Through the Years

Gordon R. Hall BS’49 LLB’51 (bachelor of laws) has become the first judge in the state of Utah to have a courthouse named after him. The new Tooele County court complex was dedicated and officially named the Gordon R. Hall Courthouse in April of this year. Hall, 81, served as chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court for a record-setting 12 years, from 1981 to 1993. After receiving his law degree, Hall first set up a practice in his hometown of Tooele before serving as chief council for the Tooele Army Depot and as city attorney for Tooele, Grantsville, and Stockton. In 1955, he became the county attorney and served three terms. In 1966, he served as the 3rd District Court judge. Hall was a Utah Supreme Court Justice from 1969 to 1977.

Gordon Gee BA’68 was named the 14th president of The Ohio State University in July of this year. Gee, 63, has been the chancellor of Vanderbilt University since 2000. He previously served as Ohio State’s 11th president (1990 to 1997), and as president of Brown University (1997-2000), the University of Colorado (1985-1990), and West Virginia University (1981-1985). Gee holds a law degree and a doctorate in education from Columbia University. He was assistant dean of the University of Utah law school from 1973 to 1974, followed by a year as senior staff assistant and judicial fellow for U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. Gee was the first recipient of the U of U Alumni Association’s Par Excellence Award, in 1982, and received the Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1994. To see a video of Gee addressing the faculty of Ohio State, visit www.osu.edu/presidentelect.

Jerry Olson BA’72 PhD’77 (both in physics) is one of three scientists in the field of energy sharing the $1 million 2007 Future Time Dimension prize from the Dan David Foundation. (Sarah Kurtz and James Hansen are this year’s other two recipients.) Kurtz and Olson have made exceptional contributions to the field of photovoltaic energy over the past two decades as principal scientists at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. They hold the world’s record for creating solar cells with the highest solar conversion efficiency ever achieved, and their work on developing the multi-junction solar cell has the potential to alleviate the world’s impending energy crisis. These solar cells are already the choice for most space applications—powering, for example, the vast majority of satellites.

Brad Bourland BA’75 MA’76 has been named head of research and chief economist for United Arab Emirates-based Jadwa Investment. Bourland was previously the chief economist at Samba Financial Group in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for almost nine years. He has published regularly on issues related to the Saudi and global economies and the world oil market, and is quoted frequently in domestic and international media. Before joining Samba, Bourland spent 18 years as a diplomat, an economist, and a manager with the U.S. Department of State, including serving in Riyadh as the American Embassy’s First Secretary responsible for financial aspects of U.S.-Saudi relations, such as participating on the U.S. negotiating team for Saudi accession to the World Trade Organization.

Darrell R. Fisher HBA’75, Ph.D., has been appointed the patient’s rights advocate on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI). Fisher, a medical physicist with experience in the dosimetry (radiation measuring) and health effects of radionuclides and radiopharmaceuticals used for diagnosing and treating cancer, is currently a senior scientist with 28 years of experience at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. He leads the radioisotopes research program and serves as scientific director of the Department of Energy’s isotope production program. He is also an adjunct member of the radiology faculty at the University of Washington, and of the environmental sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, and English and humanities faculties at Washington State University.

David L. Miller BS’79, P.E., was recently elected a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). ASCE is the country’s oldest professional engineering society, and less than six percent of all ASCE members are elected fellows. Currently director of the American Petroleum Institute (API) standards program, Miller joined the API in 1985, focusing on codes and standards in the oil and chemical processing industries. Standards documents that Miller has authored at the API are cited in the Code of Federal Regulations, and he has been instrumental in developing codes and standards that have advanced the oil industry’s operations worldwide.

Paul Kershisnik BS’80 has been named senior vice president of marketing strategy and innovation, a new position, for Wendy’s International, Inc. Kershisnik has extensive U.S. and international experience in all aspects of marketing, including strategic planning, product development and packaging, and advertising and promotions. Most recently, he served as vice president of New Product Innovations and R&D for Mrs. Fields Famous Brands in Salt Lake City. In addition to his bachelor’s degree from the U, Kershisnik holds an M.B.A. from Brigham Young University.

Isaac Chung MFA’04 is the only director from the United States to be accepted into the Official Selection of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival with his first dramatic feature, the Rwanda-based film Munyurangabo, alternately titled Liberation Day in English. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in biology from Yale, Chung found himself so drawn to film that he realized he shouldn’t become a physician as planned. He filmed Munyurangabo, the first feature-length narrative made in Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s primary language, while in Kigali, Rwanda, to teach a course in filmmaking and photography at Youth With A Mission (YWAM). When Chung first came to Utah, he says his taste was mainstream because he had grown up on a farm in Arkansas, without access to art-house cinemas.

Jason Waltman MS’04 works with special effects for PDI/DreamWorks, contributing to such films as Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, released this past May. First hired in early July 2003 as an effects developer to write computer systems and programs, Waltman is now officially an “effects artist.” However, he often pulls double duty doing both development and effects for the screen. He originally worked on background characters, but for the latest Shrek film his major task was acting as a graphic hairstylist to two of the movie’s main characters, Sleeping Beauty and Artie. He also wrote systems for the movie in which smoke is involved, as well as various effects shots featuring water foam, a campfire, and the flying sparks when Sleeping Beauty files her glass slippers.

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