This is a shameless plug; sorry Chris.
If you have a kid of high school age, who has an interest in science, this is the place to be.
The Universal Times
August, 2009
www.ssp.org First Trustee Election Results
Welcome New Alumni!
Join a Committee
Shuttle Launch Viewing Delayed
Astrograph On Its Way to Boston
SSPer News
Where are You?
Last Chance for FY 2009 Donations
First Trustee Election Results
At Reunion Day in Socorro, NM, SSP Board Secretary Richard Mathews 77 announced the result of the first-ever Trustee election. Incumbents Steve Cotler 60 and Daniel Seligson 71 were re-elected, along with Razvan Ungureanu 01. Razvan was the first TA to work at both campuses (Ojai in 05, Socorro in 06-07). He has also helped with student recruiting for many years. Welcome, Razvan!
Eligible voters included every alumnus or former faculty for whom we have an email address. Of those 1213 SSPers, 239 voted - almost 20%, a turnout that would make most college alumni organizations envious.
See the website for a complete list of current Trustees, including officers.
Welcome New Alumni!
This the first Universal Times for seventy-two new alumni who are returning to high school after their recent race through celestial mechanics. Among much other fun, they did a parallax experiment: simultaneous observations from both campuses to find the distance to a near earth asteroid (it turned out to be 0.27 AU).
Meanwhile, most of their immediate predecessors are packing for freshman year in college. Well have a complete list as usual in the annual UT print edition in October. Their choices include 12 to MIT, 8 to Caltech, 7 to Princeton, 6 to Harvard.
Join a Committee
Much of the work of SSP is done by volunteers working in committees, and they always can use new members. Standing committees include alumni relations, recruiting and outreach, investment, development, curriculum, admissions, and reunion planning. If you have skills or interest in one or these areas, email the Executive Director.
Shuttle Launch Viewing Delayed
In the last UT, Alumni Relations Chair Noel Bakhtian 00 suggested attending a shuttle launch as a group. Nine SSPers expressed interest, but NASA delayed the Aug 18 (STS-128) launch to late August, which did not work for the group. Depending on the scheduling of the remaining 7 launches, she might try to organize a trip later this year or next, so keep an eye on your Universal Times announcements!
Astrograph On Its Way to Boston
The Zeiss astrograph installed at Thacher by UCLA in the 1970s, then later donated to SSP, is on its way to being mounted at the observing site of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, on the grounds of MITs Haystack Radio Observatory in Westfield, Mass. John Briggs 76 is a member of that group. John writes: "Although Id imagined the SSP astrograph might be preserved in a museum setting, having it running on MIT property will be a great alternative. The club maintains an old farmhouse there as an observatory, machine shop, and optical laboratory for telescope making. The site is a potential venue for future SSP alumni gatherings & star parties. MIT also has its own 24-inch optical telescope nearby that could be made available in an open house. In any case, Ill be looking forward to helping restore the astrograph to running condition."
SSPer News
Erika DeBenedictis 08 has won a $25,000 scholarship as one of the nineteen Davidson Fellows for 2009. She attended Reunion Day in Socorro and very much enjoyed her visit.
Aniruddha Bapat 08 of Pune, India attended MATHCAMP this summer at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, a camp he heard about from Pearson Miller 08. Also, Ani will represent India at the International Olympiad for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) being held at Tehran in October, where Miruna Oprescu 09 will be representing Romania. (The U.S. does not participate in the Astronomy Olympiad.)
Erin Miller 04 graduated from Yale in May with a double major in Philosophy and Political Science. This summer she stayed at Yale, helping law professor Ian Shapiro to research his new book.
Anna Heinz 98, TA 06-08 is a midwife-in-training in San Diego, so she was not available to TA this summer. But she took off most of a week to come to Ojai for startup to help train our four new TAs there. Afterwards she emailed them I was more than happy to lend a hand and help you get off to a great start!
Speaking of startup help, Tracy Furutani 79, AAD 99, AD 00-03, 05, 08 also came down to Ojai to lend a hand then returned in week six to lead the ever-popular geological field trip to nearby Wheeler Gorge. Thank you Tracy!
As MIT Physics Department Head, Ed Bertschinger '75, TA '79-'82 is leading an effort to increase diversity in the department, as reported in MIT's TechTalk newsletter. "There are extremely talented underrepresented minorities and women in physics that we can strive to recruit."
John Rabold 70 shared a Landsat image of the Very Large Array. Our students at the NM Tech campus in Socorro take a field trip to the VLA every summer.
Students coming to SSP from overseas sometimes need to arrive a day early. This year it was Damla Sevgi 09 coming from Istanbul. Vicki Paterno 70 picked her up at LAX and hosted her for the night. Its Vickis third time to play hostess for an early international student.
Send your news!
Join the Facebook SSP group (377 members)
Join the SSPForum on Yahoogroups (297 members)
Where Are You?
We will mail the annual Universal Times print edition to you in October. If you have moved since last year, please log into the secure, online alumni database to update your address. Your user name is the email address to which this UT was sent. (Use the password retrieval option if youve forgotten your password.) If you need help, or prefer not to log in, just email sspalum@ssp.org.
Last Chance for FY 2009 Donations
When the UT print edition comes out, it will include a complete list of alumni, former faculty, and friends who have donated to SSP over the past year (Oct. - Sept.) Please make sure your name is on that list -- visit the website and donate securely online. Your donation of any amount is greatly appreciated!
Prepared by Richard Bowdon '74, Executive Director
You received this email because your email address is in SSP's database of alumni and friends of the program. If you do not wish to receive emails from SSP, email the Executive Director.
Topic: Summer Science Program (Read 2514 times)
