The College of Wooster HomeAt the time of publication of this edition, we had received a letter, fax, or e-mail message (16 of the 20!) from 20 of the 23 members of the Class of 1989. Subsequently, we received e-mail messages from Yohan Weerasuriya and Hashim Gillani.
Efrosini Afendra remained in the United States until 1993, when she returned to Greece, her homeland. She moved to Athens where she accepted a position with Upjohn, a US pharmaceutical company. In 1996, Upjohn merged with Pharmacia, a Swedish company. In her current position with the merged entity, she is a clinical trial monitor. She organizes and coordinates phase-3 and -4 clinical trials in cooperation with Greek hospitals. In particular, she works with clinical trials involving growth hormone and ophthalmics (anti-glaucoma medications). Efi writes that "It’s a fun job involving field work at the hospitals and travelling abroad (mostly in Europe)."
She is happily married to a fellow Greek and looks forward to hearing from her classmates and to visits from them.
Murtaza Alibhai completed his Ph.D. at Penn State University, on the structure/function of glutamine synthetase, using site-directed mutagenesis and kinetics. Next he spent three years in a post-doctoral position at Genentech. His work focused on protein engineering and structure/function studies.
His current position is with Monsanto in the agri-biotech sector. His initial work was on insecticidal proteins in corn. He is currently the technical leader for the soybean team in the insect control department. Murtaza reports that he really enjoys his work, as it is challenging and encompasses both people management and technical aspects.
Lester Burke now calls Washington, DC home where he and his wife, Alicia Aebersold ('89, English), are searching for a house in a tight market. He is a network analyst for the Arlington County Public School system. He supports six networks, at six different schools. Each school has 100-300 workstations, with about 400-500 users per school. Lester points out that being a chemistry major developed his ability to solve problems, which is what he does all day.
He also credits the chemistry program for developing his ability to organize and document multi-step processes ("not unlike planning an analytical chem lab"). Another skill he mentioned (nurtured by his Wooster experience), was writing. He needs that skill to convey very technical thoughts and ideas to a non-technical audience.
The warm weather of California attracted Vivien Chan (originally from Hong Kong) to San Francisco. There she completed a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco. During her first month, the 1989 earthquake welcomed her! She wrote that the UCSF has also attracted Montie Borders for one of his research leaves and three Wooster graduates for post-doctoral appointments: Jodi Nunnari ('84), Murtaza Alibhai ('89), and Letitia Yao ('89).
Vivien stayed at UCSF for post-doctoral work before accepting a position as a research scientist with the Chiron Corporation. She is a member of the research and development group to which Mike Rohan ('98) also belongs.
Following graduation from Wooster, Daphne Daugherty Cody headed for Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where she began graduate work in inorganic chemistry. She roomed with Lisa Jones Skeens ('88) and had Dean Johnston ('88) as a lab-mate. Daphne completed her Master’s of Science degree, began work on her Ph.D., but accepted a call to the ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church. Before starting seminary, she worked for an environmental company identifying the contents of gas cylinders whose labels had become unreadable.
She received her Master’s of Divinity degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in 1996. Currently she is working as a Priest Associate at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Park Ridge, IL. Her husband is Jason Cody ('91), who now holds a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Northwestern. They are the parents of two girls.
Paul Findlay pursued a different course before beginning graduate school after working for nine years. His first position was with the Animal Sciences Division of Monsanto Agricultural Company and the Physical Sciences Center of Monsanto Chemical Company. After a year and a half he took a job with Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute in the Materials Science Group. His work included identity testing, methods development, and problem solving. Paul used every technique from solid state NMR spectrometry to scanning electron microscopy to evaluate pharmaceutical materials.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute is in New Jersey, where Paul soon became very active in his church. His work with the senior high group included the usual activities, but also mission trips to Homestead, FL to do hurricane relief, and to Yucatan, Mexico, to help build a church.
Since January 1999, Paul has been a graduate student at Purdue University in the School of Pharmacy, Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy. His advisor is a former co-worker at Bristol-Myers Squibb. His research deals with the directed crystallization of drug substances. He plans to complete his Ph.D. in about four years and then return to the pharmaceutical industry.
Hashim Gillani has had a great variety of occupational and educational experiences since graduation. His first position was with a New York City investment banking firm. After a time there he decided that he wanted "to complete course work in an area that was applicable to real world problems and issues". That desire led him to McGill University where he completed a Bachelor of Engineering and then a Master of Engineering degree in three years. While at McGill he, with assistance from his father, set up a plastics manufacturing business, which unfortunately failed. But he had much success managing a student-owned computer retail store raising its sales from $300,000 to $2.8 million in less than two years.
Following graduation from McGill, he worked for 5 years in the strategic consulting group of Andersen Consulting. Although on the way to Partner, Hashim decided that he needed exposure to the leading thinkers in management to further his career. To do so, he began the MBA program at the Harvard Business School. Once his degree is earned he plans to be involved in the area of general management/entrepreneurship.
Max Giles completed his M.D. at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in 1993 [Professors Borders, Bromund, and Haynes attended the graduation ceremony during which Max, Darrell Smith ('89), and Antoine Hudson ('87) received their M.D. degrees]. He spent the next four years in a residency in emergency medicine at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, IL. Max wrote, "Exactly like the television show, but I think they make a much better living and only work sixty-minute shifts." Currently, Max works as an emergency physician at the Provident Hospital of Cook County.
During the summer of 1999 Max worked for the Metro-Health/Cleveland Hospital. Being in Cleveland provided him the opportunity to be with his fiancée. Max has a 6-year old son, Max Jr., a potential College of Wooster student if the finances can be worked out.
Soon after graduation, Shelby Hatch packed her bags and set off as a Peace Corps volunteer to Cameroon, West Africa to teach chemistry. She reports that "It was a fabulous experience which I wouldn’t trade for anything." She taught A-level chemistry at a government high school for three years.
She entered graduate school in the fall of 1993 at the University of Rochester. However, her carefully chosen advisor moved to Princeton University in 1995, and Shelby followed him there. Being in a beautiful setting and only an hour away from either New York City or Philadelphia were compensating factors.
She defended her thesis (biophysical chemistry) in the fall of 1999. Currently, she holds a post-doctoral appointment at Northwestern University.
Beth Kurtz Fenner accepted an offer from DuPont and has worked at the Experimental Station in Wilmington, DE for the majority of the ten years since graduation. Over that time period, she went from organometallic synthesis of air-sensitive, photoreactive catalysts, to photolytic wastewater remediation, to GC/MS analysis. As a GC/MS chemist, she is now located in DuPont’s corporate analytical center. Beth reports that, as an analytical chemist, she never works on one project long enough to become bored and is involved in the problem-solving stages of many different, hot projects.
She and her husband, Bill, have two baby boys, who benefit from contact with her 17-year old step-son. A cat completes the family. Beth says that having both toddlers and a teenager presents challenges and rewards, and that parental survival is a blessing not to be taken for granted.
After graduation, Coleen MacFarland worked for BP American doing chromatography and robotics, during a one-year internship. She next earned a Master’s Degree in macromolecular science from Case Western Reserve University. Her advisor was Jack Koenig, with whom Dr. Williams spent three research leaves. Following a couple of years working two jobs in analytical testing for the rubber industry, Coleen took a position with Geon Company in Avon Lake, OH, as an R&D chemist doing thermal analysis. She finds her job extremely satisfying.
She participates in the company golf and bowling leagues and has entered the world of martial arts and kick boxing. She has entered sprint triathlons, and she runs and bikes. Her aquatic endeavors include jet-skiing and windsurfing during the summer.
Anil Parwani carried out the first year of his graduate work at the main campus of The Ohio State University. However, he then moved back to Wooster to do the required research at OARDC, working with Linda Saif ('69, biology) on viral vaccines. After completing his Ph.D. in 1993, he continued with a post-doctoral appointment, again at OARDC.
The summer of 1995 included two important events: his marriage and his beginning of medical school at Case Western Reserve University. He received his M.D. in 1999, after which he, his wife, and two children relocated to Baltimore. Anil is a member of the Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency Program at Johns Hopkins University. The family likes Baltimore and the opportunity to travel to Washington and points along the East Coast.
The first respondent to our call for letters from members of this class was Scott Peters. The first stop on his post-Wooster experiences was Syracuse University, from which he obtained a Master’s of Science degree in 1994. During his time at Syracuse, he was a member of the Graduate Student Senate and was responsible for negotiating the renovation of an old ski lodge as the new location of the Graduate Student Social Club.
Scott moved back to Ohio and secured a position with SDG Inc., Wooster, the company (then named TUI) where he worked and did his Senior Independent Study. He is now Product Development Manager for Ingredient Innovations International (3i), a subsidiary of SDG. He has worked on projects ranging from drug delivery for cancer, to insect repellents, to mouthwashes. He enjoys the diversity of projects and responsibilities.
Chris Pigge carried out his graduate work in organic chemistry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. After receiving the Ph.D. degree in December 1994, he accepted a post-doctoral position at Wayne State University in Detroit. In 1996, he began his appointment as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. His days are now filled with teaching and directing a research group.
In 1990 Beth Anne Tingley ('89, History) and Chris were married, a status he is happy to report that has not changed. Their first daughter was born ten days before moving to St. Louis whereas the second daughter arrived more conveniently in late 1998.
During her ten years at Eli Lilly and Company, Deb Samuelson Swain has worked as an analytical chemist. Her first supervisor was Tim Wozniak ('78) and she even worked with Richard Bromund during his 1990-91 research leave. While in the Wozniak group, she developed analytical methods to test new drugs that Lilly was investigating in clinical trials. Since 1994, she has been involved in developing standard operating procedures, conducting training, and monitoring compliance with those procedures. Deb considers herself a "rule follower," so her current responsibilities match her disposition well.
In 1991 she married Jonathan Swain, who lived in the apartment next to hers. They are the parents of a boy and a girl and are in the process of selling house #1 and looking for house #2. Her extra vacation time as a ten-year employee will come in handy during the move to house #2.
During her time as a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, Stephanie Scierka faced the usual problems, but also had to deal with the move of her advisor to Vanderbilt University. Fortunately, she had finished the experimentation and was in the thesis-writing stage. Her graduate research primarily involved the use of various surface measurement techniques. Next, she accepted a post-doctoral position with the Department of Energy in Pittsburgh, studying the effects of flue gas on the growth of microalgae. Wanting to return to surface science, she carried out post-doctoral research in that area at Kent State University, Kent, OH.
Stephanie is now with Millennium Inorganic Chemicals in Baltimore, MD. Her first responsibility was being in charge of X-ray instrumentation, but now she is in charge of surface characterization, using chemisorption methods and microcalorimetry.
On the personal side, she owns a house in Baltimore City and is still an avid exerciser, including running in 10K races and marathons.
Laura Seigal departed Wooster after her junior year to enter the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, from which she received her O.D. in 1992. During her time in Philadelphia, she did more than just study – she and Shelby Hatch traveled in Europe, she skied down the Women’s Olympic Downhill in Innsbruck, and she even got car-jacked and abducted on a warm spring evening in Philadelphia!
Her first professional experience was in a private practice run by two 70-year old men in a small town. Next she started her own practice, renting space from a corporation, but for the past five years has developed her now thriving practice in Akron. She has a job that she loves.
She had a house built in Twinsburg, OH which she "can decorate as I wish." Laura took time off from her practice this past summer to travel for three weeks with her mother to Zürich, Baden-Baden, and Paris.
The materials science and engineering program at the University of Cincinnati attracted Craig Selby. He studied the inorganic polymerization of siloxane block-co-polymers and synthesized some materials for use as surface coatings. In addition, he networked several laboratories for data acquisition and also worked some at Proctor and Gamble’s applied research division.
He defended his Master’s of Science degree in polymer chemistry during the finals week of his first semester in the veterinary medicine program at Ohio State University! His wife, Nancy Irvine ('91), was already in the program. With each armed as holders of the D.V.M. degree, in 1997 they opened Daisy Hill Animal Hospital in Ashland, OH. They enjoy running and tennis.
Following graduation Sheri Shamblin joined Pfizer, Inc. in Groton, CT as a research assistant in pharmaceutical R & D. After three years with Pfizer, she enrolled in the School of Pharmacy Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While in Madison, she gained "a greater appreciation of the Midwest, pot-luck dinners, cross country skiing, and university life." In 1997 she was awarded a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences. Next she spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut doing basic research. In the fall of 1999 she rejoined Pfizer as a research scientist to develop new ways of delivering drugs.
She is glad to be in New England so that she can pursue her interests in biking, hiking, skiing, and rock climbing.
Keyna Sloan started her post-Wooster career at Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, OH. Until recently she resided in Rochester, NY. A telephone call to her Rochester number produced a message with a Columbus, OH area number.
The summer of 1989 was eventful for Darrell Smith, since he met his future wife, Amy Kandel, who was a bridesmaid at his oldest sister Alison’s wedding. He and Amy married in December 1991. In the fall of 1989, Darrell began his quest for the M.D. degree at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He and Max Gilles shared an apartment, enjoyed Cleveland, and studied together. He received his M.D. in 1993.
He and Amy moved to Madison, WI, where he began a surgical internship followed by a residency in otolaryngology/head and neck surgery. During their five years in Madison, they developed an affection for the city and all it had to offer. While there, their two daughters were born.
For the past two years, the Smiths have been residents of North Canton, OH, close to family and friends. Darrell joined a group practice, Ohio Head and Neck Surgeons, Inc., where he has the opportunity to care for people with complex pathologies.
Yohan Weerasuriya returned to Sri Lanka in 1994 after receiving his Ph.D. in Agronomy from Purdue University. While at Purdue he also completed a Master's Degree in biochemistry. He and Nishka were married in 1995. His e-mail message, dated April 13, 2000, stated that "we are expecting our first children (twins) within the next week." Yohan has a position in the field of pollution control with a subsidiary of one of the largest companies in Sri Lanka.
Letitia Yao did a summer internship at 3M Pharmaceuticals before beginning graduate work at the University of Minnesota. After four years laboring to synthesize a marine natural product and realizing that synthetic organic chemistry was not the area for her, she switched to another research group and studied peptide structure by NMR spectroscopy.
In 1993 she married Bob Johnson, a former voice professor at The College of Wooster. After receiving her degree in 1995, they moved to San Francisco, where she held a post-doctoral appointment in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, UCSF.
Currently, she is an NMR Research Associate at the University of Minnesota. Letitia takes care of five solution-state NMR spectrometers, trains students, and advises them on NMR experiments. She finds the job very rewarding and low on the stress scale compared to doing research.
Last Updated August 12, 2000
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