Inside this Issue

Philanthropy News
M. Zia Hassan

M. Zia Hassan

M. Zia Hassan (M.S. IE ’58, Ph.D. ’65) dedicated his entire career to Illinois Tech. His academic roles included professor and department chair of industrial engineering, professor of management science, and dean of Stuart School of Business. Hassan oversaw the launch of Stuart School’s master of science programs and guided Stuart’s accreditation in the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a status earned by fewer than 5 percent of the world’s business schools. In 2002 Hassan stepped down as dean and became director of Stuart’s Ph.D. program.
On Campus
Bridges to the Future

Bridges to the Future

The high school students descended upon Hermann Hall, some accompanied by parents, others arriving by the busload with their teachers. Wearing fleece hoodies, down jackets, or plaid uniform skirts, the young people formed a queue to check in their masterpieces—small-scale bridges of basswood that they each designed and built in the hope that their bridge’s strength would earn them a chance at a coveted first- or second-place slot in the 2018 Chicago Regional Bridge Building Contest, held on January 23 at Illinois Tech.
Research Briefs
Brilliant Beacons on the Research Horizon

Brilliant Beacons on the Research Horizon

The future of tailored cancer drug therapy lies within the lima bean-shaped image on a computer screen in Illinois Tech’s Medical Imaging Research Center. The image depicts a whole porcine lymph node illuminated by bright red and green points of injected fluorescent dyes and is the first produced with the ADEPT Cancer Imager. The innovative device produces a 3-D high-resolution molecular map of a piece of tissue such as a lymph node indicating microscopic areas where cancer has spread, and at a far more minute level than existing imagers.
Features
Miwa Aki

Into the Sky

By most any company’s standards, erecting the world’s tallest tower—the TOKYO SKYTREE®, at a height of 2,080 feet—would be an insurmountable architectural feat. But for the Obayashi Corporation, it was merely a warm-up. In 2012 the global construction, civil engineering, and real estate development conglomerate announced that it had begun research so that it could assemble a 96,000-kilometer (59,652-mile) carbon nanotube cable that will extend from Earth into the cosmos to support a space elevator. Akihisa “Aki” Miwa (M.S. OR ’83), general manager of Obayashi’s Technical Division, says that the company, where he has been employed since 1974, has always had one eye just beyond the horizon.
Features
Carly Coulson

Less is Much More

April high temperatures in Grand Marais, Minnesota, located on the shores of Lake Superior, average in the mid-40°F range, balmy by its January -40°F low that residents take in stride. No matter what weather extreme, however, visitors to the local artist colony or nature lovers seeking a quiet escape will one day have the chance to experience life deep within the area’s boreal forests from a unique perspective. In the Disappear Retreat, a 8x10x9-foot, largely transparent structure, the temperature will never drop below 60°F—and the peak heating load is 100 watts, the same amount of power needed to operate a light bulb.
Features
Mohammed Faraj

"The Best" at What They Do

Clad in a fresh laboratory coat, Mohammed Faraj (EE ’92) points out glass cases filled with black-and-white headshots of former political leaders, Hollywood celebrities, and sports stars who were loyal customers of the oldest and arguably the most gadget-centric catalog merchandiser in America: Hammacher Schlemmer. While notable figures ranging from United States President John F. Kennedy to baseball luminary Babe Ruth provide a colorful touch to the storied company’s nearly 170 years in existence, Faraj, as director of Hammacher Schlemmer Institute, prides himself on knowing that every customer receives the highest-quality items that the catalog company can offer.
Features
Scott Zhang

New Horizons

Scott Zhang’s 28-year career at Honeywell hinged on an urgent, radical decision. It was 1990, and Zhang had just wrapped up his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Illinois Tech. He had completed a three-month internship at Honeywell subsidiary Universal Oil Products in Des Plaines, Illinois, and loved it, but there was a serious problem: In order to pursue a career at UOP, he would need to drop mechanical engineering, the discipline to which he had just devoted six years of study, and instead become a chemical engineer. No problem, Zhang figured. He left the doctoral program he’d enrolled in and earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering, while also working part-time at UOP. He has never looked back.
Spring 2018
Vice President for External Affairs

Jess Goode

Managing Editor

Marcia Faye

Director of Editorial Services

Chelsea Kalberloh Jackson

Contributors

Jim Daley
Olivia Dimmer
Amanda Cleary Eastep
Richard Harth
Steve Hendershot
Robin Hunt
Luke Siuty

Art Director/Design

Scott Benbrook

Web Edition

Brian Bailey
Adrian Cabrera
Abbey Vargas

Illinois Tech Magazine is published two times a year by the Office of Marketing and Communications
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