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editor’s ote t has once again been a busy winter and spring season for the School of Engineering and our alumni. In creating this magazine twice a year, my office and the communications team at the School must, like our faculty colleagues, perform some research. We search for stories about the School that we want to highlight, sniff out the hot-topic research projects, shine a light on hot-shot faculty and uncover alumni success stories. We set about this research with the single mission of providing our readers with the best of the best. For other schools and other publications, it may seem a daunting task. However, at USC Engineer, we often find ourselves in the enviable position of having too much of the good stuff to cover! Shining a light on cutting-edge, hot-topic and even newsworthy research and researchers has increasingly required our light to have a very broad focus. There is so much to talk about, so many successes, indeed, too much to contain in this magazine. USC Engineering is in the news, members of our faculty are winning awards all around the world, our corporate partnerships are providing a leading edge for our students and our students themselves continue to amaze us with their well-run organizations, drive to excel in extracurricular competitions and overall competitiveness in the marketplace. But to top it off, what I find most exceptional and exciting are our alumni stories. Once again, I am the fortunate observer of a steady parade of success stories that consistently march across my desk. My greatest challenge is which ones to choose for our scant 48 pages! The profiles in this issue demonstrate the
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Dean C. L. Max Nikias Chief Executive Officer, External Relations Christopher J. Stoy
Timur Taluy and I at the “Taste of USC” event in Ventura this February
excellence and drive of our alumni, and I thank these individuals for sharing their stories with us. I am also grateful to all of the alumni who take the time to update us about their lives with class notes. We love to hear about you, right down to the greatest successes of all, your marriage or child’s birth. Some alumni continue to involve us in very direct ways. We have hosted a number of regional alumni receptions in the past several months. Timur Taluy (BSEE ’98), who is a member of our Dean’s Circle and Alumni Relations Advisory Board, helped to organize a successful alumni event and wine-tasting in Ventura, California this past February. Timur came to me and said, “Hey, let’s get everyone together, invite Dean Nikias to speak and have an event in Ventura. There are a lot of alumni up here that want to stay connected to the School.” Timur was right, and the event was a success. Once again, my job made easy by the spirit, the excellence, the best of the best of the USC School of Engineering. Annette Blain Director, Alumni Relations
Director of Alumni Relations Editor, USC Engineer Annette Blain Managing Editor Bob Calverley Senior Writer Mark Ewing Contributing Writers Bob Calverley, Rick Keir, Eric Mankin Cover Illustration Scott Holmes Art Direction & Graphic Design Tracy Merrigan Creative We wish to acknowledge the following individuals for their contributions to this issue of USC Engineer: Joseph Devinny, Paul Ronney, Louise Yates, Steve Bucher, Lisa D. Horowitz, Jacob Evans, Nancy Park, Leslie Baker, Jacqueline Williams, Christopher Noll, Paul Ledesma, Sam Martinuzzi, Lisa Van Ingen Pope, Joyce Oo Mayne, Anna Norville, Holly Preble, Sandra Calderon and Kim Cabral. USC Engineer is published twice a year for alumni and friends of the School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. Letters to the editor and comments are welcome. Please send them to: USC Engineer, Alumni Relations Office, Olin Hall 300, Los Angeles, California 90089-1454, or email them to uscengineer@usc.edu
BOARD OF COUNCILORS CHAIRMAN Jay L. Kear, BSME ’60 Kear Enterprises Dean K. Allen, BSME ’57 Retired, Parsons Corporation Gordon M. Anderson, BSME ’54 Retired, Santa Fe International Corporation Sonny Astani, MSISE ’78 Lambert Smith Hampton Carlton H. Baab, BSEE ’81 Raining Data Corporation William F. Ballhaus Jr. The Aerospace Corporation Ronald R. Barnes, BS ACCT ’76 Norris Foundation Dwight J. Baum Dwight C. Baum Investments Andrew C. Beers Microsoft TV Edgar S. Brower, BSISE ’59 Retired, Pacific Scientific
Gregg E. Brandow, BSCE ’67 Brandow & Johnston Associates Xiaofan Cao, MA PHYS ’85, MSEE ’87, Ph.D. PHYS ’90 Avanex Corporation Yang Ho Cho, MBA ’79 Korean Airlines David W. Chonette, MSME ’60, ENGME ’64 Brentwood Venture Capital Leo Chu Hollywood Park Casino and Crystal Park Casino Hotel Malcolm R. Currie Retired, Hughes Aircraft Company David DiCarlo, Ph.D. EE ’79 Northrop Grumman Space Technology Steven D. Dorfman, MSEE ’59 Retired, Hughes Electronics Corporation Daniel J. Epstein, BSISE ’62 ConAm Management Corporation
Alan J. Fohrer, BSCE ’73, MSCE ’76 Southern California Edison Alice P. Gast, BSCH ’80 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Thomas O. Gephart, BSME ’62 Ventana Capital Management M.C. Gill, BSCH ’37 Merwyn C. Gill Corporation Hester Gill Merwyn C. Gill Corporation Jeanette K. Harrison, DPA PUAD ’94 Intel Corporation Karl Jacob III, BME ’91, BS CSCI ’00 James J. Keenan, BSEE ’61, MS ’67 Hendry Telephone Products Kenneth R. Klein, BS BSME ’82 Mercury Interactive Corporation Geraldine Knatz, MSENV ’77, Ph.D. BISC ’79 The Port of Long Beach Marie L. Knowles, BSCHE ’68, MSCHE ’70, MBA ’74 Retired, ARCO
David A. Lane, BSEE ’81 Diamondhead Ventures Robert Lee, BSEE ’70 Retired, Pacific Bell Alexander G. Livanos Northrop Grumman Alfred E. Mann MannKind Corporation Gordon S. Marshall, BS BUS ’46 Retired, Marshall Industries Paul W. Martin Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation H. Webber McKinney, BSEE ’68, MSEE ’69 Hewlett-Packard Company Richard G. Miller John Mork, BSPE ’70 Energy Corporation of America Daniel J. Niemann Trammell Crow Company Development and Investment Group Allen E. Puckett Hughes Aircraft Company
F. Edward Reynolds, Jr., BSCE ’81 The Reynolds Group Forrest D. Sawyer Sawyer Media Inc. George M. Scalise Semiconductor Industry Association A.R. [Allison] Schleicher III Retired, IBM Regina P. Smith Peter Staudhammer TRW Incorporated Richard D. Stephens, BS NSMA ’74 The Boeing Company Mark A. Stevens, BSEE ’81, BA ECON ’81, MS CENG ’84 Sequoia Capital George A. Strait Cyrus Y. Tsui, BSEE ’69 Lattice Semiconductor Corporation Andrew J. Viterbi, Ph.D. EE ’62 The Viterbi Group, LLC