Alumni News
We welcome and encourage you to send us your personal news. Everyone enjoys hearing about the alumni. Please take a moment and tell us about yourself. You can email us at physics@csun.edu. Tell us the degree(s) you received and the year(s). Thank you.
Alan R. Kramer (B.S. Physics '00)
Alan joined Jobin Yvon on the East coast after graduating from our program. At this international company he specialized in technical sales support including thin film characterization using optical techniques. Alan feels his CSUN education prepared him well for a technical career. However, after five years, he has decided to shift gears. He has accepted a physics teaching position at Mahwah High School in Mahwah, New Jersey. We wish him well and expect him to inspire future physics majors. On a personal note, long ago Alan had a date in 1978 with Kimli before the Noel dance. Kimli said that it "was the worst date of her life." Many years later, Alan and Kimli have another date at the Bistro Montparnasse in Paris. This time it was a more positive experience and Alan and Kimli are sharing their life in New Jersey. Congratulations! (Received May 2006)
Andrew B. Shaw (B.A. Biomedical Physics '05)
Andrew was accepted with an $80,000 scholarship at the College of Medicine and Public Health at Ohio State University. He is completing his first year as a medical student. Andrew is not only being a dedicate student but he is involved in numerous committees including serving as the Vice President of the American Medical Association Chapter. The attached picture of Andrew was taken when he first joined our Biomedical Physics program a few years ago. It is great to learn about the good ambassadorship of our students. Congratulations! (Received April 2006)
Anthony L. Daniell (B.S. Physics, M.S. Physics '95)
It is great to receive news from Anthony. He tells us that after he left Cedars-Sinai in 2003 Anthony joined Northrop-Grumman at Van Nuys, California where he is gaining a different experience in aerospace research. Anthony and his coworkers published an article in the American Journal of Roentgenology from his days at Cedars ("Concordance of Coronary Artery Calcium Estimates Between MDCT and Electron Beam Tomography," AJR, 185, 1542, (2005)). Congratulations! (Received March 2006)
Mayra Tovar (M.S. Physics '03)
Mayra transferred to the University of California at Riverside from the University of Iowa at Ames. She is in the Ph.D. Physics program as a 'second' year student. We welcome Mayra back to warmer California and wish her success in the comprehensive exams. (Received February 2006)
Barbara Falkowski (B.S. Physics '03, M.S. '05)
Barbara is her first year in the Ph.D. Physics program at UC Riverside, after a long tenure at CSUN. We wish Barbara all the best in her higher pursuits.
Dundar Karabay (M.S. Physics '05)
Dundar is in the Ph.D. Physics program at UC Riverside after completing the M.S. degree at CSUN in the area of Biophysics. We wish Dundar success at UCR.
Kintak Yue (B.S. Physics '88, M.S. Physics '91)
Kintak has worked in the aerospace industry since his graduation with a M.S. degree at CSUN. Presently he is with Boeing at the El Segundo facility. Kintak married and has a three and a half years old boy and a 15 months girl. Kintak says that his CSUN education has served him well in his career. In particular, the laboratory skills he learned have become very handy. He keeps in touch with friends that graduated at about the same time that he did. We wish him continued success.
Daniel McDonald (B.S. Physics '05)
Daniel is pursuing an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at UCLA with a concentration in Systems and Control after his graduation from CSUN. He is also a Teaching Assistant for a course in Mathematical Methods. We wish Daniel success in this new direction.
Daniel Blais (B.S. Physics '74)
After graduation Dan went to work for the petroleum industry as a geophysicist involved with the processing of seismic data in the search for oil and gas. In 1987 after holding several supervisory/managerial positions with Texaco and Petty-Ray Geophysical, he took a "short term" overseas assignment with the national oil company of Saudi Arabia and ended up staying thirteen years. Before taking early retirement in 2001, Dan was working on projects dealing with the 3D characterization of hydrocarbon reservoirs. He now owns a small business in New Hampshire repairing personal computers.
Arthur Altshiller (M.S. Physics '71)
Arthur has retired from the Advanced Placement and Honors Physics Teaching position at Van Nuys Science Magnet High School. His career with LAUSD lasted 33 years, eighteen of which were spent at Van Nuys HS. Arthur attended San Fernando Valley State College in 1959 and 1960 as an undergraduate but earned the B.S. at the University of Oklahoma and later earned an M.S. in Physics in 1971. He is listed in Marquis Who's Who, 2005. Arthur will continue to teach AP Physics as a retired teacher and maintain his lecture position as an evening instructor at LA Valley College. We wish Arthur all the best and invite him to visit us at anytime.
Jose A. Ceja (B.S. Physics '01, M.S. Physics '03)
Jose is in the Ph.D. program at UC Irvine. His article together with CSUN Professor Steve Walton titled "Nonlinear Least Squares Analysis of Stokes Profiles" has been published in Solar Physics, 226 (2005), pp 17-36. Congratulations to Jose and Steve!
Bob Gellert (B.S. Physics '62)
We heard from Bob! After graduation I spent the first 5 years at North American Aviation in Canoga Park, CA and Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica (very dull work). In 1967 I joined a newly formed Laser Group at the Boeing Space Center in Kent, WA. During this period I worked on a variety of laser systems and laser types from Argon to Xenon, mostly developing tools for research, development and testing of aircraft systems. In 1983 I joined Spectra Technology (for a while a division of Spectra Physics) and continued doing Laser Research. Much of my time there was spent on a 55 meter long Free Electron Laser, which we built at the Boeing Radiation Effects Laboratory, Linear Accelerator Facility in Seattle, WA. While at STI, I became a partner in a very small (3 of us) company, developing laser-landing aids for aircraft carriers. Presently retired with too many hobbies to keep track of, 6 grandchildren and one great-grand-child due in July '05. (I had more free time when I was working two jobs......) We are proud of Bob's accomplishments with his BS degree from this department. We wish him and his family all the best. If ever in Southern California pay us a visit. A picture of Bob (a while ago) can be found in the Department Picturespage.
Thomas L. Smith (B.S. Physics '69)
Thomas initially worked with Hughes Missile Systems doing Fourier analysis of launcher transients. Matured through all of the past generations of software engineering including embedded software for the Mars Atmospheric Water Detector instrument, development of the Laser Rangefinder subsystem of the AI Robot Vehicle (JPL), testing on a laser optical bench of a weapon system (Hughes Aircraft), and development of spacecraft control system embedded software (Boeing Satellite Systems). Have lived in Simi Valley ever since graduation. He is now studying biomedical device engineering to apply my control systems skills to the health industry. Thomas visited the Department and sends regards to everyone.
Thomas W. Parslow (M.S. Physics '85)
Tom moved up North to Redmond, WA, when he went to work for Microsoft in '86. He spent six years there as a manager in the operating systems group working on kernels, then went off to do some computational evolution stuff. He returned to Microsoft for a while in '96. Now he is a consultant. It is nice to hear from Tom. We wish him continued success.
Roya Zandi (B.S. Physics '92, M.S. Physics '94)
After graduating summa cum laude and with honors in physics Roya attended UCLA where she earned a Ph.D. in Physics in 2001. She has a dual Postdoctoral appointment at UCLA and MIT. We were pleased to welcome her back to CSUN when she presented her research in the Department's colloquia about applications in Biophysics. Roya is searching for a permanent position in academia. We wish her our very best.
Makan Mohageg (B.S. Physics '02)
We hear from Makan at UCLA that his article "Low Threshold Optical Oscillations in a Whispering Gallery Mode CaF2 Resonator," has been published in PRL 93, 243905 (2004), 10 December 2004. Congratulations to Makan.
Yu-Suan Lin (M.S. Physics '94)
Yu-Suan is with Texas Instruments at its Chicago Design Center. This location coordinates with Texas Instruments' Nice Design Center in France. He works on multi-media applications processor for 3G mobile phones. We wish him all our best.
John Powell (B.S. Physics '71, M.S. '72)
Johnny kept busy after he graduate from CSUN and received a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 1983. Later he joined the faculty in the Department of Physics at Reed College, Portland, Oregon. His area of interest includes neural biophysics, astrophysics, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In addition, he is an avid bird watcher and served in the Board of Directors of the Audubon Society of Portland 1998 - 2002. His website is located at www.reed.edu/~dna/. We wish him continued success.
Frans Krajenbrink (B.S. in Physics '78)
Frans worked at the Hughes Research Laboratory, Malibu, California for many years. During the last seven years he has been a volunteer for the California State Parks. Last year he was elected Vice President on the Board of Directors of the Santa Monica Mountains Natural History Association. We congratulate Frans and wish him all the best.
Ilyea Shaikh (M.S. in Physics '04)
Ilyea is a Physics and Chemistry teacher at the Renaissance Academy in Pacific Palisades after graduating with a Master degree in physics. We wish him all the best.
Gregory Frye (B.S. in Physics '04)
Greg completed the bachelor degree in Physics and is pursuing a teaching credential. He presently teaching at the Discovery Prep Charter School in Pacoima. We wish Greg all the best in this endeavor.
Roger G. Mooradian (B.S. in Physics '68)
Roger visited the department and told us that in 1972 he received a B.S. in Meteorology from San Jose State University. He lived in Southern California and worked for a family-owned aircraft parts manufacturer. Many of the physics skills he learned at CSUN were handy in the feasibility studies he conducted to establish production methods. He switched jobs in 1991 and worked for the Department of Defense in cartography in the State of Virginia. Recently he retired and moved back to his old family home in Southern California. Presently he is obtaining a real estate broker license. We wish Roger all the best.
Stephen R. Schaffter (B.S. Physics '79)
Steve earned a teaching credential and teaches Chemistry and Physics at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, Califonia.
Jerry A. Wilson (M.S. Physics '69)
Jerry is the Head of the Sensor Systems Engineering at Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. They design and build commercial imaging systems for satellites and space probes. Jerry sends his regards to the faculty and alumni.
Art Altshiller (M.S. Physics '71)
Art is a teacher at Van Nuys Math/Science Magnet High School. He teaches physics and finds time to be involved with the California High Energy Cosmic Ray Observatory (CHICOS) project. His website is:www.lausd.k12.ca.us/vnhs/physics.
Anthony J. Alfrey (M.S. Physics '79)
Tony joined the faculty at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after he obtained a Ph.D. in Physics.
Lucas Haley (B.S. Physics '02)
Lucas will start the Physics Ph.D. program at UC Riverside in Fall 2003.
Peter Porazik (B.S. Physics '02)
Peter will start the Physics Ph.D. program at UC Irvine in Fall 2003.