SEAmester
Robert C. McNair
Learning on the high seas Kyra Marsigliano
M c Nair Scholar Benefactor and Friend of the University
Robert C. McNair, a leading businessman, sportsman, and philanthropist in the city of Houston for more than 50 years, is the founder, chair and chief executive officer of the Houston Texans. He is perhaps best known in the business community as the founder of Cogen Technologies, which was sold in 1999. Cogen was the largest privately owned cogeneration company in the world, with aggregate capacity of 1,400 megawatts. McNair is chair of The McNair Group, headquartered in Houston, Texas, where he oversees an investment portfolio that includes interests in three cogeneration plants in the eastern United States. McNair owns Palmetto Partners, Ltd., and RCM Financial Services, L.P., private investment entities that manage the McNairs’ private and public-equity investments, and is a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. McNair formed Houston NFL Holdings in 1998 and is chair and CEO. On Oct. 6, 1999, the NFL announced that the 32nd NFL franchise had been awarded to McNair, returning football to the city of Houston in 2002. McNair’s efforts brought Super Bowl XXXVIII to Reliant Stadium in 2004. The Texans had the best season in franchise history in 2009, winning their last four games to finish with a 9-7 record. They set a franchise single-season record for victories and were a tiebreaker away from making the postseason for the first time. The Texans boasted the league’s top passing offense and the highest-ranked defense in team history, and a team-record five players were selected to the Pro Bowl. With 8-8 seasons in 2007 and 2008, the Texans are one of only six AFC teams to finish .500 or better in each of the past three seasons. McNair is actively involved in NFL affairs, serving as chair of the investment committee, and is a member of the audit, finance, stadium, and expansion committees. Stonerside Stable in Kentucky is among McNair’s successes. A 1,947-acre thoroughbred horse farm and racing stable, Stonerside was home to more than 275 racehorses, broodmares, yearlings, and weanlings. Since its inception in 1994, Stonerside has won 72 graded stakes races, including Grade I wins in the Belmont, Breeders Cup Mile, and the Travers. In October 2008 McNair sold Stonerside Farm and Racing Stable. The McNairs have given generously to a wide array of charitable, scientific, medical, literary, educational, and religious organizations through the Robert and Janice McNair Foundation. Major support has been given to education, scholarship programs, and medical research in juvenile diabetes, breast and pancreatic cancer, and the neurosciences. Born in Tampa, Fla., McNair graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1999, he received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the University. In 2010 he received an honorary doctor of humanities from Baylor College of Medicine. Bob and his wife Janice have been married for more than 50 years and have four children and 13 grandchildren.
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McNair Scholar 2013, NOAA Hollings Scholar 2011
(Top to bottom) Janice and Bob McNair help celebrate the seniors at the annual spring donor dinner, held March 17. Paulina Berkovich and Noel Marsh share a hug at the end of the McNair Scholar spring dinner. Patricia Moore-Pastides and President Harris Pastides often attend scholar events. Here, they pause for the camera after the McNair Scholar dinner held annually in the spring.
When I first considered studying abroad through SEA Semester, I thought it was too alternative and feared I might sacrifice the typical study abroad experiences of being immersed in a foreign culture, learning a new language, trying unusual foods, and appreciating my life and America differently. Who knew being surrounded by Americans and only setting foot on foreign sand for four days would be the greatest cultural experience of my life? In November 2010, I set sail with a group of 26 students on an adventure that opened my eyes to cultural and global learning in ways I never could have imagined. Our destinations were Christmas Island, Bora Bora, and Tahiti, all chartered out of the Pacific Ocean, but it was the journey that was most meaningful. There was a new language — heads, throats and soles have nothing to do with body parts at sea — and a new, efficient means of communication (i.e. repeating every command spoken). I embraced new customs — forget siestas, we slept whenever we could between watches. There was a new, uncomfortable definition of personal space, or rather, lack thereof, on the 134' ship with 38 sailors. And all this while conducting original oceanographic research and learning to navigate using a combination of modern technology, the stars and ancient Polynesian techniques.
Stephen Timko McNair Scholar 2012, NOAA Hollings Scholar 2010 Almost as soon as I got to USC, I started thinking about studying abroad. I had no idea where I wanted to go, but I knew it was something I wanted to do before I graduated. Once I started taking classes and conducting undergraduate research, I realized that if at all possible, I wanted to do research abroad. In lieu of a traditional study abroad program, my research and academic advisors came up with a unique plan. With the help of the Honors College, I registered for an undergraduate research course, spent a month continuing my research at USC, then traveled around the world to conduct scientific research. My journey started in Bermuda, where I spent a month on two different cruises out of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. On the first cruise, I worked on measuring primary production in the open ocean as part of a larger project to measure changes in the food web over time. The second cruise was focused on sinking particles in the ocean, and I measured the enzymatic rates of bacteria surrounding such particles. I left Bermuda and the open ocean research and flew to Germany, where I stayed at the Hanse-Wissenshaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study in Delmenhorst. In coordination with the Universitat Oldenburg, we traveled up to Spiekeroog, a small barrier island in the North Sea, to conduct coastal research. We studied the effects of groundwater input to the sea on nutrients and metals, particularly iron, during rising and falling tides. By the end of my adventures, I had worked on four different projects with scientists from eight different countries. The experience and skills I have gained have truly benefited my education, going to show that not all learning goes on in the classroom.
Two McNair Scholars, both marine science majors and national award winners, grab their sea legs and head to the ocean. Their experiences were life changing, adventurous and not easily captured in this limited space. Aloft in the rigging at Bora Bora. Kyra Marsigliano is the person inboard on the starboard side (i.e. if you look at the five people at the top, she is the second from the left). Below, Stephen Timko conducts research off the coast of Bermuda.
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