this scholarship, I can work to obtain more comprehensive human evaluation information for the design of new metrics to evaluate language models. I can also work on large-scale parallelization of difficult language inference tasks. Finally, I hope this scholarship will help connect me to the immensely talented NLP researchers at Microsoft Research.” Olivia Warren (chemistry) was one of two winners of the TEDxClaremontColleges Student Speaker Competition. She spoke at the March 7 TEDx event about her life with synesthesia and shared her thoughts about how people who naturally interpret our world differently can sometimes possess valuable and unique abilities. When she was 11 years old, Olivia discovered that she had the condition, a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Olivia recently started a job as a business analyst at Deloitte’s San Francisco offices.
Your News Matters Have you changed jobs? Retired? Celebrated a milestone? We want your news! We also compile information from a variety of public sources: campus event notices, newspaper and magazine articles, press releases and Google alerts. Please submit updates online at alumni.hmc.edu/class-notes.
In Memoriam Michael Yates ’63, 72, died on Aug. 12, 2014, of tongue cancer and ALS. A physics graduate, Michael got his PhD in geophysics from Princeton and then worked at Bellcomm Inc. as an overseer of some of NASA’s Apollo projects. He was the only person to have a successful experiment on Apollo 13. He suggested a possible scientific advance for the mission that would take advantage of the seismometers placed on the lunar surface on the Apollo 11 and 12 missions: use the S-IVB stage that boosted the spacecraft from earth orbit to trans-lunar injection as a seismic source. The stage on other missions had been sent to the sun, but he thought that it should be redirected to produce a moonquake, the first to be recorded. Michael taught at the University of Toronto, worked for Chevron and went overseas to work for ARAMCO. He also was an instructor at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and created popular science courses for artists: Sound and Space; Light and Color; Cosmology, The History of Everything; and the History of Numbers. He is survived by his wife of 31 years, Susan Irving Yates, and his 28-year-old son, Newton. The Yates family welcomes correspondence from alumni: susanyates@comcast.net.
Robert “Bob” Arthur Alexander Jr. ’64, 72, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, died on Jan. 29. After earning his mathematics degree from Harvey Mudd, he went on to work at Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company where he studied to become an actuary. A job transfer brought him to Chattanooga, where he worked for Provident Life and eventually retired from Cigna in 2000. Bob was an active member of Tyner United Methodist Church, serving as treasurer and a delegate to the Holston Annual Conference. He was active in the Chickamauga Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, enjoying driving his 1950 Pontiac and going on outings with the club. He also was a longtime volunteer for AARP’s Tax-Aide program, overseeing tax preparation in a five-county area. He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Carolyn, his daughter, Karen, and his brother, Bill.
Patrick Hopper ’05, 32, was killed in a car accident near Durango, Mexico, in October 2014. He is survived by his parents, Marti and Bob, his brother, Chris, and many friends. As brilliant a physicist as Patrick was, nothing could match the brilliance of his heart. His laugh was infectious, his kindness and generosity obvious. His friends would describe him as the best skier ever to pass through Claremont. During the summers, Patrick worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and also at the Earthquake Lab at the University of Colorado. He spent a semester abroad in New Zealand, pursuing Southern Hemisphere skiing along with his coursework. He worked as a power systems engineer for several years with the Areva Corporation and most recently with Alstom, both in the Seattle area. Robert Jacobson ’64 (chemistry) died of a stroke Oct. 30, 2014.
Daniel Strenge ’06 (physics) died Dec. 17, 2014, after a courageous battle with chronic fatigue syndrome. Dan was born in Fridley, Minnesota, to Larry and Elizabeth (Torkelson) Strenge. Dan was very active in high school, participating in football, wrestling and baseball and was voted “most respected” and “most likely to succeed” by his classmates. He was a member of Celebration Lutheran Church in Sartell where he attended several mission trips. He graduated with honors from Harvey Mudd then worked at Charles River Associates in Pasadena as a research analyst, and more recently at Cargill Inc. in Minneapolis as a commodities trader. Dan liked a good competition, especially through strategy games and enjoyed traveling with family and friends. He was empathetic, a great listener and a generous, wise and loyal friend.
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