Alumni

From renderings to reality: The renovated Roe Green Theatre opens

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 23:10:18 +0000

From renderings to reality: The renovated Roe Green Theatre opens Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 16:10

Allison Nitch

'The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support CU �鶹ӰԺ and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,' says Chancellor Phil DiStefano

With the grand opening of the renovated Roe Green Theatre on Nov. 3, the university has ushered in a new era for CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Department of Theatre & Dance.

To celebrate the theater’s opening, the department hosted a celebratory ribbon-cutting featuring remarks from campus and university leadership—as well as the theater’s namesake, Roe Green—ahead of the opening night performance of Working, A Musical.

The state-of-the-art renovations were made possible with a gift from arts patron, philanthropist and alumna Roe Green (Comm, Thtr’70) in 2021. Formerly known as the University Theatre, the iconic theater was renamed in recognition of Green’s generosity.

At the top of the page: Roe Green, an arts patron, philanthropist and CU �鶹ӰԺ alumna, cuts the ceremonial ribbon for the newly renovated Roe Green Theatre. She is flanked by Chancellor Philip DiStefano (left) and Bud Coleman, the Roe Green Professor of Theatre and associate dean of faculty affairs and initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences. Above: Green enjoys a moment at the doors of the theater. (CU �鶹ӰԺ photos by Casey A. Cass)

“The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support CU �鶹ӰԺ and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,” said CU �鶹ӰԺ Chancellor Phil DiStefano.

Innovation by design

Originally built in 1904 as the campus library on what would become the Norlin Quadrangle, the theater’s last major update was completed more than 30 years ago. According to the Campus Master Plan, a major addition in 1985 included new studios and classrooms for the Division of Dance. In 1989, the older sections were renovated, and a new stage house was added to provide a backstage and wings for the existing theater.

This time around, improving the theater-going experience through advanced acoustics and audience comfort were the key renovation goals. This included adding a near-silent air-handling system, improved stage lighting, optimized acoustic-speaker placement and faceted surfaces that clearly reflect sound from the stage to the audience.

“Our brilliant architects from Architectural Workshop not only achieved this goal—they were also able to improve the positions for theatrical lighting and speakers, the air handling and the overall aesthetics of the space,” said Bud Coleman, the Roe Green Professor of Theatre and associate dean of faculty affairs and initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“This is modern acoustical science at work—and the impacts are profound,” said Jonathan Spencer, assistant professor of lighting design, in a video tour of the renovated theater.

Embracing the arts

Green’s record-breaking $5 million gift—the largest ever to the Department of Theatre & Dance—was announced in 2021 and welcomed students and the community back to campus after pandemic restrictions.

“The arts are what make us human,” said Green when asked why supporting live performance matters. When budgets get tight, she said, “The first thing the schools take away are the arts. It should be the last thing they take away!”

In addition to the theater’s sweeping physical upgrades, Green’s gift also establishes endowed funds for student scholarships, theater maintenance and “launch” events designed to kick-start students’ careers.

The arts are what make us human,” said Green when asked why supporting live performance matters. When budgets get tight, she said, “The first thing the schools take away are the arts. It should be the last thing they take away!”

“Through her generous philanthropy, many more students, faculty, staff and community members will be able to embrace the life-changing power of theater and dance,” said DiStefano.

One of CU �鶹ӰԺ’s largest arts donors to date, Green previously established the campus's Roe Green Theatre Artist Residency Program and the theater department’s first endowed faculty chair.

Transforming lives, transforming the future

The renovated theater’s opening coincided with the debut of Working, A Musical—a celebration of the unsung heroes of everyday life, such as the schoolteacher, phone operator, waitress, millworker, mason and homemaker. In CU’s production, this classic has been updated for a modern age, featuring new interviews with Colorado workers and new songs by Tony Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as favorites by Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, James Taylor and Micki Grant.

Based on Studs Terkel’s best-selling book of interviews with American workers, the production runs through Nov. 12 and is the 2023–24 Roe Green Production. This program is funded by the Roe Green Visiting Theatre Artist Fund, which allows the Department of Theatre & Dance to invite professional guest artists to campus annually to work with CU �鶹ӰԺ students.

Coleman said Green’s generous gifts are truly an investment in the future of live performance at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

“Roe’s endowment will mean that the theater will continue to have funding to make necessary changes to stay current with new technologies, and will also provide scholarships for students to pursue the study of theater,” he said.

“Roe’s conviction in the power of theater to transform lives inspires us to work harder, work better and work smarter.”

Additional funding support was provided by the CU �鶹ӰԺ Graduate School Professional Master’s Program in Experience Design, the University of Colorado Foundation and the CU �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre & Dance.

"The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support CU �鶹ӰԺ and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,” said CU �鶹ӰԺ Chancellor Phil DiStefano.

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Award-winning filmmaker gives persistence, ‘energy’ to next generation

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 22:51:30 +0000

Award-winning filmmaker gives persistence, ‘energy’ to next generation Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/14/2022 - 16:51

Cody DeBos

John W. Comerford, who discovered the power of film at CU �鶹ӰԺ, arranges major gift to the Brakhage Center for Media Arts

A gust of Colorado night air washed over John W. Comerford (’90 Psych & Film) like a tidal wave.

The CU �鶹ӰԺ alumnus recalls stepping out for a breath of fresh air after viewing the hard-hitting Leni Riefenstahl Nazi propaganda piece Triumph of Will for a film-studies class.

Looking for a sign of where to take his career, that gust of wind led to an epiphany.

Film can change the world.

Under the wing of legendary experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, Comerford would go on to pursue a career in film and push the boundaries of what it means to tell stories on the big screen.

“I learned that the impact of film is a lot bigger than I had ever imagined,” Comerford says, reflecting on his time at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

At the top of the page: As principal at Paradigm Studio, John Comerford has helped produce and write a wide array of films. Above: Comerford hopes the gift he arranged to CU �鶹ӰԺ will help inspire young filmmakers to pursue a career in the industry.

He also reflected on a propaganda film from the Spanish Civil War period that Brakhage chose to show in class. The piece depicted scenes of seemingly normal life while the narrator spoke of sickness and suffering among the people. By all appearances, the people were healthy.

“This film demonstrated the power of narrative voice,” Comerford says.

He also pinpoints this as a pivotal moment in his career. He learned early on that film can be powerfully suggestive and that such power could be used to illuminate rather than manipulate.

Now, 30 years later, Comerford works as principal at Paradigm Studio, a production company. Comerford lends his visionary eye for the meaning of film to a wide array of projects and experimental pieces.

One of which, Around the Fire, co-written and produced with longtime friend and fellow CU �鶹ӰԺ alum Tommy Rosen (‘90), is slated for its 25th-anniversary re-release this year. The award-winning coming-of-age drama explores topics like adolescence, drug use and the importance of music culture.

Comerford attributes much of his success to CU �鶹ӰԺ’s spirit of discovery.

“I didn’t get a lot of direction from my parents growing up as far as what sort of career to pursue,” he says. “When my acceptance letter from CU �鶹ӰԺ arrived, it was actually dated on my birthday, Jan. 18. I thought, well, that’s a sign.”

Comerford’s first on-campus experience is committed to memory.

He reflects, “Coming down 36 and seeing the Flatirons for the first time, I thought, ‘Well this is going to be amazing.’”

Indeed, it was the start of something special for Comerford.

He has helped produce and write a number of critically acclaimed documentary and narrative films via Paradigm Studio, exploring topics from jazz music to gun violence. Themes of late include the environment and media literacy.

Lynch: A History made a splash as an experimental piece. It stitches together more than 700 internet video clips of former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch to form a narrative on race, media and the world of professional sports.

Comerford notes the piece has received praise from athletes at all levels, including from Lynch himself. He says it has also sparked discussions about the media’s impact among players and coaches throughout the sports industry.

Currently, Comerford has several projects in the works. He is producing a narrative feature film based on a true story of the fight to preserve California’s native redwood trees, authored by David Harris.

He’s also working with fellow �鶹ӰԺite, filmmaker and musician Charles Hambleton on a film titled Kensu Maru. It highlights the search for a Japanese hospital ship laden with gold scuttled in the Philippines during WWII.

None of our productions happen without persistence. ... That persistence, and most importantly the persistence inspired by collaboration, is really essential.”

The story is about more than treasure, though. It is a tale of justice and defeating personal demons.

In recent years, Comerford has been thinking about how to give back. “The first thing that popped into my head was Stan,” he says.

“I did some research, and I thought of the Brakhage Center and the University of Colorado. I just thought, ‘Wow, that is the perfect place to return to the world, if you will, the energy and spirit of that gift given to me by Stan.’”

Comerford helped arrange a gift of $30,000 to the Brakhage Center for Media Arts at CU �鶹ӰԺ. To be rolled out over three years, the gift is one of the largest ever received by the Brakhage Center.

He hopes the gift will help inspire young filmmakers to pursue a career in the industry. Comerford also hopes that students studying at CU �鶹ӰԺ will be able to gain a higher understanding of media literacy and its impact on consciousness.

Hanna Rose Shell, assicuarte professor and faculty director of the Brakhage Center for Media Arts, says the gift will do just that: “We at the Brakhage Center are thrilled to have the support and deep engagement from John Comerford, which will help enable students to enrich their horizons in the multiple realms of experimental film and beyond.”

When asked to share a bit of wisdom with those interested in pursuing a film career, Comerford offered two words:

“Collaboration and persistence.”

“None of our productions happen without persistence,” he adds. “Particularly as a producer, where you have the longest relationship with the motion picture of anyone involved. That persistence, and most importantly the persistence inspired by collaboration, is really essential.”

John W. Comerford, who discovered the power of film at CU �鶹ӰԺ, arranges major gift to its Brakhage Center for Media Arts.

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Family’s Buff roots sko deep

Anonymous — Mon, 02 May 2022 22:02:45 +0000

Family’s Buff roots sko deep Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/02/2022 - 16:02

Danny Long

Three generations of arts-and-sciences O’Donnells will celebrate this year’s commencement

Canton O’Donnell Jr. (Econ ’52) recalls driving his father’s car to a meeting that would alter the direction of his granddaughter’s life more than half a century later.

“I was a 17-year-old kid and scared to death,” says Canton, now 91, who has gone by the nickname “Scally” ever since “some uncle” called him a scalawag when he was very young.

Born in 1930 and reared in Denver, where he still lives, Scally had received a scholarship from the Navy. He just didn’t have anywhere to use it.

Though faced with a host of challenges in his early years—the Great Depression, his father’s deployment to Salt Lake City during World War II, his mother’s death when he was 10—Scally had earned good grades in high school and been accepted into several elite universities, including Yale, Dartmouth and CU �鶹ӰԺ. Problem was, none of those schools had room for him in their NROTC programs.

That’s when, half desperate and wholly determined, he drove to CU to explain his dilemma to the NROTC captain here.

The captain sat his desk, studying Scally’s file, before finally looking up at his anxious yet audacious visitor and saying, “So you want to come here and be a part of our unit?”

There was no question about it. “Yes, sir,” Scally said.

At the top of the page: (From left to right) Canton “Scally” O’Donnell in the 2021 Fourth of July parade in Grand Lake, Colorado (Photo courtesy John O’Donnell); John and Mary Jo O’Donnell in Amsterdam during the Semester at Sea Lifelong Learning Program (Photo courtesy John O’Donnell); Elizabeth “Libby” O’Donnell, who will be graduating on May 5, 2022, with a degree in integrative physiology (Photo courtesy Mary Jo O’Donnell). Above: (From left to right) John O’Donnell, Elizabeth “Libby” O’Donnell and Mary Jo O’Donnell (Photo courtesy Mary Jo O’Donnell).

“OK,” said the captain. “You’re in.”

Thus began the O’Donnell family’s CU �鶹ӰԺ story—with a touch of nerve and a dash of good luck.

Homecoming

John O’Donnell (Econ ’86), Scally’s son, also born and raised in Denver, began his chapter of the story at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, despite having grown up going to CU football games at Folsom Field with his father.

It didn’t take long for him to realize he’d made the wrong decision. Puget Sound “was just too small,” John says, “and I didn’t like the weather. It really wasn’t satisfying the college experience for me.”

Things changed when he transferred to �鶹ӰԺ. “Immediately, I knew it was the right fit,” he says. He enjoyed the wide range of course options, the access to ski slopes, the athletics (he competed in club lacrosse), the people, one of whom, Mary Jo Lane (Commercial Recreation ’86), he would later marry.

And he enjoyed the football games. One in particular still burns bright in his memory: CU vs. Oklahoma, Nov. 15, 1986. Because a Buffs victory would ensure the team a spot in the Orange Bowl, John remembers, many students attended the cold game at Folsom with oranges in hand.

But alas, the talismans failed, and the Sooners won 28-0. “They crushed us,” says John. “Crushed our dreams.”

When Oklahoma’s Brian “The Boz” Bosworth, who would go on to play two seasons in the NFL, came over to the crowd to gloat, John says, the Buffs’ fans weren’t having it. “Fifteen thousand frozen oranges came flying down” upon the linebacker from the stands.

The Boz emerged from the citrus blitz unscathed, John admits with a hint (just a hint) of bitter disappointment, but that didn’t diminish John’s CU spirit. He and Mary Jo, an independent college counselor who may or may not give her clients the occasional nudge toward �鶹ӰԺ, continue to support the Buffs. They belong to an alumni group in Bozeman, Montana, where they moved to raise their three kids after living in Seattle for 12 years, and never miss homecoming.

Study Abroad

For Scally, John and Mary Jo, CU has been a constant companion, wherever they go—so constant, in fact, that it is sometimes difficult to determine if CU follows them or they follow CU.

After graduating in 1952, Scally spent a total of 35 months aboard the U.S.S. Seminole serving the U.S. Navy. By this time, he had decided to do away with his nickname, figuring he’d outgrown it. Fate, however, had other plans.

While at an officer’s club in Japan during the Korean War, Scally ran into a fellow Buff. “Hey, Scally!” his old classmate said.

One of Scally’s shipmates heard this and asked, “What did he call you?”

Scally attempted to divert attention away from the moniker, but to no avail. “Four days later,” Scally reminisces, chuckling, “why, everybody (on the ship) was calling me Scally. It stuck.”

John and Mary Jo recently returned from the Semester at Sea Lifelong Learning Program. Over the course of four months, they visited more than a dozen countries—starting in Italy and voyaging throughout the Mediterranean and Europe—and sat in on numerous lectures by university professors.

Among the many things they learned on the trip was how far-reaching the CU network can be. According to John, there were more alumni and students from CU on the journey than there were from any other school, a perk that transformed the ship of strangers into a place of familiarity. “We were quick to bond with one another,” John says. “It was kind of cool.”

Graduation

My parents would often tell me how grateful they were for their education, and my grandfather would regale me with colorful accounts of his NROTC days.”

A similar sense of familiarity has characterized the CU experience for John and Mary Jo’s youngest child, Elizabeth “Libby” O’Donnell, who is graduating this May with a degree in integrative physiology.

While she was growing up in Bozeman, Libby says, her parents would often tell her how grateful they were for their education, and her grandfather would regale her with colorful accounts of his NROTC days. On top of that, when it came time for her to select a school to attend, Libby had already spent many years touring the campus, attending football games and skiing the nearby slopes. (Libby, John and Scally each have a history of ski racing).

�鶹ӰԺ was for Libby a home away from home, not a “there” but a “here.” She was never pressured into attending CU, she says. There was never any need to pressure her. The place just felt right.

Libby says that attending her parents’ and grandfather’s alma mater brought her closer to them, providing them all with shared experiences. Some of these experiences, she says, could be downright spooky, like when she ended up living in the same residence hall (Farrand) and joining the same sorority (Delta Gamma) as her mother, a coincidence she calls “super weird,” but not in a bad way. “It feels very special to share that bond with my mom.”

Libby, who worked as a nurse aide at �鶹ӰԺ Community Hospital and hopes to become a physician’s associate, notes that her parents and grandparents, her “role models,” have been “huge support systems” while she’s been at CU.

John has been especially impressed with his daughter’s dedication to her studies. “For her to embrace (integrative physiology) and to take all these difficult classes in biology, physics, chemistry, epidemiology, endocrinology” and earn “great grades” is “pretty interesting,” he says, adding, “I don’t know if I was quite that good.”

Scally agrees that his granddaughter has studied hard, but he also points out that she has managed to “achieve a balance between work and play,” a balance he believes is crucial to a good life. Why? Family. “You got to work hard,” he says, but you also have to make time for loved ones.

On May 5, all three O’Donnell generations will once again return to Folsom Field, 70 years after Scally’s graduation. And when Libby dons the cap and gown and strolls across the stage to receive her degree, her parents’ and grandparents’ shouts of praise will surely rain down upon her from the stands, like flying frozen oranges.

Three generations of arts-and-sciences O’Donnells will celebrate this year’s commencement.

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Artist highlights juncture of the familiar, the unknown

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 19:49:47 +0000

Artist highlights juncture of the familiar, the unknown Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/02/2021 - 12:49

Marysia Lopez

Guggenheim-winning alum reflects on her career and time at CU �鶹ӰԺ

Now a successful working artist living in New York City with exhibitions at museums and galleries across the country, Barbara Takenaga was not always sure of her path while attending the �鶹ӰԺ.

At the top of the page: Green Center Above: Barbara Takenaga

After receiving an undergraduate degree in English and fine art in 1972, Takenaga couldn’t bring herself to leave the Hill, where she rented a home with a group of close friends. Instead, she further explored an interest in art by taking one art course per semester.

It took some nudging from a friend, but eventually Takenaga applied and was accepted to the Master of Fine Arts program at CU �鶹ӰԺ. Despite the initial self-doubt about her work as an artist, Takenaga thrived in the program and focused on printmaking.

Printmaking, a medium focused on precise processes and steps, appealed to Takenaga’s

There’s such a wide range in the possibility of abstraction."

desire for control and order while still allowing for creativity and experimentation after the print was pulled. At the end of the three-year program, Takenaga was creating large wall pieces that incorporated repetition and abstraction.

The focus on process and abstraction harnessed at CU �鶹ӰԺ became an essential component of Takenaga’s artistic career. Today, Takenaga, a current Guggenheim memorial fellow and professor emerita of Williams College, is celebrated for her large-scale paintings and the way in which they teeter between abstraction and something slightly representational.

Her most recent works contain forms or imagery that feel somewhat biomorphic (reminiscent of nature or living organisms), cosmic or even landscape related, which can feel vaguely familiar to viewers. Takenaga says she hopes her viewers experience that sense of simultaneous recognition and confusion when looking at her paintings.

“I love to have that response where it’s familiar, but not. It’s almost something but it’s not. … It could be stars, or it could be bullet holes,” Takenaga explains. “There’s such a wide range in the possibility of abstraction.”

Takenaga achieves this dichotomy through a two-part process that begins with paint-pouring and ends with the time-consuming task of adding onto the canvas, carefully creating forms and patterns by hand. The first component injects elements of chance into the work, which Takenaga hoped would help loosen up her control issues around creating artwork. The second component allows Takenaga to regain control and create structure.

White pearlescent

The duality between these two steps resembles the duality between what viewers often experience when looking at her work—the familiar and the unknown. Takenaga says it is not uncommon for her to come across an old photograph or landscape and suddenly realize that as the source for one of her paintings.

“I think this means that there are things in my head, as well as yours, that are part of our visual language, and sometimes we’re not even aware of it.”

Though much of Takenaga’s work has been informed by her days at CU �鶹ӰԺ, it continues to evolve in ways that surprise even her. Most recently, she has begun to incorporate Japanese and Asian formats more overtly.

As a student, Takenaga was not as interested in “identity politics” as some of her peers were. Today, she finds herself rethinking issues of diversity in America. This has pushed her to create compositions that lend themselves to the Japanese prints she always admired.

No matter where her artwork takes her, Takenaga has a soft spot for CU �鶹ӰԺ and the 17 years she spent living here. While in the MFA program, she immersed herself in a community of supportive artists that she believes made a huge difference in both her personal life and career.

A memory that stands out from her time as an MFA student was when the renowned conceptual artist John Baldessari came to CU �鶹ӰԺ as a visiting artist. Takenaga had snagged the coveted role of picking up the artist from the airport and taking him to campus.

It had not occurred to her until she got to the airport that Baldessari’s famously tall, six-foot-seven frame would have some trouble fitting into her compact VW Rabbit. Uncomfortable as the ride may have been for Baldessarri, Takenaga valued the time she got to spend with the artist, whom she still considers a hero.

Asked if she has any advice for today’s art students, Takenaga admits that the art world is unpredictable. Acknowledging that luck and timing can play a big role in success, she believes that working hard is one of the few things that artists can control.

Takenaga also encourages art students to rely on their friends. The friendships Takenaga created in the MFA program helped shape who she is as an artist and person, and she says she will always carry these connections with her.

Guggenheim-winning alum reflects on her career and time at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

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Cave-dwelling alum digs up ancient creatures

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 16:54:14 +0000

Cave-dwelling alum digs up ancient creatures Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/03/2020 - 09:54

Julie Marshall

CU �鶹ӰԺ graduate delves into the deepest parts of Colorado mountains in search of the strange

As a freshman living in Stearns West Hall, Dave Steinmann (Phys, Bio’90)’s roommate, Dave Mckee, mentioned something that would prove life-changing: His father had an unusual hobby of exploring dark places where there are strangely beautiful, ancient life forms.

David Steinmann collecting new species of cave life. Photograph by Norman R. Thompson.

That was 1984. Today, Steinmann, 54, is a cave dweller too, but with federal permits to collect specimens and a team of experts who have confirmed his discoveries of more than 100 new species that thrive within the craggy walls and tubelike passages of Colorado’s high-altitude caves.

“In every cave, I guarantee there is something new to discover,” says Steinmann, whose work has been featured in National Geographic Magazine. Minuscule millipedes, spiders and pseudoscorpions—half-inch long relatives without a stinging tail—are among his collections.

New Species of Pseudoscorpion from near the �鶹ӰԺ Flatirons, not yet named. Photograph by Dave S.

Steinmann is a special breed, explains Frank-Thorsten Krell, senior curator of entomology for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where Steinmann is a research associate. “Exploring places that are hardly accessible and outright dangerous requires a certain mindset and a lot of expertise. Both he has. He is amazing. So much talent, expertise, and eyesight! I think he is the only or at least the by far most prolific discoverer of new cave life in Colorado and probably the Rocky Mountain Region.”

On a personal level, it’s fascinating to think about life that evolved over millions of years in the coldest, harshest climates, Steinmann says. “It’s amazing to look at body formations under the microscope and see creatures that are albino because of no sunlight, covered in sensory hairs used for feeling their way around, and most often have no eyes.”

Explorer at heart

Born in Illinois, the Steinmann family lived in �鶹ӰԺ for his dad’s postdoctoral studies in psychology at the �鶹ӰԺ but moved when Steinmann was 7 years old.

“I remember thinking how nice �鶹ӰԺ was, and immediately planned to go to college here,” he says.

Debbie, Nathan and Dave Steinmann surrounded by cave ice crystals. Photograph by Sophia Zedalis.

Tiny albino springtail that is a newly discovered species. Photograph by Dave S.

At CU �鶹ӰԺ, the unparalleled quality and charm of his science professors—many he routinely sees when dropping off specimens at CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Museum Herbarium—was most memorable, he says, notably the late Professor Emeritus William (Bill) Weber, who helped Steinmann become a rare-plants specialist.

When he’s not exploring caves, Steinmann is working at his other job as a wetland’s consultant, including projects for the city of �鶹ӰԺ. Both endeavors, he says, resonate with a purpose to increase our knowledge of biodiversity in unusual places.

“Most people think of wetlands as a lake with cattail swaths, but I’m usually the one who will be on the side of the hill looking at microhabitats for rare plants and insects.”

Steinmann has always been an inquisitive soul, his longtime friend, Ross Dinkelspiel, says. “He got me into caving and changed my perspective on life underground,” he says. “But I could never see any of those darned tiny bugs that Dave could find.”

Steinman even recently found a new species of daddy longlegs in Mallory Cave near the Flatirons. Genetic studies have shown these harvestmen evolved from their surface ancestors nearly 10 million years ago.

And as a volunteer firefighter who lives in Gold Hill, Steinmann spends a good amount of time cutting trees, clearing grass and shrubs surrounding his home. During the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire, neighbors credited Steinmann for saving their community by spraying a foam barrier that slowed and evaporated 100-foot-tall roaring flames, according to Colorado Public Radio. He was on standby during this year’s unprecedented fires that came close to town. “Our house is fine, and we have a dog, Mishka, plus a cat and two toads that we evacuated.”

But if you ask him, his heart belongs to cave research.

“Caves are sensitive and irreplaceable ecosystems,” he says. “My goal is for others, especially young students, to discover caving.”

Life underground

Colorado has no shortage of caves to explore, Steinmann says. The longest—Groaning Cave north of Glenwood Springs—offers 12 miles of passageways leading into rooms with 100-foot-tall ceilings, adorned with giant stalactites or icicle-shaped mineral formations hanging from the ceiling, and stalagmites jutting from the earth floor like the open jaw of a mythical creature.

To reach these chambers, it takes a lot of bending, twisting and squeezing his 6-foot-5 body through tight passageways, in the dark while shining lights on (hopefully) anything moving. Humidity can reach 100 percent, while temperatures are near freezing, sometimes there’s waist-high water and debris to navigate, with house-sized boulders that could drop in an instant.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m on an Indiana Jones movie set,” Steinmann says, “but it’s a little gross,” because the tiniest critters are found on bat and pack rat droppings. So tiny, that it takes a wet paintbrush to collect rare invertebrates without damage.

During one outing, covered by National Geographic, he spotted masses of wriggling blood-red worms at Sulphur Cave in Steamboat Springs. The importance of this discovery—and what it took to collect them—shouldn’t be understated, says Krell of Denver’s museum, which preserves the specimens.

“It’s a deadly place for humans,” Krell explains, as the worms live in sulfuric acid, which drips from otherworldly hanging white blobs called snottites that “would dissolve your clothes.”

These tiny worms, Krell says, “might become interesting for medical research, astrobiology or the understanding of potential life on other planets.”

Most discoveries are named after Steinmann, and one pseudoscorpion (Onychiurus nathanieli) was named after his son, Nathan, who recently applied to CU �鶹ӰԺ and has been exploring caves with dad (and mom, Debbie) since he was 4 years old.

Next up is a trip to a Western Slope cave that’s home to primitive lampshade spiders, named for their hanging web shapes and dating back to a time when the Earth held one continent. “They are big and run very fast,” he says. “Just seeing new species can be wonderful,” Steinmann says. “Does it necessarily benefit people? Maybe. But to show life exists in unusual places where you don’t expect to find it, I feel that’s enough.”

CU �鶹ӰԺ graduate delves into the deepest parts of Colorado mountains in search of the strange.

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Energetic alumnus improves energy systems

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 18:57:48 +0000

Energetic alumnus improves energy systems Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/09/2020 - 12:57

CU �鶹ӰԺ alum, now employed by NREL, discusses the importance of his interdisciplinary background for his career

From the looks of his accomplishments thus far, Trevor Stanley has lots of energy, so it makes sense that he’s working in the realm of energy.

Stanley graduated from the �鶹ӰԺ in 2019 with a BA in environmental studies, summa cum laude, along with minors in computer science and geography and certificates in geographic information science and energy. While in school, he volunteered for several nonprofits and served as a panel coordinator for the Conference on World Affairs.

A native of Fort Collins, he now works at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden as a software engineer in the Economics and Forecasting Group.

The Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine asked him five questions about his studies, work and goals, and that exchange follows:

Trevor Stanley is a software engineer at NREL

What prompted you to pursue a degree in environmental science with a minor in computer science?

Initially I was an international affairs and environmental science double major, as I wanted to work on international energy and climate policy. My choice to pursue a degree in environmental science with a minor in computer science was ultimately underpinned by philosophical and practical considerations; I knew that I needed to go beyond my niche in order to make meaningful change in this area.

Several classes exposed me to different kinds of economic, energy and climate modeling and how these are used to inform policy. Fascinated by these, I fervently took additional courses in statistics, economics, computer science, geographic information science (GIS) and numerical modeling. Computer science quickly became a passion as well as a means to perform better modeling.

You now work in an energy-modeling group at NREL: What do you see as the biggest challenge to improving our energy system?

Working in the Economics and Forecasting Group at NREL allows me to research both socioeconomic and technical challenges to improving energy systems. Ultimately, this intersection requires me to consistently practice making sense of ambiguity and embrace differences in analysis techniques. An emerging theme among different kinds of renewable energy sources and energy end uses is the need for integrated systems that can coordinate between one another.

Improving collection, analysis, and integration of data from the many kinds of sensors and IoT (Internet of Things) enabled devices (a type of hardware that transmits data over the internet) will allow for more efficient management of energy systems with large amounts of renewable energy; however, this will also lead to additional cybersecurity challenges that will need to be addressed.

In addition to your major and minor studies, you earned two certificates. Why is interdisciplinary research and scholarly work important generally and to your work specifically?

I try to practice purposeful leadership. For this reason, I pursued a fifth year of undergrad in order to complete the geographic information science and energy certificates, conduct a thorough honors thesis, practice soft skills as being a resident advisor in the dorms, and to participate in the National Security Innovation Network-sponsored Hacking for Defense program.

My previous experience working on diverse teams and projects prepared me to effectively coordinate the team to develop a novel machine learning based IoT network analysis tool for the National Security Agency. Our team’s interdisciplinary work on and commercialization of this widely applicable tool was selected out of a national pool of over 100 other teams to pitch at the Founders Fund (a venture capital firm) headquarters in San Francisco.

Our tool was successful because it both incorporated interdisciplinary techniques and was tailored to be used in interdisciplinary contexts. These kinds of tools are what I’m continuing to develop at NREL and will develop going forward because their positive impact can be scaled so effectively.

The way energy is generated and used globally is diverse."

Tell us about your work in the realm of diversity, and why diversity matters?

It’s difficult to understate the importance and value of diversity in any context. If you aren’t able to work effectively across disciplines and nationalities, it’s extremely limiting. In college, I made sure to get involved in as many of these contexts as possible and practice this skill so that I could be more of a “T-Shaped Person.”

My experience working on diverse teams and projects is something I draw upon every day at NREL where I’m working on international teams and projects that make use of both my broad knowledge and narrow expertise. More recently, I’ve led the open sourcing of the Distributed Generation Market Demand (dGen) model (a model that simulates the key factors that might affect future market demand for energy sources like solar and wind) and have been working with a diversity of professionals from global companies, institutions and governments to foster both usage of the model as well as community-driven improvements to the model.

The way energy is generated and used globally is diverse. I’m excited to collaborate with these diverse audiences to improve the dGen model as a powerful international tool.

What are your long-term goals?

My eventual goal is to work with groups like the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, Anduril, Founders Fund and others to create and invest in technologies at the intersection of energy and cybersecurity. This intersection speaks to me because of the potential scale of impact and added value in different verticals, specifically in the environmental, defense and healthcare sectors.

To this end, I intend to pursue a graduate degree in computer science and artificial intelligence so that I can more effectively leverage emerging techniques to create tools and datasets that both advance understanding and capabilities in these dynamic verticals.

CU �鶹ӰԺ alum, now employed by NREL, discusses the importance of his interdisciplinary background for his career.

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Creating life’s building blocks

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 16:54:42 +0000

Creating life’s building blocks Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/03/2020 - 10:54

Daniel Paiz

CU �鶹ӰԺ Alum is named one of MIT’s Innovators Under 35 for her work with amino acids

LEGO blocks and dragons might not be the first things you think about when it comes to biochemistry. But for Tina Boville (PhDBiochem’17), each represents where she started and how far she has come today.

“When I was little, I read these books called The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey,” Boville says. “Those have bioengineered dragons; and I thought we should use genetic engineering to make whatever we need, and it’ll be useful for everybody.”

Tina Boville

Fast forward from dragons to an internship during and after her undergraduate experience at the �鶹ӰԺ, and that line of thinking sprouted productive seeds.

“I got an internship at Amgen (a biotech company) for just the summer, but then I was able to stay on for a couple more years,” Boville says.

“Everybody (at Amgen) is really enthusiastic about the science, you're working on a project that is directly relevant to human health, and you’re able to help people.”

Boville is now the CEO of Aralez Bio, a company that provides sustainable alternatives to chemical manufacturing by creating, among other things, non-canonical amino acids.

“These are molecules that you can use to construct larger chemical or biological molecules.” Boville says. “Just like with LEGOs, you’re going to want amino acids in different shapes and sizes to build what you need.”

“You can imagine that if combining just the 20 standard amino acids generates all the diversity of life, then if you had more building blocks, you’d be able to do even more.”

Using a process called directed evolution, Boville engineered natural enzymes that then produced these amino acids, which are very important chemicals used in the production of medicines treating everything from migraines to diabetes. They are also used in agriculture.

This new method pioneered by Boville is not only more efficient than the previous method used to produce these amino acids, it’s also much faster.

“The application of this technology can have a big impact in pharmaceuticals and agriculture,” Boville says.

Before, chemicals made for pharmaceuticals and agriculture might take weeks, even months, to create. Now, Boville’s process creates amino acids overnight with far less waste. This sustainable production is new to the world of biochemistry, so much so that Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) took notice, and named her one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35.

The Innovators Under 35 is an annual list that recognizes those who are working toward a better world from fields as far-reaching as communications to energy to biotechnology. Notable recipients of the award, which is in its 20th year, include JB Straubel, the co-founder of Tesla Motors, and Feng Zhang, a gene editing technology pioneer.

The application of this technology can have a big impact in pharmaceuticals and agriculture."

While Boville appreciates the recognition, attracting new interest in sustainability is the true prize.

“It’s good that people are recognizing the importance of green chemistry and clean tech in general.” Boville says.

Boville, who is also a fellow with Activate, co-founded Aralez Bio in 2019 with 2018 Nobel Prize winner Frances Arnold and fellow postdoc David Romney, and considers it one of the lucky ones in the current COVID-19 pandemic. While other labs are closing due to the pandemic’s impact, her lab is able to push through the current situation.

“Startups are navigating uncertainty with funding, supply chains, safety and morale. It’s certainly a tough time for everyone,” Boville says.

Despite the pandemic, this past summer Boville’s company figured out how to have an undergraduate intern come in and contribute ideas to the current workload. For Boville, this is one of those full circle moments in life, going from intern to choosing one.

“It’s definitely exciting to pass that knowledge on and see how people who haven’t been thinking about this problem the way you have for so long, how they can have a different take and bring new ideas that we hadn’t even thought about.”

CU �鶹ӰԺ Alum is named one of MIT’s Innovators Under 35 for her work with amino acids.

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Alum goes hard core in new Nat Geo expedition

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 18:45:00 +0000

Alum goes hard core in new Nat Geo expedition Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2020 - 12:45

Clay Bonnyman Evans

CU �鶹ӰԺ alum heads team in Himalayas for National Geographic climate-research mission

When she went to Nepal in 2019 to co-lead a geology team for the ambitious, multi-disciplinary National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition, Mary Hubbard was going back to the past in more ways than one.

At the top of the page: Himalayas, Nepal Above: Mary Hubbard

Time machine, take one: Hubbard (Geol’81), a professor of Earth Sciences at Montana State University who received her BS from the �鶹ӰԺ, had done field work in the Himalayas in the mid-1980s while pursuing her 1988 PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“That work centered on how mountains form, the geologic crustal processes in the earth that make mountains,” she says.

During planning for the expedition, a colleague suggested she’d make a great part of the team, which was going to study the impacts of climate change on different environments.

“He said, ‘You haven’t been back? What’s wrong with you? You’ve got to go back,’” recalls Hubbard. “When I did get back, after 28 years, I just couldn’t believe the mountains. I remember hiking up the trail, huffing and puffing a bit more than when I was 26.”

Time machine, take two: Hubbard’s team climbed deep into the Gokyo Valley, spending a few weeks in the shadow of Mount Everest to take sediment cores from two alpine lakes at more than 15,000 feet of elevation, hoping to look into the region’s climatic past.

“The lakes contain layers of sediment that have accumulated on the bottom,” Hubbard says in a short National Geographic video, History is in the Mud. The cores, she says, serve as a kind of “tape recorder,” that reveal the history of environmental conditions, zoology, and more, layer by sedimentary layer, year after year, across centuries.

The expedition of which her team was a part included more than 30 international researchers in geology, biology, glaciology, meteorology and mapping—as well as world-famous mountaineer Pete Athens, who served as climbing lead.

Mary Hubbard standing in the shadow of Mt. Everest.

National Geographic, which described the mission as “the most comprehensive single scientific expedition to the mountain in history,” is scheduled to release an hour-long special on all aspects of the expedition June 30. The research in Nepal is part of a world-wide project to examine the impacts of climate change on the �鶹ӰԺ vital life-support systems, studying the world’s highest mountains as well as the Earth’s rainforests and ocean.

“They started with the highest place on earth,” Hubbard says of the expedition in Nepal. “The Himalayas are kind of like a water tower for 20% of the world’s population. If you tweak the temperature a little, you get a big result.”

Hubbard’s co-leader was Ananta Gajurel, a geologist from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. Their geology team also included her Nepali PhD student, Bibek Giri, and six Nepali MS students from the Tri Chandra Multiple Campus in Kathmandu. The lakes in Gokyo Valley were partially frozen when they arrived, but eventually they took to the water in a boat built out of two rubber rafts and a PVC-frame. They then dropped a cylinder to the bottom to collect sediment.

“The coring device is a plexiglass tube about a meter long, which you drop to the bottom,” she says. “Then you use a weighted cylinder … to hammer the tube into the mud and pull the whole thing up.”

Hubbard’s team eventually sent samples from two cores from two lakes to a lab at the University of California, Irvine, for Carbon-14 dating.

“It goes back about 1,800 years,” she says. “The next thing is to look at that record and see how it changes over 1,800 years, as a proxy for environmental change.”

Gajurel’s team in Nepal is now piecing together that record through the lens of diatoms (a group of algae) found, while Hubbard’s team is examining pollen. While the cores don’t have the resolution in the youngest time interval to reveal much about the current era of human-induced climate change, they will provide an important baseline for climate researchers.

Hubbard was impressed by the breadth and depth of the mission.

“The fact that Nat Geo was able to pull together so many scientific disciplines, who came together in one place to look at one problem, is one of the coolest things about this expedition,” she says.

The fact that Nat Geo was able to pull together so many scientific disciplines, who came together in one place to look at one problem, is one of the coolest things about this expedition"

Hubbard spent her early years in Chicago and became enamored of the American West during family vacations. The family moved to Aspen when she was in high school. Graduating from Aspen High School in 1976, she wasn’t inclined to “go where everyone else was going,” and decided to start her undergraduate career at Middlebury College in Vermont.

But when many of her fellow juniors headed off for a year abroad, she opted instead to travel to the distant land of Colorado and try out CU �鶹ӰԺ.

“I wanted to try a large school in the mountain West,” she says. “I wasn’t on campus more than two weeks when I said, ‘This is good; I’m staying.’ … It was such a great pleasure walking that sidewalk, seeing old people and young people, dark-skinned and light-skinned. You’d look people in the eye and they’d smile. I thought, ‘Oh, this is a happy place.’”

At CU �鶹ӰԺ, she was inspired by the late Geology Professor Bill Braddock and got her first taste of field work in the foothills and mountains west of �鶹ӰԺ.

“We’d have two or three lab periods a week and we’d be out crawling around the Front Range a 15-minute drive north of town,” she says. “That was a real strength of CU.”

She worked in Wyoming oilfields for a year while boning up for the GRE, then went to MIT, where her research took her not only to Nepal, but also Pakistan. After earning her PhD, she accepted a postdoctoral position at ETH Zurich (known as the “MIT of Switzerland”) doing fieldwork in the French Alps. She later joined the faculty at the University of Maine, and in 2015 accepted her position in Bozeman.

Hubbard is now poised to return to the Himalayas, pending relaxation on travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic: She has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct further coring research in 2021 and 2022 with teams from Montana State and Maine.

“We were only just scraping the surface of what could be done to really understand the retreat of glaciers,” she says.

CU �鶹ӰԺ alum heads team in Himalayas for National Geographic climate-research mission.

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Love and grief in the time of coronavirus

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2020 16:23:13 +0000

Love and grief in the time of coronavirus Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/07/2020 - 10:23

Clay Bonnyman Evans

Produced by CU �鶹ӰԺ grads, new movie Sophie Jones deals with the loss of normalcy

The new feature film Sophie Jones is described as a deeply quiet, authentic and subtly sardonic exploration of the eponymous teenager’s grief following the death of her mother.

Her sister seems to be doing fine and her father is ready to date. But Sophie just wants to feel again, and thinks sexual intimacy might be the key. But grief is not bound by societal expectations, and the film refuses to judge or titillate, opting instead for an emotionally honest portrayal of a young woman who is learning what it means to love and be human.

Though scheduled to premiere at the Portland International Film Festival in March and make its Colorado debut at the Vail Film Festival in April, the movie is now biding its time, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Suddenly, like so many people around the world, co-producers Lindsey Friedman Guerrero and Joe Dinnen, graduates of the �鶹ӰԺ, found themselves experiencing their own feelings of loss and grief over what might have been.

“I think at first we were of course sad not to have that moment, not premiering in the city where it was shot,” says Guerrero (EnvSt’13), who now lives in Santa Barbara, California. “We worked so hard on this, doing it every day for two-plus years.”

“I needed a few days to process and feel my feelings,” says Dinnen (Film’13), of New York City. “I think I went through the seven stages of grief. Some days I’m accepting, some days angry, some days straight-up sad, some days denying it.”

But both recognize how fortunate they are to have a completed film that will reach its audience once social restrictions ease, while many projects have been canceled or postponed indefinitely and thousands of people are now out of work.

“When it does screen at the Vail Film Festival, and we’ll do something in Portland, I know those moments are going to be 100 times more incredible than an ordinary premiere,” Guerrero says. “We will have made it through the storm, and it will be exciting to celebrate.”

Guerrero got her start in film working on the Academy Award-nominated 2012 documentary Chasing Ice while still at CU; Chasing Ice focused on the work of nature photographer and CU �鶹ӰԺ alumnus James Balog. Dinnen worked as her intern and both knew they wanted to continue working in film production.

Guerrero worked on environmental media, got into talent management, and started her own creative agency and production company, The Sounding Board. Dinnen began producing series and advertising campaigns, and supervised post-production for projects, including the popular Showtime series, “Billions.”

In 2018, Dinnen was approached by writer and director Jessie Barr, for whom he’d produced a 2017 short film, with the script that would become Sophie Jones, written by her cousin, Jessica Barr. He pitched the project to Guerrero, who loved it.

“I got involved because I was really moved by the story,” she says. “I’d recently lost someone very dear to me, my best friend from CU, a few months before. … It spoke to me on so many levels, and I was looking to work with a female director and female writer to make something that felt real and relatable onscreen, visiting a world that felt new.”

She met with Jessie Barr, who had worked on her cousin’s script to make it “camera ready,” in spring 2018. They began raising money for production and brought on New York-based Scott Miller as director of photography that summer.

“It truly resonated with everyone we talked to. People really wanted to work on the film,” Dinnen says.

Guerrero handled on-the-ground production in Portland—scouting locations, hiring vendors and crew.

I love Colorado so much. �鶹ӰԺ is a hub for documentaries, I think it’s so awesome that Joe and I met at (CU) �鶹ӰԺ. This is a story of people collaborating, despite not living in the same city, on something awesome."

“Sometimes it’s really hard to pinpoint what a producer does, especially on an independent film,” she says. “We were all super heavily involved. I was doing everything from making pasta to use in a scene to fundraising and line producing.”

So, as long as we’re on the subject, inquiring (and often puzzled) filmgoers want to know: What, exactly, does a producer do?

“It’s a high-level thing,” Dinnen says. “You take the creative vision and use tools to actually, tactically make it a reality on the ground. Directors and writers have an idea in mind, but they don’t know logistically how to get from point A to point B. The ultimate goal of a producer is to help them do that creatively, on schedule, on budget.”

“I’d say it’s multi-disciplinary. That’s the key, being able to handle a ton of different aspects of a film at different stages. You have to be resourceful and adaptable,” Guerrero says.

Everyone knew they had something special once production was underway. Critics given a peek at the finished film praised Jessie Barr’s direction, Miller’s cinematography, the script and Jessica Barr’s acting in the lead role, among other things.

“Sophie Jones is a lovely film. Moving, confident and unusual,” says Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Nicole Holofcener. “I love Jessie Barr's direction, the quiet of the film and the compelling performances. ... Jessie Barr has made a terrific first feature. I look forward to seeing what she does next.”

Despite the impact on plans to unveil the movie, the co-producers say the pandemic has made the film’s powerful exploration of loss and grief even more poignant.

“It’s a movie about loss. Sophie loses not only her mother, but she loses friends and a sense of normalcy,” Dinnen says. “With COVID-19, we’re all in a position where what was normal is no longer. Different people cope in different ways, and the way that Sophie goes through her loss is something you can relate to.”

Guerrero and Dinnen now live on opposite coasts, but both say �鶹ӰԺ and CU influenced them and helped them get a foothold in a notoriously difficult industry to crack.

“I definitely left a part of my heart in �鶹ӰԺ,” Dinnen says. “It’s literally the only place besides New York City where I would live.”

“I love Colorado so much. �鶹ӰԺ is a hub for documentaries,” Guerrero says. “I think it’s so awesome that Joe and I met at (CU) �鶹ӰԺ. This is a story of people collaborating, despite not living in the same city, on something awesome.”

Produced by CU �鶹ӰԺ grads, new movie Sophie Jones deals with the loss of normalcy

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Key coronavirus testing technology has CU �鶹ӰԺ tie

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 23:31:08 +0000

Key coronavirus testing technology has CU �鶹ӰԺ tie Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/06/2020 - 17:31

Kenna Bruner

Alumnus worked in lab of Distinguished Professor Marvin Caruthers assisting in the development of pioneering technology

Second-generation CU Buff and �鶹ӰԺ native Lincoln McBride helped pioneer technology used to test for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and he credits his success in part to scientists at his alma mater.

McBride earned a doctorate in chemistry from the �鶹ӰԺ in 1985 and worked in the lab of Distinguished Professor Marvin Caruthers, the founder of Amgen (one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies) and one of four CU professors to have won the National Medal of Science.

Recently, McBride learned that the FDA had approved COVID-19 testing using technology he pioneered while working at Applied Biosystems Inc. (ABI). He founded and led that technology program from 1991 to 1997.

His team shipped its first prototype in 1995 to Genentech (Roche). The Model 7700 TaqMan Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Sequence Detection System was then commercialized in 1997. This technology allowed scientists to detect and quantify the presence of minute amounts of genetic material with unmatched speed, sensitivity and accuracy.

The latest generation of this technology is proving invaluable worldwide for COVID-19 testing during this pandemic, McBride said.

He recently answered questions about his work and his time at CU �鶹ӰԺ. The questions and answers follow:

What did you work on in Marvin Caruthers’ laboratory while at CU?

I helped identify and develop methods for structural optimization, synthesis and purification of phosphoramidites, the key building blocks for solid-supported, automated DNA synthesis, which has helped fuel the biotech revolution.

How do you best describe the technology that you worked on at Applied Biosystems?

The University of Colorado granted ABI the licenses to the Caruthers group’s phosphoramidite DNA synthesis patents. ABI recruited me with my understanding that I would define and develop new products. Unexpectedly, my first months at ABI were spent frantically solving a crisis with their existing phosphoramidite manufacturing. As a new research and development employee, I was quickly initiated by introduction to a highly commissioned and desperate sales force.

Eventually, my dream was fulfilled at ABI to define and lead a new product line aimed toward DNA diagnostics. The short pieces of synthetic DNA made by phophoramidite chemistry invented in Dr. Caruthers’ lab in the early 1980s were, and still are, used worldwide for inventing and performing myriad revolutionary biotechnology applications.

One of which, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), makes millions of copies of any short genetic target. This amplification takes place in a few drops of buffered water containing, most importantly, Taq Polymerase as well as two short pieces of synthetic DNA designed to uniquely stick or “prime” to a target’s unique DNA sequence. This “cocktail” is put in a small vapor-tight container and placed on a rapidly heating and cooling plate called a thermal cycler.

Taq polymerase is an enzyme that not only survives, but also makes copies of DNA at the elevated temperatures required for thermal cycling. The two synthetic “primers” direct the polymerase to the target to be copied.

Each time the thermal cycler completes one heating and cooling cycle, taking about a minute, the number of target copies made doubles. So, 20 minutes later, as many as 2 to the power of 20—or 1 million—copies of the original genetic target are made. Hypothetically, if a given test sample originally contained two virus particles, 20 cycles of PCR amplification would produce as many as 2 million copies of the targeted DNA fragment.

Real-Time PCR technology places an integrated fluorescence detector over the thermal cycler to detect in real time the copies being made during PCR amplification. Fluorescence is made possible by adding a synthetic fluorescent DNA probe to the PCR cocktail. We made our fluorescent “TaqMan” probes with the DNA synthesis chemistry invented in Marv’s lab. ABI’s fluorescence technology originally was developed in the late 1980s for their DNA Sequencers that were used to sequence the first human genome.

Many of us at ABI were so enthused by the promise of fluorescent probe-based real-time PCR for both research and diagnostics that we agreed to merge with Perkin Elmer as their junior partner in order to have their rights for key PCR patents. Immediately after the merger, I formed and led the combined ABI and Perkin Elmer product team through commercialization. The Model 7700 led to a multi-billion-dollar product line for ABI.

How is that technology now being used to fight COVID-19?

Twenty-five years after shipping our first prototype, my team and ABI as a whole can still be proud. For a virus as a detection target, fluorescence, probe-based real-time PCR has proved to be the most sensitive and rapid way to measure its presence in myriad sample types.

The latest generation of this technology commercialized by Thermo Fisher, which now owns the ABI brand, was recently granted emergency permission by the FDA to test for this coronavirus. More recently, Roche and Abbott have been also granted emergency permission for their current product versions of real-time PCR.

What were some of your experiences while at CU?

Sharing these memories with teammates at ABI and key instructors has been more rewarding than any bonus or promotion ever was. Writing here to thank the University of Colorado and professors for my education is equally gratifying.

Professor Barney Ellison, a physical organic chemist, was our freshman chemistry graduate class “shepherd.” We freshmen needed to commit to a thesis advisor by Christmas. I was recruited by CU as a physical organic chemist presumably because of my affinity for math and hands-on organic chemistry experience.

Christmastime came, and I had cold feet, unable to choose. I remember like it was yesterday the knot in my stomach when meeting with Professor Ellison where he offered, “I don’t see a big O (for organic chemistry) branded on your forehead. Go over to MCDB (molecular, cellular and developmental biology) or walk up to the third floor and talk to the biochemistry groups.” How selfless was that!

So, thanks to Professor Ellison, and my deceased chemistry Professor Kurt Kaufman at Kalamazoo College, that I stumbled upon my great thesis advisor, Marvin Caruthers and his group’s revolutionary work on solid supported DNA synthesis.

Who at CU made a significant impact on your career?

Over the years I’ve tried to pinpoint the qualities that make Marv so successful. Of course, he has good ideas and intuition, but what sets him apart is that he was an amazing leader, ahead of his time.

I believe it’s a badge of honor for him to have assembled such talented, diverse and even somewhat unruly teams. He’s stated to me on several occasions that this style creates the most. He’s not afraid of failure, nor afraid of brainstorming where even one of his latest ideas may initially seem silly, risking loss of credibility with some technical folks.

During my stay, he led our “primordial soup” group with a soft touch and profound results. In my estimation, he’s a strong candidate as a modern-age Nobel laureate, notably for all the far-reaching contributions his technical leadership style has given us.

Where do you live, and what do you do in your current line of work?

I’ve retired from the corporate world and have spent many years raising our sons Max and Leo while renovating our homes, including where Claire and I now live in Belmont, California.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

My parents were CU undergrads, and I was born in �鶹ӰԺ. My father, William R. McBride, graduated in 1958 with an electrical engineering degree, and it’s my understanding he was an All-American gymnast and performer and president of CU’s high-flying gymnastics and juggling traveling show called the Pentagon.

My parents moved to Michigan where my father invented the first fully automated coin sorters, counters and wrappers in the 1960s. My mom, Sharon K. Zubler, had me in February of her sophomore year. She was valedictorian of her 1956 class at Monticello High School in Iowa. Her major was a brand new one at CU—physical therapy. She dropped out in 1958 to take care of me when my parents moved to Michigan. She would have made an amazing healthcare CEO.

For more information, contact Lincoln McBride at Lincolnclaire2018@gmail.com.

Alumnus worked in lab of Distinguished Professor Marvin Caruthers assisting in the development of pioneering technology

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