Caltech Class of 1983

Directory

September 1999

It’s possible to keep up with some our classmates just by reading the newspaper. Sandra Loh’s one-woman show, "Bad Sex with Bud Kemp," appeared at the Second Stage Theater in New York and was covered in the Los Angeles Times (among other places). Some of you may have heard Sandra’s segment "The Loh Life" on National Public Radio, or her contributions to other radio programs. I count myself among the 30-somethings who wake up in the morning hoping to hear her biting and always on-target commentaries about life in the 90s.

"Frank Evans is an assistant professor of atmospheric science at the University of Colorado, where he is ambivalently awaiting a tenure decision in 2000. He is developing a new technique of sub-millimeter-wave remote sensing of ice clouds and studying the effect of three-dimensional cloud structure on solar radiation. Frank and Sue Gross (B.S. ’85) are happily married and blissfully childless."

Daniel Jew spent almost three years in Hong Kong, working as a Senior Computer Engineer for Hopewell Engineering & Construction Ltd. He returned to the United States in January. In 1998 he married Dan "Danielle" Ouyang, a PRC citizen who was also working in Hong Kong. While Daniel looks for the "perfect permanent position," he is pursuing his second Master’s degree, in Applied Computer Science and Technology, at Azusa Pacific University.

Mark Maier went to work for Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo after graduation. "During my nine years there I finished a Ph.D. in EE at USC, knocked off various climbs in the U.S. and South America, got married to Leigh Clawson (Ph.D. ’88), and decided I wanted to live somewhere completely different. So, I took a faculty position at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (the campus without the football team). While there I co-authored a book, The Art of Systems Architecting, with Eberhardt Rechtin (B.S.’46, Ph.D. ’50) and led a student satellite project (SEDSAT-1) that launched in October 98. Those of you working on satellites that take 10 years and cost a few hundred million ought to try transporting one in the back of a Suburban, it’s fun! We decided to move again, this time to the Aerospace Corporation in their Northern Virginia offices. Leigh and I have two young boys (Stuart, 7, and Charlie, 2), who have many of the quirks of their mother and father." (What quirks could he possibly mean?)

Gloria Badilla Jew writes that "within the last year [I] have gone from working full-time as an outreach coordinator for the NASA/JPL STARDUST mission (a sample return mission to a comet), to working as an independent consultant. I have made this change so I may spend more time with my 3-year-old daughter Nikki... My consulting efforts include supporting various outreach efforts for NASA/JPL and I also assist small businesses with their Program Management efforts. Though this is a major life change, it has been very enjoyable and the whole family has flourished by this decision."

Björn Matthias sends another update. His family has "bought an old house (small by American standards)... It’s in the same little village 25 km south of Heidelberg (or 25 km north of Karlsruhe) that we’ve been living in for the past 8 years." He is spending his weekends and evening fixing up the house and remnants of a barn. His son Philip (7) has announced that he wants to play the drums, and daughter Jessica (10) is "getting to be rather proficient on the flute." Björn’s position as Program Manager (for simulation of electromagnetic effects) in ABB Corporate Research "evaporated" at the end of 1998 when the R&D area was absorbed by another. But Björn says that returning to running the local group in Heidelberg that deals with the same subject is a relief and much more rewarding.

Beverley Robertson finds herself back in San Marino, just a couple of miles from Caltech. "I never in a million years thought I’d be back here again." Beverley’s husband, Charles Conn, teamed up with Bill Gross (B.S. ’81) to start up an Internet company called CitySearch, based in Pasadena. The company has done very well, merged with Ticketmaster Online, and went public in December. Beverley has been globetrotting, moving from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Toronto, Canada, then to Sydney, Australia before landing in San Marino. Beverley has three children (nearly one per city): Alexander born in 1990, Cameron in 1992, and Hannah Isabel in 1998.

Mary Glover tells us that "I have a wonderful husband Bob (who should have been a techer but went to Hawaii instead), two boys (Sean, 6, and Patrick, 3), and three stepdaughters (Sarah, 19, Megan, 15, and Ellie, 13). I’m currently trying to run a home photography business while volunteering at Sean’s school and on our home owner’s association board."

A few of you sent in postcards or email with nothing but an address, so I’m going to take the liberty of inferring what you’re up to (tell me if I got it wrong!): Ming-Chung Chu is in the department of Physics at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. Pui Tong Ho is going to law school at UCLA. Ram Basu is the Audience Services and PC Systems Manager for Caltech Public Events. Gregory Sayles is working for the EPA in Cincinnati. Julie Kornfield is in the Chemical Engineering Department at Caltech, and Ellen Howell is at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

Sadly, Luis Monsalve’s mother sent a postcard saying that her son passed away on October 9, 1998.

Keep those postcards and emails coming! The response to this column has been wonderful. I’ll be on leave in 2000 on a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, so I’ll have plenty of time to keep writing these updates!

Lisa (Flitz) Martin
225 Waltham Street
Lexington, MA 02173-4903
lmartin@cfia.harvard.edu

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