2008
ALUMNI PROFILE Physics graduates David Coats and Vedika Khemani ’10 were married Aug. 24. Vedika is pursuing a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Princeton. Following his graduation from Harvey Mudd, David earned a master’s degree in financial engineering at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management. He works as a quantitative analyst at Citi in New York.
2009 | Reunion Year
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo in November, Greg Farnum, a software developer at Inktank, discussed the Ceph architecture, its current status and plans for future development, including how Ceph integrates with major cloud platforms to provide storage for public and private cloud deployments. Greg is one of the core engineers on the Ceph opensource storage project and has been working on Ceph since he graduated from Harvey Mudd. He has also interacted with other open source projects, including Hadoop, Hypertable, the Linux Kernel and Crowbar, in his work on Ceph.
2013
Nathan Pinsky received a five-year teaching
fellowship from the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation. The fellowship provides beginning teachers committed to high school science, technology, engineering or mathematics education with resources that help them develop into leaders and change agents in education. The program offers support and guidance to fellows as they embark on the credentialing process and their teaching careers. Nate is enrolled in the Stanford Teacher Education Program, from which he will earn a master’s degree in education and a mathematics teaching credential. Upon completion of his studies, he will teach in the San Francisco Unified School District as a participant in the San Francisco Teacher Residency Program. Other alumni who have received the fellowship include Greg Borish ’08, Keiko Hiranaka ’12 and Alex Steinkamp ’10.
Cycling to Save the Planet Alumna joins 2013 Climate Ride Written by Koren Wetmore
POLLY HENINGER ’80 LIVES HER VALUES.
An ardent environmentalist for the past 20 years, Heninger has traded car travel for transport by train, bus and bicycle. So when the opportunity arose to cycle 300 miles—from New York to Washington, D.C.—to promote green energy and combat climate change, she signed up for the challenge. But before she could join the 200 riders in the September 2013 Climate Ride, she had to wrestle with some doubts. “My body was changing, and I wasn’t sure if I could do that kind of cycling anymore,” says the 55-year-old Baltimore, Md., resident. “Then, I thought, ‘I can keep worrying about whether I can do it, or I can try to do it and find out.’” She opted to try and underwent a six-month training and fundraising program. Her fitness repertoire included circuit workouts and a riding regimen that began at 50 miles then rose to 140 miles per week. She drafted fundraising letters, started a blog and soon had commitments from 90 donors. In all, she raised more than $5,700 for five nonprofits: Adventure Cycling, 350.org, League of American Bicyclists, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the National Parks Conservation Association. “I supported Polly’s ride financially and in whatever ways I could, because I admire her devotion and dedication to the environment,” says Debbie Kennison, Heninger’s longtime friend and former coworker. “She rides her bike, stays conscious of water consumption, favors reusing and recycling and has always tried to make the smallest footprint she can on the earth.” The Climate Ride lasted five days and led riders from Manhattan to Washington, D.C., through a particularly scenic route. “One morning, we rode along a stream in a big stand of pines, which was just beautiful, but cold,” Heninger says. Days were filled with riding and all but one night was spent in tents. Along the way, a support team encouraged riders with messages written on the pavement— especially on steep hills. Each night, guest speakers from environmental organizations educated the riders about different climate change issues, further preparing them for Lobbying Day and their entry into the nation’s Capitol. When Climate Riders entered D.C., they were joined by cyclists from the city’s local bike share group. The next day, Heninger and her fellow Maryland riders lobbied for a carbon tax and rebate legislation, making presentations in the offices of Senator Barbara Mikulski and Congressman John Sarbanes. “The research, the training, the ride—all of it—brought home to me that I want to keep working toward saving the planet and doing what I can to help.” When it was time to go home, Heninger took the subway as far as she could and then rode her bike the final 30 miles back to Baltimore.
FALL / WINTER 2013
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