Author: yec14002

PHAR 1001: Toxic Chemicals and Health

Coveted Class

PHAR 1001: Toxic Chemicals and Health

David Grant at Shamrock Tattoo Company in West Hartford, Conn. One of his most popular lectures is on the toxic heavy metals in tattoo ink.

The Instructor:
“Everything is toxic,” David Grant likes to tell students early on in his time with them. He will say it matter-of-factly and then pause, contentedly watching the wheels turn with the processing of unexpected and perhaps unsettling information.

As a mind-bending example, Grant, professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Pharmacy, cites a hazing incident at a California university a decade ago in which a fraternity pledge was forced to drink a massive amount of water. This triggered hyponatremia, an abnormal drop in the body’s sodium level. The student died from too much water.

“It’s all about the dose,” says Grant, who loves hitting his students with surprising answers. He uses iClickers so students can answer his questions by clicking in, game show style, and the congregate answers appear on a board at the front. Much of the time, their assumptions prove widely held ”” and wrong.

Often it’s due to the all-about-the-dose maxim, which holds true, Grant points out, when it comes to many substances we generally think of as toxic. Cancer rates spike among populations exposed to radiation from a nuclear reactor meltdown, for instance, but one can undergo an X-ray without a significant health risk. “If I smoke a cigarette once in my life, it’s not going to hurt me,” he says. “Smoke two packs a day, that’s a different issue. Everything will kill you if you take in too much of it. Everything.”

Class Description:
Toxic Chemicals and Health is a freshman-level lecture course that addresses the risks to human health posed by exposure to various chemicals.
Most of his teaching is with upper-class science majors, so Grant was excited when the opportunity came to teach this introductory course for nonscientists. A good many of the university’s athletes enroll, and Grant finds they often are among the best students in the class. “That makes sense to me,” he says, “because high-level athletes tend to be interested in understanding their body’s interactions with supplements and substances that enhance athletic performance.” For one lecture, Grant brings in an emergency room physician who also happens to be a triathlete.

Grant’s Teaching Style:
In the Toxic Chemicals and Health classroom, Grant says he’s been learning as much as teaching ”” learning, that is, what can be toxic to a large lecture environment. After spending two semesters trying to hold the interest of 175 students, he’s decided to no longer allow open laptops.

“It’s not just that I’m annoyed when students are paying attention to something else,” he says. “I’ve done some research, and several publications support the idea that people are distracted by multitasking.” Grant believes there’s also a benefit in taking notes longhand, “because you cannot simply type everything the instructor is saying ”” you have to summarize, which helps you learn. It’s been scientifically shown.”

But don’t confuse Grant for a technophobe. His students all use the high-tech iClicker. With one of those devices in the hand of each student, and a wireless receiver on the podium beside him, Grant can make real-time assessments of how well his lectures and other class materials are being received.

“I can get a sense whether they’re understanding the concepts,” he says, “or even paying attention.”

Grant also invites students to text him with questions during the break halfway through the 75-minute lecture. He addresses some of those questions in the second half of class. “I’ve told other faculty I do this,” he says, “and they look at me, like, ”˜Are you crazy?’” However, any fears that he’ll be flooded with texts at all times have not come to be. For Grant, the texting option simply casts a wider net for student questions. “Those who are hesitant to speak up in class, for fear of looking stupid,” he says, “now get their questions answered.”

When and Where:
The course is taught each spring in Storrs.

Why We Want to Take It Ourselves:
“Bioterrorism agents,” Grant says brightly. He’s just been asked what topics are most popular with students, and this is the first thing to come to mind.

That may not be the most uplifting conversation piece, but it’s certainly a concern for many in today’s world, and Grant keeps Toxic Chemicals and Health fresh by shaping lectures around current issues. In a talk about food additives, for example, he delves into organic food ”” the science and the media hype. “It turns out there’s no nutritional difference between organic foods and conventional foods,” he says. That there’s an unquestioned fear of chemical additives among health food shoppers, says Grant, points to our culture’s shaky relationship with science. “We look for evidence to support our beliefs, and we find it, because there’s so much out there,” he says. “But we don’t look beyond what we want to find.”

This year, for the first time, Grant will address the use of animals in scientific research. “A lot of people think scientists abuse animals,” he says. “So we’ll talk about how we are allowed to utilize animals ”” how the process works, and how we have to guarantee humane treatment.”

When discussing environmental pollution, Grant cites the dredging project under way on the Hudson River in New York and the infamously lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan.

Another topic that hits home for students today is his tattoo lecture. Some tattoo inks, Grant points out, contain relatively high concentrations of heavy metals that are known toxins. So he asks: Does that make tattoos dangerous?

Once again, the answer doesn’t align with what a student might have heard from his or her mother after casually mentioning at family dinner an intention to get a tat.

“You’re getting such a small amount of toxic material,” says Grant, “it doesn’t matter, probably.” Probably?

“Well, it’s very hard to determine cause and effect, with so many variables,” says Grant. The concentration of toxins in tattoo ink will vary, as will the size and internal makeup of people being inked up. “So we just don’t know for sure,” he says. “And I know that ”˜we don’t know’ is an answer that can cause some angst. But it’s honest, and that’s what I want students to take away from this class.”

””JEFF WAGENHEIM

August 29, 2017
UConn’s Top Chef
Taste of Storrs

UConn’s Top Chef

Alongside mac & cheese and chicken parm Rob Landolphi is dishing up vegan crab cakes and crepes to order
In a windowless kitchen on the third floor of UConn’s Student Union, Rob Landolphi carefully plates a serving of his award-winning Vegan Crab Cakes (above). The culinary operations manager of campus dining services enjoys his job ”” and it’s a big one.

Landolphi oversees the feeding of what amounts to a small city of about 30,000 people. Under his direction, eight dining halls and assorted campus food venues, including eight cafÃ¨s, a food court, a food truck, and Chuck & Augie’s restaurant, serve well over 200,000 meals a week. Annually, his department dishes up nearly 5.8 million meals in Storrs alone, maaing UConn’s dining plan one of the largest in the country in terms of meals served.

Palate Palette

Coming up with dishes that appeal to the diverse palates and dietary needs of such a large campus community is a never-ending process that is equal parts art and science. In formulating recipes, Landolphi and his team factor in sales and meal plan data, on- and off-campus culinary trends, feedback from student focus groups, food allergies, and ethnic dishes for the growing number of international students.

“Kids are more discriminating about food than they have ever been,” he says. “We’re all about seasonal, sustainable, locally sourced food that’s as clean as possible, and bigger, bolder flavors.”

Recently his team ran the numbers to find the ten best sellers across all campus venues. Not surprisingly, students went for comfort and convenience first: the top three sellers are Mac & Cheese (made with organic milk, butter, and Cabot cheese), Chicken Parmesan, and Buffalo Chicken Wrap. But crepes and Cubanos also made the list. The days of cafeteria menus featuring liver and onions, tuna casserole, and chicken Ã la king ”” three dishes Landolphi found on some old UConn menus ”” are long gone.

Greenery

This spring UConn became one of a select few public universities in the U.S. to achieve the nonprofit Green Restaurant Association’s “green” certification for every dining hall on campus, based on practices used at each site to promote environmental sustainability.

That’s not enough for Landolphi. He is part of a nationwide effort to expand the number of plant-based dishes on campus menus. As a member of Menus for Change, UConn has committed to increasing the number of fish- and plant-based offerings by 20 percent this year while reducing the amount of meat on the menu by 10 percent. This year Dining Services also began serving a blended burger that adds mushrooms to reduce fat and calories.

Even with all this innovation, some student habits stay tried and true. “I love the jalapeÃ±o poppers,” says Courtney Dawless ’18 (ENG).

Keyion Dixon ’20 (ED) says he enjoys a bowl of Fruity Pebbles every night after studying, “It’s fast and easy.”

“Last night, I had French toast for dinner,” says Sara Nelson ’18 (ENG). “Sometimes I have pancakes. It’s college. Anything goes.” ””Loretta WAldman

TOP 10 best sellers

Mac & Cheese,
Union Street Marketa

Chicken Parmesan,
Dining Halls

Buffalo Chicken Wrap,
South Grab and Go

Mediterranean Salmon Salad,
Chuck and Augie’s

Trumbull Smoked Turkey Sandwich,
Dining Cafés

Crepe Station,
North

Chicken Apple Chipotle Burger,
One Plate, Two Plates

Garlicky Cheesy Pull- Apart Bread,
The Beanery

Cubano Sandwich,
Gelfenbien

“Not So Crabby” Vegan Crab Cakes,
Putnam
August 28, 2017
“In Russia, you simply couldn’t be a writer if you were Jewish”

“In Russia,
you simply couldn’t
be a writer if you
were Jewish”

“In Russia,
you simply couldn’t
be a writer if you
were Jewish”

Associate professor and acclaimed novelist Ellen Litman talks about her childhood in Russia and her life in Connecticut

by Katharine Whittemore
photo by Peter Morenus

“I’m interested in the intersection of the historical and the personal,” says Ellen Litman, a Russian-born novelist, short story writer, and associate professor and associate director of creative writing in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. No wonder she’s interested in that intersection: she’s sitting here in a Starbucks in Storrs instead of heating up a samovar in a Soviet-style flat in Moscow.

And all because of one historical moment that changed her life forever.

It was 1990, and the heady reforms of Perestroika had begun to brew up a backlash. One night, a prominent general went on state television to call for new pogroms against Soviet Jews, darkly insisting that Russia should be for Russians only. “The Chechen war hadn’t started yet,” recalls Litman, who is Jewish. “The Chechens would soon replace Jews as the main enemy. But at the time, Jews were still being watched.”

Her parents decided it was no longer safe to stay, and began the arduous process of applying to emigrate. In 1992, when Litman was 19, her family of four finally arrived in Pittsburgh, where an aunt already had settled. That raw, traumatic, sometimes bleakly funny adjustment period informs Litman’s debut book, The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories (Norton, 2007).

A young Litman in her family’s apartment in the Moscow neighborhood of Kuzminki, where she lived until age 5. And with her younger sister and her grandfather in Rechnoy Vokzal or River Terminal ”” where they were forced to move so that Ellen could attend the Number 76 School, which treated children with scoliosis. Her mother quit her job to stay with Ellen.

The book’s linked stories thread through one main character, teenage Masha, and those who share her Squirrel Hill neighborhood in Pittsburgh. The New York Times Book Review positively clucked about Chicken: “It’s warm, true and original, and packed with incisive, subtle one-liners.” In 2008, Litman was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, given to promising writers under age 35.

In 2014, her second book came out, also from Norton: Mannequin Girl, a sharp, poignant coming-of-age novel that reads uncannily like a memoir, since it’s about a young Russian Jewish girl who has scoliosis (or curvature of the spine, as Litman has) and must attend a government boarding school for others similarly afflicted (as Litman did).

Several novelists showered praise on it: Margot Livesey called it “entrancing and evocative” and Lara Vanpyar called it “beautiful and tender.” Wally Lamb ’72 (CLAS), ’77 MA called Kat, the protagonist, “the kind of character I love: an endearing, flawed, vulnerable young person who can be cruel one moment, compassionate the next, haughty in her insecurity; hormonal and humane in equal measures.”

Today, Litman lives with her husband and two young daughters in Mansfield. Last semester, she taught two classes in Storrs: Graduate Creative Writing, which studies works that overlap in genre, such as graphic novels or prose laced with poetry, and Honors I: Literary Study Through Reading and Research on immigrant narratives. That second one, of course, hits close to home.

We caught up with Litman one snowy day this past winter at the Starbucks on Storrs Road, chatting against the din of competing student conversations and coffee beans in mid-grind. She wore a quintessentially American fleece jacket but also fur-lined boots right out of “Doctor Zhivago.” The sun streamed over her wheat-colored hair as she sketched out, in a lyrical Russian accent, her personal history.

Q: Let’s start with your neighborhood in Moscow. Was your world “orderly, like a sheet of ruled paper, like hopscotch squares,” as you write in Mannequin Girl?

Litman: All the apartment buildings were identical. Tall cement boxes, light gray, built in the ’60s and ’70s. We lived in the northwest of Moscow in one of the new neighborhoods. Outside every apartment building entrance, a group of grandmothers would sit, socializing. They minded your business and always told you what you were doing wrong!

Q: Your father was a chemical engineer and your mother taught math. Your sister has worked in IT for Amazon and Microsoft. You went to the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, got a B.S. in information science from the University of Pittsburgh, and had a career in IT in the U.S., too. Your whole family was good with numbers ””but you ended up making a living from words. How did that happen?

Litman: In Russia, you simply couldn’t be a writer if you were Jewish. You couldn’t aspire to certain things. We were taught very early that you have to work twice as hard as others to get things. I kept a journal and wrote poetry, but there was no way to “be a writer.”

You have to understand that Russian Jews were never considered Russians. On my passport under nationality, it said “Jewish,” not “Russian.” Being Jewish affects a lot of things, unofficially and officially. Which college you can attend, which job you can get. Some colleges won’t accept Jews because “they have bad vision.” Others admit under a quota from the local party district.

Q: In Mannequin Girl, you write this of Kat: “She’s scared of changes … they’re almost never good. They start with this thinly veiled secrecy ”” a dismissal, a smile, a cryptic hint ”” only to explode in your face, breaking your life into bits, scattering them without a second thought.” Like Kat, you were diagnosed with scoliosis as a little girl, had to wear a brace until you were a teen, and had to go to a special school. How did the diagnosis change your family’s story?

Litman: It transformed our whole life. I was 3, and would start school when I turned 5. We had to move to a new neighborhood closer to the Number 76 School, which treated children with scoliosis. In Russia then, you couldn’t just move and buy or rent another place. You had to go to an exchange bureau and organize a swap, our apartment in our neighborhood for someone else’s apartment in another neighborhood. My mother quit her job in order to work at my school.

In the world we lived in, we did not know about bad illnesses or situations, so we didn’t know what to do when we learned I had scoliosis. A lot of things were kept out of the society. If a child had limitations, that child was hidden from the world, sent to a special school.

When we first immigrated to Pittsburgh, I wondered why there were so many disabled people on the streets, on the bus. Then I realized that it wasn’t that there were no disabled people in Russia. They were just hidden away. In America, they were visible.

Q: Was it hard to leave Russia?

Litman: When we decided to go, I was destroyed. In Russia, you never expect to move. There are not equal opportunities in other cities within Russia, so hardly anyone leaves the place where they were born. You expect to stay in the same neighborhood and have the same friends forever. Everything my life was built on was disappearing. It felt unimaginable to leave.

Q: How does your scoliosis affect you now?

Litman: It doesn’t affect me too much. Oh, it can be hard to find clothes that fit properly. There’s on and off pain, especially in winter, and if I stand on my feet more than 20 minutes, it takes its toll. I don’t do physical therapy any more, but I do a lot of swimming.

Q: Growing up in Russia, what was your impression of America?

Litman: In the early ’90s, they allowed one week of American TV per year. You could see “The Flintstones” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Dallas.” It was kind of like, wow, there was this bright and shiny gloss on everything in that world. I was very much aware I cannot have that gloss, and did not know how to get that gloss.

“I realized that it wasn’t that there were no disabled people in Russia. They were just hidden away. In America, they were visible.”

Q: What was it like to be an immigrant, and start over in a new country?

Litman:Â The Last Chicken in America was about the initial immigrant experience. Immigration is really hard on your ego. Even the simplest conversation is hard. My English was barely serviceable, but it was the best in the family, so I had to make appointments and ask directions. Your whole sense of self and identity changes. It was incredibly hard on my parents. It felt like everything was breaking apart in various ways. Nothing felt normal.

Q: After college, you worked a number of IT jobs, in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Boston. Were you also doing creative writing on the side?

Litman:Â Not at first, but I started taking writing classes at night at Cambridge Adult Education and then GrubStreet [a 20-year-old Boston-based creative writing center]. Julie Rold [a fiction writer and liberal arts professor at the Berklee School of Music] was the first person to say I had real talent. It was one of those moments that changes everything.

But writing was always a spare-time thing. I thought that maybe, if I got lucky, I could write part-time and do computer work part-time ”” but the value of what I was doing was edging out the computer stuff. And I was getting a lot of encouragement from teachers like Steve Almond [author of 10 books, including 2014’s Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto]. He’s wonderful. And so I decided to give myself a few years to really work on writing, and I applied to graduate programs.

Q: You attended the MFA program in creative writing at Syracuse University, studying with such luminaries as Gary Lutz, the poet and short story writer; and George Saunders, the MacArthur “Genius” Award winner and author of this year’s acclaimed Lincoln in the Bardo. How was that experience?

Litman: I got incredibly lucky! George Saunders became my thesis advisor, and he was generous to me, and to all his students. I learned a ton from his literature classes, and I learned how to teach creative writing classes too. He had a very intuitive approach to responding to students’ work, and to the energy of a class. He always talked about having respect for the reader. Think of your writing as if you’re driving a motorcycle, he’d say, and the reader is in the sidecar right next to you. You don’t want to condescend. The reader is an equal.

Half of us were doing traditional writing, half were more experimental. I’m more traditional. Gary Lutz approached language like a poet would. And the teachers all offered gentle encouragement if something could be improved in your writing, if each word was the best possible choice. I wrote the bulk of the stories for Last Chicken at Syracuse, and had the manuscript by the time I finished.

Q: How did you end up at UConn?

Litman: After I taught some workshops at Syracuse, I taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and also at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. After Norton published Last Chicken in America, I thought I’d see where it took me. The poet Penelope Pelizzon [associate professor, Department of English] was on the search committee at UConn. She was the one who really loved the book. She’s been my champion and mentor and supporter ever since. We went on to co-direct the Creative Writing Program in the English Department. It’s a really great program. It’s not a big program, but it’s found a lot of people whose work I admire.

I started here in 2007, before I had kids. And then when I had kids (Polina, 7, and Olwen, 3), I have found it to be a really supportive family-friendly environment. I love this place.

Q: Speaking of family, let me mention your husband, Ian Fraser. He’s a native of Johannesburg, South Africa, and was a playwright, fiction writer, and standup comedian there. How did you two meet?

Litman: On the T! We were on the Red Line in Boston. We both got on at Park Street and got off at Harvard Square. He was visiting America and asked if he was on the right platform, which started a conversation, and he asked if I’d like to go out on a coffee date. I said yes.
He left for home the next day, but we emailed and Skyped, met in London, and were married six months later.

Q: In the book, Kat’s parents are dissidents. Were your parents dissidents, too?

Litman: No. My parents were part of a generation that had experienced many hard things, and they did not want to be involved. They were very cautious and needed to be cautious. It was ingrained in me, too, to be cautious.

But I did have these two charismatic literature teachers in my life, who I just adored. Anechka and Misha [Kat’s parents in the book] were a product of that. But once I had these characters, I couldn’t rely on my own experience so much. I was more well-behaved than Kat. My eldest daughter is very self-confident and will debate her teacher and ask for help. And I’m this mouse!

Part of it is that my daughter’s a product of where she was born, and I’m still a product of where I was born. In Russia, in my brace, I had to brace myself. I was pointed at. And anyone, at any time, a neighbor, a clerk, will yell at you for no good reason. In my day, rudeness was just part of the reality in Russia. Everything is state-run. There was no competition. Why be nice? It’s not like you’ll go to a different store.

Q: What are you working on now?

Litman: I’m in the middle of three different projects. One is a sequel to Mannequin Girl, with some of the same characters, set in the late perestroika years. Having lived with perestroika, I’m very much interested in how it shaped one’s political sensibilities.

But of course, corruption set in after perestroika, and eventually this led the way to Putin. In America, people may believe in a leader. I don’t think many Russians have that idealism.

In my Immigrant Narrative class now, we talk about how America is supposed to be the land of immigrants. But it’s never been equally accepting to immigrants, letting in European immigrants but not Asian immigrants in the past, for instance. My students can find this a revelation. With what’s going on in the news with immigration, every day, it all completely resonates with them now. And with me.

August 28, 2017
Science to Startup

A Connecticut company plays the startup game in the land of innovation

BY COLIN POITRAS ’85 (CLAS)

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATIE CAREY

Biochemist Mark Driscoll is trying to crack open a stubborn microbe in his lab at UConn’s technology commercialization incubator in Farmington, Connecticut.

He needs to get past the microorganism’s tough outer shell to grab a sample of its DNA. Once he has the sample, Driscoll can capture the bacterium’s genetic ”˜fingerprint,’ an important piece of evidence for doctors treating bacterial infections and scientists studying bacteria in the human microbiome. It’s a critical element in the new lab technology Driscoll and his business partner, Thomas Jarvie, are developing.

But at the moment, his microbe isn’t cooperating. Driscoll tries breaking into it chemically. He boils it. He pokes and pushes against the outer wall. Nothing happens. This drug-resistant pathogen is a particularly bad character that has evolved and strengthened its shell over generations. It isn’t giving up its secrets easily.

Stymied, Driscoll picks up the phone and calls Professor Peter Setlow at UConn Health. A noted expert in molecular biology and biophysics, Setlow has been cracking open microbes since 1968.

A few hours later, Driscoll jumps on a shuttle and takes a quarter-mile trip up the road to meet with Setlow in person. He explains his predicament. Setlow nods and says, “Here’s what I would do.”

And it works.

Breakthrough

That brief encounter, that collaboration between a talented young scientist and a prominent UConn researcher working in Connecticut’s bioscience corridor, not only results in an important breakthrough for Driscoll’s and Jarvie’s new business ”” called Shoreline Biome ”” but also leads to a proposal for more research, a new finding, and at least one patent application.

In a broader sense, it also exemplifies the collaborative relationships that UConn and state officials hope will flourish under the University’s Technology Incubation Program or TIP, which provides laboratory space, business mentoring, scientific support, and other services to entrepreneurs in Connecticut’s growing bioscience sector. At incubators in Storrs and Farmington, TIP currently supports 35 companies that specialize in things like health care software, small molecule therapies, vaccine development, diagnostics, bio-agriculture, and water purification.

The program has assisted more than 85 startup companies since it was established in 2003. Those companies have had a significant impact on Connecticut’s economy, raising more than $50 million in grant funding, $80 million in debt and pay equity, and more than $45 million in revenue.

“This is not a coincidence,” says Driscoll as he recounts his microbe- cracking story in a small office across the hall from his lab. “This is what government is supposed to do. It’s supposed to set up an environment where these kinds of things can happen.”

Bold Moves

Driscoll and Jarvie, a physical chemist and genomics expert, arrived at UConn’s Farmington incubator in June 2015 with a bold business concept but virtually no idea of how to get it off the ground. Both had worked in the labs at 454 Life Sciences in Branford, Connecticut, one of the state’s early bioscience success stories that ended up moving to the San Francisco area.

Driscoll and Jarvie decided to stay in Connecticut. They had talked about starting a business based on new technology that would more quickly and precisely identify different strains of bacteria in the human microbiome, the trillions of good and bad microorganisms living in our bodies that scientists believe play an important role in our health and well-being. The study of the microbiome is a rapidly growing area of biomedical research. There are currently more than 300 clinical trials of microbiome-based treatments in progress, according to the National Institutes of Health, and the global market for microbiome products is estimated to exceed $600 million a year by 2023.

“It’s the most frightening thing I have ever done,” says Driscoll with a chuckle. “As scientists, we know that nine out of 10 new companies fail. That sound you constantly hear in the back of your head is the ”˜hiss’ of money being burned. The pressure is intense. You have to reach the next level before your money goes to zero because when the money’s gone, you’re done.”

Fortunately, Driscoll and Jarvie’s decision to launch a bioscience company came at a time when Connecticut and UConn were committing resources to strengthen the state’s bioscience research sector.

As part of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s Bioscience Connecticut initiative approved in 2011, Connecticut’s legislature allocated $864 million to efforts that would position the state as a leader in bioscience research and innovation. That initiative included the expansion of UConn’s technology incubator site in Farmington, the opening of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine (JAX), and major upgrades at UConn Health to boost its research capacity.

Those resources were tailor made for a fledgling bioscience company like Shoreline Biome. Driscoll and Jarvie remember the early days when company ”˜meetings’ took place at a local Starbucks, their official address and warehouse was Driscoll’s garage, and they didn’t even have a lab.

But they did have a vision of what Shoreline Biome could be. They knew that George Weinstock, one of the world’s foremost experts in microbial genomics and one of their customers at 454 Life Sciences, had just arrived at Jax. They reached out to him with an offer to collaborate. Weinstock not only agreed, he became their principal scientific advisor.

About the same time, Driscoll and Jarvie began exploring the possibility of renting space at TIP in Farmington because of its proximity to people like Weinstock and Setlow. “If you’re looking to start a bioscience company, in some parts of the state the cost for commercial space is going to be more than your will to live,” says Driscoll. “But here, the rent is graduated. So we were able stay here in the beginning for just a few hundred bucks a month.”

The pair also obtained $150,000 in pre-seed funding from Connecticut Innovations, the state’s quasi-public investment authority supporting innovative, growing companies; and a $500,000 equity investment from the Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund (CBIF).

Along with the pre-seed investment funds, CBIF’s staff helped guide Driscoll and Jarvie through the early stages of business development and introduced them to the investment community. AndCBIF member Patrick O’Neill took a seat on Shoreline Biome’s board. O’Neill’s business savvy has been crucial to the company’s early success, says Driscoll.

Tracking the Bad Guys

The lab kit Driscoll and Jarvie are currently testing is a low-cost, off-the-shelf tool that replaces hours of painstaking hands-on processing of patient samples for bacteria DNA testing. It’s about getting DNA out of the bacteria from a complicated environmental sample and doing that in a fast, cheap, and comprehensive way, explains Jarvie.

Researchers and medical professionals have previously relied on targeted testing and laboratory cultures to identify different bacteria strains. But many bacteria species are hard to grow in the lab, making identification and confirmation difficult. Even when scientists can confirm the presence of a bacteria such as salmonella in a patient sample, the findings are often limited, which can impact diagnosis and treatment.

“The DNA fingerprint region in a bacteria is about 1,500 bases long,” says Jarvie. “Most of the sequencing technologies out there are only getting a fraction of that, like 150 bases or 10 percent. It’s like relying on a small segment of a fingerprint as opposed to getting the entire fingerprint. You can’t really identify the organisms that well.”

Jarvie describes the difference this way. Say you are running tests for mammals on three different samples. Current sequencing technology would identify the samples as a primate, a canine, and a feline. With Shoreline Biome’s technology, the results are more definitive. They would say, ”˜you have a howler monkey, a timber wolf, and a mountain lion.’

That level of specificity is important to researchers and medical professionals studying or tracking a bacteria strain or disease. Driscoll says the kit is not limited to identifying harmful bacteria like salmonella, listeria, or MRSA. It also can assist researchers investigating the microbiome’s role in maintaining the so-called ”˜good’ bacteria that keeps us healthy as well as its role in other ailments such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and even mental health disorders like schizophrenia.

For example, the kit easily lets a researcher compare 50 bacteria samples from individuals with multiple sclerosis and 50 samples from individuals who don’t have the disease to see whether the presence or absence of a particular bacteria in the microbiome plays a role in impacting the body’s nervous system.

“If you don’t make it cost effective, if you don’t make it practical, people won’t do it,” says Driscoll. “It’s like going to the moon. Sure, we can go to the moon. But it takes a lot of time and money to build a rocket and get it ready. With our kit, all that stuff for the moon shot is already pre-made. We provide the whole system right off the shelf. You don’t need to know how to extract DNA fingerprints, or use a DNA sequencer, or analyze DNA. All you have to do is buy our kit and turn the crank.”

As part of their product testing, Shoreline Biome is working with researchers at UConn Health and JAX to learn more about a particularly toxic and potentially fatal intestinal bacterium, Clostridium difficile, otherwise known as C.diff.

“People who track this disease, especially in hospitals where it is a problem, want to know how it gets in there,” says Driscoll. “Does it come from visitors? Does it come from doctors? You have all these spores floating around. You can answer that by looking at the bacteria’s genetics. But if you can’t get to the bacteria’s DNA, you can’t identify it.

“Our tool cracks open the microbes so you can get at their DNA and fingerprint the bugs to see what you have,” says Driscoll. “It lets people see everything. And we’ve simplified the software so you don’t have to be a skilled microbiologist to do it. A person in the lab can sit down and with just a few clicks, all of this stuff comes up and tells you these are the bad guys, the infectious organisms that are present, and these are the good guys.”

“You can sit around and hope that companies form or you can try to make your own luck.”

Deer In the Headlights

While their focus is certainly on growing Shoreline Biome, Driscoll and Jarvie also have come to appreciate Connecticut’s broader effort in building a strong bioscience research core to help drive the state’s economy. Providing scientist entrepreneurs with an affordable base of operations, working labs, access to high-end lab equipment, and a cadre of science peers ready to help, takes some of the pressure off when launching a new company.

“This is all part of a plan the governor and the legislature have put together to have this stuff here,” Driscoll says. “You can sit around and hope that companies form or you can try to make your own luck. You set up a situation where you are likely to succeed by bringing in JAX, opening up a UConn TIP incubator across the street, and setting up funding. Is that going to start a company? Who knows? But then you have Tom and I, two scientists kicked loose from a company, and we notice there are all these things happening here. We could have left for California or gone to the Boston-Cambridge research corridor, but instead, we decided to stay in Connecticut.”

Mostafa Analoui, UConn’s executive director of venture development, including TIP, says the fact that two top scientists like Driscoll and Jarvie decided to stay in Connecticut speaks to the state’s highly skilled talent pool and growing innovation ecosystem.

“Instead of going to Boston or New York, they chose to stay in Connecticut, taking advantage of UConn’s TIP and other innovation programs provided by the state to grow their company, create jobs, and benefit society with their cutting-edge advances in microbiome research,” says Analoui.

UConn provides critical support to ventures at all stages of development, but it is especially important for startups, says Jeff Seemann, vice president for research at UConn and UConn Health.

When asked if they still have those moments of abject fear that they aren’t going to make it, Driscoll and Jarvie laugh.

“Every day is a deer-in-the-headlights moment,” says Driscoll. “Even when things are going well, it’s still a huge risk.”

“It never goes away,” agrees Jarvie. But during a recent visit to the Shoreline Biome lab, both men are in good spirits.

The company met the 12-month goals set in their CBIF funding agreement in just six months. For that effort, Driscoll and Jarvie received another $250,000 check, the second of their two CBIF payments.

In the world of business startups, however, there is little time for extended celebration. The two scientists mark the milestone with smiles and a fist bump, then turn around and get back to work.

August 25, 2017
Letters to the Editor – Summer 17

To the Editor

Letters

Michael Lynch’s cover story struck a nerve with many of you. Most pledged to use this as a wake-up call to listen to the opinions of others. A few, however, championed divisiveness as necessary to discourse. A sampling is below, along with feedback on other stories from our Spring issue.

Have something to tell us? We’d love to hear it! Email the editor at lisa.stiepock@uconn.edu or post something on our website.

SAVING CIVILITY

Listening takes time and patience. Time is something we have too little of these days in our fast-paced, instant-gratification society. So it is much easier to just impose our own ideas with a like-it-or-leave-it attitude and move on. Time saved! Nothing accomplished. I applaud you for addressing this important issue of intellectual humility. Our society needs your work to bring us back together again. Only by working together will our society as a whole survive. Thanks.

Winifred Schroeder ’65 (NUR)
Bradenton, Florida

What a great subject! I’m a Democrat and guilty of the intellectual snobbery to which you refer in your article. I think by my liberal posts on social media I’ve made a lot of Facebook friends; however, we all think we are right 100% of the time! I hope to get updates on the project!

Susan Williams ’77 MD
Danielson, Connecticut

This research is very important. Reading your essay urges me to be more receptive and tolerant to the viewpoints of others. I’m a very liberal person, but I realize that I’m too quick to contradict and search for a reason to refute the other person. You’ve provided me with much to think about and process. Meantime, I’m listening and keeping my mouth shut. Thanks.

Virginia Arlene Cheatham ’78 (CLAS), ’80 MPA
Clemson, South Carolina

NEW RESEARCH PROVES THAT SOME KIDS “GROW OUT” OF THEIR AUTISM SYMPTOMS

The treatments that are being described and the effects on brain pathways and
activation areas demonstrate the effects of “mediated learning experiences” that are at the core of learning social skills. Adults and older children are intentional sources of modeling, and directed mediation can help autistic children (and others with various forms of brain damage) develop new pathways of learning when traditional, haphazard methods are ineffective. This study shows the new pathways that are developed, which is very encouraging evidence of real changes in the brain.

Robert Kirschenbaum ’72 (CLAS),’78 MA,’82 Ph.D.
Tacoma, Washington

THE VOICE OF WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY

Nice to see women’s ice hockey getting the attention it deserves! Kailey may have let a bit of sexism slip with the comment that hockey is “such a masculine sport.” I was a member of the team from 1977”“1979 with my very lovely and feminine friend Ann Wassel Hughes ’78. And I was a home ec education major.

Linda LaFrance Garvey ’79 (ED)
Groton, Massachusetts

TOM’S TRIVIA

I love trivia. What a great way to learn about the important history and traditions of UConn in a fun way! Keep up the good work on the magazine. I actually read much of the magazine ”” I am an alum of UMass and also receive its magazine, which I promptly toss due to lack of interest.

David Adams, ’71 Ph.D.
Hadley, Massachusetts

SHOW HIM THE MONEY

Go Greg! Great article. I was a season ticket holder, and I enjoyed Greg’s hustle and overall play.

John E. McGinn, ’69 (CLAS)
Sandwich, Massachusetts

ALL DRESSED UP

It’s been many years, but I wonder if hidden somewhere in the deepest recesses of your storage warehouse there might be lurking a lizard costume. It would be from the summer of 1978. The production was Edward Albee’s “Seascape.” Two such costumes were created, one for me and the other for Marta Urrutia. Continue the great work.

Luke Lynch ’79 (SFA)
Milford, Connecticut

Costume Shop Supervisor Susan Tolis replies:Â I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that we have any lizard costumes in stock. Lots of times these things get transformed into something else for a new production.

FOR CAITLIN OSWALD ’09 (ENG), IT IS ROCKET SCIENCE

“Hey, I know that lady!” Baby-Q reading up on his mama in #uconnmagazineÂ Â Caitlin Oswald ’09 (ENG) @caitlin oswald

August 25, 2017
Class Notes

Class Notes

1950

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2010

Share your news with UConn Nation!

Your classmates want to know about ”” and see ”” the milestones in your life. Send us news about weddings, births, new jobs, new publications, and more ”” along with hi-res photos ”” to: Alumni News & Notes, UConn Foundation, 2384 Alumni Drive, Unit 3053, Storrs, CT 06269.

Submissions may be edited for clarity or length.

1950s

Everett Hyland ’52 (CAHNR), a Stamford, Conn., native and survivor of Pearl Harbor, reports that he is living in Honolulu, Hawaii. At age 93, he is still an active volunteer at the Memorial. He has fond memories of his four years in Storrs, where he attended the School of Agriculture and was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Norman Freyer ’58 (CAHNR) was recently awarded a lifetime membership in the Citrus Watercolor Society. He is a past president of the society and the only lifetime member. He is also a member of the Nature Coast Painters art critique group and The Art Center of Citrus County, and is an associate member of the Florida Watercolor Society. His work can be seen on his website.

1960s

Theodore Pisk ’65 (CLAS) and his father, Stan Pisk, were inducted into the Connecticut section of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America’s Hall of Fame in November during a ceremony at Foxwoods Resort Casino. Stan Pisk, a WWII vet who fought in the Normandy invasion and Battle of the Bulge, was awarded posthumously. Both Pisks worked for many years as golf professionals at the A.W. Stanley Municipal Golf Course in New Britain. Ted Pisk, who majored in political science and minored in economics at UConn, did not play on the University’s golf team because he was already a professional golfer by then.

John Strom ’65 (CLAS), ’76 MAÂ published a new book,Â Maximizing Your ROPI””Return on Your People Investment. It focuses on how to attract and retain the “best people” by creating the “best job” in the “best organization,” says Strom, who has more than 30 years of experience in management training, coaching, and consulting. He was sports editor and editor-in-chief of theÂ Connecticut Daily CampusÂ when he was an undergraduate.

John Harrington ’66 (CLAS)Â published a novel in 2016 with Archway Books,Â The Year of the Lieutenant. He wrote it in the mid-’70s, then rewrote it in recent years. He tells us it is the story of United States Air Force personnel serving in Thailand during the time of the Vietnam War.

Robert Nicoletti ’67 MA, ’68 Sixth YearÂ reports that his bookÂ Parenthood : A Life Sentence? A Journey from Womb to TombÂ has been released by Outskirts Press. Nicoletti is a retired school superintendent and is currently on the faculty in the Graduate School of Education at Quinnipiac University.

Carol Milardo Floriani ’68 (NUR)
reports that she is currently “retired” in Easley, S.C., but continues to work as a hospice nurse, visiting patients in their homes. Her previous careers were in nursing education and management of hospices and home health agencies in California. “I am ever grateful for Dean Widmer and Jo Henderson for my great UConn education!” she says.

Arno Zimmer ’68 (CLAS), of Bridgeport, Conn., has releasedÂ Return to Parlor City, the sequel to his first 1950s mystery novel,Â The Parlor City Boys. The novel follows a master con artist on the run who can’t resist the opportunity to return to the scene of his earlier crimes. Zimmer also has written three children’s books and a business textbook.

1970s

Getulio P. Carvalho ’71 MA, ’76 Ph.D,Â a member of the board of directors for the Government Accountability Project (GAP), has funded the Carvalho Fellowship for International Research, which will be awarded each summer. The GAP is a nongovernmental organization and law firm in Washington, D.C., that works to protect and defend whistleblowers in the U.S. and around the world. The 2016 fellow is Keith Henderson, who teaches law at American University and specializes in whistleblower-protection legislation.

Ann I. Weber ’74 (CLAS), ’85 JD, of Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, was recently selected to the 2016 Massachusetts Super Lawyers List in the field of elder law. Weber, who lives in Granville, Mass., concentrates her practice in the areas of estate planning, estate administration, probate, and elder law.

Arthur Horwitz ’76 (CLAS)was elected in February as board chair of Detroit Public Television, the 10th largest PBS affiliate. He recently concluded a four-year term as commissioner and chair of the nonpartisan Michigan Civil Rights Commission, which in 2016 received more than 2,000 claims of housing, employment, and public accommodation discrimination and completed an extensive investigation into alleged civil rights violations centered on the Flint water crisis. He is president of Renaissance Media. His wife,Â Â Gina Wesler Horwitz ’78 (CLAS), is a senior major gift officer for Wayne State University in Detroit.

Gregory S. Woodward ’77 (SFA)Â has been named the new president of the University of Hartford in Connecticut effective July 1. Woodward, who graduated magna cum laude from UConn with a bachelor of music, becomes the sixth president of the liberal arts school, which houses The Hartt School of music. Woodward, a composer, musician, scholar, and athlete, has been president of Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., since 2012 and was formerly dean of the school of music at Ithaca College. He grew up in West Hartford, Conn., and attended Hall High School.

Paul Agrimis ’79 (ENG), of Portland, Ore., recently received the Distinguished Practitioner award from the Oregon Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Clifford A. Lange ’79 (CLAS)Â was recently promoted to executive vice president-chief financial officer and chief actuary of Boston Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Canton, Mass. Lange and his wife,Â Â Cindy Lange ’87 (CLAS)moved to Mattapoisett, Mass., in 2016 now that their three daughters have “grown up and left the nest.” In 2016, Lange completed 120.7 miles in a three-day footrace called “Across the Years” in Glendale, Ariz. In 2015, he completed 61.1 miles in a 24-hour footrace called “24 Hours Around the Lake” in Wakefield, Mass.

1980s

Chris Gedney ’81 (ED)was hired by Arizona State University (ASU) after receiving her Ph.D. in social work from the University of Utah in May 2017. Gedney was the first UConn women’s basketball scholarship athlete and retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Her dissertation, the first randomized controlled trial of a military sexual assault intervention, revealed major shortfalls and significant areas for improvement. She presented her findings to several members of Congress and is currently developing curriculum for a military social work concentration at ASU.

LeeAnn (Landrigan) Coleman ’83 (BUS), controller of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, was promoted in 2016 to deputy director of financial services. She was honored by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as an Innovation Excellence Award winner, which recognizes innovative ideas, hard work, and commitment by Boston city employees. Her team was selected for the role they played in launching the Authority’s new web-based Property Management Solution to proactively manage its commercial real estate portfolio.

Eric T. Johnson ’84 (CLAS), of Pomfret Center, Conn., recently published a book,Â From Park Ranger to Conservation Police Officer, which chronicles his career in conservation law enforcement.

Susan Brillhart ’84 (NUR), of Hoboken, N.J., a pediatric nurse practitioner for 30 years, was recently honored for her commitment as a volunteer for neglected and abused children in the Hudson County court system. She was givenÂ New Jersey MonthlyÂ magazine’s Seeds of Hope Award for her commitment as one of the state’s most dedicated volunteers.

FlutistÂ Suzanne Bona ’85 (SFA)Â was the featured guest performer in a chamber music concert Oct. 15, 2016, at the University of Guam in Mangilao. She also gave a master class for flute students. Her nationally syndicated radio program, “Sunday Baroque,” is broadcast via KPRG, the local public radio station in Guam.

Leslie Imse ’87 MA, chair of the music department for Farmington public schools, was presented the Departmental Arts Program Excellence Award by the Connecticut Arts Administrators Association. “My education at the University of Connecticut has served me well in the field of music, and I am a proud Husky!” she said.

Heather Sherman Somers ’88 (CLAS)Â was elected to the Connecticut State Senate in November 2016.

FlutistÂ Sharon Buchta Rizzo ’88 (SFA)Â is a professional cellist and music educator in Big Bear Lake, Calif. She is responsible for the first strings program in the community and founder of MountainTop Strings of California, a youth orchestra and camerata that plays throughout the region. The camerata performed March 13, 2017 at Carnegie Hall as part of the National Youth Concert.

Dr. John Thomas Marcoux ’89 (CAHNR)Â of Sudbury, Mass., a foot and ankle surgeon practicing as program director for podiatric medicine and surgery residency at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, Mass., received the 2017 American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons’ Distinguished Service Award, one of the college’s highest honors. He was presented with the award at the ACFAS Annual Scientific Conference in Las Vegas in February 2017.

1990s

Don Langer ’90 (BUS), the CEO for the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas, has been elected to the board of directors of Special Olympics Texas.

Erin Sherman Pezqueda ’91 (CLAS), 6th Yearrecently received her UConn Administrator Preparation Program diploma from UConn.

Kathleen (Szewczyk) Kenney ’93 (ED)Â received the 2016 Pennsylvania State Association of Health Physical Education Recreation and Dance Professional Honor Award.

Jessica McCauley ’97 (BUS), of Monroe, Conn., was recently named a partner in the accounting firm of Beers, Hamerman, Cohen & Burger. McCauley joined the firm in 2006 and specializes in providing accounting and auditing services to a variety of organizations including not-for-profits, manufacturing companies, and employee benefit plans. Outside of work, she serves as treasurer and board member of the Monroe Travel Basketball League and is a member of the finance and investment committees of the Kennedy Center.

Maura A. Power ’94 (CAHNR), a PE teacher and running coach at Trinity Catholic Academy in Southbridge, Mass., ran her first marathon, in Clonakilty, Ireland, in December. She says it took her six hours and was hard mentally in the middle of the trek, from miles 13 to 18. Her trip was sponsored by Vibram, an Italian company that produces rubber outsoles for footwear, and Team Hoyt Running Chairs, which makes running chairs for people with disabilities.

Jennifer Monahan ’95 MBAÂ recently released her first book,Â This Trip Will Change Your Life: A Shaman’s Story of Spirit Evolution, which was selected as a finalist in the 2016 USA Best Book Awards in the Spiritual-Inspirational category.

Cheryl (Dyson) Stephenson ’99 (CAHNR)Â was recently promoted to controller of MetroHartford Alliance.

2000s

Danielle (Beil) Nartowicz ’03 (BUS)Â recently was promoted to Group Vice President of Financial Planning at Macy’s. She has been with the company for more than 10 years.

Rebecca J. Pirozzolo-Mellowes ’04 JDÂ has been elected to the partnership at Foley & Lardner’s Milwaukee office.

Jill (Curtis) Heslin ’04 (CLAS)Â andÂ Kevin Heslin ’05 (CLAS)Â welcomed their first son, Brian Curtis Heslin, in October 2016. They were married in 2009.

Brian E. Tims ’05 (BUS), ’08 JD,Â an attorney at Halloran & Sage LLP, was selected forÂ The Connecticut Law Tribune’sÂ “New Leaders in the Law Class of 2016.” A panel of judges chose him based on his efforts and achievements in development of the law, advocacy and community contributions, service to the bar, and peer and public recognition.

2010s

Barbara Jean Beck Beeching ’10 Ph.D.Â reports that she published a book,Hopes and Expectations: The Origins of the Black Middle Class in Hartford, through SUNY Press in January 2017. She earned her first degree in journalism in 1950 at the University of Missouri and returned to academia later in life, earning a master’s in American studies at Trinity College in 1996 and a doctorate in history at the University of Connecticut in 2010.

Ron Ciak ’11 (CLAS, ENG)Â marriedÂ Collyn Seeger ’08 (CLAS), ’09 MSÂ on Oct. 16, 2016, in Groton, Conn., at the Branford House on the grounds of UConn Avery Point.

Jordan Bennett ’11 (CLAS)Â recently took a job as senior public relations manager at The Berman Group, a marketing, public relations, and event-planning firm in New York City. Prior to that, he was a member of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign’s rapid response communications team and previously was associate director of communications for Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Kelcie Reid ’13 (CLAS), ’16 JD, ’16 MPHÂ has joined the law offices of John Q. Gale in Hartford as an associate attorney. She was admitted to the Connecticut Bar Association in November after earning her law degree and a master’s in public health degree from UConn in May.

Bayla Ostrach ’14 Ph.D., published a book,Â Health Policy in a Time of Crisis: Abortion, Austerity, and Access, in January 2017.

Shane Kelly ’14 (ENG), who is currently working on his doctorate in physics at the University of California Riverside, was selected as an inaugural recipient of the UC-National Lab In-Residence Graduate Fellowship. He’ll conduct research and get training at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in a project titled “Strongly Coupled Atomtronics.”

2010s

Barbara Jean Beck Beeching ’10 Ph.D.Â reports that she published a book,Hopes and Expectations: The Origins of the Black Middle Class in Hartford, through SUNY Press in January 2017. She earned her first degree in journalism in 1950 at the University of Missouri and returned to academia later in life, earning a master’s in American studies at Trinity College in 1996 and a doctorate in history at the University of Connecticut in 2010.

Ron Ciak ’11 (CLAS, ENG)Â marriedÂ Collyn Seeger ’08 (CLAS), ’09 MSÂ on Oct. 16, 2016, in Groton, Conn., at the Branford House on the grounds of UConn Avery Point.

Jordan Bennett ’11 (CLAS)Â recently took a job as senior public relations manager at The Berman Group, a marketing, public relations, and event-planning firm in New York City. Prior to that, he was a member of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign’s rapid response communications team and previously was associate director of communications for Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Kelcie Reid ’13 (CLAS), ’16 JD, ’16 MPHÂ has joined the law offices of John Q. Gale in Hartford as an associate attorney. She was admitted to the Connecticut Bar Association in November after earning her law degree and a master’s in public health degree from UConn in May.

Bayla Ostrach ’14 Ph.D., published a book,Â Health Policy in a Time of Crisis: Abortion, Austerity, and Access, in January 2017.

Shane Kelly ’14 (ENG), who is currently working on his doctorate in physics at the University of California Riverside, was selected as an inaugural recipient of the UC-National Lab In-Residence Graduate Fellowship. He’ll conduct research and get training at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in a project titled “Strongly Coupled Atomtronics.”

In Memoriam

Alumni

Faculty & Staff

Below is a list of deaths reported to us since the last issue ofÂ UConn Magazine.

Please share news of alumni deaths and obituaries withÂ UConn MagazineÂ by sending an email to:Â alumni-news@uconnalumni.comÂ or writing to Alumni News & Notes, UConn Foundation, 2384 Alumni Drive Unit 3053, Storrs, CT 06269.

Alumni

Aaron Anderson ’87 (CLAS)
Feb. 7, 2015

Donald W. Linskey Sr. ’60 (BUS)
March 12, 2015

Fred Charamut ’54 (BUS)
Aug. 15, 2015

Patricia Grace (Ingraham) Vinsonhaler ’74 (CLAS), ’79 MFA
Sept. 8, 2015

Stanley Perkowski Jr. ’72 (ENGR)
Dec. 17, 2015

Robert G. Feller ’50 (ENGR)
Dec. 23, 2015

Paul J. Lombardi Sr. ’63
Dec. 24, 2015

Paul Alan Tibbitts ’53 (CLAS)
Jan. 6, 2016

Linda Y. Dods ’69 PhD
Jan. 7, 2016

Leon C. Kirk ’53 (ENGR)
Jan. 9, 2016

Ernest A. Moeckel ’68 (BUS)
March 23, 2016

Â Susan Quenk Lehr ’49 (CLAS)
March 1, 2016

Susan Quenk Lehr ’49 (CLAS) died March 1 in Austin, Texas, at age 88.Â A long distance swimmer, she swam competitively in Long Island Sound, in Japan, and elsewhere. She earned her bachelor’s in Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Connecticut. In 1952, she worked for the U.S. Army in Japan as a civilian. She married Marvin Lehr in 1956 and eventually moved to Ohio, where they raised four sons. She later became a program director for the Battered Women’s Shelter in Akron, Ohio, and later served as director of rehabilitation at the Akron Child Guidance Center.

Faculty & Staff

Â Carroll Osborne “C.O.” Bennett
Jan. 9, 2016

Carroll Osborne “C.O.” Bennett, a UConn Engineering professor for 23 years, who coauthored one of the fundamental texts of chemical engineering, died on Jan. 9, 2016, in Paris. He started his teaching career at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., as a professor of Chemical Engineering and, later, built the Chemical Engineering department from the ground up at the University of Nancy in France. Together with Purdue colleague Jack Myers, he wroteÂ Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer, a textbook that has become a worldwide standard classroom and reference work. In 1964, he became a professor at the UConn School of Engineering, where he did pioneering work in unsteady state kinetics and catalysis studies and built a unique high pressure research facility. In 1980, he was selected for the Warren K. Lewis Award, the American Institute of Chemical Engineering’s highest award for chemical engineering education.

Â Charles Owen Woody Jr.
Feb. 13, 2016

Charles Owen Woody Jr., of Storrs, Conn., died Feb. 13, 2016, at age 85. He was an associate professor at UConn starting in 1968, teaching courses in reproductive physiology, lactation physiology, and elementary genetics. Later, he established and was the first head of the Transgenic Animal Facility. Woody became a full professor in 1981 and retired in 1992 as a professor of Animal Sciences. He continued to work part-time at the Transgenic Animal Facility until 1995.

Gaston Eduardo Hernandez Diaz
June 13, 2015

Gaston Eduardo Hernandez Diaz, known as Gaston Hernandez, an associate professor of Mathematics at UConn, died June 13, 2015, at age 64.Â He leaves his wife,Â Eliana D. Rojas, a faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in UConn’s NEAG School of Education.

Share your news with UConn Nation!

Your classmates want to know about the milestones in your life. Send news about weddings, births, new jobs, new publications, and more to:Â alumni-news@uconnalumni.com

Submissions may be edited for clarity or length.

August 22, 2017
The Quiet Genius of Coach Penders

THE QUIET GENIUS OF

Coach Penders

Cold-weather baseball teams aren’t supposed to have the kind of success Jim Penders has had in his 14 seasons as head coach of the Huskies. It’s in his DNA, other coaches insist ”” and they may be right.

By Kenneth Best
Photo By Peter Morenus

THE QUIET GENIUS OF

Coach Penders

Cold-weather baseball teams aren’t supposed to have the kind of success Jim Penders has had in his 14 seasons as head coach of the Huskies. It’s in his DNA, other coaches insist ”” and they may be right.

By Kenneth Best
Photo By Peter Morenus

Baseball is in the blood of UConn Huskies baseball coach Jim F. Penders ’94 (CLAS), ’98 MA ”” not just figuratively but also, one may argue, literally.

From top, photos Penders keeps on his desk: Dad Jim E. ”˜66 (ED) and Uncle Tom ”˜67 (BUS) on the Huskies’ 1965 College World Series team; Grandfather Jim coaching Stratford High; maternal Grandfather Sal Cholko.

His father, Jim E. ’66 (ED), a four-time championship high school baseball coach and national coach of the year at East Catholic High School in Manchester, Connecticut, and his uncle, Tom ’67 (BUS), who would coach four different Division I teams to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, played together on the Huskies’ 1965 College World Series team. His paternal grandfather, Jim W., was the longtime championship baseball coach, with four state titles, at Stratford (Connecticut) High School, where the playing field at Longbrook Park now bears his name. In the 1930s, Coach Penders’ maternal grandfather, Sal Cholko, was a catcher for the state’s American Legion Baseball championship team and later played in the Bridgeport Industrial League. And his brother, Rob, serves as the baseball coach at Division II St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.

This impressive lineage makes Jim F. Penders a lifer, a characterization considered high tribute in a sport that began in its modern form in the mid-19th century and was described by the poet Walt Whitman as “our game ”“ the American game.”

Now in his 14th season as the Huskies’ head coach, Penders will have been part of UConn baseball for 25 of the past 27 years ”” as a student-athlete, assistant coach, or head coach. He is a four-time conference Coach of the Year who has led the Huskies to 30 or more wins in 11 of 13 seasons, while developing 39 players either drafted or signed by professional baseball teams ”” including nine who have won All-America honors.

In 2016, the Huskies won their first American Athletic Conference title and made their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last seven seasons despite being a cold-weather team competing against conference opponents based in primarily warm-weather locations. Penders’ record of 477-336-4 is second only to that of his mentor, Andy Baylock (556-492-8), who coached all of the Penders men during his long career as Huskies head coach.

Drawn into coaching

Penders’ earliest memory is, naturally, one of baseball. He was 3 years old, and his father’s East Catholic team had just won its first state championship at Yale Field in New Haven. Someone boosted young Jim over the fence so that he could run to hug his father, but by the time he was over the fence, the team had hoisted the elder Penders up in celebration and was carrying him away. “I was crying my eyes out, wondering where they were taking my daddy,” he says. “It was traumatic, and I remember it clearly.”

Better memories began to take shape as Penders started to play the game himself. He and his younger brothers, Mike and Rob, organized neighborhood Wiffle ball games in the backyard of their home in Vernon. They made a field by putting up fences, foul lines, and a scoreboard, even improvising a public address system to announce the game using walkie-talkies. After East Catholic games, where they served as batboys, the Penders boys would quickly move onto Eagle Field and run around the base path while their father took down the American flag before speaking with news reporters.

And though there were always used bats, balls, and gloves around the Penders house, the coach living there never put pressure on his boys to play the sport.

Penders doesn’t remember his father giving him any instruction in the game of baseball until he was his player as a freshman in high school.

“He made his sons seekers by not shoving it down our throats. We always emulated him, wanted to please him, but it was never that push. He told us to study and do well in the classroom. That’s where he pushed us, but never in athletics,” says Penders.

He says he couldn’t help but want to pursue the game, because his dad’s former players would show up at their house. “I think that drew me eventually into coaching.”

A greater baseball influence on the 8-year-old Jim would be his grandfather, Sal Cholko, whose photo ”” in a catcher’s crouch holding up a glove ”” sits on Penders’ desk alongside images of the elder Penders men during their playing days, surrounded by baseball memorabilia on the walls and shelves in his office. During summers when the Penders boys visited their grandparents in Stratford, there would be a game of catch in the backyard; Cholko would turn young Jim’s hat around, as a catcher would do in order to put on a mask. Later, when the young Penders tried out for an instructional league team, one of the coaches asked who wanted to be a catcher. “No hands went up,” Penders recalls. “I figured I’d get to play if I raised my hand. I liked getting dressed in the gear.”

An all-state catcher at East Catholic, where he also served as senior class president, Penders went on to become a four-year letter winner for the Huskies and a co-captain for the squad that won the Big East Conference tournament. He played in the NCAA championships his junior and senior years and earned First Team All-Northeast, All-New England, and All-Big East honors during his senior season, when he hit .354 with seven home runs and 46 runs batted in.

Between his junior and senior years, Penders served as an intern for U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut and, after graduating with a degree in political science, he returned to Washington, D.C., to work as a political fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa. During that time he met President Clinton. However, he soon found himself thinking about baseball.

“I was feeling a pull to do what my dad did,” says Penders. “I always use the line from ”˜Godfather III’: ”˜Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.’”
He called his former coach, Baylock, asking whether he could be a graduate assistant coach. Baylock knew the family coaching history, had coached Penders’ father and uncle, and recognized Penders’ commitment to academics.

“On my teams, if you made dean’s list, you got a steak dinner at my house,” Baylock says. “He was always at the dinner table.”

The timing turned out to be right, as part-time UConn assistant coach Marek Drabinski ’90 (BUS), ’94 MA, who played two years in the Atlanta Braves organization, had just been hired as head coach at Brown. Penders returned to Storrs as a graduate assistant coach while pursuing a master’s degree in education. Two years later, he became the Huskies’ first full-time assistant baseball coach.

For the next seven years, Penders recruited student-athletes, served as hitting coach, and worked with catchers and outfielders. When Baylock decided to step down as head coach in 2003, Penders moved to the next seat over on the dugout bench.

“Like they say, moving over 12 inches on the bench is a giant leap ”” realizing you don’t know everything that the head coach does until you had to do it,” Penders says. “That first year, in December, I’m thinking, what am I supposed to be doing today? It was trial and error, having to have my antenna up on everything, realizing the buck stops with you.”

Bret Eckhardt and Yesenia Carrero

Come inside the office of four-time conference Coach of the Year, UConn Huskies baseball coach Jim F. Penders ’94 (CLAS), ’98 MA, and explore the rich history of the UConn Huskies baseball program.

A winning philosophy

He knew there would be mistakes to learn from, none more memorable than in Jacksonville, Florida, during one of his first road trips as head coach. Preparing to play against Ohio State, a Top 25 team that year, Penders set his two lineup cards ”” one for a right-handed pitcher, one for a left-handed pitcher. Former Huskies baseball player Delroy Parkinson ’87 (BUS), ’93 MBA, who lives in the area, stopped by for a short chat, just before Penders learned that the Huskies would face a right-hander. Penders gave a lineup card to the umpire, and the game started.

The Huskies scored on a two-run double in the first inning when the Ohio State coach walked out to home plate and began talking with the umpire. Penders had handed the umpire the batting order for the left-handed pitcher, sending up batters in the incorrect order according to the official lineup card. The runs would not count, and the inning was over. The Huskies quickly took the field so that Ohio State could bat.

“I learned in that instance: You have to be accountable,” Penders says. “I felt as alone as I’ve ever been in the dugout while our players ran out on the field. I gathered the team as quickly as possible, looked them all in the eye, and said, ”˜I really screwed up. It’s all my fault. It will never, ever happen again.’ They said, ”˜We got your back, Coach.’ We lost in the 10th inning, but after that, we won eight straight, and it finished a great trip. To this day, I’ll go over the lineup line by line in the dugout.”

Penders has turned such hard-won lessons into a coaching philosophy his student-athletes know as ACE ”” Attention, Concentration, and Effort ”” that has resulted in five former Huskies currently on the rosters of Major League Baseball teams and five in the minor leagues.

“When Jim talks to a player, it’s not just to make him feel good today. If he thinks the player is slighting himself, he lets them know,” says Josh MacDonald ’06 (CLAS), Huskies pitching coach and recruiting coordinator since 2012. “We don’t have palm trees up here, and we play in one of the toughest conferences in the country. I think that’s why you see our guys doing really well.”

“Jim is a program builder. He wants the student-athletes to understand that the program is bigger than them,” adds Justin Blood, who spent six years as the Huskies pitching coach under Penders before moving on to become head coach at the University of Hartford. “The kids hear the same message from him over and over again. They respect it and live by it.”

The motivational speeches Penders delivers also can result in some memorable events, such as the one several former Husky players recall taking place in Florida during the Big East Conference tournament after Penders was named Coach of the Year. As the team bus was heading back to the hotel, the head coach told the driver to stop on the small bridge they were crossing. He stood in the front of the bus, holding up the trophy he had just received, and said, “I don’t give a [expletive!] about this award! I want the trophy that says we won the tournament!” He then got off the bus and threw the trophy into the water, filling the bus with laughter.

Stephen Slade

Penders led the Huskies to their first-ever American Athletic Conference crown last season, finishing 38”“25 en route to their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last seven seasons. Four Huskies were drafted to MLB teams in 2016, including All-American Anthony Kay, who went 31st overall to the New York Mets. All told, Penders has had 39 players drafted or signed by professional baseball clubs.

“Jim has coaching in his DNA”

Nancy Stevens, Hall of Fame field hockey coach

“There was always an expectation to win and to give everything you had,” says Matt Barnes ’11 (CLAS), now a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Barnes is one of several former Huskies who returned to Connecticut for the annual preseason baseball dinner in January to talk with current members of the team about their shared experience under Penders. “We adopted the philosophy of paying attention to the little things; that’s what separated us from a lot of people. It wasn’t just on the baseball field. It was in the weight room, running, making sure you had everybody’s back. Doing things the right way and working hard. Those were the ingrained philosophies.”

Adds Willy Yahn ’18 (CLAS), third baseman and a co-captain for this year’s squad: “You know they appreciate what Coach Penders and the program did for them, not just as baseball players but as men. He always talks about how you can’t fool the man in the mirror. You’ve got to be doing the right thing at all times.”

The bond shared among current and former Huskies is strengthened on yet another level ”” that is, practicing at J.O. Christian Field in Connecticut’s frigid weather in preseason when it is possible, and moving indoors when there is snow on the ground, doesn’t slow them down. In recent years, during extended travel for the American Athletic Conference, UConn vies with competitors who primarily practice in warm-weather climates. “We can hang with all these other teams and beat them while they’re down south working out all the time,” says senior co-captain and second baseman Aaron Hill ’17 (CLAS). “Coach Penders tells us there are no excuses. Having to deal with all those different elements, I take pride in that.”

”˜A Real History’

Huskies field hockey coach Nancy Stevens and women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, both Hall of Famers in their respective sports, have observed Penders as he has taken the baseball program toward higher levels of success and national recognition.

“Jim has coaching in his DNA,” says Stevens. “His coaching staff and players always represent the university in the best manner possible and continue to bring pride and honor to the Department of Athletics. Jim does a terrific job of honoring his former coach and mentor, Andy Baylock, through competing for conference championships and post-season success. He is a valued colleague and friend.”

Says Auriemma, “I think Jim might be the best coach working at UConn over the past 15 years when you consider the resources he has and the challenges that inherently exist in this part of the world.To be able to consistently, year after year after year, put together a great baseball program and to produce the number of major leaguers they have, that’s the kind of stuff that’s done in warm-weather states where they play year-round.”

Penders embraces the responsibility of being part of the legacy of both Connecticut’s baseball history as well as the state’s flagship university. That was evident in 2010 following a loss to the University of Oregon in the first round of the NCAA baseball tournament, which included the Huskies’ first NCAA post-season win since 1979. He began his press conference talking about the history of baseball in Storrs and the brothers who donated their farmland to begin the agricultural school that would evolve into the University of Connecticut.

“We’re just trying to outwork the opposition,” Penders had said. “We have won more games [48] than any other team that has worn the uniform since 1896. Nobody can take that away. I talked to the guys about Charles and Augustus Storrs. They just wanted to be better farmers. That’s where it started. That’s what it’s got to be about. We’ve got to outwork everybody.”

Penders’ insistence on hard work and accountability is not just for his players; it also is for his coaching staff and, most important, himself. He says there is a reminder of that expectation each day when he puts on his baseball uniform, No. 16, to coach his team. Most college athletes choose a uniform number worn by a parent or older sibling, a favorite professional athlete in the sport, or the number they wore in high school. As a UConn freshman, Penders asked to wear No. 15, the number worn by New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson, his favorite player growing up. Learning it belonged to another Husky player, he asked the veteran equipment manager for any odd number ”” but nothing with the No. 6, a number he disliked. The next day, he found a uniform hanging in his locker with No. “16” on it.

“The next year, you get to change the number,” Penders says. “I’ve kept it because it’s a daily reminder: Don’t take yourself so seriously; you’re not that important. The program, the university, are a hell of a lot more important than you’ll ever be. My father playing here, my uncle playing here, there’s a real history that’s important to me, and I try not to screw it up. I wear it as a constant reminder of that. No matter how many games we win, you’re still wearing 16, and you’re still that clueless freshman.”

August 18, 2017
The Quiet Genius of Coach Penders

THE QUIET GENIUS OF

Coach Penders

Cold-weather baseball teams aren’t supposed to have the kind of success Jim Penders has had in his 14 seasons as head coach of the Huskies. It’s in his DNA, other coaches insist ”” and they may be right.

By Kenneth Best
Photo By Peter Morenus

THE QUIET GENIUS OF

Coach Penders

Cold-weather baseball teams aren’t supposed to have the kind of success Jim Penders has had in his 14 seasons as head coach of the Huskies. It’s in his DNA, other coaches insist ”” and they may be right.

By Kenneth Best
Photo By Peter Morenus

From top, photos Penders keeps on his desk: Dad Jim E. ”˜66 (ED) and Uncle Tom ”˜67 (BUS) on the Huskies’ 1965 College World Series team; Grandfather Jim coaching Stratford High; maternal Grandfather Sal Cholko.

Baseball is in the blood of UConn Huskies baseball coach Jim F. Penders ’94 (CLAS), ’98 MA ”” not just figuratively but also, one may argue, literally.

His father, Jim E. ’66 (ED), a four-time championship high school baseball coach and national coach of the year at East Catholic High School in Manchester, Connecticut, and his uncle, Tom ’67 (BUS), who would coach four different Division I teams to the NCAA Basketball Tournament, played together on the Huskies’ 1965 College World Series team. His paternal grandfather, Jim W., was the longtime championship baseball coach, with four state titles, at Stratford (Connecticut) High School, where the playing field at Longbrook Park now bears his name. In the 1930s, Coach Penders’ maternal grandfather, Sal Cholko, was a catcher for the state’s American Legion Baseball championship team and later played in the Bridgeport Industrial League. And his brother, Rob, serves as the baseball coach at Division II St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.

This impressive lineage makes Jim F. Penders a lifer, a characterization considered high tribute in a sport that began in its modern form in the mid-19th century and was described by the poet Walt Whitman as “our game ”“ the American game.”

Now in his 14th season as the Huskies’ head coach, Penders will have been part of UConn baseball for 25 of the past 27 years ”” as a student-athlete, assistant coach, or head coach. He is a four-time conference Coach of the Year who has led the Huskies to 30 or more wins in 11 of 13 seasons, while developing 39 players either drafted or signed by professional baseball teams ”” including nine who have won All-America honors.

In 2016, the Huskies won their first American Athletic Conference title and made their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last seven seasons despite being a cold-weather team competing against conference opponents based in primarily warm-weather locations. Penders’ record of 477-336-4 is second only to that of his mentor, Andy Baylock (556-492-8), who coached all of the Penders men during his long career as Huskies head coach.

Drawn into Coaching

Penders’ earliest memory is, naturally, one of baseball. He was 3 years old, and his father’s East Catholic team had just won its first state championship at Yale Field in New Haven. Someone boosted young Jim over the fence so that he could run to hug his father, but by the time he was over the fence, the team had hoisted the elder Penders up in celebration and was carrying him away. “I was crying my eyes out, wondering where they were taking my daddy,” he says. “It was traumatic, and I remember it clearly.”

Better memories began to take shape as Penders started to play the game himself. He and his younger brothers, Mike and Rob, organized neighborhood Wiffle ball games in the backyard of their home in Vernon. They made a field by putting up fences, foul lines, and a scoreboard, even improvising a public address system to announce the game using walkie-talkies. After East Catholic games, where they served as batboys, the Penders boys would quickly move onto Eagle Field and run around the base path while their father took down the American flag before speaking with news reporters.

And though there were always used bats, balls, and gloves around the Penders house, the coach living there never put pressure on his boys to play the sport.

Penders doesn’t remember his father giving him any instruction in the game of baseball until he was his player as a freshman in high school.

“He made his sons seekers by not shoving it down our throats. We always emulated him, wanted to please him, but it was never that push. He told us to study and do well in the classroom. That’s where he pushed us, but never in athletics,” says Penders.

He says he couldn’t help but want to pursue the game, because his dad’s former players would show up at their house. “I think that drew me eventually into coaching.”

A greater baseball influence on the 8-year-old Jim would be his grandfather, Sal Cholko, whose photo ”” in a catcher’s crouch holding up a glove ”” sits on Penders’ desk alongside images of the elder Penders men during their playing days, surrounded by baseball memorabilia on the walls and shelves in his office. During summers when the Penders boys visited their grandparents in Stratford, there would be a game of catch in the backyard; Cholko would turn young Jim’s hat around, as a catcher would do in order to put on a mask. Later, when the young Penders tried out for an instructional league team, one of the coaches asked who wanted to be a catcher. “No hands went up,” Penders recalls. “I figured I’d get to play if I raised my hand. I liked getting dressed in the gear.”

An all-state catcher at East Catholic, where he also served as senior class president, Penders went on to become a four-year letter winner for the Huskies and a co-captain for the squad that won the Big East Conference tournament. He played in the NCAA championships his junior and senior years and earned First Team All-Northeast, All-New England, and All-Big East honors during his senior season, when he hit .354 with seven home runs and 46 runs batted in.

Between his junior and senior years, Penders served as an intern for U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut and, after graduating with a degree in political science, he returned to Washington, D.C., to work as a political fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa. During that time he met President Clinton. However, he soon found himself thinking about baseball.

“I was feeling a pull to do what my dad did,” says Penders. “I always use the line from ”˜Godfather III’: ”˜Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.’”
He called his former coach, Baylock, asking whether he could be a graduate assistant coach. Baylock knew the family coaching history, had coached Penders’ father and uncle, and recognized Penders’ commitment to academics.

“On my teams, if you made dean’s list, you got a steak dinner at my house,” Baylock says. “He was always at the dinner table.”

The timing turned out to be right, as part-time UConn assistant coach Marek Drabinski ’90 (BUS), ’94 MA, who played two years in the Atlanta Braves organization, had just been hired as head coach at Brown. Penders returned to Storrs as a graduate assistant coach while pursuing a master’s degree in education. Two years later, he became the Huskies’ first full-time assistant baseball coach.

For the next seven years, Penders recruited student-athletes, served as hitting coach, and worked with catchers and outfielders. When Baylock decided to step down as head coach in 2003, Penders moved to the next seat over on the dugout bench.

“Like they say, moving over 12 inches on the bench is a giant leap ”” realizing you don’t know everything that the head coach does until you had to do it,” Penders says. “That first year, in December, I’m thinking, what am I supposed to be doing today? It was trial and error, having to have my antenna up on everything, realizing the buck stops with you.”

Bret Eckhardt and Yesenia Carrero

August 10, 2017