in the Chicagoland area; Aaron Miller ('02) is continuing on with his graduate research in chemistry at Northwestern University; Leah Keehr ('02) is married and has finished her 2nd year at Mayo Medical School.  She wants to go into rural family practice; Sarah Mutch ('02) has finished her 2nd year at Iowa Physical Therapy School and is engaged to be married; Allison (Broadstone) Bergdoll ('03) is attending Indiana Univ. Dental School; Mike Lindow ('03) spent the month of June, 2003, in Australia working at a golf course.  Last winter he was a "ski-bum" in Utah working at a resort there.  He is now applying for admission into medical school; Julie Waddle ('03) is at the Lafayette Center of Indiana Univ. Medical School where she has been taking a class called the Caregiver Companion.  The class "emphasizes the importance of doctors' developing respectful relationships with their patients so they can treat patients holistically.  Julie is quoted in the Inside Purdue publication saying: "They want us to think of patients as people and not as bed numbers and conditions.  Medical schools are doing a better job of developing people who will be good doctors instead of just scientists with good grades."  The instructor of the course wrote to us about Julie stating: "Thanks for sending this outstanding student our way.  She is going to make a fine physician!" 

The future plans for some of the 2004 graduates are as follows: Nicole Kenyon will be continuing her work at Midwestern Univ. Pharmacy School.  She received her B.S. degree from VU  after attending VU for 3 years and finishing her first year of pharmacy school. Val Martinsen likewise received a B.S. degree from VU after her first year at Indiana Univ. Dental School following 3 years of undergraduate work.  Attending graduate school in chemistry are Liz Baden (Mayo), Kasey Hammond (Colorado) and Ben Lovaasen (Chicago).  The following will be attending graduate school in areas other than chemistry: Andy Lauber  (Tennessee, biomedical ethics), Christina Marasco (Vanderbilt, biomedical engineering) and Lauren Nettenstrom (Wisconsin, cancer research).  Steve Smith will be working for a pharmaceutical company in South Bend.  Christina Gnadt will be teaching in Bulgaria.  Attending medical school next school year are Sean Conrin (Illinois), Julie Fisher (Ohio Osteopathic), Emily Hoovey (Loyola), Milena Jani (Indiana), Michael Khouli (Indiana), Mark Landmeier (Loyola), Brian Linert (Indiana), Laura Nader (Indiana), Matt Pappas (MD/PhD program, Michigan or Duke), Michael Sjoding (Oregon) and Chris Weber (Medical College of Wisconsin).  Lisa Holmes has been admitted to Iowa College of Medicine but is postponing attendance for one year.  She was married in May.  Jami Bangert will be attending Indiana Dental School.  Kristi von Trebra has been admitted into Washington Univ. Physical Therapy School.

We have enclosed a self-addressed post card.  We would appreciate your completing and return it to us.  If you gave us your E-mail address in the past, please check the VU Chemistry Alumni website to see if the E-mail address is correct.

Again we encourage all of you to stop in to see us when you come through (or near) Valparaiso.  At least drop us a note either written or by E-mail so that we know what you are up to these days.