Alumni News

Class Notes

Irwin Goldstein (Ph.D. in Agricultural Biochemistry, 1956) continues his research as professor emeritus at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he has been a faculty member for 40 years. Before going to Michigan, he did his Ph.D. research with Professor Fred Smith, an internationally known carbohydrate chemist; he was a Guggenheim Postdoctoral Fellow in London and a NIH Special Fellow in Stockholm. Goldstein has had a research grant on protein-carbohydrate interaction for 40 years, which makes it the longest running grant at the University of Michigan.

Lynn Rogers (M.S. in Ecology, 1976; Ph.D. in Ecology, 1977) is continuing the black bear research she began in 1968 as a grad student of Al Erickson in the Department of Ecology and Behavioral Biology. Now, she and her grad students are building the North American Bear Center (www.bear.org) in Ely and conducting black bear courses, largely, she says, “taught by the bears themselves.”

Jane Gillette Wattrus (B.S. in Biology, 1981) received her M.S. in Environmental Science in 1993 from the University of North Texas. Currently a faculty member in the biology department at College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, she will be presenting a paper entitled: “Environmental Ethics, Evolution, and Intelligent Design: What Would Darwin Say?” at Oxford University, England, in July 2006.

Kelly Bode Iyadurai (B.S. in Genetics and Cell Biology, 1996; M.S. in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology and Genetics, 2002) and husband Stanley Iyadurai (Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology, and Genetics, 1998) now reside in Phoenix, Arizona. Kelly works in a cancer research lab at the Translational Genomics Research Institute. Stanley completed his M.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2004 and is now completing his medical residency in neurology at the Barrow Neurological Institute. They have two boys, ages three and one.

Leif Dahleen (B.S. in Biochemistry; B.S. in Genetics and Cell Biology, 1998) will finish his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Florida this June and will begin traveling as a locum tenens physician.

Angie Vasquez (B.S. in Biology, 1998) returned to graduate school at the U’s Carlson School of Management for master’s degrees in Health Administration and in Business Administration. After completing her degrees in May 2004, she moved to New York City for a fellowship at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. After a brief career break, volunteering and traveling in South America for three months, she plans to return to the U.S.

Jessica Bell (Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics, 2001) is finishing her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health and will begin as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University - Medical College of Virginia in fall 2006.

Matthew Dufek (B.S. in Neuroscience, 2002) has been working at Hennepin County Medical Center researching the pharmacological effects of nicotine and the development of a new immunotherapy for treatment of nicotine abuse. He plans to continue his education with a Ph. D. in pharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics, by selecting a graduate school this spring.

Rachel Mann (M.S. in Applied Plant Sciences, 2003) is now working as a technical services scientist at Promega Corporation in Madison, Wisconsin.

Jessica Dreis Nguyen (B.S. in Biology, 2003) was married in October 2003 and has a 17-month-old son named Johnathan. She is in her second year at the U of M College of Pharmacy.

Bynthia M. Anose (Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics, 2004) is an assistant professor of biochemistry at Bethel University in St. Paul.

Kristopher Nielsen (B.S. in Biology, 2004) is a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and is currently stationed at Minot AFB, North Dakota. He graduated from his technical training with honors. He also just began his master’s in education and plans to teach biology after he completes his air force career.

Ted Sibley (B.S. in Biology, 2004) started medical school last fall at the University of Minnesota. He will be in the graduating class of 2009.

— EMILY JOHNSTON

Habitat for Biologists

Dean Elde would like to thank everyone who donated money or time to the Habitat for Biologists campaign to improve facilities at Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories. Thanks to your support, a new cabin for women students has been completed. To date, $43,000 of the needed $50,000 has been raised for this project. Donors have contributed $61,000 of $150,000 needed to rebuild historic cabin #4, which was built in 1911. If you would like to contribute to either of these, please use the enclosed envelope or contact Laurie Hennen at hennen@umn.edu.