Magnet Alumni News: Summer 2023

Public Service Appointments:

• Elizabeth Todd-Breland '00 was re-appointed to the Chicago Board of Education (Axios)

• Samir Paul '06 was appointed to the Maryland State Board of Education (governor.maryland.gov)

University Appointments:

• Lorrie Cranor '89 was appointed a University Professor at Carnegie Mellon

• Joshua Weitz '93 has joined UMD’s Department of Biology as the Clark Leadership Chair in Data Analytics

Academic Awards:

• Samit Dasgupta '95 and Brian Lawrence '07 were among the number theorists recognized with Frontiers of Science awards at the inaugural International Congress of Basic Science

• Jonah Berger '98 was recognized with a Sage Journals 10-Year Impact Award

Scientific Journal Publications:

Biology:

• L.F.M. Passalacqua, et al., incl. Samie Jaffrey '89, Intricate 3D architecture of a DNA mimic of GFP (Nature)

• Hormuzd Katki '92, et al., Increase in power by obtaining 10 or more controls per case when type-1 error is small in large-scale association studies (BMC Medical Research Methodology)

• S.W. Park, et al., incl. Joshua Weitz '93, Inferring the differences in incubation-period and generation-interval distributions of the Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

• H. Vu and Jason Ernst '98, Universal chromatin state annotation of the mouse genome (Genome Biology)

• A.C. Hill, C. Guo, E. Litkowski, Ani Manichaikul '99, et al., Large scale proteomic studies create novel privacy considerations (Scientific Reports)

• Y. Hao, et al., and Rahul Satija '02, Dictionary learning for integrative, multimodal and scalable single-cell analysis (Nature Biotechnology)

• Jean Fan '09, Why it’s worth making computational methods easy to use (Nature)

• I.M. Kaplow, A.J. Lawler, Daniel Schäffer '19, et al., Relating enhancer genetic variation across mammals to complex phenotypes using machine learning (Science)

Psychology and Neuroscience:

• G. Plummer, R. Raut, Bingni Wen Brunton '02, and S. Hakimian, Temporal dynamics of triphasic waves and generalized periodic discharges (P10-1.012) (Neurology)

• T.M. Davis and Wilma Bainbridge '05, Memory for artwork is predictable (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) (Wired)

• R.L. Azevedo-Pereira, et al., incl. Jack Berry '08, Decoding the molecular crosstalk between grafted stem cells and the stroke-injured brain (Cell Reports)

Mathematics:

• Rachel Kirsch '06 and J. Radcliffe, Many Cliques in Bounded-Degree Hypergraphs (SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics)

• Jared Duker Lichtman '14, A proof of the Erdős primitive set conjecture (Forum of Mathematics, Pi)

Astronomy/Planetary Science:

• J.M. Dickson, et al., incl. Caleb Fasset '98, Gullies on Mars could have formed by melting of water ice during periods of high obliquity (Science)

• C.S. Salem, Marc Pulupa '99, et al., Precision electron measurements in the solar wind at 1 au from NASA’s Wind spacecraft (Astronomy & Astrophysics)

• S. Wen, P.G. Jonker, Nick Stone '04, et al., Optical/UV emission in the Tidal Disruption Event ASASSN-14li: implications of disc modelling (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

Engineering:

• M. Kim, et al., and Minjoo Larry Lee '94, Metamorphic front- and rear-junction 1.7 eV GaInP solar cells with high open-circuit voltage (Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells)

• S. Kim, et al., and David Hu '97, Canine-inspired Unidirectional Flows for Improving Memory Effects in Machine Olfaction (Integrative and Comparative Biology)

• S. Gupta, M.H. Zaki, and Adan Vela '99, HISS: A Pedestrian Trajectory Planning Framework Using Receding Horizon Optimization (IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems)

• S. Feng, et al., incl. Erica Hartmann '05, Intensity of sample processing methods impacts wastewater SARS-CoV-2 whole genome amplicon sequencing outcomes (Science of The Total Environment)

• R.K. Padhy,  Aaditya Chandrasekhar '09, and K. Suresh, FluTO: Graded multi-scale topology optimization of large contact area fluid-flow devices using neural networks (Engineering with Computers)

• Y. Zhai, A. De Boer, J. Yan, Benjamin Shih '09, et al., Desktop fabrication of monolithic soft robotic devices with embedded fluidic control circuits (Science Robotics)

Medicine:

• S.A. Berg and Atish Choudhury '95, Mutual ATRaction: Assessing synergy of berzosertib with sacituzumab govitecan (Clinical Cancer Research)

• A. Dixit, D.L. Heavner, L.C. Baker, and Eric Sun '96, Association Between "Balance Billing" Legislation and Anesthesia Payments in California: A Retrospective Analysis (Anesthesiology)

• M. Michaux, J.M. Chan, Luke Bergmann '98, et al., Spatial cluster mapping and environmental modeling in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (World Journal of Gastroenterology)

• M.E. Peek, Attia Goheer '00, and S. Saha, The RWJF Health Policy Research Scholars: Interdisciplinary leaders advancing health equity (Health Services Research)

• P.M. Rosa-Nieves, K. Plampton, T. Evans, and Melodi Javid Whitley '03, Successful Treatment of a Keloid With Surgical Excision Followed by Pentoxifylline, Intralesional Corticosteroid, and Intralesional 5-Fluorouracil (Dermatologic Surgery)

• Z.V. Aslami, C.R. Leland, Sophie Strike '03, et al., Symptomatic neuroma development following en bloc resection of skeletal and soft tissue tumors: A retrospective analysis of 331 cases (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery)

• S.E. Turbett, C.H. Tomkins-Tinch, Melis Anahtar '04, et al., Distinguishing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Persistence and Reinfection: A Retrospective Cohort Study (Clinical Infectious Diseases)

• Alexander Berger '04, et al., Effects of Same-Day Discharge on 30-Day Readmission Rates in Women Aged 65 Years and Older Undergoing Minimally Invasive Pelvic Organ Prolapse Surgery (Obstetrics & Gynecology)

• S.A. Sabe, et al., incl. Cynthia Xu '08, Sitagliptin therapy improves myocardial perfusion and arteriolar collateralization in chronically ischemic myocardium: A pilot study (Physiological Reports)

Politics:

• Maria Honeycutt '91 was quoted in a Politico article discussing flood insurance.

• Aaron Klein '94 was quoted in a Politico article discussing credit card fees.

• Jesse Lee '98 sent a memo on Bidenomics quoted in The Hill.

• Kristin Mink '03 was quoted in a Washington Post article on Montgomery County's rent stabilization bill.

• Anika Seth '21 wrote in the Yale Daily News: What comes next? Questions after the affirmative action decision.

In this Newsletter:

• Maneesh Agrawala '90 spoke to Silver Quest about his experience in computer graphics from Blair to Stanford

• Alumni from the Class of '21 and Class of '22 spoke to Silver Quest offering advice from college

Distinguished Alumni Award: Nominate an alum to be recognized at Blair this winter