›› PAGE 25 Entrepreneur Jonathon Nostrant ’09 turned an Inside idea for a voice-activated alarm clock into hot new company Moshi Lifestyle. FEATURES 24 Masters of Their Own Universe Hard-working entrepreneurs in their early 20s are pouring out of USC’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. By Starshine Roshell 32 Transit Tales Take a ride with USC Transportation, whose fleet is larger than those at many other universities and rivals the public transit systems of some cities. By Carl Marziali 38 The Consummate Listener There are many original thinkers at USC, but nobody quite like Josh Kun, who’s become the go-to scholar on popular music and the politics of cultural connections. By Elizabeth Segal 44 The Personal Is Medical Personalized medicine is the new standard at USC Norris Cancer Hospital, one of only a few facilities in Southern California built exclusively for cancer research and patient care. ›› PAGE 38 “I always knew, from very early By Katie Neith and Sara Reeve on, that I wanted to be around music. I decided then to devote my life to being a fan.” Green & Serene – USC professor Josh Kun, author of Audiotopia: Music, Race and ›› PAGE 34 America and coauthor of And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We Have Loved and Lost USC Trojan Family Magazine Spring ’10 Published by the University of Southern California Volume 42 Number 1 USC TROJAN FAMILY MAGAZINE spring 2010 1 Spring 2o1o COLUMNS 4 Editor’s Note 5 President’s Page Celebrating entrepreneurism and innovation, which seem to be part of USC’s very DNA. 22 64 Last Word There are few places where people don’t enjoy a cup o’ Joe. 17 Arts & Culture The release of a treasure trove of newly discovered Woody Guthrie recordings; Indian play- wright Girish Karnad visits USC. 20 Lab Work Lessons to be learned from the 17 1918 H1N1 flu, and clues to drug resistance in leukemia. 22 People Watch David Bohnett ’78, as chair of the LA Phil board, promotes DEPARTMENTS new youth orchestras. 7 Mailbag 48 Family Ties What’s on readers’ minds. The USC Alumni Association welcomes three generations of 10 What’s New Trojans back to campus. After 19 years in which USC achieved a rise unparalleled 53 Class Notes in American higher education, Who’s doing what and where. Steven B. Sample will step down. On the cover: Happy Trojan tram riders. Illustration by Tim Bower 13 Reaching Out School of Social Work students develop legislation aimed at keeping homeless children housed with their parents. ›› PAGE 10 Steven and Kathryn Sample: “The presidency of USC has been far more 15 Shelf Life than just a job. It has been a calling, an all- Multi-talented Tim Page’s book consuming passion.... Our years here have on growing up with undiag- been simply exhilarating.” nosed Asperger’s Syndrome; and a long-forgotten journal by the legendary Norman Corwin. For past issues of USC Trojan Family Magazine, visit www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/trojan_family 13 USC TROJAN FAMILY MAGAZINE spring 2010 3 [ EDITor’s noTE ] The Beginning of an Era Trojan Family Magazine I’ve been trying to remember what USC was like before Steve and Kathryn Sample came to USC town 19 years ago. When USC Trojan Family first announced the new president’s arrival in the EDITOR spring of 1991, we called him “a man of uncommon scope” – little guessing how prophetic that Susan Heitman phrase would be. You can read (on page 10) about the spectacular changes he ART DIRECTOR engineered during his USC presidency; a series of honors and celebrations are Rick Simner scheduled through the summer, and we are preparing a tribute for the next issue SENIOR EDITORS Allison Engel of this magazine. But I also wanted to look back at what we said about him when Diane Krieger he arrived, a relative unknown who had been president of the University at Buffalo, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS State University of New York, and see how it sounds today. Susan Andrews, Andrea Bennett One of the first things he told us was, “When my wife Kathryn and I were Alex Boekelheide, Mary Bruce Ariel Carpenter, Anna Cearley interviewing at Buffalo in 1982, everybody was down on the university .... I started, Talia Cohen, Mel Cowan after I’d been there about a year, to talk about UB becoming one of the really best public universities Lori Craig, Jackson DeMos Cadonna Dory, Bill Dotson around. At first, people thought it was just silly, but nobody thinks it’s silly anymore.” Beth Dunham, Kevin Durkin Two things stand out in that quote. One is his relentless drive not only to change the university James Grant, Kirstin Heinle Richard Hoops, Pamela J. Johnson itself, but to change the university’s perceptions about itself. He was known then – and is known Timothy O. Knight, Ross M. Levine now – for seeing the glass half full rather than half empty, and for persuading those around him to Meghan Lewit, Eric Mankin Carl Marziali, Steve McDonagh share this view. A former USC colleague told the Los Angeles Times in October, “Sample understood Cynthia Monticue, Annette Moore that university leadership involves both improving substance and marketing the change. The bril- Jon Nalick, Katie Neith liance of Sample is that he does both.” Eddie North-Hager, Justin Pierce Sara Reeve, Leslie Ridgeway The second prophetic note was including his wife, Kathryn, in his presidency. He consistently Gilien Silsby, Kukla Vera talks about the job in terms of “Kathryn and I.” His letter to the USC community announcing his Lauren Walser, Suzanne Wu impending retirement begins, “Having had the profound privilege and joy of serving this university MANAGING EDITOR Mary Modina for 19 years, Kathryn and I are today formally announcing my retirement from the presidency of USC, effective August 2, 2010.” DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Russell Ono We invite you to share your own thoughts about the Samples, their presidency and the effects Stacey Torii they have had on USC. Go to http://search.usc.edu and click on “Share your messages ....” PHOTOGRAPHY – Susan Heitman Allison Engel (coordinator) Dietmar Quistorf ADVERTISING/CIRCULATION MANAGER Vickie Kebler Moving? (213) 740-3162 USC Trojan Family Magazine Please attach your current mailing label and send to: USC Trojan Family Magazine, University of Southern California University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790. Los Angeles, California 90089-7790 Or e-mail us at: [email protected] tel: (213) 740-2684 / fax: (213) 821-1100 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.usc.edu/trojan_family NAME CLASS YEAR USC Trojan Family Magazine (ISSN 8750-7927) is published four times a year, in February, May, August NEW ADDRESS and November, by the University of Southern California, Office of University Public Relations, 3375 S. Hoover St, Los Angeles, CA 90089-7790. CITY STATE ZIP CODE E-MAIL ADDRESS HOME TELEPHONE WORK TELEPHONE 4 USC TROJAN FAMILY MAGAZINE spring 2010 President’s Page By Steven B. Sample At 6 a.m. on a Wednesday morning in October nearly 16 years ago, USC Distinguished Professor George Olah was officially in- formed that he’d won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. He was recognized for his research in hydrocarbons, research that holds tremendous promise for developing cleaner and more efficient fuels. Within hours of the good news, we arranged a reception at USC for that afternoon to celebrate Professor Olah’s spectacular achievement. have truly benefited from the “brain gain.” Like so many other scientists, artists and in- USC itself has benefited substantially from tellectuals, Professor Olah had fled his native our ability to attract some of the world’s best Hungary during the “three-day open window” faculty as well as postdoctoral fellows, graduate following the Soviet invasion of Hungary in students and undergraduates. 1956. Several of his fellow Hungarian refugees Entrepreneurialism and innovation seem to attended our reception that afternoon, delighted be part of USC’s very DNA. Perhaps this stems to be part of the congrega- from the audacity of USC’s founders, who, like tion of congratula tions. At all pioneers worth their salt, saw and seized op- one point during the festivi- portunity and built a university where there ties, someone claimed that was only a mustard field on the outskirts of a the United States was the frontier village. Perhaps our entrepreneurial only country that taxes a spirit derives from our location in Los Angeles – Nobel Laureate’s prize a city that enthusiastically embraces originality money. “Not only that,” and creativity, whether manifested in the arts, chimed in another voice, communications, science, technology, transpor- “as the laureates come tation or business. back to the states, their As you’ll see in an article in this issue about medals are weighed by our own Trojan entrepreneurs associated with customs and they get the USC Marshall School of Business and the taxed on the value of Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Stud- the gold in the medal!” ies (“Masters of Their Own Universe,” p. 24), (Now as it happens, neither of these as- USC is doing its part to encourage and support sertions is true. But at the time, we all thought smart people with great ideas who are attracted President Steven B. Sample, left, and USC Distinguished they were true.) Amid loud tsk-tsks of disap- to this university from around the globe. Just as Professor George Olah, center, proval at this notion of taxing Nobel Prize we’re doing through the Alfred Mann Institute lift flutes of champagne with others in 1994 to celebrate money, George Olah spoke up.