Alumni Association to Honor Achievers

The Harvey Mudd College Alumni Association Board of Governors (AABoG) has chosen alumni and other individuals to receive some of the College’s most prestigious awards, which will be presented May 4 at a ceremony in Galileo Hall.

Outstanding Alumni

The Board of Governors selected four alumni—Paula Diehr ’63, Henry Kapteyn ’82, Michael J. Sailor ’83 and Malcolm Lewis ’67—to receive the HMC Outstanding Alumni Award for their significant contributions to science and society.

Diehr is a champion of health services research, using statistical methods to draw out meaningful data. An educator and researcher, she has tackled diverse subjects such as the statistical diagnosis of headaches, methodologies for analyzing medical costs and studying the health issues experienced by older adults. In 1970, Diehr joined the faculty at the University of Washington, Seattle, and devoted her entire career to the school. As professor of biostatistics and health services, she taught, sponsored and mentored doctoral and master’s degree students. As professor emerita, she focuses on issues surrounding aging and longevity. She is the author of more than 200 papers and a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Association for Health Services Research and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Diehr earned her B.S. in mathematics from HMC and her master’s and doctorate in biostatistics from UCLA. Her son Michael Diehr ’90 is also an HMC graduate.

Kapteyn is best known for his research in femtosecond lasers. With his wife Margaret, he created a tabletop X-ray laser and applied it to pioneering studies of material behavior. He is a founding member of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center in Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology and co-founder of KMLabs, a successful laser company. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His awards include the Adolph Lomb Medal (1993), the Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science and Technology (2009), the R.W. Wood Prize (2010), the Arthur Schawlow Prize (2010) and the Willis Lamb Award in Quantum Electronics (2012). In 1999, he joined the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he is professor of physics. Kapteyn earned his B.S. in physics from HMC, his master’s from Princeton University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sailor is a global authority on porous silicon who has invented many porous silicon-based technologies. He invented the interferometric sensor, which spurred a worldwide chemical and biological sensor research effort. He also developed “Smart Dust,” multifunctional nanostructured photonic crystal particles that can be used as chemical sensors; the Reflective Interferometric Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (RIFTS) technique; and, the method to prepare porous silicon nanoparticles, including demonstrating their use as tumor imaging agents. He has served as scientific advisor to several startups and has won two “Best of What’s New” awards from Popular Science. In 1990, he joined the faculty at the University of California, San Diego, where he is professor of chemistry and biochemistry and the Leslie Orgel Scholar in Inorganic Chemistry. He holds affiliate appointments in the university’s Departments of Bioengineering and Nanoengineering and in the Materials Science and Engineering Program. Sailor earned his B.S. in chemistry from HMC and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University.

Lewis was presented with the HMC Outstanding Alumni Award shortly before he died of cancer on Oct. 13, 2012. The first alumnus elected to the HMC Board of Trustees (1973), he served on the board for 39 years. In 2012, he became the first alumnus to serve as its chairman. Lewis founded Constructive Technologies Group Inc., a consulting firm that helps owners and designers optimize the performance of new and existing buildings. Involved in the development of the LEED green-building rating system, Lewis oversaw more than 150 LEED-certified projects. He was the driving force behind the LEED certification of Sontag Residence Hall, Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons and the new teaching and learning building. He and his wife Cindy established the Patton and Claire Lewis Fellowship program, which provides opportunities for students to be mentored by professional engineers in academia and industry, while gaining practical experience.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

The AABoG selected three people to receive Lifetime Recognition Awards:

Emeritus Trustee Jack Appleman ’68 serves as a mathematics professor at Irvine Valley College, where he teaches students how to apply mathematical modeling to real-world projects from business, government and nonprofit sectors.  He contributed to HMC’s strategic planning initiative, serving as a “Looking Outside the Box” workshop committee member. He also participated in the inaugural Mudd Design Workshop (1997) with a presentation entitled, “Mind versus Machine: The Uncertain Future of Human Thoughtworks.” As an HMC trustee (1996–1999), he served on the Audit, Educational Planning and Student Affairs committees. Appleman is a former president of the Alumni Association Board of Governeos (1993–1995) and continues to participate regularly in AABoG meetings. In 1996, he was honored with the alumni association’s Order of the Wart award in recognition for his contributions to the College.

Elizabeth “Liz” Baughman, senior director of advancement services, has worked at HMC for the past 35 years. Her contributions to the College include serving and supporting Alumni Relations and College Advancement through prospect research, donor relations and stewardship, charitable donation processing and special events. She has helped to coordinate meetings, to identify HMC community members for service and recognition, and to support AABoG committees in the development of informational, recruitment and promotional materials. The HMC community has benefitted greatly from her wisdom, commitment and enthusiastic, inspirational attitude.

Emeritus Trustee Sally Siemak ’72 works as principal and lead auditor at EQ Services, a management systems firm that specializes in ISO standard auditing, consulting and training. As the alumni representative on the HMC Board of Trustees (2001–2003), Siemak served on the Educational Planning, Student Affairs and Physical Plant/Campus Planning committees. She also served terms as AABoG president (1999–2001) and vice president (1998–1999), and as a committee member for her 40th class reunion. Her leadership beyond the College includes serving as board chair for Dow Great Western Credit Union and Beach Cities Community Awareness Emergency Response.