Spring 2024 The Hard Pivot A few months after working on the floor of Guero Pallets, learning how to operate every machine and forklift, Martha Razo (AMAT, M.S. ’17) was handed a shoebox full of receipts. It was her father’s “filing system.”
Spring 2024 Light(ing) a New Path Kaiwei Tang (M.B.A. ’06, M.DES. ’14) was sitting in a New York subway station, shortly after leaving his job working for a major phone manufacturer. He swore he’d never build another phone in his life.
Spring 2024 Constructive Change The first office Jimmy Akintonde (ARCH ’95) used for his business was barely able to accommodate two desks. The two extra chairs that clients would hopefully sit in someday made it seem a bit crowded, but he had faith.
Spring 2024 Good Medicine “It’s about solving problems,” says Nancy Paridy (LAW ’83). Solving problems in the medical field—using the most modern, innovative models possible— is what Paridy has been advocating for decades. The effort has paid off: she now helps run the top-ranked rehabilitation hospital in the country.
Spring 2024 Building a Battlefield AI Nidhal Bouaynaya (M.S. EE, CE ’02) had reservations about artificial intelligence. It went against everything she was comfortable with as an engineer who preferred things that were clear and predictable.
Fall 2023 The Authentic Self The Authentic Self By Tad Veznerr PHOTOS BY NICOLE CALDWELL “I’m just in this perpetual state of transition,” says Brooks Atwood (ARCH ’99). He’s not kidding. Even before Atwood became a star of Netflix’s Hack My Home , which recently hit the streaming platform’s top-10 most-watched list in 67 countries,...
Fall 2023 Hydrogen Proselytizer PHOTO BY SEBASTIAN CASSET Hydrogen Proselytizer By Tad Vezner M ike Graff (CHE ’77) didn’t simply find himself in the hydrogen business—a business he’s now focused on to such a degree that he’s actively shaping its course. Rather, his journey into the world of an element he firmly believes will...
Fall 2023 Selling Nostalgia PHOTO BY SCOTT BENBROOK Selling Nostalgia By Casey Halas D uring his first year at Illinois Tech, Yuta Katsuyama (M.Des.+M.B.A. ’21) was shocked to find that the food mecca of Chicago was missing the triangular-shaped Japanese food staple he’d enjoyed his whole life. Onigiri—handheld balls of soft, sticky rice stuffed...
Fall 2023 A National Practitioner PHOTO BY EDGAR ARTIGA A National P ractitioner By Tom Linder G rowing up on Chicago’s South Side, Georges Benjamin (BIOL ’73) dreamed of a career in science. “I wanted to be a scientist, whatever that was,” says Benjamin. “I lived in the Museum of Science and Industry as my...
Fall 2023 Mission: Impactful PHOTO BY TONY RINALDO Mission: Impactful By Steve Hendershot F or most law students learning about contracts, patents, and corporate acquisitions, the subject matter is impersonal and future-focused—faraway stuff that they might someday apply on behalf of a client. Not for Greg Wyler (LAW ’96). When Wyler studied at Chicago-Kent...
Summer 2023 Juan De La Mora There have been numerous instances in Juan De La Mora’s life where he felt torn between two worlds. Take his career, for instance.
Summer 2023 Ruth Lopez-McCarthy Right after college, Ruth Lopez-McCarthy (LAW ’09) started doorknocking. It was the community organizing, block club kind of outreach: pushing for more alley lights, safety patrols, better garbage pickup.
