Class Notes, Fall 2017


September 2, 2016

Homa Ahmadzia, BS ’04, is an assistant professor at GW in the Department of OB/Gyn as a maternal-fetal medicine specialist. She recently received the KL2 Career Mentor Development Award to work on a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic study using tranexamic acid at delivery.

Reem Al Shabeeb, BS ’17, finished an internship at NIH during the summer and is currently a medical student at GWSMHS.

Cory Antonakos, BS ’10, completed her PhD in chemistry in 2016 at UC Berkeley. She lives in Berkeley, Calif., and she is now teaching chemistry at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Calif., and working to improve chemistry education.

Randy Beatty, BS ’74, is getting ready to retire this next year after a 44 year career with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This included overseas assignments at the International Science and Technology Center in Moscow and at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

Dan Bernstein, BS ’17, has begun a new job as a science policy fellow at the Science & Technology Policy Institute. He is still living and working in the Foggy Bottom area.

Katrin Bode, BS ’15, started graduate school this year where she is working towards a PhD in biology with a special focus in neuroscience.

Keegan Caldwell, PhD ’14, is the managing member of Caldwell Intellectual Property, a law firm with locations in Cambridge, Mass., and Burlington, Vt. He recently launched the firm's new website, caldwellip.com.

George Chang, BS ’82, MS ’86, had “Great Chemistry professors at GWU.” He has been a urologist MD for 20 years in Washington D.C.

Alexis Chen, BS ’15, moved to N.Y.C. after graduation and began working for Weill Cornell Medicine to prepare for graduate school. She is now attending the Physician Assistant Program at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.

Gail Clements, PhD ’15, has been sharing her passion for chemistry with undergraduates at GW as a part-time professor since graduating. She has taught Science for Non-Science Majors, General Chemistry 1, Organic 1 and Organic 2.

Daniel Cooksey, BS ’17, is currently studying at Universität Osnabrück located in Osnabrück, Germany, as one of 75 Americans selected for the 34th Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange fellowship—a year long cultural, academic and professional exchange program.

Mark Dexter, BS ’05, recently completed a fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is currently a clinical assistant professor in the department of Pediatrics at East Carolina University.

Nelson Ferreira, PhD ’82, is still in Hagerstown practicing gastroenterology and doing clinical trials. Nelson was immensely saddened to hear the news about Drs. Ramaker, Perros and Schmidt.

Larry Fertel, BS ’81, is working as a chemist for IsleChem LLC. He does contract research and development for multiple industries, specializing in process optimization for scale up. Larry has worked in almost all areas of chemistry over these years and has enjoyed all of it!

Emmeline Ha, BS ’14, is completing her last year of medical school at GW. She is planning to specialize in family medicine.

Eric Haas, BS ’98, is a pediatric infectious disease and public health specialist in Israel. He is the head of routine immunizations for the Israeli Ministry of Health.

Liang Hwang, BS ’08, is currently back to his hometown, Taipei, Taiwan. Working as a marketing manager in Aleees, a company producing cathode chemicals for lithium batteries.

Madeleine Jacobs, BS ’68, founded a consulting firm, Strategic Science, which provides organizational consulting, project design and management, and communication and writing services after retiring from the American Chemical Society as CEO.

Atul Jani, BS ’82, has been in practice as a general surgeon specializing in laparoendoscopic surgery since 1990. His wife of 20 years is a PA and they have two wonderful teenage children.

Derek Karis, BS ’75, is retired in Florida doing a lot of sailing and playing golf. He spent several years in Europe and Middle East at the end of his career but is glad to be home.

Adeel Khan, BS ’15, is working in analytics at Fannie Mae in D.C.

Ed Kifer, MS ’65, is still alive and well and looking forward to visiting GW in 2018.

Jason Lau, PhD ’16, is very happy with his relocation to the Bay Area. He is teaching chemistry at Skyline High School in Oakland, Calif., as well as being an adjunct chemistry Instructor for Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Calif.

Kira Lueders, BS ’62, MS ’65, took a trip this summer to the high Arctic near Svalbard for a week-long cruise on a 132 passenger ship. She reached 80 degrees, 45 minutes North, and walked on ice next to polar bear tracks. She saw a walrus, blue whales, reindeer and lots of glaciers too.

John-Hanson Machado, BS ’16, soldiers on with his intellectual pursuit as a graduate student in GW Chemistry. Most recently his research, with Dr. Erik Rodriguez, aims to develop imaging tools for human maladies. He continues "crushing it" fulltime.

Michael Martin, BS ’83, is a psychiatrist who is currently the medical director, pain therapeutic area and US medical lead at Daiichi Sankyo in N.J.

Larissa May, BS ’97, is now professor and director of Emergency Department and Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship at UC Davis Health System in Sacramento, Calif. She and her husband Mark are enjoying life in Northern California with their kids and two dogs.

Greg McWhir, BS ’10, recently completed medical school and is currently an emergency medicine resident at NYMC -Metropolitan.

Sydney Morris, BS ’15, is a third-year PhD candidate in the Doctoral Program in Chemical and Biological Sciences at The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, Calif.). She conducts research in the laboratory of Floyd Romesberg, PhD in the field of synthetic biology.

Roger Mroz, BS ’80, retired after working 27 years in Colorado at the Department of Interior and Treasury. The best time of Roger’s life was spent at GW from 1976-1980. He is now back in Illinois looking for more chemistry work.

Tarik Nabi, PhD ’99, is a patent attorney in a D.C.- area law firm.

Alan Nadel, BS ’71, is retiring  December 31, 2017, from his law firm Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel after 45 years of involvement in patent law, using his GW chemistry and law degrees daily. “It's been a great run!”

Peter Nemes, PhD ’09, completed postdoc training at the University of Illinois–Urbana Champaign, then was a lab leader at the FDA (Silver Spring), before returning to GW Chemistry as an assistant professor. He is moving to the University of Maryland, College Park, as an associate professor in 2018.

Thu-Hang Ogburn, BA ’83, returned to the D.C. area after working along with her husband for six years in Vietnam and Korea. Thu-Hang has transitioned from chemistry to accounting. Her son graduated with a BA from CCAS in 2012 and her husband is a visiting fellow at GW SMPA.

Jai Photavath, BS ’17, is currently a medical student at GW SMHS.

Nicholas Ryan, BS ’16, is working as an ED technician at GW Hospital and finishing his Master of Science degree in anatomical and translational sciences. He will be applying to medical schools for fall 2019.

Ankit Shah, BS ’14, worked at the U.S. EPA as a government contractor in the New and Existing Chemicals Department after graduating. He is currently attending Pharmacy School in Maryland.

Renee Smith, BS ’07, is living in New Jersey and working as an engineer. She works on transmission relay test procedure development and  federal compliance for the electric utility.

Angela Soto Hamlin, BS ’76, has a busy surgical practice in the Geisinger Health System and keeps even busier with four adult children and three grandchildren.

Daniel Tang, PhD ’97, has been CEO of UP-PharmaTech since 2015 and recently started a biotech Phanes Therapeutics with other partners.

Nick Tiedemann, BS ’17, is at Tufts University pursuing his PhD in chemistry.

John Van Patten, BS ’85, retired from the U.S. Navy. He is currently a blood Bank Transfusion Service supervisor at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, N.Y. “The best learning experience is in the Chemistry Department at GW!”

Badri Shyam, PhD ’10, is a scientist at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI).

Sara Wagner, BS ’16, is obtaining her master's in geochemistry in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at Wesleyan University.

Letitia (O’Toole) Walker, BS ‘00, is currently a director, IP (patent) at Merck providing support for vaccines and biologics.

Adam Yasgar, BS ’01, worked as a bioanalytical scientist in PK/PD at Pfizer’s CNS preclinical group after graduation and is currently a staff scientist at NCATS, where he performs high-throughput screening.

Hannah Yi, BS ’16, is currently a graduate student at the University of Chicago studying the stochastic nature of intracellular insulin transport after a wonderful undergraduate experience working in Professor Voutchkova's lab. Now, she is waiting for her results from quals!