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MAGAZINE UCONNMAY 2016 p.14 24 GINA BARRECA ON WRITING ABOUT THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE 26 WOMEN HUSKIES MAKE SOME SERIOUS HISTORY! 30 A SCIENTIST WHO WELCOMES HER RESEARCH SUBJECTS INTO HER LAB 38 WANT TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS? WORK ON THAT EQ SNAP! Stars Over Jacobson Barn The iconic red clapboarded barn on Horsebarn Hill, a favorite spot for graduation photos, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Farwell Barn, named for its original owners. Even the official register, though, nods to the familiar “other name” Jacobson Barn, for the subsequent owners who sold it to UConn. The listing describes it as “one of a dwindling number of historic resources that recall Mansfield’s long history as a primarily agricultural community.” UConn videographer Angelina Reyes, who captured this shot, says, “I waited for a clear night. No clouds. Just stars. I took one photograph with a 30-second exposure every two seconds over a two-hour period. I then went into Photoshop and stacked each image on top of the other to create star trails.” Watch a time-lapse video of the stars and see historical photos of the barn at s.uconn.edu/barn. UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU MAY 2016 CONTENTS | MAY 2016 VOL. 17 NO. 2 FROM THE EDITOR Stories abound about what a certain professor can do to inspire a single student. How WEB one lecture, one class, one thesis can be life-changing, even world-changing. EXCLUSIVES It was a community college biology instructor who introduced author Rebecca magazine.uconn.edu Skloot to the name “Henrietta Lacks.” After his lecture about cell division that included a bit about Lacks’s now famous He-La cells and the doctors who harvested them without her consent, Skloot asked for more information about Lacks. Her professor said he CURLING WITH didn’t know anything more, and why didn’t she do some research and write a paper STEVE EMT for extra credit? Twenty-two years later she sent him that paper — in the form of her See Emt tell the story of how best-selling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. he went from UConn basketball I heard Skloot tell that story at UConn’s Jorgensen Auditorium last fall. She was walk-on to Paralympic curler. And there because John Malone and Mark Longo, professors in UConn’s Department of watch some curling, of course! Molecular and Cell Biology, had assigned Skloot’s book to their Introduction to Genetics s.uconn.edu/steveemt. class. They had then listened and responded when their students were so enthusiastic about the book they asked those professors to help them get Skloot to campus so they A HIGHLY SELECTIVE could meet her. HISTORY OF UCONN ROTC Putting this issue together I found myself thinking about Skloot and Lacks often Celebrate the 100th anniversary because of another inspirational UConn genetics professor, Stormy Chamberlain. If of the nation’s ROTC program only Henrietta Lacks had known Stormy Chamberlain! with these eclectic photos from 14 19 24 30 Chamberlain invites the families of her research subjects, who have a disease called the University Archives. Angelman Syndrome, to open-lab days at her UConn Farmington facility. At the most s.uconn.edu/rotc. recent of these, I was struck by the knowledge and passion her graduate students dis- FEATURES SECTIONS played while fielding questions from parents of Angelman children. “I do this as much SWEET POTATO FRIES for the grad students as for the parents,” Chamberlain told me as the day was getting WITH MAPLE DIPPING BLACK HATS, CYBER BOTS, 4 under way. “They will be more engaged in their research if they know who it is for.” 14 SAUCE QUICK VID ZOMBIES, AND YOU UCONN NOW I can’t help but envision these lab-coated students as the next generation of ge- Not sure how to slice a curved This Storrs campus Cybersecurity Lab is beating Austin Stowell ’07 — who netics professors and wonder if, inspired by this one professor, they will take research sweet potato into straight planks? computer hackers at their own game. just starred in a Steven Spiel- transparency to yet another place we cannot envision today. s.uconn.edu/springrecipes. berg film, a record-breaking Or perhaps they will become science writers like Skloot. After all, it was yet another ROCK ON 19 Huskython, vaccines for professor who put Skloot on that particular path. A writing professor, whose class she A geology professor digs up some rock wall history that ovarian cancer and Zika, a A GEOLOGIST’S TOUR was taking to satisfy an elective during her quest for a Biology degree, told her she includes evidence of UConn’s first student protests. class on Sherlock Holmes, a OF STORRS CAMPUS would make a terrific science writer and not to be afraid to give up a long-held goal in favor of a new goal. 24 GINA BARRECA ON WRITING campaign button collection, Get your rocks on with The English professor and humorist discusses writing sweet potato fries with maple Professor Robert Thorson. Had she not taken his class and had he not given her that advice, Skloot said during about those we love, and shares an excerpt from If You dipping sauce, and much more. s.uconn.edu/stonewalls. her talk at Jorgensen, she would be a veterinarian today and she would still be wonder- Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse? ing who Henrietta Lacks was. As would the rest of the world. Skloot added, “You never 40 CAMPAIGN SEASON know what random sentence from a teacher might change a student’s life.” THE BIG FOUR FOR THE BIG FOUR 26 UCONN NATION Wondering who Sullivan was or The records that toppled in the wake of Stewie, Mo, Tuck An alum whose job is diving why they didn’t want Eleanor? and Geno. And the fourth senior: Briana Pulido. with dolphins, another who Get campaign button info. is teaching in Las Vegas in a s.uconn.edu/buttons. AMONG ANGELS 30 most unconventional way, Stormy Chamberlain, a scientist who is unafraid to let her TOM’S TRIVIA research subjects have names and faces — and families. a third who won a Marshall Scholarship for fine arts, four Find out how your UConn knowledge stacks HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS questions for Stu Rothenberg 38 up against Tom’s. WITHOUT REALLY CRYING ’77 Ph.D. on the political s.uconn.edu/maytrivia. Making it to the next management level may have a lot climate in the country today — more to do with your EQ than your IQ. and class notes, of course. Cover Illustration by: Hoodzpah Design Co. Vice President for Communications Tysen Kendig Assistant Vice President for Brand Strategy Patricia Fazio ’90 (CLAS), ’92 MA Director of Strategic Marketing Communications John Morawiec Editor Lisa Stiepock Art Director Christa Tubach Photographer Peter Morenus Intern Megan Krementowski ’16 (CLAS) Student Table of Contents Photo/Illustration Worker Crystal Mastrangelo ’17 (CLAS) Contributing Writers Kenneth Best; Tom Breen ’00 (CLAS); Amanda Falcone ’05 (CLAS); Sheila Foran ’83 (BGS) ’96 Ph.D.; Elaina Credits, clockwise from bottom left: Hancock; Nick Hurley ’13 (CLAS); Kim Krieger; Grace Merritt; Elizabeth Omara-Otunnu; Colin Poitras ’85 (CLAS); Jesse Rifkin ’14 (CLAS); Katharine Whittemore; Lauren Chris Piascik , Hoodzpah Design Co., Woods Copy Editor Gregory Lauzon Contributing Designers John E. Bailey ’84 (SFA); Web Designers Christine Ballestrini ’03 (SFA); Yesenia Carrero. Peter Morenus (4). UConn Magazine is produced three times a year (January, May, and September) by University Communications, University of Connecticut. Email: uconnmagazine@uconn. edu. Letters to the editor and other comments are welcome. Send address changes to The University of Connecticut Foundation, Records Department, Unit 3206, 2390 Postdoctoral researcher Jack Hsiao explains some of the work he does with genetics Alumni Drive, Storrs, CT 06269. professor Stormy Chamberlain to Angelman families during an open-lab day. 2 UCONN MAGAZINE | MAGAZINE.UCONN.EDU MAY 2016 3 UCONN NOW ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT “BRIDGE OF SPIES” ACTOR CREDITS UCONN FOR HIS MAGNANIMITY Stowell’s advice to aspiring When Austin Stowell ’07 ’60s, the lighting crews who His big break came in 2009 actors: “It is so difficult to get your (SFA) works on a film, had set lights a mile across when he landed the role of first break out here. People ask for he always tries to thank the water, the extras sitting Jesse in the TV series “The advice all of the time, and it is so everyone on set — from the perched in the guard towers Secret Life of the American hard to know what to say, because other actors to the light and for hours without complaint Teenager.” Next came the everyone has a different story. Put sound crews. Every film is a ... It was this giant, collabora- movie “Dolphin Tale” and the in the work, and control what you team effort, and each person tive effort, and I was so proud TNT series “Public Morals.” can.” involved has a dream and a to be a part of it.” He’s worked alongside Holly- vision, says the 31-year-old A Kensington, Conn., na- wood greats and even spent What can you control? “You can “Bridge of Spies” actor. It’s a tive, Stowell picked up acting holidays with them. control your looks and you can lesson he learned at UConn, in high school after he was “Mr. Hanks and Mr. control whether you are prepared: and one he vows not to forget. sidelined by a sports injury Spielberg invited me to whether you are well-studied and In his dramatic arts and friends encouraged him Thanksgiving dinner,” says know the material.” classes, Stowell says he was to try out for his senior play.