Alumni Gazette
Susan Hockfield ’73 (Photo: Bloomberg)Theofanidis Opera Commemorates 10th Anniversary of 9/11
Christopher Theofanidis ’92E (MM) has composed Heart of a Soldier, commissioned by the San Francisco Opera and to be premiered by the opera on Saturday evening, September 10. Heart of a Soldier is based on the book by James Stewart that chronicles the life of Rick Rescorla, a Vietnam veteran and Morgan Stanley’s head of security, who died in the south tower of the World Trade Center after leading more than 2,000 people to safety. Theofanidis, who now teaches at Yale, was teaching at Juilliard, 50 blocks from the towers, at the time of the attacks.
Hockfield ’73 Tapped for Presidential Research Group
Susan Hockfield ’73, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been selected by President Barack Obama to play a leadership role in the Advanced Research Partnership. The partnership, which Obama announced in June, enlists federal agencies, private businesses, and universities in an effort to improve American manufacturing by promoting research and development of emerging technologies. Hockfield will serve as cochair of the steering committee of the partnership, along with Andrew Liveris, the president, chairman, and CEO of the Dow Chemical Co.
Graduate to Head National Dental Institute
Martha Somerman ’78M (Pdc), ’80M (PhD) is the new director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C. Somerman, who completed a periodontal residency at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health and a doctorate in pharmacology at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, was formerly the dean of the University of Washington School of Dentistry in Seattle. She’s a recognized leader in research on the development, maintenance, and regeneration of oral-dental-craniofacial tissues.
Rochester Alumna in Hot Coffee
Joanne Doroshow ’76, executive director of the civil justice research and advocacy organization Center for Justice & Democracy, based in New York City, makes several appearances in the HBO documentary Hot Coffee. The documentary, which premiered in June, centers on the 1995 New Mexico district court case Liebeck v. McDonald’s Restaurants, in which a jury awarded significant damages to a plaintiff who had suffered third-degree burns when she spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee in her lap.
Levi ’69 Recognized for Civic Leadership
John Levi ’69, a partner in the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin, was awarded the first Abner and Zoe Mikva Corporate Citizenship Award this spring. The award is given by Mikva Challenge, an organization that promotes the development of civic leaders among students in Chicago’s public schools. Levi’s accomplishments include his election in 2010 as board chairman of the Legal Services Corp., which funds civil legal assistance to low-income Americans, and his role in Sidley Austin’s partnership with Chicago’s Gerald Delgado Kanoon Magnet Elementary School, as well as in the firm’s pro bono programs.
