Winter 2022

Campus Life

A Peak of Pickle Players

With Pingpong-Tennis-Badminton Mashup on the Upswing, Terp Pro Leads the Way

Campus Life

Projecting the Future

Family’s $2.5M in Gifts Will Fund Arts Innovation, Support Education Majors

Explorations

Book Pulls the Lid Off Canned Food’s History

Cupboard Staple’s Impact Goes Beyond the Dinner Table

Campus Life

Science Behind the Suds

New Fermentation Major Will Support Growing Maryland Craft Beverage and Food Industries

Explorations

Swipe Left on Dating Stereotypes

Study Reveals Fewer Romances, Little Difference Between App, In-Person Pairings

News

New Lab, Center Advance Quantum Computing

UMD Makes $20M Investment in Q-Lab, Leads $25M NSF Grant on Quantum Simulation

Post-Grad

‘Protecting the Democratic Process Itself’

Alum Takes Over as Capitol Police Chief in Wake of Jan. 6 Riot

Explorations

Another Kind of Tree Planting

Researcher Asks: Could Burying Enough Dead Wood Alter the Globe’s Climate Trajectory?

Campus Life

A Hardly ‘Boring’ Achievement

Student Team Wins Safety Award in Elon Musk’s Digging Contest

Campus Life

Living, Learning and Teaching

Honors College Scholar-in-Residence Spends Semester Among Students in Residence Hall

News

New Dining Hall to Honor Indigenous People of Maryland

Post-Grad

Letters of Hope and Familiarity

Alum’s New Book Highlights African Americans’ Relationship to Lincoln

Post-Grad

A Better Plan for Secondhand

Alum’s Streamlined Furniture Resale Website Aims to Cushion the Stress of Online Sales

Post-Grad

Throwback Threads

As Women’s Basketball Team Shoots for More Success, Get a Glimpse of 1920s Game-day Garb

Class Act

Alumni Association News

Explorations

The Big Question

Class Notes

News on Friends and Classmates

See all Class Notes from this issue

90s

Terrence M. Sawyer ’92, M.S. ’96

Terrence M. Sawyer ’92, M.S. ’96 was named Loyola University Maryland’s 25th president. He was previously Loyola’s senior vice president. Sawyer is the university’s first layperson to serve as president; all of his predecessors were ordained Jesuit…

Passings

Donald V. Fellers Jr. ’78

Donald V. Fellers Jr. ’78 of Southport, N.C., died on Nov. 13, 2021. Fellers was born on Sept. 17, 1952, in Waco, Texas, to the late Donald Vonrow Fellers Sr. and Betty Marie Dillow Fellers. Fellers graduated from Frederick High School in Maryland and…

00s

Christopher Jeschke ’02

Christopher Jeschke ’02 was named chief technology officer of Accumulus Synergy, a nonprofit working to develop an information and data exchange platform aimed at transforming how drug innovators and health authorities worldwide interact. He came from…

80s

Gabriel Escobar M.A. ’83

Gabriel Escobar M.A. ’83, editor and senior vice president of The Philadelphia Inquirer, was elected to the Pulitzer Prize board. He spent 16 years at The Washington Post and while at the Inquirer has worked as managing editor, deputy managing editor for…

70s

John Ferrara ’73

John Ferrara ’73 was appointed to the board of directors of SCWorrx. Since 2017, he has been a partner at CFO Performance Partners. He was previously CFO of Wild Sky Media, CFO of Cartesian and CFO of The Street Inc. Ferrara is a CPA and has an MBA in…

80s

Clay Siegall ’82

Clay Siegall ’82 was appointed chair of the board of directors of Umoja Biopharma. He serves as president and chief executive officer of Seagen, which he co-founded in 1998 to develop antibody-drug conjugates for the treatment of cancer. Prior to founding…

90s

Joel Vilmenay ’90

Joel Vilmenay ’90 was hired as general manager of KCBS-TV Channel 2 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles. Vilmenay has spent two decades with Hearst Television, including as president and general manager of its NBC affiliate in New Orleans, WDSU-TV…

90s

Grant Newman ’99, M.S. ’00

Grant Newman ’99, M.S. ’00 was appointed chief financial officer at Elroy Air, an aerospace and logistics company. He recently served as senior vice president, strategy and corporate development at Era Group. In addition to his UMD degrees, he earned an…