ALUMNI NEWS
Charles Perrin 1/6/06. The past year has been a busy one for us. In July Marilyn's mother died after progressive declines in heart function. We organized a memorial service for all her friends at her apartment complex, with the cantor from Beth Israel officiating and singing beautifully.
I just finished teaching 350 students in introductory OChem. Now I am on a quarter's sabbatical. This has the benefit of breaking the chain of university service, so I am no longer on a statewide committee that required monthly trips to Oakland.
In March the ACS national meeting was held in San Diego. Several ex-students participated and we got together for a lunch. Currently the lab has two postdocs, from China and Mexico, and one graduate student who is finishing slowly. Research goes well, with nice papers recently in JACS and Angew. Chem. Part of the justification for the sabbatical is that in February the Gordon Conference on Isotopes will be held in Ventura. I was foolish enough to accept election as Chair, so I'm busy organizing the program, raising funding, and encouraging everyone to register. In June I was in New Hampshire for the Gordon Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry. On the way I visited my brother and sister-in-law in Boston, and went to several museums despite record heat.
Marilyn was invited to present the structure of her hormone-receptor complex at a September peptides meeting in Rouen, France. They paid her way, so she paid mine. We stopped off in Pittsburgh for a 50th High School Reunion, which was depressing because all those young classmates are now so old. Then we spent two weeks driving around some parts of France that we had never seen, and finished with a week in Paris.
David has been recommended for tenure by his department at UBC Vancouver. In Phoenix Edward finished a fellowship in geriatrics and now is a half-time junior faculty in family practice at Good Samaritan Hospital, is a medical director at Hospice of the Vallley, manages 350 patients at various nursing homes, and is active in NARAL. He acquired a puppy that now weighs 30 pounds.
We hope this finds you well.
Best wishes for the New Year,
Charlie & Marilyn
