To: The Quinnipiac University Community
From: William Weldon, Chairman, Quinnipiac University Board of Trustees

It is with mixed emotions that the Board of Trustees acknowledges President John Lahey’s recent announcement that he will retire in June 2018. We want to thank him for his extraordinary service to Quinnipiac during these past 30 years. We would like to highlight a few of his many accomplishments.

The university has grown from 1,902 students when John arrived in 1987 to approximately 10,000 today. Then Quinnipiac College, today it is a major university with a college of arts and sciences and eight professional schools: business, communications, education, engineering, health sciences, law, medicine and nursing. The Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine graduates its inaugural class next month. His leadership has resulted in a rise in academic excellence, national prominence and highly evolved student engagement initiatives.

John also has overseen the growth of the physical plant from one to three campuses in two towns: the Mount Carmel Campus, the York Hill Campus, and our newest campus in North Haven that houses most of the graduate programs.

A special point of pride is the Polling Institute, which over the years has grown from a small, local operation polling in Connecticut to an internationally recognized poll that today conducts polls in 11 states, New York City and nationally. There are many other institutes that have been created during John’s tenure, including the Albert Schweitzer Institute and three in the School of Medicine in primary care, rehabilitation medicine and global public health. A newly formed Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute joins Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, opened in 2012.

And finally, the university’s athletic programs took a major leap when, under John’s leadership, they moved from Division II to Division I athletics, building a new sports center on York Hill, and elevating basketball and ice hockey to the national stage.

President Lahey has the Board’s full support during this next year. As trustees, our responsibility now is to ensure that we seek the most highly qualified, talented and experienced individual to lead the University in the coming years. We are deeply committed to doing so and, to that end, have engaged the services of Spencer Stuart, a global executive search firm based in Chicago. The firm is uniquely qualified to assist us, having conducted more than 300 senior-level executive and board searches over the past five years.

Representatives from the firm’s Stamford, Connecticut office will be on campus in May to meet with faculty, staff and students and thus help the trustees learn what qualities and experience the Quinnipiac community wishes to see in its next president.

Again, I extend my deepest appreciation to John and his wife, Judy, for their exceptional service to Quinnipiac University and wish them much happiness in the years ahead.

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Christopher Roe is the chief executive office of the California STEM Learning Network (CSLNet), a nonprofit organization working to ensure that California is a national leader in preparing STEM-capable students.

Roe is in charge of overseeing the creation of strategic relationships and collaborating with regional, state and national partners to rapidly scale innovative STEM teaching and learning across K-14 education in order that all students have access to high-quality learning opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the critical fields that fuel California’s dynamic economy. In addition, Roe been appointed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson to serve on the newly-created STEM Task Force that will examine how to improve the way California educates its students in these subjects and engage more students in scientific and technical fields, which are integral to the state’s economic future.

Prior to joining CSLNet, Roe served as the Deputy Director for the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF), a membership organization comprised of corporate CEOs and senior executives, college and university presidents, and foundation leaders working together to advance innovative solutions to the nation’s most significant education challenges. In this role, Roe worked closely with BHEF’s members, policymakers, and educators to develop and advance innovative policy and programmatic solutions to our nation’s most pressing education challenges. While at BHEF Roe provided leadership for its STEM initiative, which has as its goal doubling the number of STEM graduates nationally.

Roe previously was also managing director of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research and the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement, based at Stanford University. Roe is also co-founder of Pacific Educational Group, based in San Francisco, CA, and the Foundation for a College Education (FCE) located in East Palo Alto, CA, an award-winning non-profit organization that assists students of color and their families in attaining a college education.

Roe has authored or contributed to a number of reports on issues of state and federal higher education policy, including “An American Imperative: Transforming the Recruitment, Retention, and Renewal of Our Nation’s Mathematics and Science Teaching Workforce” by the Business-Higher Education Forum and “New Models of Leadership and Collaboration to Improve Science Education: The Role of Business” in Science Education Leadership by NSTA Press.

Roe received his master’s in public policy from the University of California-Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, and his bachelor’s of science degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

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When you sit down to watch television or go to the movies, you don’t have to look far to see science and engineering hard at work. It’s in the high-tech gadgets used to analyze crime scene evidence, the medicine developed to stop the spread of disease, amazing super powers and phenomenal fight scenes – it’s everywhere. But, have you ever wondered how Hollywood gets it right?

Individuals and families can learn about the science behind Hollywood’s crime dramas, superhero feats, medical shows and special effects at the USA Science & Engineering Festival, hosted by Lockheed Martin — the nation’s largest celebration of science and engineering that will take place April 28-29, 2012 in Washington, D.C. The festival will feature exhibits, performances and appearances by scientists and organizations that work closely with Hollywood film and TV producers to make sure that they are portraying science and engineering realistically.

One of those organizations is The Science & Entertainment Exchange, a program of the National Academy of Science that puts the likes of Nobel Prize winners on speed dial for Hollywood TV and film producers. “Since we’ve started, we’ve facilitated more than 350 consults – an average of 2 to 3 each week – for movies like Iron Man 2, TRON: Legacy, Thor, Green Lantern and the upcoming Disney film The Avengers, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Ann Merchant, Deputy Executive Director for the Office of Communications for The National Academies. “We’re not the accuracy police, more like the plausibility patrol – it’s not about making a movie a textbook, but we do try to make sure that there are more realistic elements included in the stories on which we consult,” continued Merchant.

Several performers at the USA Science and Engineering Festival will give participants the opportunity to experience the science of Hollywood up close and personal, including:
• Learning the science behind the wizardry of Harry Potter and the magic from Hogwart’s Academy in demonstrations showing how science can make objects levitate or disappear, from San Diego State University Professor and former NSTA president, Dr. Alan McCormack.
• Simulating the rapid spread of the H1N1 virus through the Walter E. Washington Convention Center – similar to the epidemic in the movie Contagion – utilizing bar code and Quick Response (QR) tags as a surrogate for the virus, at an exhibit by the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech.
• Competing in robot battles like those seen in the movie Real Steel and operating various other robots throughout the festival, including the robotic tools used to find the Titanic on the ocean floor. Ocean exploration pioneer, David Gallo, discoverer of the Titanic is scheduled to appear at the Festival.
• Touring the vehicles that chase tornados and extreme weather in the popular reality show Storm Chasers. Dr. Josh Wurman, founder of the Center for Severe Weather Research, which operates the Doppler on Wheels (DOW) – a mobile radar unit that observes tornadoes, hurricanes, wild fires and other phenomena from close range – will give a talk and meet with fans.
Exploring how scientists use technology to detect life on other planets and meeting Seth Shostak – an alien chaser that the movie Contact was based upon.
• Meeting the inventor and inspiration for the Iron Man movies in which he makes a cameo appearance, Elon Musk, who also serves as CEO and chief technology officer of SpaceX, the producer of the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets.

A festival favorite, Jim Kakalios, will mesmerize the crowd with a presentation on the science of superheroes, explaining the plausibility and the scientific basis for super powers from all of our favorite comic books. Kakalios is the author of the Physics of Superheroes, a book that explains physics principles in an easy-to-understand and often humorous manner.

A physics professor at the University of Minnesota, Kakalios was connected to the filmmakers of The Watchmen by The Science & Entertainment Exchange to consult on the translation of the graphic novel to the big screen for the 2009 Warner Bros. film. He has also consulted for the recent film The Green Lantern and the upcoming film The Amazing Spider Man, in theaters next summer. “The real benefit for me is that I get to interact with fun, nice people [in Hollywood] who are turned on by ideas and they want to do their best to make it realistic,” said Kakalios. “When I watch TV or films and I see them get it right, it’s like catching a little inside joke. I appreciate it and hope that the audience will learn a little something about science.”

Science Celebrities:
The USA Science & Engineering Festival will also feature leading science celebrities like Bill Nye the Science Guy and Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of the MythBusters, who will appear live during the finale Expo. Also scheduled to appear are Jeff Lieberman from Discovery Channel’s series Time Warp and Apollo Robbins, the Gentleman Thief from National Geographic’s Brain Games.

Influential Scientific Authors:
The USA Science & Engineering Festival Book Fair will feature several authors who have changed science in the media. Dr. Robin Cook has written more than 30 best selling novels – including Coma, which was made into a successful feature film by Michael Crichton and Outbreak, which served as the basis for NBC’s “Virus.” Dr. Cook’s writing transformed the media’s representation of the medical profession from what it used to be in the days of Marcus Welby, MD to what we are used to seeing to see in shows like ER and Grey’s Anatomy. Homer Hickam took us into the world of opportunity with his biography — a quest to become a rocket scientist — that became the hit movie October Sky. Illustrator Bruce Degan brought Joanna Cole’s words to life in the books and eventual TV enterprise the Magic School Bus, which has delighted and enlightened youth about the possibilities of science for the past 25 years.

About the USA Science & Engineering Festival:
The USA Science & Engineering Festival is the country’s only national science festival, and was developed to increase public awareness of the importance of science and to encourage youth to pursue careers in science and engineering by celebrating science in much the same way as we celebrate Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes.

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You are cordially invited to attend Girls Love STEM: A celebration of groundbreaking research on what girls think about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Come hear about the future of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

With remarks from:

Anna Maria Chávez, CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA

Ellis Rubinstein, CEO, The New York Academy of Sciences

Esteemed Panelists:

Meghan Groome, PhD, New York Academy of Sciences

Toni Hoover, PhD, Pfizer

Anna Kuchment, Scientific American

Kamla Modi, PhD, Girl Scout Research Institute

and Erin Harding, a Girl Scout from Girl Scouts of Nassau County

February 14, 2012

3:30–5:00 p.m. panel

5:00–6:00 p.m. reception

The New York Academy of Sciences

7 World Trade Center

250 Greenwich Street

40th floor, New York City

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