Alumni News: Spring 2009

Since this is the first edition of the Magnet Foundation newsletter, we missed a lot of alumni news over the years.

Distinguished Alumni:

• • 2006 Rhodes Scholars: Rahul Satija '02 and William Hwang '02, classmates at Blair and at Duke University, were both named Rhodes Scholars in 2006. https://silverchips.mbhs.edu/inside.php?sid=5961

  • Election 2006: In the 2006 elections, Craig L. Rice '90 was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. http://www.gazette.net/stories/112406/polia%20s163609_31990.shtml

  • 2008 Rhodes Scholar: Melis Anathar '04 was named a Rhodes Scholar. https://silverchips.mbhs.edu/inside.php?sid=7925

In Memoriam:

• • Howard Gobioff '89: March 11, 2008. http://www.mbhsmagnet.org/news/spring09/gobioff

  • Matthew Gribbin '03: April 8, 2007. http://www.antioch-college.edu/Alumni/giving/gribbin/index.html

Recent News:

• • Sudoku Champion: On October 25, 2008, Wei-Hwa Huang '93 won the 2008 National Sudoku Championship. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20081026_A_new_champ_in_Sudoku.html

  • How to Foil "Phishing" Scams: In December 2008, Lorrie (Ackerman) Cranor's article, How to Foil "Phishing" Scams was published in Scientific American. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-foil-phishing-scams

  • DessertTruck: On January 14, 2009, the Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay featured DessertTruck, co-founded by Chris Chen '02. http://www.foodnetwork.com/throwdown-with-bobby-flay/chocolate-bread-pudding/index.html Video: http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/01/dessert-truck-on-throwdown-with-bobby-flay-chocolate-bread-pudding-episode-video/

Reunions:

• • Class of '89: Planning is underway for the 20-year reunion for the MBHS Class of '89. Please visit http://www.blairblazer89.com/ for more information.

  • Class of '99: The 10-year reunion for the MBHS Class of '99 is planned for June 5-6. Please contact mbhsclassof99@gmail.com for more information.

Highlights by Class Year:

• 1989

• 1990

• 1991

  • • Maria (Brunner) Honeycutt '91 has returned to live and work in Silver Spring full time, and recently started working at NOAA, in the agency's Climate Program Office (www.climate.noaa.gov) and Coastal Services Center (csc.noaa.gov). Before that, she spent a year as a science advisor to a U.S. Senator (through the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship Program).

• 1992

  • • Hormuzd Katki '92 is a tenure-track biostatistician and cancer researcher at the National Cancer Institute at NIH.

    • Gwen Ngo (aka Phuong Nguyen) '92 is a dentist practicing in Silver Spring and Maple Lawn in Fulton, Maryland.

    • In 2004, Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com), co-founded by Patrick Lee '92, was acquired by IGN Entertainment: http://corp.ign.com/articles/527/527275p1.html

• 1993

  • • After teaching math at Blair for several years, Ming Tomayko '93 earned her M.Ed. and Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Maryland College Park and is now an Assistant Professor at Towson University.

• 1994

• 1995

• • Miranda Mockrin '95 earned her PhD in Ecology and Evolution at Columbia '08 and now works for the US Forest Service in Washington, DC.

• 1996

  • • Jacob Lurie '96 was named a Professor of Mathematics in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2009. http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/12.18/11-lurie.html

• 1997

  • • Gautam Mukunda '97 was Admin. of Russian Investment Symposium and Program Coordinator of the Kommersant Program on Executive Education in Russia, a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Co., and he founded The Two Rivers Group, an independent consulting firm. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at MIT in Political Science with focus in International Relations.

    • Melissa Hao '97 graduated with a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from MIT and is now a software engineer for VMWare in Palo Alto, CA

• 1998

  • • Emily Yanisko '98 is teaching math at Parkdale High School in Riverdale, MD. She is also pursuing a PhD in Education at the University of Maryland, College Park and is serving as a member of the Board of Directors for the Magnet Foundation.

    • Fred Irby '98 graduated from Florida A&M's 5-year MBA program and is currently working as a commercial real estate appraiser in Washington, DC.

• 1999

  • • Ted Jou '99 is working as a patent litigator at a law firm in Washington, DC and is serving as the Secretary for the Magnet Foundation. Recently, while attending an inaugural ball, he discussed the Foundation with a reporter from MTV News.

    • In 2007, Reena Arora '99 won the Equal Justice Works Exemplary Public Service Award. http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/dinner07/honor.htm

• 2000

  • • Jennifer Lin '00 is working as a web developer in Bethesda, MD. She received her bachelor's degree from Carnegie Mellon in Computer Science, concentrating in Robotics.

    • Jon Simon '00 is a Physics graduate student at Harvard. He graduated with a B.S. in Physics from Caltech.

• 2001

• • Rachel Carlson '01 is a choral conductor, singer, and teacher in the MD/DC area.

    • In November 2008, Hans Arora '01 was elected Chair-Elect of the American Medical Association Medical Student Section. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/20285.html

• 2002

  • • Samantha Henig '02 is an editor for Double X, an online magazine aimed at women that Slate is launching in the spring.

    • Kelly McQuighan '02 graduated from Rice with a BA in Physics. She taught physics for one year at Exeter Academy and now teaches physics and chemistry at Milton Academy in Milton, MA.

    • Elizabeth Green '02 graduated Magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard and worked as education reporter for USNWR. She now covers education for the New York Sun.

• 2003

  • • Emma Simson '03 graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a major in Government & Politics and minor in International Development & Conflict Resolution. Currently, she teaches high school Social Studies with Teach for America in Prince George's County.

    • Kevin Fang '03 graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 2007 and joined Teach For America. He is currently a 9th grade biology teacher and 9th grade team leader at a small school in SW Atlanta, Georgia.

    • James "Morgan" Pitts '03 is the Research Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

• 2004

  • • Rebecca Zarin Pass '04 is a senior at Stanford studying climate change and energy technologies. She is hoping to stay one more year to get a masters degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on energy systems.

    • Kevin Kaitian Liu '04 graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned U.S. Marine Corps. He is now pursuing a masters degree at M.I.T.

    • Elliott Wolf '04 graduated from Duke with a degree in Mathematics after serving as Student Government President in 2006-07. He is working in Boston in finance until he can pay for law school.

• 2005

  • • Alexander May '05 is currently a senior at Carnegie Mellon University, studying Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. He has been accepted to CMU's fifth year robotics masters program and is waiting to hear back from graduate programs in mechanical Engineering and Robotics.

• 2006

  • • Margot Pass '06 is a junior at Stanford majoring in Human Biology and planning to go to medical school.

    • Yiran Xia '06 is majoring in Film Studies at the University of Virginia.

• 2007

• 2008