Invention Boosts Solar Cell Efficiency by Half
University of Utah electrical engineers have invented an inexpensive new optical element that could boost the overall efficiency of solar cells by more than 50 percent. Called a polychromat, it is a thin layer of transparent plastic or glass designed to sort and concentrate sunlight. The layer can be integrated into the cover glass of a solar panel and could also be used to boost power efficiency in a cell phone or improve low light conditions for a camera.
Peng Wang, left, and Rajesh Menon
“Currently, high-efficiency solar cells are very expensive because they have to be carefully manufactured in a complex environment and are only cost-effective for space or defense applications like the Mars rover,” says Rajesh Menon, a Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the U. “We have designed a very cheap optical element that can be incorporated into the cover glass of a solar panel that will separate sunlight into various colors.”
Solar cells absorb light from the sun and convert it into electricity. Despite solar power’s tremendous potential as a limitless resource of energy, it is currently a small fraction of the global energy supply, due to its high cost compared with conventional power sources.
In addition, challenges in materials have further limited solar power’s reach. Solar cell performance is directly linked to the efficiency of converting sunlight into electricity. Solar cells operate on the concept that an absorbed bundle of light from the sun, called a photon, generates electrical charge carriers in a layer of material within the solar cell that then becomes electricity.
However, sunlight is made up of different wavelengths of light, ranging from ultraviolet to visible to infrared. Light at different wavelengths is made of photons at different energies. Conventional solar cells only absorb a narrow range of wavelengths very efficiently.
The energy at other wavelengths is not absorbed at all or is converted into waste heat rather than electricity. As a result, a solar cell can only convert a limited amount of photons into electricity: up to about 33.5 percent efficiency.
Menon and electrical engineering graduate student Peng Wang designed a polychromat 50 millimeters wide by 10 millimeters long, with 3-micrometer-wide grooves to sort incoming light. The team placed the polychromat on top of a photovoltaic device (a device that generates a voltage when exposed to energy, especially light). With the polychromat added, the power efficiency increased by 16 percent.
“These colors can be absorbed by appropriate solar cells to increase the efficiency of the overall process without increasing the cost,” says Menon. The researchers also developed computer simulations of a polychromat placed on a solar cell with eight different absorber layers to show a theoretical efficiency greater than 50 percent.
Menon says the next step to using these polychromats in commercial solar cells is working with solar cell manufacturers. He says this could lead to high-efficiency solar cells on the market in another five or 10 years. Meanwhile, Menon and his team will test this new technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
U Students Invent Bacteria-Killing Catheter
After hearing his aunt, a primary care nurse, tell stories of catheters causing clotting and infections, University of Utah bioengineering student Nate Rhodes BA’14 MS’14 decided to come up with a solution. With the help of a few classmates, he developed a type of catheter—a tube inserted into patients to remove and deliver fluids— that emits visible light, killing bacteria to prevent infections from occurring.
Rhodes’ team of bioengineering and medical students recently won first place and $75,000 at the International Business Model Competition hosted by Brigham Young University. The competition drew more than 2,500 teams from 200 schools representing 20 countries.
The students created a startup company, Veritas Medical LLC, to develop the LIGHT LINE Catheter, using high-intensity narrow spectrum light, which is known to kill bacteria without any harmful effects to human cells. The team has already filed a utility patent on their technology and will complete laboratory testing later this year, followed by clinical trials beginning next year. Other members of the team include James Allen BS’13, a bioengineering graduate; Mitch Barneck BS’13, a bioengineering graduate currently in medical school at Oregon Health and Science University; Martin de La Presa, a third-year U medical student; and bioengineering grad Ahrash Poursaid BS’14.
Veritas Medical plans to use the $75,000 in winnings to support further product development and validation. They have already conducted successful laboratory tests of their product, and they are steadily working toward getting clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The students previously won more than $20,000 in cash prizes and grants through other student competitions at the U, including Bench to Bedside, a medical device competition; the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, a statewide business plan competition; and the Entrepreneur Club milestone funding program.
Stem Cell Therapy helps MS-like Symptoms
Mice severely disabled by a condition similar to multiple sclerosis (MS) could walk less than two weeks following treatment with human stem cells in a new study led by a University of Utah scientist and a colleague.
“My postdoctoral fellow Dr. Lu Chen came to me and said, ‘The mice are walking.’ I didn’t believe her,” says co-senior author Tom Lane, a professor of pathology at the University of Utah, who began the study at the University of California, Irvine. Within 10 to 14 days, the mice could walk and run. Six months later, they showed no signs of slowing down. “This result opens up a whole new area of research for us to figure out why it worked,” says co-senior author Jeanne Loring, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
More than 2.3 million people worldwide have MS, a disease in which the immune system attacks myelin, an insulation layer surrounding nerve fibers. The resulting damage inhibits transmission of nerve impulses, producing a wide array of symptoms including difficulty walking, impaired vision, fatigue, and pain.
Current FDA-approved medications slow early forms of the disease by dampening attacks by the immune system. In recent years, scientists have turned their attention to searching for ways to halt or reverse MS. Such a discovery could help patients with latter, or progressive, stages of the disease, for which there are no treatments. Results from the study demonstrate the mice experience at least a partial reversal of symptoms. Immune attacks are blunted, and the damaged myelin is repaired, explaining their dramatic recovery.
With clinical trials as the long-term goal, the next steps are to assess the durability and safety of the stem cell therapy in mice. “We want to try to move as quickly and carefully as possible,” Lane says.
Join the University of Utah Alumni Association for the official Utah away-game tailgate parties of the 2014 football season! The events this year will be held at the University of Michigan and two Pac-12 venues: Stanford University and the University of California at Los Angeles.
The University of Utah Alumni Association has hired David Viveiros to be its business development manager. He is overseeing all corporate sponsorships and advertising endeavors, including ad sales for Continuum magazine.
Morgan was raised in Salt Lake City, but he and his first wife, Daisy BS’49 (who died in 2001), and their four children enjoyed spending time in St. George, and he realized during the 1970s that the “sleepy little farming community” had the potential to become a great resort. He and Daisy bought some land and put a golf course on it. In 1979, he built the St. George Hilton Inn—the first hotel in the city—which Daisy managed for 14 years. In trying to figure out how to attract more visitors and ensure the hotel’s success, he realized that St. George residents were interested in sports and the city attracted retired people, and—bingo!— the idea of a senior sporting event was born. He and Daisy, along with friends Royce and Jill Jones and Sylvia Wunderli ex’66, used the Baton Rouge-based National Senior Games Association, which was established in 1985, as a model for the St. George games. With a goal of encouraging good health and physical fitness for seniors, the games, originally called the World Senior Olympics, were first held in 1987 as part of a community development plan for St. George. In 1989, Utah philanthropist Jon M. Huntsman, Sr., became the principal sponsor, and the name was changed to the Huntsman World Senior Games.
Dave O’Leary BA’79 and his son, Connor, a senior at the University of Utah, have won The Amazing Race: All-Stars. Traveling more than 23,000 miles, they were taken by the popular reality television show to 22 cities and nine countries. Their prize was $1 million. The Amazing Race is an Emmy Award-winning series on CBS that pits 11 two-member teams against each other on a 25-day trek around the world. At every destination, each team competes in a series of mental or physical challenges, and only when the tasks are completed do they learn of their next location. Teams that are the farthest behind are gradually eliminated as the contest progresses. The first team to arrive at the final destination wins $1 million. Of the original 11 teams, three made it to the season finale. Those three teams flew from the United Kingdom to Las Vegas and had to dig up a box in the desert, perform an escape under the eye of magician David Copperfield, and replace light bulbs high atop the Mirage Hotel. The last leg of the race aired in May. Dave received a degree in social and behavioral science from the U, and Connor expects to receive his bachelor’s degree in communication at the end of fall semester.
Lily Eskelsen Garcia BS’80 MEd’86—an elementary school teacher from Utah, former president of the Utah Education Association, and onetime congressional candidate—began serving as president of the National Education Association in September. She was elected to the post in July. She plans to tackle high-stakes testing and immigration issues as president of the 3-million-member group. Eskelsen Garcia formerly served as the national association’s secretary-treasurer and vice president. After graduating magna cum laude in elementary education from the University of Utah, she taught at Orchard Elementary in West Valley City. She went on to a master’s degree in instructional technology from the U and spent a year teaching at the Salt Lake City homeless shelter and a year teaching abused and neglected children at the Christmas Box House. Eskelsen Garcia increased her involvement with the Utah Education Association after a year teaching a class 
Jeong Sun-joo PhD’90, a professor in the department of molecular biology at Dankook University, a private research university located in Yongin and Cheonan, South Korea, has received the 2014 Academic Promotion Honor in the Korean national L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science program. The award, which includes a grant of about $20,000 U.S., aims to improve the position of women in science by recognizing outstanding women researchers who have contributed to scientific progress. Jeong, who served as the first female dean at the Office of International Affairs at Dankook University, has been studying ribonucleic acid and discovered a connection between cancer and beta-catenin, a dual-function protein. After graduating from Seoul National University, she received a doctorate in medicine at the University of Utah, served a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, and became a professor at Dankook University one year later.
Pamela Cipriano PhD’92 was elected president of the American Nurses Association in June. The professional association represents the interests of the nation’s 3.1 million registered nurses. Cipriano is a research associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, chairs the Task Force on Care Coordination at the American Academy of Nursing in Washington, D.C., and is a member of the Virginia Nurses Association. As the University of Virginia Health Systems’ chief clinical officer and chief nursing officer for nine years, Cipriano oversaw more than 3,000 employees. She also served one year as the Distinguished Nurse Scholar in Residence at the Institute of Medicine, where she helped study the safety of health information technology assisted care. Cipriano served as the inaugural editor-in-chief of the journal American Nurse Today, served two terms on the American Nurses Association’s board of directors, and has served for more than 30 years on state and national committees for the association and for the American Academy of Nursing. She most recently served as senior director at Galloway Advisory by iVantage, which helps hospital groups, health care payers, and medical providers improve their operations, outcomes, and profits. She received her doctorate in executive nursing administration from the University of Utah and a master’s of science in physiological nursing from the University of Washington in 1981.
James Alic Garang HBS’06 is one of 10 people who this year received doctorates in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Garang is part of a group of young men known as the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” a term coined by international aid organizations to refer to the thousands of boys and young men who either were taken by force from their homes or who chose to leave their villages fearing they had no other recourse during the civil war that raged in Sudan from 1983 to 2005. When he was about 10 years old, Garang made a three-months-long, 600-mile trek, with no parents accompanying him, from his home in South Sudan to Ethiopia. There, he lived in a refugee camp and enrolled in school. Later, while he was living at the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, visiting delegations from the United States and the United Nations decided to bring some of the refugees to the United States. Garang arrived in Utah in 2001 with 22 other Sudanese men. He eventually enrolled in a community college and went on to the University of Utah where, in 2004, he received the $10,000 Charles Hetzel III Scholarship for exceptional academic achievement and was part of the U’s Honors Program. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Encouraged by one of his professors, he applied to the University of Massachusetts for graduate school. His doctoral dissertation, which he presented this past spring, focused on how the financial systems in Kenya and South Sudan contribute to the creation of small- and medium-sized business enterprises. He says he hopes to eventually return to South Sudan and work to help improve conditions there.
The Korean Ministry of Education in February announced approval for the University of Utah Asia Campus to be located within the Songdo area of Incheon (near Seoul), part of one of Asia’s largest free economic zones. The U will begin classes there in September, and students enrolling can choose from three undergraduate degrees: social work, communication, and psychology. The U will also offer one graduate degree in public health. Additional degree programs will be added to the Asia Campus offerings beginning in the fall of 2015, with the goal of 2,000 U students enrolled at the campus within six years.
Utah Governor Gary Herbert and the Utah State Legislature showed unprecedented support for higher education during the 2014 legislative session. The University of Utah had many successes, including funding for a modest but vital compensation increase for faculty and staff, as well as several million dollars in capital improvement funds to complete critical infrastructure repair on the U campus.
John Nixon MBA’02, former director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget for the state of Utah and most recently director of the Department of Technology, Management and Budget and budget director for the state of Michigan, joined the University of Utah in a newly created role of chief business officer in March.
Mark Yandell and Gabor Marth want to make patient genome analysis as routine as a blood test. The two University of Utah professors of human genetics are codirecting a new USTAR Center for Genetic Discovery, launched in March with $6 million from the University and the state-funded Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) initiative.
Utah supporters generously donated more than $51,000 and a record 433,346 pounds of food during the drive, which ran from November 8 to 30. Each dollar donated allows the Utah Food Bank to fulfill specific needs such as transportation and purchases of perishable food. Currently, the Utah Food Bank turns $1 of cash into the equivalent of $8 of food.
Now president of Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Catmull tells of his childhood fascination with Walt Disney and his experience at the University of Utah, where he received both his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees when the computer graphics field was in its infancy. He tells of working with U professors Ivan Sutherland and David Evans BA’49 PhD’53 in the U’s Computer Science Department. The two men were “magnets for bright students with diverse interests,” Catmull writes. “They led us with a light touch. Basically, they welcomed us to the program, gave us workspace and access to computers, and then let us pursue whatever turned us on. The result was a collaborative, supportive community so inspiring that I would later seek to replicate it at Pixar.”
Edward J. Fraughton BFA’62 was honored in May by the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art with its annual Arthur Ross Award for excellence in the classical tradition for sculpture. The institute is dedicated to advancing the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism, and their allied arts through education, publication, and advocacy. As an artist and sculptor, Fraughton is known for his epic monumental works and individual collector editions that often relate to the history of the American West. A literal sculptor with an academic background in design and human anatomy, Fraughton’s versatility covers a broad spectrum of human and animal subjects. Fraughton also is an inventor. After a midair collision over the Salt Lake Valley in 1987 that destroyed two airplanes and claimed 10 lives, Fraughton, a pilot, invented and patented a new technology for tracking aircraft. This technology, now known as ADS-B, uses GPS satellite tracking to find and report aircraft positions. ADS-B is the Federal Aviation Administration’s system of choice to upgrade and replace the outdated radar-based air traffic control technology.
David Mortensen BA’76 MSW’82, who has spent more than 40 years advocating for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, was honored in March with a Lifetime Advocate Award by the Sanderson Community Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Utah Association of the Deaf. At the award event, Mortensen was praised for his tireless efforts to fight for the rights of deaf people in education and the workplace. Mortensen’s endeavors have brought telephone relay services and a community center for the deaf to the Salt Lake City area. He also worked to make American Sign Language a course that can be recognized with college credit and has worked toward certification standards for its interpreters. In 1994, he successfully lobbied the Utah State Legislature to recognize American Sign Language as an official language and later helped establish the state’s Interpreter Training Program at Salt Lake Community College, as well as the interpreter service operated by the Utah Association of the Deaf that led to providing more qualified interpreters for deaf medical patients and clients. Mortensen, who has been deaf since the age of 4, was the first deaf person to receive a master’s degree in social work at the University of Utah.
Molly Fowler BUS’79 was the producer of a documentary series about veterans that debuted in March on the Public Broadcasting Service: Coming Back with Wes Moore, a three-part special that examines issues confronting contemporary veterans. The series features the lives of seven men and women coming back from war after serving in the U.S. military since September 11, 2001. The series is hosted by combat veteran and New York Times best-selling author Wes Moore. Fowler currently is a co-executive producer at Powderhouse Productions and Reel-Lives. org in New York. She previously worked for ABC News, the World Science Festival, and Lightworks Pictures. Among her many television credits, she was a producer of Donohue (Phil Donohue’s talk show) for five years. She received a bachelor’s degree in literature and history from the University of Utah and attended Yale University from 1980 to 1984.
Richard D. McKelvie JD’81, an assistant U.S. attorney, has been selected by Governor Gary R. Herbert to fill a vacancy on Utah’s Third District Court bench. McKelvie won a College of Law Excellence in Teaching Award in 2011 for his work as a law professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. He also now is the federal representative on the Utah Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission. Serving as an assistant U.S. attorney with assignments in narcotics and violent crimes, McKelvie has been a prosecutor for 32 years. He received a bachelor’s degree from Weber State University, where he studied political science, and received his law degree in 1981 from the University of Utah.
Osvaldo A. Bascur PhD’82 received the Antoine M. Gaudin Award, presented by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, Inc. The award recognizes distinguished achievements in scientific and engineering contributions that further the understanding of mineral processing technology. The selection acknowledges Bascur’s contributions in mathematical modeling and management of process information in the mineral processing industry. Bascur currently works as a global metals and mining industry principal with OSIsoft, LLC, in Houston, Texas. He is a 1976 graduate of the Universidad de Concepción in Chile, with dual degrees in chemical engineering and metallurgical engineering. He received his doctorate from the University of Utah College of Mines. His current work involves finding ways to design and implement information systems to reduce energy and water consumption and minimize environmental emissions in metals processing and mining.
Joseph M. Bean BS’86 JD’89 has been appointed by Governor Gary R. Herbert to be a judge in Utah’s Second District Court. Bean has been a justice court judge in Utah for Syracuse City since 1993. He also is president and managing partner of Bean & Micken, P.C., a Davis County law firm. His professional recognition includes receiving the Quality of Justice Award and twice receiving the Justice Court Judges’ Distinguished Service Award. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science and a juris doctorate from the University of Utah, Bean clerked in 1990 for Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon R. Hall. Bean was instrumental in organizing the Syracuse City Youth (Peer) Court, and he volunteers as pro bono counsel for protective order hearings in Davis County.
Gianluca Lazzi PhD’98, a Utah Science Technology and Research professor and chair of the University of Utah’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in late March was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows. The college represents the top 2 percent of medical and biological engineers nationwide. Lazzi is the principal investigator of an interdisciplinary and multi-institution National Institutes of Health-supported research effort on multiscale modeling for neural excitation. He also has been working for nearly 15 years on research toward the development of an artificial retina to restore partial vision to the blind. Educated at the University of Rome, Lazzi received his doctorate in electrical engineering from the U. Prior to his faculty appointment at the U, he was a professor at North Carolina State University. He is the author or co-author of more than 170 international journal papers or conference presentations on implantable devices, medical applications of electromagnetics, and other related topics.
Kristina Baskett BS’09, a former gymnast who competed for the University of Utah from 2006 to 2009, is now working as a stunt woman in Hollywood and appears in the new movie Divergent. Baskett finished her college career as an NCAA champion on the uneven bars, was named a 12-time All-American, and received seven NCAA medals. Currently, Baskett is enjoying a rising career as a stunt double. Her résumé includes appearances in a Nationwide Insurance TV commercial where she flips her way through a house as a sort of anti-cat burglar, acting as a stand-in for actress Jana Kramer; appearances in the TV shows CSI : NY, American Horror Story: Coven, and Grimm; an Under Armour commercial; and several appearances in various Disney productions. Her specialties are gymnastics, acrobatics, and wire work, but she wants to do more martial arts. “I love doing the high falls and the fighting scenes, and I’m learning more tactical weapons training with guns so that I can get to that top level,” she says. In addition to being a Red Rocks gymnast, Baskett received a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Utah. She now lives in Los Angeles.
The online program will provide a highly interactive learning experience for students. Each course will combine on-demand, multimedia enhanced lectures and team projects with in-depth discussions between students and faculty using video conferencing and other online multimedia forums.
Continuum magazine and several other publications of the University of Utah have been honored with 2014 CASE regional awards. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education each year recognizes excellence by colleges and universities in several categories, including alumni relations, fundraising, public and government relations, and communications.
The University of Utah volleyball team returned to the NCAA Tournament in December for the first time since 2008 and earned a 3-1 firstround victory over Yale University.
Continuum Now Has Responsive
For the kayak, the team fashioned a sip and puff system to steer, giving virtually anyone the ability to captain the vessel. “Being able to paddle traditionally is a difficult thing if you don’t have much in terms of hand function or grip,” he says. “We took this device and made it fully accessible and usable by someone with really no hand function whatsoever. If you can move your head and mouth a little bit, you can actually sail and kayak with this device.”
After learning she has common variable immunodeficiency, a disorder characterized by recurrent infections such as pneumonia and by decreased antibodies, the woman, her husband, their three children, and parents joined a multidisciplinary University of Utah study, and researchers identified a novel gene mutation that caused the disease in the mom and two of her children. The researchers discovered that a mutation in the NFKB2 gene impairs a protein from functioning properly, which interferes with the body’s ability to make antibodies and fight infection.
Juliet Louise Kanyana, a University of Utah premedical student majoring in Health, Society and Policy, has been selected to receive the 2014 Founders Day Scholarship. Kanyana, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, came to the United States as a refugee with her family in 2011. After finishing a year of high school in Salt Lake City, she went on to the University, where she is now a sophomore. Her aim is to become a physician and eventually return to Africa to help people there who don’t have access to quality medical care.
Kent A. Nelson BS’75 was recognized as one of eight outstanding community lenders in the nation for 2013 by the Independent Community Bankers of America, one of the nation’s largest banking industry trade groups, and was profiled in the group’s Independent Banker magazine. Recently named executive vice president of Brighton Bank in Salt Lake City, he will continue serving as branch manager and commercial loan officer of the City Center office. He has been employed by Brighton Bank since 1986 and has more than 30 years of banking experience, with an emphasis in management, business development, and commercial real estate loan production. At the University of Utah, he completed a double major in finance and management.
Neil E. Hendriksen BMu’85 was selected by the National Federation of State High School Associations’ music committee to receive a Section Award, representing Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. The award recognizes deserving high school or college band, choral, or orchestral directors, supervisors, and adjudicators who have had a significant impact on high school activities and programs. The regional award, presented to Hendriksen in February, also qualifies him for the next several years to be considered for a national award. For the past 28 years, he has been the director of choral activities at Woods Cross High School in Woods Cross, Utah, and the school’s madrigals and concert choir have earned superior ratings at the regional and state level for 27 consecutive years. Hendriksen is chair of the Utah High School Activities Association music committee and a past president of the Utah Music Educators Association.
William Wade BA’82, president and chief executive officer of Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) was named the Satellite Executive of the Year in Asia-Pacific, at the 2013 Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council Awards held in Hong Kong. The award is given to an individual who has made outstanding contributions and achievements to the satellite industry during the year. AsiaSat, based in Hong Kong, is a commercial operator of communication spacecraft. Wade was appointed president and chief executive officer of AsiaSat in August 2010. Prior to that, he served as the company’s deputy chief executive officer for 16 years. He has more than 26 years of experience in the satellite and cable television industry. Before joining AsiaSat, he was with Hutchison Whampoa, also based in Hong Kong. Earlier, Wade served as executive director for Echosphere International (Echostar), where he established the company’s permanent Asian operations in Singapore while managing its activities in Asia and the Middle East. Wade, who speaks Mandarin, received his bachelor’s degree in humanities from the University of Utah and a master’s degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
James D. Walker BS’83 MA’87 PhD’88, a scientist in Southwest Research Institute’s mechanical engineering division, has received the 2014 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award, given by the Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas. The O’Donnell Awards recognize rising Texas researchers “whose work meets the highest standards of exemplary professional performance, creativity, and resourcefulness,” according to the academy. The award honored Walker’s efforts on the Space Shuttle Columbia accident investigation and NASA’s return-to-flight program, as well as his work that has contributed to the safety of U.S. military forces. Walker’s research centers on personnel protection ranging from vests worn by soldiers and police officers to designs for ground vehicles, the International Space Station, and satellites. Currently, he is the principal investigator and manager of a $5.1 million project to analyze vehicle response to land-mine blasts and other weaponry. Walker received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Utah in mathematics.
Thomas G. Fazzio BS’97, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, recently was recognized as a rising scientific star by President Barack Obama with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The presidential award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early phases of their research careers. Fazzio was one of 102 scientists and engineers chosen for this year’s award. Presidential awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service. A faculty member at Massachusetts since 2010, Fazzio’s research focuses on understanding how DNA is packaged into tiny chromatin structures inside the nucleus of stem cells. He has uncovered previously unknown processes governing how the chromatin structure of a cell’s DNA influences gene expression in stem cells, conferring on these cells the unique ability to replicate and differentiate into many different types of cells. A 2011 Pew Scholar, he received his doctorate from the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 2004 after completing a bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Utah.
Naomi E. Levin PhD’08, an assistant professor of earth and planetary science at Johns Hopkins University, has received the 2013 Young Scientist Award (Donath Medal) and a cash prize of $10,000 from the Geological Society of America. The award recognizes outstanding achievement by scientists ages 35 and younger who have contributed to geologic knowledge through original research that marks a major advance in the earth sciences. Levin’s research centers on understanding how terrestrial landscapes and organisms responded to ancient climate change. She has focused on reconstructing environments of about 5 million years ago from sedimentary and isotopic records preserved in the East African rift. Levin has been a faculty member at Johns Hopkins since 2009. She received a doctorate in geology from the University of Utah after completing a master’s degree in geology at the University of Arizona and two bachelor’s degrees, in geology and anthropology, at Stanford University.
Shigeki Watanabe BA’04 PhD’13, a postdoctoral fellow in biology at the University of Utah, has been awarded the Society for Neuroscience’s inaugural Nemko Prize for his accomplishments as a young scientist. The new annual prize recognizes a young scientist’s outstanding doctoral thesis advancing the understanding of brain function. Watanabe works in the laboratory of U biology professor Erik Jorgensen and is studying how nerve cell vesicles—tiny bubbles that contain neurotransmitter chemicals—are recycled after they help send a nerve signal from one nerve cell to the next. His studies also have revealed that vesicles move faster than previously imagined. He received both his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Utah in biology.
Maria Graefnings BS’12, one of Sweden’s top female distance skiers, has joined Team Sysarb, the mid-Sweden-based cross country ski team. Graefnings has competed in long and short distance races in both skate and classic disciplines. She has achieved multiple International Ski Federation Cross-Country World Cup starts and two victories in the NCAA. She is the reigning NCAA 5-km freestyle champion, the first NCAA title of her career. Among the many honors Graefnings has received are being named Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Female Skier of the Year in 2011, FasterSkier. com 2011 Women’s Collegiate Skier of the Year, and Ski Racing magazine’s 2011 Nordic Collegiate Skier of the Year. Graefnings received a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport science from the University of Utah.
Continuum Offers iPad App
The Fort Douglas Military Museum, housed on the University of Utah campus, is the first location to acquire one of nine pieces of foundation saved from the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
As part of the Utah Academic Library Consortium, the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah, in conjunction with the Mountain West Digital Library, has launched a project to digitize historical items from Western settlers.
