NewsBytes

Professor President

When he started his new job as president of Case Western Reserve University July 1, Eric Kaler, PhD, assumed another role to his liking — tenured professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. The university president is not expected to teach classes anytime soon, but if and when he does, he brings impressive credentials to the task. Kaler, a chemical engineer, is an inventor on 10 patents and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Metro’s genie in a bottle

Julie Jacono ’94, MBA ’98, was named one of the 2021 Notables in Health Care by Crain’s Cleveland Business, thanks to a strong nomination from her boss, Dr. Akram Boutros, CEO of the MetroHealth System. He described his Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer as “our genie in a bottle,” a biomedical engineer who finds creative approaches to complex issues.

She may need all of her magic for her next challenge. Jacono is leading MetroHealth’s collaboration with CWRU, Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Cleveland State to create the $566 million Cleveland Innovation District near campus.

Our kind of sports star

Junior Anika Washburn was named a First Team Academic All-American for excelling at soccer for the Lady Spartans while achieving a 3.96 grade point average as a computer science major. Helping to put the spring in her kick was a Junior-Senior Scholarship from the Case Alumni Foundation.

Tech’s referee

Joshua Martin III ’66 has been named by the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center to its 2021 List of the World’s Leading Technology Neutrals, aka the “Tech List.” He’s one of 53 people in key markets around the world deemed an expert at resolving technology-related business disputes.

A lawyer, and the former president and CEO of Verizon Delaware, Martin began his wide-ranging career with a physics degree from Case Institute of Technology.

Goodbye old friend

After more than a decade raising funds and winning friends for the Case School of

Engineering, Anne Cunningham has departed for DePauw University, where she’s the new vice president of development and alumni engagement. Anne joined the

Case Alumni Association as director of the annual fund in 2008 and moved to the

CWRU side in 2016. She said she’ll most miss working with the hundreds of prideful

Case alumni she met over the years.

Better than a three pointer

After being named to the NABC Honors Court as a scholar athlete for the second straight year, Spartan basketball standout Ignas Masiulionis ’21 is off to the University of Chicago, where he’s pursuing a doctorate in quantum engineering. The sharp-shooting astronomy-physics major — who ranks 10th in program history for three-point shots — says he wants to use quantum technologies to improve the thresholds of computing power.

Super thinkboxer

Jason Bradshaw ’02, director of design and manufacturing at Sears think[box], tends to think outside the box. When remote learning created a whiteboard problem in classrooms — text and images appear reversed on camera — he devised a solution used by several CWRU faculty. Bradshaw raised a clear acrylic light board that instructors could write on while facing the camera, correcting the mirror imaging issue.

For that and other marvels, the mechanical engineer in June was awarded the President’s Award for Distinguished Service.

A teacher’s legacy

Alumni around the country have been sharing memories of Gerald Saidel, PhD, one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, who retired in June after 54 years at Case.

One of those former students, Ken Lutchen, PhD ‘83, Dean of the College of Engineering at Boston University, had this to say about his favorite professor: “Jerry, more than anyone else by far, taught me technical and scientific writing and communication. No matter how busy, Jerry would rigorously pour his red pencil into making sure the next version was better.”