VISIONS Winter 07

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WINTER 2007
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Good chemistry
I wanted to share part of an e-mail from my 86-year-old dad. I knew he would enjoy the latest VISIONS magazine (he and my mom are graduates of Michigan State):

"Got the ISU book. Fascinating about that man Gilman, the master chemist, and the extended chemistry article. ("Good chemistry," fall 2006). I happened to love the subject and found myself in the wrong course or perhaps I might have majored in it."

No way would I have thought about chemistry for myself, but the pieces were interesting and well written, especially the foreword from the author, prompting everyone to take the time and read the articles. And it is great to know about our outstanding alumni who are doing well in the chemistry field.

Coey (Baker) Podraza*
'79 speech communication
Lewis Center, Ohio

May I add a comment to the fine article about Dr. Gilman? (“Henry Gilman: Iowa State’s master chemist,” fall 2006). In spite of being a brilliant scientist, he was a wonderful teacher. We were (mostly) junior-year chemistry majors without a speck of former knowledge about organic chemistry, and Dr. Gilman reached
us at our level. As the only girl in the class, I was particularly aware of the dangers of a timid, unsure answer which would bring forth Dr. Gilman’s somewhat booming voice: “Will you repeat that, please, louder and with more confidence.”

Looking back, it is apparent that I had an unusual lot of outstanding professors: Gilman for organic, Wilhelm and Spedding for physical, John Wilkinson for analytic, one of the Drs. Brown for inorganic, and Benjamin King for semimicro analysis (although we didn’t totally appreciate him, as the introduction of semimicro methods caused us all to add an extra course).

Mary Helen (Merriam) Stewart**
’41 chemistry
Maquoketa, Iowa

Boys and girls, math and science
I was dismayed by the title and opening paragraph of your Getting Started article for the VISIONS fall 2006 magazine. While you might not have been a strong student in the sciences, many girls do “make the grade in math and science.” I find it hard to believe that you would so flippantly talk about this subject, especially after the Harvard University scandal. As recently as Sept. 18th, CBS News reported on the gender bias that holds female scientists down at colleges and universities: www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/18/tech/
main2019989.shtml. Shame on you for purporting the myth.

Kim Bentley
’89 aerospace engineering
Ames, Iowa

Editor’s Note: I hope the account of my own experience in science and math didn’t overshadow the fact that the fall issue of VISIONS featured a woman chemist on the cover, that two of the five featured chemistry professors were women, and that one of the two featured chemistry alumni was a woman. We also ran a profile about a highly successful female civil engineering alum. Though I did not personally excel in science and math as a student, I believe the magazine clearly showed that many, many Iowa State women do.

The games in Ames
After reading the latest issue of VISIONS and the story about the Special Olympics (“The games in Ames soar and score,” fall 2006), I thought you may be interested in the experience that my wife, Sandy (ISU ’92), and I had as volunteers for the Citation Airlift. I wrote the following to share with my friends and coworkers: “Compete – Empower – Unite.” Here is an excerpt; you may read the full story at http://jdsqrd.blogspot.com/2006/07/compete-empower-unite.html

“As the plane came to a halt, a Cessna VIP and a group of photographers and videographers rushed to the door of the plane. As the group exited the plane they were greeted by the VIP, and the camera people did their thing. Imagine the President arriving in Air Force One, well, anywhere and the greeting he gets – this was it, only with a smaller plane. Even though we were 150 feet away, we could see the huge smiles of the passengers as they stepped off the aircraft. Then the applause began. All the people clapped as the athletes and their coaches walked across the tarmac toward the registration hangar. The Ames High cheerleaders formed lines on both sides of the path and performed cheers as the team passed through as members of the Special Olympics Torch Run team gave the athletes high-fives. It reminded me of the Jordan-era Bulls during pre-game introductions, only without the laser light show. We had been there maybe twelve minutes and it was already obvious there was
no better way to spend the day.”

Jeffrey D. Deitering**
’91 civil engineering
Lawrence, Kansas

Go the distance
Here’s an update: I finished Ironman Wisconsin Sept. 10 in 12:43.37 for 813th place out of about 2,400-2,500. (“Go the distance: Cycling for a cure,” summer 2006). I was pretty happy with how it went.
Oh, and I decided to run a marathon Sept. 22 with Dean Karnaze, an elite ultramarathoner who’s doing 50 marathons in all 50 states in 50 straight days.
Here’s the scoop on that: www.endurance50.com.

Tyler Weig
’05 community health education
West Des Moines, Iowa