Class Notes

1940s

Ted Stirgwolt ’43 Marblehead, MA

Ted was jetting off to Washington, D.C., April 21 with 75 other veterans on a tour organized by the National Honor Flight Network, which flies veterans free of charge to the nation’s capital to visit memorials built in their honor. Ted, who served on a Navy destroyer in the Pacific during World War II, planned to take the whirlwind tour with his wife, Frances, who is also a Navy veteran. After the war, Ted designed aircraft engines for General Electric for 38 years. He was working with Airbus in Toulouse, France, when he retired in 1985.

Richard Garwin ’47 Scarsdale, NY

Dick, who has served as a high-level national security advisor since the Eisenhower administration, recently co-authored an article in Physics Today on the dangers of nuclear weapons and the need to reduce their threat. Find the story at tinyurl.com/physicstoday-boom. Dick was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016 and inspired the book True Genius: The Life and Work of Richard Garwin, the Most Influential Scientist You’ve Never Heard of. vibration technology. He and his wife, Lois, plan to enjoy some well-deserved time off. “We built a media platform to present the outstanding work of thousands of authors and dozens of editors to a well-defined audience,” Jack wrote in a farewell column. “I think we all deserve a heartfelt pat on the back. It has been a great ride!” S&V reported a circulation of 19,000 at its zenith in 1985; 4,700 at its end. If you wish to obtain back issues, or wish Jack well, email him at sv@mindspring.com.

1960s

David Neff ’64, MS ’68, PhD ’71 Willoughby, Ohio

David, the retired technical manager and director of management for Metaullics Systems of Cleveland, was awarded the John A. Penton Gold Medal by the American Foundry Society at the 122nd Metalcasting Congress, April 3-5 in Fort Worth, Texas. David was honored for his “technical contributions to the metalcasting industry, especially in the areas of research, publications, presentations and technical education.” and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to meet to discuss peace and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. He’s a former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, which designs American nuclear weapons, and has personally inspected North Korea’s nuclear bomb-making facilities. The New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS News and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists all tapped his insight in recent times. He was a big part of this riveting June 10 story on 60 Minutes: tinyurl.com/case-60minutes

Rudolph O. Karsch ’66 Vesuvius, VA

Rudy organized and led a medical team to Nepal in February and March 2017, bringing relief to survivors of the April 2015 earthquake. The team set up three clinics and treated more than 1,000 patients.

Michael R. Smith, PhD ’66 Pasadena, CA

Michael has written a book about his experience as a member of the engineering design staff for 17 years at LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, at the California Institute of Technology. To Catch a Black Hole from the Bottom of the Pond, a Memoir is available at Amazon. com and via the author’s Facebook page.

1950s

Jack Mowry ’54 Bay Village, Ohio

Jack, the founder and publisher of Sound & Vibration, ceased publication with the December 2017 issue, ending a remarkable 51-year run for the magazine that covered noise and

Siegfried Hecker ’65, MS ’67, PhD ’68 Santa Fe, NM

Sig, a nuclear scientist, has been in high demand since President Trump

James J. Genova, PhD ’68 Whitsett, NC

Since retiring from the Naval Research Laboratory in 2012, Jim has kept busy teaching at a local university, doing astro-photography and authoring two books: If Jesus is the Answer, What is the Question? and Electronic Warfare Signal Processing.

Michael Lubin ’68 New York, NY

Michael was invited to speak at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome on whether connectivity should be a human right. An executive in the telecommunications and semiconductor industries for some 40 years, he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at Case Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in physics at Yale University.

During the 1980s, he was a leader in the development of Ku-band VSATs, a satellite communications system for home and business users. A company he founded patented a cellphone with an Internet Protocol (IP) address—a device some regard as the first smartphone. Since 2005, Lubin has been vice president–corporate development and senior advisor at ViaSat, where he is involved with emerging uses of broadband connectivity.

Jim Treleaven ’69, PhD ’90 Glen Ellyn, IL

Jim, the President and CEO of Via Strategy Group, has many years’ experience advising boards of directors and top executives on growth and turnaround strategies, especially when the CEO must be replaced. Now he’s sharing his uncommon insight in a new book, X-Formation: Transforming Business through Interim Executive Leadership. It’s on sale via Amazon.com.

1970s

Gurmukh Bhatia ’72 Hudson, Ohio

Bhatia recently retired from The Sherwin-Williams Company and established RPSC LLC/ Risk & Process Safety Consulting, where he is doing part-time consulting. He can be reached via gbhatia.rpsc@gmail.com.

Marc E. Milstein ’72 Austin, TX

Marc joined the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as vice president of information resources and chief information officer.

Myra Dria ’76, PhD Houston, TX

Myra was named one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Energy by Oil and Gas Investor. She is the CEO and founder of Pearl Resources, an oil exploration and production company in West Texas. It is the third oil and gas producing company she has founded since earning her degree in polymer engineering from the Case Institute of Technology. Myra, who serves on the visiting committee of the Case School of Engineering, received the Meritorious Service Award from the Case Alumni Association in 2016.

Dominique M. Durand, MS ’76 Shaker Heights, Ohio

Dominique, the Elmer Lincoln Lindseth Professor of Biomedical Engineering, was featured on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering website for his article, “Carbon Yarn Taps Nerves for Electroceutical Treatments and Diagnostics.”

William D. Gropp ’77 Urbana, IL

Bill is Director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Rebecca S. Williams (Strosser) ’79, MBA ’93 Cary, NC

Rebecca is president of Lord Corp.’s Aerospace & Defense Industry Group. The company develops and manufactures high-performance adhesive products.

1980s

Daniel A. Singleton ’80 College Station, TX

Daniel, the Davidson Professor of Science and professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University, received a 2018 Distinguished Achievement in Research Award from the university’s alumni association.

Robert C. Locker ’81, MS ’86 Fenton, MI

Bob was named Director of Engineering at Acme Manufacturing Company in Auburn Hills, Michigan. He will be providing leadership for all mechanical design and electrical controls engineering activity and oversee research and new technology programs. Bob earned a master of science in systems and biomedical engineering and a bachelor of science in electrical and biomedical engineering from the Case School of Engineering.

John P. Vourlis ’84 Wickliffe, Ohio

John is the director of Breaking Balls, a documentary about the game of bocce ball and its place in Italian American culture. The film premiered at the 2017 Cleveland International Film Festival and is now available on DVD and from digital streaming outlets.

Teresa Sabol Spezio ’86, PhD Pomona, CA

Teresa has written a book about a 1969 environmental disaster in California that helped to shape federal pollution safeguards. Slick Policy: Environmental and Science Policy in the Aftermath of the Santa Barbara Oil Spill was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press and is available at Amazon.com. Teresa, a licensed engineer, is a visiting assistant professor at Pitzer College in the Environmental Analysis Program. She earned a BS in chemical engineering from Case Institute of Technology and received her PhD in history from the University of California, Davis.

Gina K. Beim P.E., MS ’87, MSM ’04 Shaker Heights, Ohio

Gina received the 2017 Outstanding Civil Engineering Award from the Cleveland section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She is the founder and president of MCDA Consulting, LLC, a marketing and decision-support consultancy for companies in the engineering and manufacturing industries.

Scott Hotes ’87 Freeport, ME

Scott was named chief technology officer at TeenSafe, a software firm whose products enable parents to monitor their children’s smartphone use.

Patricia Hubbard ’89 Olmsted Township, Ohio

Patricia has been appointed senior vice president and chief technology officer at Cabot Corporation in Boston.

Michael Jirousek, PhD ’89 Boston MA

Michael, the Chief Operating Officer of Frequency Therapeutics, was recently named the Department of Chemistry’s Outstanding Alumnus. Prior to Frequency, he co-founded Catabasis Pharmaceuticals and served as Chief Scientific Officer, where his contributions helped create several potential new therapeutics and guide the company to an IPO in 2015. During his almost 30-year career, Michael has overseen hundreds of R&D programs and has brought more than 15 new therapeutics from discovery into clinical study to address muscular dystrophy, dyslipidemia, cancer and a variety of metabolic diseases.

Amrou Salahieh ’89 Palo Alto, CA

Amrou is the founder and CEO of Shifamed LLC, a privately held medical device incubator in Silicon Valley. Shifamed announced that Boston Scientific had purchased one of its portfolio companies, Apama Medical, for $175 million in cash up-front and a maximum of $125 million in contingent payments based on achievements of clinical and regulatory milestones.

1990s

Sunniva R. Collins, MS ’91, PhD ’95 Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Professor Sunniva Collins is the 2019 recipient of the Albert Sauveur Award from the ASM Philadelphia (Liberty Bell) Chapter. The Sauveur Award recognizes “outstanding achievement in the Science of Materials” and service to the field. In November, Sunniva will deliver the annual Sauveur Lecture, based on her research, to the annual Sauveur Night meeting of the chapter.

Christian A. Zorman, MS ’91 Cleveland, Ohio

Christian, a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Case School of Engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Vacuum Society. The society recognized him for pioneering work in the development of CVD deposition techniques and mechanical characterization of silicon carbide thin films. He will be inducted at the AVS Awards Ceremony during the AVS International Symposium in Tampa, Florida, on November 1, 2018.

Rich Pancost ’92 Bristol, England

Rich, who earned his BS in geology from Case Western Reserve, was recently named head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Since 2013, he has been Director of the interdisciplinary University of Bristol Cabot Institute, which explores how we depend on and shape our planet.

David A. Jarus ’93, MS ’95, PhD ’02 Shaker Heights, Ohio

David has been named vice president, research and development, of PolyOne Corp. He joined the Avon Lake-based specialty polymer company in 2000 as an advanced R&D scientist and has held roles ranging from M&A technology integration lead to program director of lean innovation to global technology director for Specialty Engineered Materials. A three-degree alum, he earned a BS in chemical engineering, an MS in macromolecular science and a PhD in polymers from the Case School of Engineering. He also earned an MBA from John Carroll University and is a certified Lean Six Sigma black belt.

Nicholas Barendt ’95, MS ’97 Cleveland, Ohio

Nick, the treasurer of the Case Alumni Association, has been named executive director of CWRU’s Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems, or ISSACS. He’ll lead efforts to leverage the university’s strengths in sensors and electronics to excel in the Internet of Things, which many see as the next powerful phase of the Internet. An adjunct senior instructor in the Case School of Engineering, Nick has been the lead consultant for the new Internet of Things Collaborative (IOTC), in which CWRU is working with Cleveland State University to make Cleveland a national leader in IoT technology.

Send your updates, including photos, about job promotions, professional development and personal milestones to casealum@casealum.org.

Jon Goldsby, PhD ’96 Avon, Ohio

Jon was honored as Senior Technology Fellow of the Year during the annual BEYA STEM Conference this spring, becoming one of the few NASA employees to be a two-time Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) winner. In 2012, he received the Outstanding Technical Contribution Award at BEYA for research on jet and turbine engine ceramic and metals.

Since he joined NASA in 1990, Jon has served as a role model for minorities and women and worked with mentoring and educational programs that promote STEM careers, including the United Negro College Fund. In 1996 he earned his doctorate in materials science and engineering from the Case School of Engineering.

Victor Ryzhov, MS ’96, PhD ’98 Dekalb, IL

Victor, an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Illinois University, received a 2017 Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award.

Ed Cordiano ’97 Cleveland, Ohio

Ed recently opened a CMIT Solutions office providing IT services to small and medium-sized businesses in the Cleveland area. (cmitsolutions.com/ Cleveland-east-southwest/)

Ed, who earned his mechanical engineering degree from the Case School of Engineering, volunteers with the Case Alumni Association as a member of the Scholarship Committee.

Colin K. Drummond, PhD, MBA ’97 Lakewood, Ohio

Colin, a professor and assistant chair in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at CWRU, is the author of Financial Decision-Making for Engineers. Published by Yale University Press, the book aims to provide scientists and engineers with the financial decision-making skills needed to succeed in management.

Andrew M. Rollins, MS ’97, PhD ’00 Cleveland, Ohio

Andrew, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at CWRU, has been selected for entrepreneurial training through I-Corps@Ohio, an Ohio Department of Higher Education initiative created to advance research from the lab to market. He is the principal investigator on a research team that has developed a new method, based on optical coherence tomography, to detect and map corneal mechanical properties that requires no contact or disturbance of the cornea.

2000s

John Sankovic, MSE ’03, PhD ’06 Brecksville, Ohio

John, the chief technologist at the NASA Glenn Research Center, recently sat down with Crain’s Cleveland Business to discuss

the role of innovation and tech transfer in creating jobs in the new economy. He earned both a master’s and a doctorate degree in biomedical engineering from the Case School of Engineering. Read his interview at tinyurl.com/sankovic.

Micah A. Litow ’04, MEM ’05 Evanston, IL

Micah is chief marketing and business development officer of Preora Diagnostics, Inc., a medical technology company developing cancer-screening tests.

2010s

Emily Hoffman ’11 Brooklyn, NY

Emily received the Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) Outstanding Collegiate Member award. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to SWE, the engineering community and a college campus. She helped found the graduate SWE group at Northwestern University and serves as programming coordinator for GradSWE. She was also active in SWE at CWRU.

Mark Lorkowski ’12 Reno, NV

Mark, the co-founder and CEO of sensor developer SimpleSense, left in March on a lengthy visit to Dubai to pursue business ties with the United Arab Emirates. He said the opportunity sprang from CES 2017 in Las Vegas, where he met an advisor to a UEA prince on “Case Row” and was later invited to pitch his services to UEA’s government. The Case Alumni Association and CWRU LaunchNet that year helped to send 10 CWRU teams to the consumer electronics show, including Mark’s e-paper startup, BluBoard.

Luis Solorio, PhD ’12 University Heights, Ohio

Luis helped create a lifelike cancer environment out of polymer to better predict how drugs might stop its course. He worked in Agata Exner’s lab in the Department of Radiology of the School of Medicine.

Junliang “Julian” Tao, PhD ’13 Akron, Ohio

Junliang, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Akron, received a National Science Foundation CAREER award, which recognizes and supports young faculty deemed likely to become academic leaders of the 21st century. He leads a research team awarded $500,000 for a five-year study of the burrowing mechanisms of animals to guide design for underground construction technologies.

Ye “Sara” Sun, PhD ’14 Houghton, MI

Ye, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Technological University, received a National Science Foundation CAREER award, which supports young faculty deemed likely to become academic leaders of the 21st century. She leads a team awarded $330,500 to study strategies to enhance the reliability and precision of wearable electronics with healthcare applications.

Olga V. Eliseeva ’16 Houston, TX

Olga is one of three graduate students on the board of trustees for ASM International, a professional organization for materials scientists and engineers.

Shivank Dokania, MEM ’17 Bay Village, Ohio

Shivank is a Technical Consultant in the Global Healthcare Division of Hyland Software, which hired him out of graduate school. He’s customizing the company’s software products for hospital systems. He said it’s the kind of job he was hoping for when he came from Mumbai, India, to earn his master’s of engineering and management degree, so he is very thankful for his CWRU education.

Chioma J. Onukwuire ’17 Sugar Land, TX

Chioma, the founder of the Africaninspired fashion line Chimu, was selected by RAW Artists Cleveland to showcase her clothing at their ENVISION artist showcase in March at The House of Blues in downtown Cleveland. In May, Chioma won the inaugural “Pop-Up Competition” at the Cleveland Asian Festival. She started her fashion line as a student by making clothing using machines at Sears think[box].

Michaela B. Cooley ’17 Canton, Ohio

Michaela, a Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) candidate, won the Student Research Award from the Society for Biomaterials Drug Delivery Special Interest Group.

Goodbye to a renaissance man

For 50 years, Joe Prahl guided Case students toward science, adventure and success

By Robert L. Smith

Jim McGuffin-Cawley looked out over the crowd gathered at Amasa Stone Chapel on the afternoon of April 26 and observed what its size and make-up said about Professor Joe Prahl.

Friends and admirers had come from across the country and from several generations to attend his memorial service. Prahl, one of the most recognizable figures at the Case School of Engineering, died April 19 at his home in Cleveland Heights at the age of 75.

“I think all of us are richer for having been exposed to his kindness, his thoughtfulness,” said McGuffin-Cawley, the interim dean of the Case School of Engineering. “Joe was a force of nature.”

To that, the crowd murmured its assent, like a collective amen. Smiles flashed and memories flowed.

Educator, researcher, sailor and adventurer, Prahl taught at Case Western Reserve for more than 50 years. Upon his passing, former students and colleagues recalled a charming, challenging, hard-charging professor with a sharp mind and a big heart.

“He was a bright shining light of a person,” said Bryony DuPont ’08, who flew in from Portland, Oregon, for the memorial service. She said Prahl, her undergraduate advisor, introduced her to her husband and inspired her to pursue a doctorate, in his inimitable style.

“Always smiling. Always happy. Always ready to tell a joke,” she said. “When he came into a room, everyone looked up. When you think of Case engineering, you think of Joe Prahl.”

Along with expertise in fluid dynamics, Prahl added zest and derring-do to the faculty ranks. DuPont still sees him racing across the front of a classroom, dressed in three-piece suit with a pocket watch, slapping equations on a whiteboard.

“So dapper when he was teaching,” she said, laughing. “He had a presentation style.”

Tom Robertson ’86, MS ’96, sees him standing on the deck of his 30-foot sailboat, Seabird, giving science lessons to student deckhands as he sailed out of a downtown yacht club.

“Sailing is a very fluid dynamic thing,” Robertson said. “I started racing in his class.”

He said Prahl was a demanding instructor—sometimes too demanding.

“He had such deep knowledge of the subject, he could go off in any direction,” and often did. Still, he never left anyone adrift.

Robertson is forever thankful for the summer internship he said Prahl secured for him at NASA Glenn, allowing him to join his research into lubrication theory and paving his career path into physics.

He sees his former professor as a renaissance man in a long line of adventuresome Case scientists.

“He was brilliant, but he was so casual in person,” said Robertson, a combustion physicist for Fives North American Combustion in Cleveland. “Seeing him barefoot in shorts on the boat, you thought, this might be the most interesting man in the world. He might be that guy. He’s kind of a role model, a life model for me.”

Prahl devoted his career to Case, with one notable leave of absence. From 1990 to 1992, he reported to NASA’s Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to train as a payload specialist for the space shuttle Columbia.

He was a backup payload specialist for the mission and did not fly into space. Instead, he served as the communication liaison between NASA and the astronauts during 13 days of experimentation, including research into fluids and combustion in a microgravity environment.

“He was a natural for that,” said Paul Barnhart ’83, MS ’85, PhD ’95, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Barnhart met Prahl as student and eventually became a friend and finally a colleague.

“One of his deepest regrets was not being on that flight,” he said. “But he trained diligently.”

Eighteen years later, Prahl actually sailed into the wild blue yonder. He climbed into the cockpit of an F/A-18 Hornet at Burke Lakefront Airport to fly with the Blue Angels in a demonstration flight before the 2010 Cleveland National Air Show.

The 67-year-old professor cut a dashing figure, as a writer for The Plain Dealer observed:

“Prahl hardly looked the part of the feeble, elder statesmen when he marched into the training room several hours before his flight. With a wink at the ladies and a firm grip for the Navy training team, the tanned, confident and military-fit professor immediately fit in.”

UP FROM HARVARD

A native of Beverly, Massachusetts, Prahl attended Phillips Academy on his way to Harvard, where he was the starting midfielder for the varsity lacrosse team. He earned three engineering degrees at Harvard, including a doctorate.

He arrived on Case Quad at age 25 in 1968 and began teaching fluid dynamics, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

His research attracted support from federal agencies as diverse as the EPA— for the flow of thermal plumes into rivers and lakes—and the National Bureau of Standards Center, for the modeling of flow from fire sprinklers.

Known to students as J.P., Prahl attained the rank of professor in 1985 and served as chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from 1992 to 2007. All the while, he was a familiar face on the sidelines, in fraternity houses, wherever students gathered.

“Joe thought his purpose was to educate students,” said Barnhart, who took classes with Prahl in the early 1980s. “There was not one of us who could not walk in and ask for help.”

In fact, the professor lived for those moments.

“There’s a sense of fulfillment when you see young people’s minds expand because of what you’ve done or said,” Prahl said in a 1993 interview with Case Alumnus magazine.

He was the thesis advisor to more than 40 master’s and doctoral students, and a mentor to undergraduates like Bryony DuPont.

She described one memorable encounter, during her senior year, when she told him she was despondent because she had broken up with her boyfriend. He sat her down, she said, listened to her lament, then offered advice.

“He said, ‘Do you know Kyle Niemeyer? You should date him.’” She did. Prahl attended their wedding. Today, Dupont and Neimeyer ’09, MSE ’10, PhD ’16, are both professors of engineering at Oregon State University.

If former students remember Joe Prahl fondly, the professor was equally endeared, according to his daughter.

Meagan Prahl ’03, lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches acting and voice at Pomona College, but Case is vivid in her memories.

She recalls roller skating on the fourth floor of Glennan Hall as a little girl and setting sail from Cleveland with her dad at night and waking up the next morning in Canada, on a boat manned by college students.

“The adventures are a big part of who he was,” she said. “But I think for him it was all about the students. He really felt like he was in a place and a position where he could make a difference.”

Prahl is also survived by daughter Erika and his wife, Judy Hayes.

The Joe Prahl Scholarship Fund has been established at the Case Alumni Foundation to assure that Professor Prahl’s legacy lives on. To contribute, or for more information, go to casealum.org/joeprahlfund.