Alumni Gazette
Ken Megan ’73E (Photo: Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard Band)Strike Up the Band
The U.S. Coast Guard Band, under the direction of composer and arranger Ken Megan ’73E and saxophonist and assistant conductor Richard Wyman ’92E, ’93E is scheduled to perform a gala concert over Memorial Day weekend featuring the music of George Gershwin. The concert celebrates the reopening of the band’s home, Leamy Hall, in New London, Conn., after extensive renovations to enhance the hall’s acoustics and other amenities. Established in 1925 to perform at official functions and promote public goodwill toward the Coast Guard and the United States, both at home and abroad, the ensemble features several Eastman School alumni, including Robert McEwan ’90E (percussion), Stephen Lamb ’00E (tuba), and Megan Sesma ’02E, ’02RC (harp).
Norman Neureiter ’52 Honored by Japanese Government
Norman Neureiter ’52 received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star decoration, among the highest honors bestowed by the Japanese government, at a ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo last November. Neureiter, who earned a doctorate in organic chemistry from Northwestern after graduating from Rochester, was recognized for his many years of work promoting U.S.–Japan relations and cooperation in science. In 1963, he joined the National Science Foundation’s Office of International Affairs, becoming the first permanent U.S. program director for the U.S.–Japan Cooperative Science Program initiated by then president John F. Kennedy. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was the director of Texas Instruments Japan and the vice president of Texas Instruments Asia. From 1994 to 2000, he cochaired the American side of a joint U.S.–Japan panel to negotiate trade disputes and, in 2000, he was appointed the first science and technology advisor to the secretary of state. He’s a senior advisor for the Center for Science Diplomacy and the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy, an office he directed for five years after it was created in 2004.
Jonathan Samet ’70M (MD) Appointed to National Board
Jonathan Samet ’70M (MD) has been appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Cancer Advisory Board. Samet is the Flora L. Thornton Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California’s medical school and director of the school’s Institute for Global Health. An internationally recognized expert on indoor and outdoor pollution and the health effects of smoking and secondhand smoke, Samet has served as an expert witness in litigation challenging tobacco companies and counseled legislators at the federal, state, and local levels on a variety of issues related to public health.
A. John Popp ’63 Wins Honor in Neurology
A. John Popp ’63 is the recipient of the 2011 Harvey Cushing Medal, a prestigious honor named for the pioneering brain surgeon and awarded for distinguished service by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. A specialist in the treatment of aneurysms, vascular malformations, and brain tumors, Popp is the chair of the neurosurgery department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and training director for the neurosurgery residency programs at Boston Children’s Hospital as well as Brigham and Women’s.
