Alumni Magazine Fall 2018 ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S OLDEST PLAYER AN ASTRONAUT FLIES HEIRLOOM HIMSELF TO CLASS RACING TO SAVE THE HOW TO TACKLE APPLE TREES OF WORKPLACE BIAS BOULDER COUNTY THE LIONFISH KING NOWJUNE 2018 In June, CU art and art history professor George Rivera curated an exhibition of 117 works of art in a museum just outside of the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), including 23 works by CU Boulder students. All are diptychs — art in two panels — reflecting the standoff between North and South Korea. The exhibition, which runs through Dec. 22, is the first to display American art in the DMZ Museum. Pictured here is “Between You and Me” by Sandy Lane (Art’95; MFA’98). 1Paintings FALL 2018 by Sandy Coloradan Lane Coloradan FALL 2018 2 FEATURES EDITOR’S NOTE CU Boulder people 15 The Oldest Apples in Boulder produce interesting CU ecologists are tracking down the surviving stuff. New stuff. Fun trees of the Front Range’s all but vanished apple stuff. Mind-bending orchards — and priming a renewal. stuff. Atomic clocks. Storm-chasing drones. Gloves that turn table- 19 What Happened to the Teachers? tops into pianos. Colorado’s teacher shortage persists. Can The university is also CU Boulder help? a repository for arrest- ing old stuff. A Glenn Miller (A&S ex’26; Hon- 21 Brainy Buffs DocHum’84) gold record. Year after year, two of CU Boulder’s most successful Apple computers from sports teams also perform best in the classroom. How 1978. NASA spacesuits. does that happen? Dinosaur bones. The university’s Heritage Center and 25 The Lionfish King libraries preserve and Ken Ayers Jr. (MTeleComm’87) takes on an display a seemingly invasive fish. inexhaustible supply of treasures, including the actual diploma of CU’s 27 We’re All Chameleons Now first graduate (Henry CU Boulder professor Laura Devendorf’s high- Drumm, Class of 1882). tech fashion experiments could change the way An especially poignant we express ourselves. example appears on pages 13 and 14: The CU football that astronaut El- 33 Unlearning Pain lison Onizuka (Aero’69; Can chronic pain patients think themselves into MS’69; HonDocSci’03) wellness? An unprecedented brain imaging study brought with him aboard seeks to find out. the Space Shuttle Chal- James Stefanou lenger in 1986. (Jour’21), the We’re developing a former Australian 37 Long-Distance Commuter new Coloradan fea- soccer pro who’s Jim Voss (MAero’74; HonPhD’00) has been ture called “Artifact.” If now CU Boulder’s to space five times. He can handle the you have an evocative star placekicker. Houston-to-Boulder commute. memento related to CU Photo by Glenn Boulder that you’d like Asakawa. to share with your fellow alumni, send word to [email protected]. COVER CU researchers are trying to preserve Boulder’s apple tree legacy before it vanishes Eric Gershon forever. Illustration courtesy U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library. DEPARTMENTS 1 NOW 7 Campus News 13 ORIGINS Ellison’s Ball 45 CU Around 55 Class Notes Art in Korea 8 BOULDER BEAT 31 INFOGRAPHIC 47 President’s Column 61 Letters 5 INQUIRY Paul Danish Pac-12 Cities Stefanie Johnson 49 Sports 65 THEN 1978 CONTACT ERIC GERSHON AT 11 LOOK Inscriptions 43 Alumni News [email protected] 3 FALL 2018 Coloradan Coloradan FALL 2018 4 INQUIRY STEFANIE JOHNSON WORKPLACE BIAS very likeable. That’s what I found in my are women in the S&P 500. It’s going to the pool: If you interview one woman or one Stefanie Johnson, an associate professor of study — women have to be both likeable take purposeful effort to change the way minority, they’re never going to be hired. management in CU’s Leeds School of Busi- and effective in order to be successful. If things are. You shouldn’t bother interviewing just one ness, studies unconscious bias in leadership. people don’t like you, you’re never going woman or minority. You might as well do Here she discusses strategies for mitigating to make it to the top. Is there a way to combat bias when zero or include at least two. bias, her White House appearance and a joint hiring? project with her biologist husband. What classes are you teaching? I advocate for blinding, which is taking Your husband, Pieter Johnson, also I teach “Critical Leadership Skills” and a names off résumés. If you do that, works at CU Boulder, as a biology How did the subject of bias first class called “Women in Business.” you’re more likely to have more women professor. Talk about the project you draw your interest? and minorities appear in your hiring worked on together. In my Ph.D. program, I wanted to study a How do students respond when they pool. I recommend setting targets for We published a paper on the toxoplasma mainstream business topic, leadership. learn about unconscious bias? diversity and measuring your progress. gondii parasite and its relation to entre- One of my first studies showed gender My students for the most part are open If you’re not benchmarking against what preneurship. Toxoplasma is the cat para- bias. I found some things that predicted to hearing about bias; they just don’t the best companies are doing, you’re site that causes mice to act riskier if they leadership success for men predicted the want to believe it’s true. In fact, when you falling behind. get it. Humans carry it — 20 percent of the opposite for women. I wanted to figure tell women and minorities there is bias U.S. population — but people don’t often out what was causing this difference. against them, it actually hurts their self- What advice do you give minorities study the effects on humans. We collect- I found the demands for a successful esteem. It’s worse to admit you’re being seeking leadership positions? ed data from 2,000 students and found woman leader are greater than for a man. discriminated against because of your Following on Sheryl Sandberg’s advice, business students were significantly more A woman has to demonstrate all the race or gender, because you can never you have to apply. No one is going to likely to have toxoplasma, particularly same levels of confidence, strength and change that. But after the #MeToo move- force you to do it, and women and minori- entrepreneurship students. Then we went assertiveness as a man while simultane- ment, people’s consciousness is raised. ties only tend to apply if they think they to entrepreneur events and swabbed their ously maintaining her feminine gender Clearly there’s not equality if sexual ha- have 100 percent of the qualifications. saliva along with others who were in the role. So, she still has to be sensitive, rassment is so rampant in organizations. You just have to put yourself out there. same place but weren’t entrepreneurs. caring and empathetic. The entrepreneurs were significantly more How does unconscious bias affect You spoke in the White House in likely to have toxoplasma. We’ve decided Who’s an example of a female lead- our leadership in a workplace? 2016 at a diversity summit. What was that toxoplasma makes you more likely to er who deals with criticisms? Our leaders still look a lot like proto- that like? be an entrepreneur! Hillary Clinton. People say she’s too mas- type leaders. Ninety percent of Fortune It was awesome. People were there primar- culine with her pantsuits, for example. 500 CEOs are white men. There’s more ily from Fortune 500 companies. One of the Interview by Christie Sounart (Jour’12). Hillary is super smart, but she’s just not CEOs named John and David than there things I talked about is the idea of two in Condensed and edited. 5 FALL 2018 Coloradan Photo by Glenn Asakawa Coloradan FALL 2018 6 BOULDER BEAT By Paul Danish ALEX AND ED heart, regaling his political sociology AFTER YOU MET THEM, you never forgot class with Sol Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. them. Alex liked Alinsky not just because In 1962, with the Cold War at its peak, he was a radical, but because he thought CU professors Alex Garber and Edward Alinsky’s rules gave radicals an alterna- Rozek were poles defining the ends of tive to violent revolution, which was the the political spectrum at CU: Garber the communist approach. brilliant and char- FALL 2018 ismatic socialist News sociologist, Rozek the equally brilliant and charismatic How the Sunflower Got That Way conservative politi- cal scientist. CU RESEARCHERS DIG DEEP INTO THE BELOVED FLOWER’S Most folks on EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY campus assumed they came from HUMANS AND SUNFLOWERS GO way back. While humans have had a heavy opposite ends of American Indians first domesticated hand in the sunflower’s transformation the earth. the plant — prized for its seeds, oil and through selection and breeding, for Temperamen- beauty — around 3,000 B.C. example, interbreeding with other wild tally, Alex was old Over the next 5,000 years, the species has also shaped the domesticated left, Ed was old common sunflower,Helianthus annu- plant we know today, according to Smith world. us, evolved dramatically and rapidly, and colleagues, including CU professor But they had a resulting in the cheer-inducing plant Nolan Kane. lot in common. we know today, with its Both put single large head, broad A 5,000-YEAR JOURNEY TO teaching above yellow flowers, large seeds publishing and rich in high-quality oil and THE FLOWER WE KNOW.