Admiral H.G. Rickover, Father of the Nuclear Navy and Civilian Uses of Nuclear Power, with Background on the Founding of CEE in 1983

Celebrating 35 Years of

2017-2018 Alumni Campaign

Alumni Campaign Update

To date, 399 CEE alumni have made gifts totaling more than $320,500 to the 2017-18 Alumni Campaign, which is 91% of our $350,000 goal. 56 CEE alumni, representing both CEE’s Re- search Science Institute (RSI) and USA Biology Olympiad (USABO) programs, have made their first gift to the Center during this Campaign.

Every gift is important as we progress towards our goals by March 31!

If you have already made your gift, THANK YOU! If you have not yet participated, please visit www.cee.org/donate today. Please do your part to ensure the longevity of the Center for Excel- lence in Education, RSI and USABO.

Donor Profile

Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, known as the father of the nuclear Navy, is not only the co-founder of the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), but he is also its first donor, making a $250 gift for a university lecture.

Rickover was born in Russian Poland on Jan. 27, 1900. When he was 4 years old, his parents joined the wave of refugees emigrating to the United States. They settled in Chicago, where the father was a tailor.

Admiral Rickover is the longest-serving (at 63 years!) naval officer and the longest serving member of the U.S armed forces in history. In February 1949 he was as- signed to the Atomic Energy Commission's Division of Reactor Development, and then assumed control of the Navy's effort as Director of the Naval Reactors Branch. This twin role enabled him to lead the effort to plan and personally oversee the development of the Nautilus submarine, the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine, as well as to oversee the development of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the first commercial pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant. For his service to the Navy and the United States, Admiral Rickover is only one of four people to have been awarded two Congressional Gold Medals.

Admiral Rickover long believed that U.S. standards of education were unacceptably low. His first book centered on education was a collection of essays calling for improved standards of education, particularly in math and science, entitled Education and Freedom (1959). In it, he stated that, "education is the most important problem facing the United States today" and "only the massive upgrading of the scholastic standards of our schools will guarantee the future prosperity and freedom of the Republic."

Upon retirement, Admiral Rickover co-founded the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) in 1983 with Joann P. DiGennaro, CEE’s President. The Admiral and Ms. DiGennaro met with educators around the world to create a unique educational experience for students of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Two years before the Admiral’s death, the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Hyman G. Ricko- ver (SSN-709) was named for him, making it one of the relatively few United States Navy ships to be named for a living person. USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-709) was launched on August 27, 1983, christened by the admiral's second wife, Mrs. Eleonore Ann Bednowicz Rickover, then commissioned on July 21, 1984, and deactivated on December 14, 2006.

Admiral Rickover died at his home in Arlington, Virginia, on July 8, 1986 at 86 years of age. Memorial services were led by Admiral James D. Watkins at the Washington National Cathe- dral, with President Jimmy Carter, who formerly served under Admiral Rickover, Secretary of State George P. Shultz, senior naval officers and about 1,000 other people in attendance. Admiral Rickover is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 2015, the Navy announced that a new Virginia class submarine, USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-795), would be named for Rickover. Rickover Hall at the United States Naval Academy, houses the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture, Ocean Engineering, Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering. Rickover Center at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, where officer and enlisted U.S. Navy personnel begin their engineering training, is located at Joint Base Charleston.

Alumni Announcements

 The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) congratulates the 10 2017 RSI scholars se- lected among the 40 finalists for the Regeneron Science Talent Search Finalists: o Sidhika Balachandar , Buchholz High School, Gainesville, Florida, Picoscale Me- chanics of Atomically Engineered Materials o Charley Hutchison, St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Ridgeland, Mississippi, Ki- netics and Thermodynamics of Deeply-Supercooled Liquids o Advait Patil, Lynbrook High School, San Jose, California, A High-Throughput Multi-Omics Framework for Global Identification of Novel Molecular Interac- tions and Genome-Scale Modeling of Multicellular Ecosystems o Syamantak Payra, Clear Brook High School, Friendswood, Texas, A Smart Bion- ic Leg Orthosis: The Design, Development and Evaluation of an Orthotic Device for Comprehensive Restoration of Gait Characteristics Across Everyday Mobility Scenarios o Isani Singh, Cherry Creek High School, Greenwood Village, Colorado, Investi- gating the Developmental Requirements of Sex Chromosome Genes Affected in Turner Syndrome o Marissa Sumathipala, Broad Run High School, Ashburn, Virginia, Reinventing Cardiovascular Disease Therapy: A Novel Dual Therapeutic with FOXO Tran- scription Factor and AMP Kinase o Grace Tian, The Wellington School, Columbus, Ohio, Linear Upper Bound on the Ribbonlength of Torus Knots and Twist Knots o Vinjai Vale, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, A New Paradigm for Computer Vision Based on Compositional Representation o Franklyn Wang, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Al- exandria, Virginia, Monodromy Groups of Indecomposable Rational Functions o David Wu, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland, Nonuni- form Distributions of Patterns of Sequences of Primes in Prime Moduli

 Calling Rickoid Web Developers: The Center seeks alumni or friends experienced in website design for an upgrade to www.CEE.org. Knowledge of Drupal and WordPress required. Contact [email protected].

 The Winter Olympics are coming. But if not for STEM innovations, the sports would be slower and weaker. Share your favorite STEM winter sports innovation with BMcIn- [email protected] and we’ll post them for you during the Olympics. Examples: o Shear Thickening Fluid (Dilatant), is an example of a non-Newtonian fluid where the shear viscosity increases with applied shear stress. This behavior is only one type of deviation from Newton's Law, and it is controlled by such factors as particle size, shape, and distribution. It was responsible for Gold and Silver at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver when Lindsey Vonn and U.S. teammate Julia Mancuso took first and second place in ladies downhill skiing. They wore seamless uniforms whose main ingredient was shear thickening fluid. The special suit meant that the skiers could get rid of leg and arms pads, making the suit more aerodynamic, and the skiers faster. o Biomechanics changed the world of Olympic speed skating forever. The idea of a hinged skate blade to give a skater more power was described and patented in 1894 by Karl Hannes from Burghausen, Germany, but it never caught on. It was re-invented by Dutch biomechanist Gerrit Jan van Ingen Schenau, who started work on a hinged speed skate in 1979, created his first prototype in 1980 and fin- ished his Ph.D. thesis on the subject in 1981. The modern “Clap Skate” was born, and by the 1998 Olympics only the North Koreans would still use the old fixed skate. The result? A torrent of world records.

Important Dates

 February, 2018: “Innovators & Scientists Needed” webinar, details TBD  February 6-16: USABO Tier 1 Open Exams  March 29, 2018: Alumni Reunion at Pinterest Headquarters in San Francisco, 5-7 p.m., with remarks by Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann (RSI ’98)  April 18, 2018: CEE Annual Congressional Luncheon, Russell Senate Building, Wash- ington, D.C.  Spring 2018: 2018 USA Biology Olympiad (USABO) Finals at University of California, San Diego; dates TBD this spring.  June 24 to August 4, 2018: 2018 Research Science Institute (RSI) at MIT in Cambridge, MA.  October 12 – 14, 2018: CEE 35th Anniversary Weekend and Alumni Reunion in Cam- bridge, MA.

Opinion

 Im/Possible by Joann DiGennaro  Support Top Academic Talent by Joann DiGennaro  Dropping the Ball on Geek Power by Joann DiGennaro

CEE News

 Admiral H. G. Rickover’s Basic Principles for Doing Your Job!  Donor Profile featuring Michael Mitzenmacher (RSI’86)  Donor profile featuring the Dienes family (RSI ’88 and RSI ’16)  CEE is now on Instagram, please connect with CEE!  Start 2018 off with a review of your science knowledge!  The Fall/Winter edition of CEE’s newsletter, Centerline  Donor profile featuring Andrew Hennes, USABO ’17  Donor profile featuring Dan (RSI ’98) and Josie (Weeks) Haspel (RSI ’01)  CEE Director William T. Stuart profile  Health in High Ability Students webinar video  CEE Video, “You Make Friends for Life”  Donor Profile featuring Mark Kantrowitz (RSI ’84)  The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) will host CEE’s USA Biology Olympi- ad (USABO) beginning 2018. Pam R. Taub, MD, FACC, (RSI ’93), Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), helped secure the new home of USABO National Finals at UCSD.  Flashback Friday Video: Where It Began…RSI 1984  Exciting News about recent CEE Alumni  2017 Alumni & Program Event Highlights  2017-2018 Alumni Campaign Update  Throwback Thursday: Video  Campaign Kickoff FAQs

CEE Video and Online Resources

 Admiral H.G. Rickover, father of the nuclear Navy and civilian uses of nuclear power, with background on the founding of CEE in 1983.  The Center’s Annual Luncheon on Capitol Hill, sponsored this year by Google.  CEE’s USA Biology Olympiad (USABO) National Finals closing ceremony, field labs, and Team USA, who earned four gold medals at the International Biology Olympiad and is the reigning #1 high school biology team in the world.  The Center’s world-renown Research Science Institute (RSI), which this year hosted 80 top scholars from 35 states and 15 countries.  The Distinguished Guest Lecture series, including Nobel Laureates, at CEE’s Research Science Institute (RSI).  The top five RSI Final Research Presentations in 2017 by rising high school seniors from VA, CO, WA, Spain and Singapore, RSI’s 2017 top student awards and Rickover Award winner.  Teacher Enrichment Program (TEP) ‘Bite of Science’ events for rural and urban middle and high-school STEM teachers featuring speakers from industry and academia.  TEP STEM Teacher Roundtables that connect industry, government, academic, and non- profit representatives with teachers to create awareness of STEM career fields and required job skills.  Free lesson plans, presentations and classroom resources for STEM teachers.  Webinars for parents and educators of high school and high ability students.  The life-changing impact of the Center’s STEM student programs, whose alumni repre- sent all 50 states and 55 international countries.