Partic les > 9
Meet Mr. and Ms. USC Order of the Torch chooses two students from the Viterbi School to represent graduating seniors USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering will leave its mark on campus history in a new way this year. For the first time, two accomplished engineering seniors have won the titles of “Mr. and Ms. USC” from the USC Reed Doucette undergraduate student body’s exclusive Order of the Torch. Reed Doucette, who majors in mechanical engineering, and Althea Lyman, who majors in biomedical engineering, were selected from 12 Althea Lyman members of the Order at the campus’s lively CONQUEST pep rally, held two days before USC’s football victory over cross-town rival UCLA. “I was really excited to be selected,” says Doucette, who is also a new 2008 Rhodes Scholar. “I think it will be a lot of fun to work with other students around campus and to participate in some activities that I probably wouldn’t have an opportunity to participate in otherwise.” “I think it’s great,” adds Lyman, who is an ARCS Scholar, a supplemental stu dent instructor for general chemistry and a very energetic Viterbi student ambassador. Lyman, who wants to practice medicine someday, is active in a number of other campus activities, such as Discover USC, Explore USC and the Merit Research Program. As Mr. and Ms. USC, Doucette and Lyman will serve as ambassadors for the USC undergraduate student body at academic and athletic events throughout the year. Membership in the Order of the Torch is one of the highest accolades a USC student can receive and is awarded to students “who exemplify all of the
unique attributes of USC—academics, athletics, Trojan spirit and leadership,” says Heather Larabee, director of USC Campus Activities. Mr. and Ms. USC candidates were asked to deliver a talk about what they had learned in four years of undergraduate life at USC, “... kind of like a letter to our freshman selves about the USC experience,” Doucette explains, and then to offer tips to entering freshmen on things to do and to stay away from to improve the campus experience. Doucette says he talked about “doing a good job in school” and taking studies seriously right from the start, “because if you don’t, you’ll fall behind.” He also talked about meeting new people, exploring new activities and “never being afraid to try something new.” Doucette, who has a 3.97 gradepoint average, will spend the next two years studying for a master’s degree in engineering science at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. The 6'5" athlete also played small forward on the Trojans men’s basketball team until the end of his junior year. Lyman, a member of the National Society of Black Engineers and the senior honor society, Mortar Board, said her advice to incoming freshmen was “take some risks ... and go in with an attitude that you can master it all, because that’s what really pushed me to succeed.” Lyman has accepted a two-year position with Teach for America, a federal program that places college graduates in teacher-training jobs in low-income school districts throughout the country, so that they can gain valuable experience and earn a teaching credential. After graduating in May 2008, Lyman hopes to teach high school chemistry in New York City. //
Jonathan Lasch Named Al Mann Institute Director Jonathan G. Lasch is the new director at the Alfred Mann Institute. Lasch, who came from Convergent Ventures, an early-stage venture-investment and development company, brings more than 25 years of experience in science and technology development and evaluation in the fields of biomedical instruments and systems, biotechnology, chemistry and materials science. He will use his experience to expand AMI’s programs to develop technologies that improve human health and the practice of medicine. Lasch has served as chairman of the board and CEO of ORFID Corp., a director of Encode Bio, Inc., and was the founding CEO and member of the board of directors of Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., all Convergent Ventures portfolio companies. He has held leadership positions at two Caltech spinoffs: Materia (materials science) and Cyrano Sciences (chemical sensor technology). He was also director of research and biotechnology for PPG Industries. Previously, Lasch served as vice president of technology development for The Scripps Research Institute, the largest nonprofit biomedical research institute in the United States. At Scripps, he and his team worked closely with the faculty to move new tech nologies into development pipelines, in companies ranging from local start-ups to large multinational corporations within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices industries. He also helped to initiate and manage numerous academic-industrial collaborative relationships and efforts, both on campus and in other locations. Lasch succeeds the late Peter Staudhammer, who became the institute’s director in April 2003 and helped build its portfolio of biomedical technologies. //