Class Notes

Stephen McCluskey (PHYS ’61) was appointed as a fellow of the American Astronomical Society for his historical research in early astronomies and for his service to the society’s Working Group on the Preservation of Astronomical Heritage.

John Olin (ME ’61), Carmel Valley, Calif., was inducted into the inaugural Illinois Tech Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, September 16, 2022, during the university’s Homecoming 2022 celebration.

N.J. “Pete” Pointner (ARCH ’61, M.S. CRP ’62), Wheaton, Ill., served as an expert witness in his 74th case of land use litigation and to review development plans for Glen Ellyn, Illinois. 

Francis Kulacki (ME ’63, M.S. GE ’66), Wayzata, Minn., received the Professional Achievement Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration. 

David Rogers (M.S. EE ’64), Fargo, N.D., retired from North Dakota State University after 40 years of service and was given the title of emeritus professor. 

Bob Frey (CHEM ’65), Seattle, received the Collens Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration. 

Warren Letzsch (CHE ’67), Ellicott City, Md., was named a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 

Jeffrey Denenberg (M.S. EE ’68, Ph.D. ’71), Trumbull, Conn., received the Alumni Medal at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration.

Tom Korzenecki (FPE ’69, CHE ’70), Pasadena, Calif., was elected to the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. 

Charlotte Denenberg (M.S. MATH ’70, Ph.D. ’73), Trumbull, Conn., received the Alumni Medal at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration. 

Bob Hoel (BE ’70), Elmhurst, Ill., received the Alumni Service Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration. 

Peter Hanik (CHE ’72), Houston, published a book titled Type 3 Solutions: Problem Solving for Competitive Advantage. The book describes a process for innovative problem solving and a number of common business/technology applications. 

Elaine Cotsirilos Thomopoulos (Ph.D. PSYC ’74), Burr Ridge, Calif., served as the editor of Modern Greece, a thematic encyclopedia recently published by ABC-CLIO. 

James Flynn (EE ’77), Chatsworth, Calif., together with his wife, Sharlene Katz, led a team of 70 students to design, build, and fly a satellite to test a new low-temperature energy storage system for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The satellite, CSUNSat1, successfully completed its mission.

Marc R. Hannah (EE ’77), Los Altos, Calif., Voltron Data was launched last year by former employees from NVidia, Ursa Computing, BlazingSQL, and the co-founder of Apache Arrow.

Steven Glickman (ARCH ’78), Chicago, was elected chairperson of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, and celebrated the 22nd year of his firm, Steven Glickman Architect.

Jim Berke (EE ’79), Georgetown, Texas, retired from GE Aviation in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has since moved to Georgetown, Texas, where he could do consulting work part time, though he is immensely enjoying being “retired-retired.”

Joey Perry (CS ’79), Tomball, Texas, published his second book, which is titled Pressing on Toward Maturity: Seven Biblical Truths for Spiritual Growth.

Dan Hajduk (MGMT ’80), Cartersville, Ga., served in the United States Navy from 1981–2001, and now works for Delta Air Lines, where he has been since 2001.

Mathai Varghese (MATH ’81), North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia, received the Professional Achievement Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Ceremony. 

Scott Padiak (DSGN ’83), Glencoe, Ill., is the proud papa of nine grandchildren.

James Muraida (ME ’84), Mokena, Ill., was appointed as a vice president at Sargent & Lundy, an engineering firm in Chicago. 

Christopher Nemeth (M.S. DSGN ’84), Evanston, Ill., was named a fellow of Applied Research Associates Inc., a 1,500-member national science and engineering consulting firm. 

Jiang Hsieh (Ph.D. ECE ’89), Brookfield, Wis., received the Professional Achievement Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration.

Mary Kisinger (M.B.A. ’89), Fitzwilliam, N.H., is nearing retirement, and is enjoying gardening, rehabbing a house built in 1810, playing with her dog, Tuli, and working part-time as deputy tax collector for a small, quintessential New England town.

David Wiatrowski (M.S. EE ’93, M.S. CE ’08), Woodstock, Ill., was awarded the 2021 Motorola Solutions Business Patent of the Year by Motorola Solutions Inc. on March 11, 2022, for United States Patent Number 8,605,650: “System and Method for Interrupting a Transmitting Device in a Communication System.” 

Jonathan Atwood (CHE ’96), West Linn, Ore., joined Trillium Engineering as chief executive officer. Trillium Engineering is a leading designer and manufacturer of highly engineered camera gimbals for unmanned aerial systems that perform mission-critical intelligence and surveillance.

Connie Chen-Simone (DSGN ’96), Stow, Mass., and her husband, Christopher, welcomed the arrival of a baby girl, Cataleya, on April 15, 2021. She has one big brother, four-year-old Cordell.

Allan Sanedrin (EE ’96), Hoffman Estates, Ill., started a new position as the principal engineer for Fire and Life Safety Signaling Systems. 

Steven Tetens (ARCH ’96), San Diego, joined Gemdale USA Corporation as managing director of project and construction management on November 15, 2021.

Torrence L. Hinton (ME ’98), Chicago, was named president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas.

Said Al-Hallaj (Ph.D. CHE ’00), Chicago, received the Professional Achievement Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration.

Renee B. Czeryba (M.S. PHRD ’00), Arlington Heights, Ill., was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal as a top performer at Cushman & Wakefield.

Nicholle Hempel (LAW ’00), Los Angeles, was appointed as an immigration judge to the Houston Greenspoint Park Immigration Court. 

Jeremy R. Thompson (LAW ’01), Round Rock, Texas, joined Latitude as its director of legal recruiting and placement in the Austin, Texas, area. 

Corinne Trtan (CE ’02), Naples, Fla., was inducted into the inaugural Illinois Tech Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, September 16, 2022, during the Homecoming 2022 celebration. 

Glenn Krell (M.P.A. ’03), Newark, N.J., is a research integrity officer at Rutgers University. He launched the responsible conduct of research collaborative in the Big Ten Academic Alliance, the nation’s premier higher education consortium of top-tier research institutions.

Bhuvana Srinivasan (ME ’04, AE ’04), was named a Crofton Faculty Fellow in Engineering by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Board of Visitors.

Joyce Tan Vela (ARCH ’04), was elected to the Habitat for Humanity Chicago Board of Directors. 

Jacqueline Sokolowski (PSYC ’05, MBA ’14), Riverside, Ill., received the John J. Schommer Honor I Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration. 

Lauren Joyce Hensel (PTC ’06, M.P.A. ’17), Netherlands, was inducted into the inaugural Illinois Tech Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, September 16, 2022, during the Homecoming 2022 celebration.

Chris Schelling (M.S. FM ’06) is excited to announce that his first investment book, Better than Alpha: Three Steps to Capturing Excess Returns in a Changing World, was published by McGraw-Hill in March. 

Rahul Sinha (Ph.D. EE ’07), Bangalore, India, was nominated for the role of chief technology officer for a commercial digital platform offered by Tata Consultancy Services. 

Margaret Battersby Black (LAW ’08), Elmhurst, Ill., was named managing partner of Levin & Perconti, a law firm specializing in nursing home, medical malpractice, and catastrophic injury and death cases. She was also named one of Crain’s Chicago Business’s 2021 Notable Gen X Leaders in Accounting, Consulting, and Law. 

Ruth B. Lopez-McCarthy (LAW ’09), Oak Park, Ill., received the International Award of Merit at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration.

Christopher Lee (CE ’10), Boston, started to pursue an M.B.A., with a focus on social impact, at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business in August 2021.

Dawveed Scully (ARCH ’10), Chicago, received the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration.

Robert Irons (Ph.D. FIN ’12), has published two books within the past two years: The Fundamental Principles of Finance (Routledge, 2020), an undergraduate textbook, and The Preamble as Policy: A Guidebook to Governance and Civic Duty (Peter Lang, 2021), a critical analysis of the preamble of the Constitution.

Gareth Meirion-Griffith (Ph.D. MAE ’12), Chicago, received the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration. 

Liam Barrett (BA ’13), Chicago, was inducted into the inaugural Illinois Tech Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, September 16, 2022, during the Homecoming 2022 celebration.

Rei Karasawa (ARCH ’14), Lynnwood, Wash., and Erik Schultz (ARCH ’13) tied the knot on April 23, 2022, in Seattle after delaying the wedding for a year due to the pandemic. 

Ameena Payne (BA ’15), Australia, received the Outstanding Young Alumna Award at the 2022 Alumni Awards Celebration. 

Julie Chandler (ARCE ’16), Aurora, Ill., joined Resource Innovations’ team that engages with the SRP Business Solutions program in Phoenix.

Michael Rivich (M.S. MANL ’20), Chicago, became part owner of Rivich Auction & Estates, an online auction house specializing in art and design that is located in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood. 

Jaclyn Carmichael (M.P.A. ’21), Chicago, recently started a job with the world-renowned Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago as the director of youth programs and pathways.

Meredith Ludlam (ARCH ’21), Chicago, joined CPL as an architectural designer. She is responsible for all aspects of design, including drafting schematic drawings and preparing client presentations for a variety of projects.

Alison McDonald (M.S. ITM ’21), University Park, Ill., joined HUB International.

Hitanshu Rami (CS ’21), Schaumburg, Ill., joined General Motors after graduation.

Michael Wojcicka (CS ’21), Chicago, accepted an offer to join Google as a software engineer shortly after graduation.