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College News

STRATEGIC VISION, THEME V: Sustainability Initiatives

HMC Signs Climate Commitment
President Maria Klawe has joined college and university presidents across the country by signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commit-ment, an action that follows on the board of trustees’ adoption of a new Sustainability Policy Statement at its February meeting.

In signing the Climate Commitment, President Klawe committed to sharply reducing and eventually eliminating all of the college’s global warming emissions, and accelerating research and educational efforts that will equip society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate.

HMC’s Sustainability Policy Statement reads, in part: “The college will seek to: reduce the rate at which it contributes to the depletion and degradation of natural resources, increase its use of renewable resources, and incorporate concepts of sustainability into the academic and daily affairs of the college.”

The complete statement can be found on the HMC website, www.hmc.edu/ newsandevents/climate.html. The Presidents Climate Commitment garners institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and educa-tional efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate. Participating colleges commit to:

• Adopting green standards for buildings;
• Requiring Energy Star certification for products purchased by the college;
• Offsetting emissions due to air travel;
• Encouraging public transportation;
• Purchasing energy from renewable sources; and
• Supporting climate and sustainability shareholder proposals through their endowment.

Less Trees, More Green
As part of the Claremont Colleges Sustainability Initiative, “Greening the Office Supply Stream,” HMC will use copier and printer paper that is made from 100 percent recycled material. “We are making progress toward a greener Harvey Mudd College,” said President Klawe.

While it is anticipated that the cost of 100 percent recycled paper will continue to decrease over time, at present it costs 80 percent more than the 10 percent recycled content paper the college previously used. But it is hoped community members will use less. Everyone is being encouraged to make double-sided copies and to distribute electronic copies in lieu of paper copies when possible.

With space for holdings decreasing and service needs changing, the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges are poised for change. In a meeting at HMC in February, Bonnie Clemens, library director, and Robert Walton, CEO of Claremont University Center, discussed how the libraries may evolve.

The Libraries are made up of collections in four buildings: Honnold/Mudd Library, The Ella Strong Denison Library at Scripps College; The Norman F. Sprague Library at HMC and the Seeley G. Mudd Science Library at Pomona College. One suggested plan is consolidating staff and collections to Honnold-Mudd. However, since it is not large enough to handle the combined collections, books and other holdings, less frequently used items may be moved to a storage facility near the campuses that would be open to library card holders. Additional plans may include providing collaborative work spaces for students and refocusing staff efforts to provide new services.

Clemens remarked that student expectations and use of a library have changed and that library administrators must be open to new ways of providing needed services. “We’re not talking about books and storage as much as connecting students to the resources they need,” she said. The digital revolution has changed how information is gathered, received and distributed.

On the HMC campus, Sprague Library is being reviewed for possible new and improved uses. A central facility off campus would likely provide longer hours than is currently possible at Sprague. Its current collections are math, computer science and engineering, plus other items relevant to the curriculum at HMC, as well as browsing books, reference books and course reserves. In the event of closure of Sprague Library, the majority of these collections would move to Honnold/Mudd Library and “inactive” or low-use collections would be stored in the central facility off campus. A portion of Sprague may become administrative office space and collaborative work and study space for students. The changes proposed would evolve over a period of three to five years.

Built in 1970, Sprague Library has served as an important facility for scholarship and campus activities. Administrators view its future as key to serving the campus community.

TRUSTEE NEWS: Alumni Named to Board The board of trustees approved the appointment of new trustees John Benediktsson ’01 and Howard Deshong III ’89 at the February board meeting. Deshong returns to the board after serving as the alumni representative from 2005 to 2007. He is a managing member of Galileo Partners, LLC, in Los Angeles. He earned his degree in physics at HMC and went on to earn his M.A. in law and diplomacy and his Ph.D. in international security studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Prior to his position at Galileo Partners, he was a registered investment advisor for Bristlecone Value Partners, LLC, and Oppenheimer Investment Advisors; a senior analyst with the United States General Accounting Office in Washington, D.C.; and a consultant for Rand in Santa Monica, Calif., and Washington, D.C. Deshong has been an active member in the HMC Alumni Association Board of Governors and served as its president immediately preceding his first term as a trustee. He served as the alumni represen-tative on the presidential search committee that brought President Maria Klawe to HMC in 2005 and as a member of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. John Benediktsson is the CEO and co-founder of Financial Asset Trading and Technology of California (FATTOC), a technology company focused on the financial markets. FATTOC’s focus is proprietary trading, the development of software tools for real-time market analysis and connectivity to major exchanges. Company personnel are in the process of launching a private financial trading network. Benediktsson joined FATTOC after four years with Madison Tyler as a partner, trader and technologist. Before joining Madison Tyler, Benediktsson worked for a media technology firm in Santa Monica, Calif., focused on digital asset management, digital media search, digital rights management and content application integration software. He graduated from HMC with a degree in engineering. Benediktsson is one of this year’s Walter and Leonore Annenberg Visiting Professors of Leadership and Manage-ment. In addition to teaching part of an ongoing class in leadership, he will take part in seminars and discussions and deliver a public lecture April 22.

Trude Taylor: True Dedication HMC Trustee Trude C. Taylor, whose service to the college spanned five decades, died Feb. 22 at the age of 86. Taylor was introduced to the college by Henry T. Mudd, the son of the college’s namesake Harvey S. Mudd. Taylor began his tenure as a trustee in 1969. As a member of HMC’s board, Taylor chaired the Founding Friends, presidential search, development planning and educational planning committees. He was also a member of the board’s corporations, board affairs, investment, and compensation and personnel policy committees. With trustee Walter Foley ’69, Taylor was co-chair of the 1989–94 Campaign for Harvey Mudd College, HMC’s last comprehensive fund-raising campaign, which raised $75.5 million. In addition to scholarship and other program support, the campaign funded the creation of the departments of biology and computer science; the construction of the F.W. Olin Science Center, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Hall, Ronald and Maxine Linde Residence Hall and a new wing of the Parsons Engineering Building; and the renovation of the Jacobs Science Center. “As we mourn Trude’s passing, we should take the opportunity to celebrate his remarkable service to Harvey Mudd College,” said William A. Mingst, chair of the board of trustees. “His dedication to the college and its mission was steadfast, and an example for all trustees to emulate.” Taylor was the retired chairman of Electronic Memories and Magnetics Corporation, and he served as a director of several privately held high-technology companies in California. He received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from UCLA in 1949 and an MBA from Harvard in 1951. A private pilot, Taylor was interested in furniture making, computer science, flying and big band music. Taylor was the eighth person to receive an honorary degree from the college when it was bestowed upon him in 2002. He was also made an honorary alumnus of the college in 1994 and awarded the Alumni Lifetime Recognition Award in 2006. Those interested in contributing to The Joan and Trude Taylor Endowed Scholarship at Harvey Mudd College, which currently provides full tuition for several students, may call 909/607-3469.

NOTES & QUOTES from Spring Lectures

The Nelson and Annenberg lectures can be viewed in their entirety online.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Event
“Some people said, ‘Why would you want to go sit next to white kids when the white kids didn’t want you?’ That was not the issue. It didn’t matter where the kids were. That school was where resources were available. Money was being spent. Kids who were going there had an opportunity to educate themselves. We simply wanted that opportunity.”
Feb. 1, Terrance Roberts (pictured right), psychologist and member of the “Little Rock Nine” which integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957

Dr. Bruce J. Nelson Distinguished Speaker Series/Spaces that Shape
“All of my work is interested in conflict and it’s a celebration of difference. I’m fascinated with the nature of the culture of this country as it is related to the radical pluralism and heterogeneity.”
Feb. 27, Thom Mayne, architect, co-founder SCI-Arc, principal, Morphosis Architecture

“People, in general, I think, psychologically respond to space in completely different ways. Some people enjoy internal spaces, spaces that focus inward. Others like spaces that really push out into the outside and into the garden and really focus the other way. Some people are a combination of both and many pieces of architecture do both of those things.”
March 6, Ray Kappe, architect-planner-educator and founder, SCI-Arc

Walter and Leonore Annenberg Lectures/Great Leaders Explain Tough Decisions
“We never really see more than 10 years out in chip technology. And standing here today I can say, based on everything we know there’s about 10 years of life left. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to get to the end-point then; we just can’t see further than that. And I think, in fact, increasing the underlying technology will change dramatically as it just did in the last 12 months.”
Feb. 26, Justin Rattner, CTO, Intel

“When you are a CEO, I believe you really only work on four things and if you find yourself spending a lot of time on anything else, you’re probably not doing the right job. The four things are strategy, customers, selling (the company and the concept, people and culture), and then the money (the capitol behind the money). And they sound like very high-level things but if you get those four things right the rest will take care of itself.”
March 11, Penny Herscher, CEO FirstRain

Award Supports Faculty Transitions

A gift award of $1.5 million to the Claremont University Consortium from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will support the appointment of new faculty in anticipation of senior faculty retirements at the five undergraduate Claremont Colleges. Over the next five years, HMC will be able to hire a new faculty member in a specific discipline. The award allows the college to develop a transition between the departure of senior faculty and the appointment of their successors. During a one-year overlap, the scholar will benefit from working alongside the senior faculty before his/her retirement.

The grant will support faculty hiring and retirement transition plans over a period of five years and will be administered by Claremont University Consortium.

Faculty Activities

Math Meeting Full of Mudders
Mathematics department faculty captivated participants with their latest research at the annual joint meeting of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), held in January.

A special session on voting entitled “Are Societies Agreeable?” was given by Francis Su. Michael Orrison spoke on “Voting, the Symmetric Group and Representation Theory.” In addition to his talk, Orrison served on two panels for Project NExT, an MAA professional development program for new faculty in the mathematical sciences. Rachel Levy presented a talk in the AMS Special Session on partial differential equations entitled “Flow of a surfactant-laden thin liquid film down an inclined plane.”

Other mathematics department members present at the meeting included Art Benjamin, Andrew Bernoff, Robert Borrelli, Alfonso Castro, Weiqing Gu, Daniel Goroff, Melvin Henriksen, Jon Jacobsen, Kimberly Tucker and Darryl Yong ’96. HMC Math Department alumni were also well-represented. Attendees included Bradley Forrest ’02, Christopher Hanusa ’01, Dylan Helliwell ’98, Karl Mahlburg ’01, Cameron McLeman ’02, Russ Merris ’64, Andrew Niedermaier ’04, Elizabeth Norton ’01, Elisha Peterson ’00, Scott Robertson ’99, Jeremy Rouse ’03, Itai Seggev ’99 and David Uminsky ’03.

Cancer Development Addressed Professor of Mathematics Lisette de Pillis delivered the keynote address, “Mathematically Modeling Immune-Cancer Dynamics,” at the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics annual conference in Provo, Utah, March 14. Her talk addressed cancer development and the dynamics of the immune system, which have been a significant focus of mathematical modeling in recent decades. Immunotherapy, a treatment approach that enhances the body’s natural ability to fight cancers, is becoming increasingly prevalent in many multi-stage treatment programs that also include chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Recognized as an expert in the field of tumor modeling, de Pillis has published numerous papers on her research. She was recently featured in an article, “Comparing Invasive Species to Metastatic Cancers Inspires New Insights for Modelers,” in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Gene Art Rachel Mayeri, along with T. Kim-Trang Tran of the Scripps College Department of Art, gave a selective survey of contemporary art intersecting with science and presented their own respective artworks related to genetics during Scripps’ Humanities Institute Spring Lecture Series “Evolution 2.0: Biotechnology and the Future of Human Nature.” Their presentation raised questions about the ethics of using biological material in art and the role of the artist in the field of biotechnology. Mayeri is associate professor of media studies at HMC, a Los Angeles-based artist and a guest curator of the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Biology Professor Seeks New Habitat Eliot Bush, assistant professor of biology, will serve as the next Faculty Member in Residence in Sontag Residence Hall. Bush, his wife, Rizvan, and their daughter, Aiperi, will move into the Faculty in Residence apartment this summer and begin their new role next academic year. Bush, who joined the faculty this past fall, currently teaches Topics in Computational Biology 1. His research interests are in molecular evolution with a focus on primates. Outside of work, Bush enjoys reading and learning languages, including Uighur (part of the Turkic group of Altaic languages), his wife’s native language. As the Faculty Member in Residence, Bush will provide an opportunity for students to have close contact with a faculty member outside of the immediate academic setting. While sharing the ebb and flow of daily life in Sontag, he will also host social and cultural events for students each semester. Susan Martonosi, assistant professor of mathematics, is the current Faculty Member in Residence in Sontag.

Staff Transitions

New CIO Named
Joseph Vaughan became chief information officer and director of computing and information services in February. He succeeds Richard Parker who served in the position from 1992 to 2007.

Vaughan will manage the Department of Computing and Information Services and its 18-person staff, which provides support organized into three groups: User Support, Data Services, and Systems and Networks. Because HMC is the lead campus in the Claremont Intercampus Networking Effort (CINE) of The Claremont Colleges, Vaughan will also provide leadership, direction and supervision in that area.

Vaughan previously served as director/humanities CIO in the UCLA Center for Digital Humanities. He earned his B.A. in philosophy and
psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and his C.Phil. and M.A. degrees in philosophy at UCLA.

In announcing Vaughan’s appointment, President Maria Klawe said, “With over 13 years of increasing responsibility in academic administration at a high-ranking research university, Joseph will be an excellent addition to our Computing and Information Services team as we move
forward in improving our information technology infrastructure.”

Vaughan said, “I look forward to engaging the Harvey Mudd community and developing a strategic plan for IT services that will allow us to enhance teaching, learning and administrative services.”

Dean of Students Office
Angelica Ibarra (pictured right), formerly administrative assistant for two years, moved to the Office of Institutional Diversity to become the diversity programs coordinator. Amy Laird will become the administrative assistant in the Dean of Students Office. Laird previously worked at Westwood College in Upland, where she was a student advisor and activities planner.

Facilities and Maintenance
Andrea Abyeta joined the Office of Facilities and Maintenance as facilities use and summer conference coordinator. Abyeta formerly worked for Complete Business Systems in Upland, where she organized their trade shows and special events and was the assistant to the vice president. Isabel Jordan, who previously held the coordinator position, is now special projects coordinator.

College Advancement
Gene Ekenstam retired as associate vice president for development in January. He led gift planning efforts, served as interim vice president for advancement and helped guide development initiatives.

Maya Chalich, director of advancement initiatives since November, came to HMC from Southern California Public Radio where she served as director of development. She and Heath Elliot, director of principal gifts, were recently named acting senior directors.

Danyel Barnard joined the team in March as associate director of corporate and foundation relations. Barnard was most recently the director of marketing and communications at the University of Northern Colorado Foundation. Prior to that position, she was the manager of alumni communications at Loyola Marymount University.

New to the Office of College Relations is Janice Gilson, associate director of publications/graphic designer. Gilson comes to HMC from the Los Angeles Times, where she worked as a graphic designer, art director and senior art director in the Public Affairs and Promotions departments, and most recently in the Marketing, Planning and Development department.

Prizes, Talks and Posters

Computer Science
A team of students under the direction of Associate Professor of Engineering David Money Harris won the 2008 Student Design Contest sponsored by the Design Automation Conference and the International Solid State Circuits Conference.
The team won for their project titled “A MIPS R2000 Implementation.”

The student paper authors included Nathaniel Pinckney ’08, Thomas Barr ’08, Michael Dayringer ’08, Matthew McKnett ’08, Ted Jiang ’07 and Carl Nygaard ’07. The authors describe work performed in spring 2007 by a team consisting of 30 students taking Harris’ class, Introduction to CMOS VLSI Design, and working in tandem with four students from the University of Adelaide under the supervision of Professor Braden Phillips. The team fabricated their chip over the summer and built a working computer system around it.

Physics
Junbo Park ’08, Caitlin Furjanic ’08 and Daria Draganova ’08, along with professors Chih-Yung Chen, Patricia Sparks and James Eckert, attended the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference in Tampa, Fla., in November. The students presented a poster titled “Thickness of the Pinned Layer as a Controlling Factor in Domain Wall Formation During Training in IrMn-based Spin Valves.” Theirs was the only poster presented by undergraduates.

Mathematics
Along with HMC faculty and alumni, HMC students were out in force at the annual joint meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, held in San Diego in January.

Four seniors won $100 prizes for their research posters: Sara Gussin (“Wavelet Sets” with faculty adviser Jon Jacobsen), Andy Leverentz (“An Integrodifferential equation Modeling 1D Swarming” with faculty adviser Andy Bernoff), Greg Minton (“Dot Product Representations of Graphs” with faculty adviser Kimberly Tucker) and Tia Sondjaja (“A Combinatorial Lusternik-Schnirelman-Borsuk Theorem on the d-Cube” with faculty adviser Francis Su).

Three students also presented invited research talks. Parousia Rockstroh ’08 presented “Angular-Asymmetric Binary Branching Trees,” in the AMS Session on Dynamical Systems. His talk represented work conducted in the summer under David Brown at Ithaca College. Tia Sondjaja ’08 presented “A Combin-atorial Lusternik-Schnirelman-Borsuk Theorem on the d-Cube,” in the AMS Special Session on Undergraduate Research. Her talk was based on research conducted in The Claremont Colleges REU, under the supervision of Francis Su. Steve Rosenthal ’08 presented a talk in the same session on “Localized Forcing in Thin Liquid Films,” which represented research conducted under Rachel Levy, at the UCLA summer research program in Applied Mathematics.

Answer: Who is Andrew Chung?
Chemistry major Andrew Chung ’10 has been selected from among some of the country’s brightest college students to be a contestant on the upcoming “Jeopardy!” 2008 College Championship.

Scheduled to tape at the University of Wisconsin’s Kohl Center in April, the two-week competition will air nationally May 5–16. The winner will take home a grand prize of $100,000.

“‘Jeopardy!’ is one of my favorite TV shows, and to be one of 15 selected from all of the students who tried out is a real honor,” said Chung, who is from Arleta, Calif.

Chung is the second HMC student to appear on the popular and prestigious game show. HMC alumnus Andrew “Rif” Hutchings ’98 was the “Jeopardy!” college champion in 1998.

As a result of Hutching’s “Jeopardy!” win, HMC created the Rif Hutchings Scholarship and Prize Fund, which is awarded annually to the top three HMC finishers in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Contest.

Watson Winner to Travel on Shaky Ground
The Thomas J. Watson Foundation awarded a $25,000 fellowship to Nikolas Sherrow-Groves, an engineering major. He will examine the impact of structural failure in the earthquake-prone countries of Japan, El Salvador, Peru and India.

Watson fellowships are awarded to college seniors of unusual promise for a year of independent exploration and travel outside the United States. In addition to their academic achievements, Watson fellows have been leaders on- and off- campus. Sherrow-Groves is one of 50 fellows who come from 23 states and five foreign countries. As Watson Fellows, they’ll span 102 countries, exploring topics ranging from child soldiers to ant colony behavior to heirloom seed preservation. The year of travel provides fellows an opportunity to test their abilities and develop a more informed sense of international concern.

Nearly 1,000 students from up to 50 selective private liberal arts colleges and universities apply for these awards each year. This year, 175 finalists competed on the national level, after their institutions nominated them in the autumn. Each fellow receives $25,000 for the year of travel and exploration.

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program was begun in 1968 by the children of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the founder of International Business Machines Corp., and his wife, Jeannette K. Watson, to honor their parents’ long-standing interest in education and world affairs. The Watson Foundation regards its investment in people as an effective contribution to the global community.

Chambliss Award Won by Zernow
Lea Zernow ’10 received the Chambliss Award at the fall meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The award is given to the best poster presented by an under-graduate student. Zernow presented her research “Ultraviolet and Visible Analysis of Star-Forming Regions in Several Dwarf Galaxies,” which was done over the summer at Northern Arizona University under the direction of adviser Deidre Hunter, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory.

8th in Putnam
In the nationwide 2007 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, HMC finished in eighth place in the team category out of 516 universities and garnered two individual Honorable Mention awards.

Forty-one students took the six-hour exam in December. Nationwide 3,753 students competed, and this year the median score was 2 out of a total of 120 points. The HMC team of Greg Minton ’08, Ted Spaide ’09 and Brian Rice ’08 earned honorable mention in the team category. This marks the fifth time in the last seven years that HMC has landed in the Top 10. In the Honorable Mention category with HMC were Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, University of Toronto and University of Waterloo.

The two students earning Honorable Mentions in the individual category were Minton (ranked 26.5) and Spaide (ranked 58.5). Three students made the Top 200 List, and seven made the Top 500 List. Only eight of the competing 516 schools could claim more students in the Top 500. Minton, Spaide and Rice (ranked in the Top 200) will receive HMC’s Rif Hutchings Prize, which honors top Putnam finishers. In addition, the following students made the Top 500 list: George Tucker ’08, Jacob Scott ’11, Kenji Kozai ’08 and Ryan Muller ’11. Putnam Seminar coaches are mathematics professors Andrew Bernoff and Francis Su.

Four Top-10 Teams in ACM
Results of the Association of Computing Machinery Competition, Southern California regionals are:

4th place, HMC 42 – seniors Martin Hunt, George Tucker and Russ Rutledge

7th place, HMC Virginia – seniors Greg Minton, Brian Rice and Steven Sloss

8th place, HMC Hammer – freshmen Jason Gerret-Glaser, Daniel Field and Jacob Scott

9th place, HMC Drop Table Team – Mike Buchanan ’08, Richard Bowen ’10, Andrew Hunter ’09

ACM teams are coached by computer science Associate Professor Zach Dodds.