After graduating from Washington State University in 1989, Lorie Dankers headed for the other Washington–the one on the East Coast-with no job in sight. Her first Saturday there she attended a WSU alumni event. Mingling with other Cougars provided “wonderful contacts – names of people and companies to call.” She quickly found work. As a producer for Newslink, a Washington, D.C.-based television news bureau, she attended press conferences and congressional hearings and covered White House events, marches, and protests. There were tougher assignments to tackle as well-the U.S. decision to invade Panama, Mayor Marion Barry’s arrest on drug charges, and the Supreme Court’s addressing of … » More …
As a veterinarian for the Navajo Nation, Dr. Scott Bender’s practice spans more than 18 million acres in the Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah.
His enormous workload includes treating everything from sheep, horses, cattle, goats, dogs, and cats to elk and cougars. Periodically, he even gets to clean the teeth of a 19-year-old bear at the Navajo Nation Zoo and Botanical Park, Window Rock, Arizona, the only tribal-run zoo in the United States.
“There are 250,000 people who live on the reservation and only four vets to cover them,” he says. “It can be a little daunting at times.”
That’s … » More …
Some of General Construction’s best work is under water
Ron Morford was only 19 when he built his first house. A quarter century later, he’s still in construction-only on a much larger scale. The president and district manager of General Construction Co. oversees projects in Washington, Oregon, California, and Alaska. Annual contracts total between $150 million and $200 million, making it one of the largest construction companies in Washington. The payroll includes 130 salaried staff, plus 400 to 500 laborers and craftsmen.
According to Morford, marine and heavy civil construction accounts for the bulk of the business. He lives on Bainbridge Island, not far from … » More …
Very little ever got in Marcus Moore’s way.
Faced with an obstacle, Washington State University’s senior point guard could usually flash that Crest-friendly smile or whip around it with an ankle-buckling crossover dribble.
But last summer nothing, not the movie star smile, not the Mach 3 quickness, could get Moore where he wanted to be-into the first round of the National Basketball Association draft.
So after taking trips to predraft camps in Chicago and Portsmouth, Virginia, and not being assured a spot in the first round–guaranteeing a contract–Moore thought it over. He talked to his family in Inglewood, California, and decided to return for his … » More …
Works from the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection
A new exhibition from the collection of Virginia and Bagley Wright, curated by Chris Bruce, director of the Museum of Art at Washington State University, takes the definition of cool to new heights. Viewers “get into the groove” by moving through three conceptual spaces with a mix of hypnotic African and Oceanic masks, haunting minimalist paintings, and electric abstract acrylics.
Virginia and Bagley Wright, international art collectors who live in Seattle, lived in New York during the 1950s and bought works directly from artists such as Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg. The Wrights now have one of … » More …
Jordi Kimes had been a teacher before becoming a stay home mom. She dreamed of returning to Washington State University and earning a doctorate in pharmacy. But she didn’t want to put her daughters, ages 7, 3, and 1, in daycare. So she called her parents. Would they be willing to watch the girls while she went to school, and her husband, Ken, worked? Without hesitation, her parents said yes.
“I couldn’t believe it,” the WSU graduate (’94 Pharmacy) said.
In the summer of 2002, she and her family moved from Waterville, Washington, to Pullman, where she had been accepted in the College of Pharmacy. … » More …
Steve Smith has good news for those of us who like to satisfy more than one sense at a time. The domestic rose, bred too long for form and color only, to the detriment of scent, is regaining its fragrance. Smith ’76, the head rose gardener at Manito Park in Spokane, is showing us his charges, which in late September are still in full bloom, and we spend much of our time sniffing.
A visit to Smith’s All-American Rose Selection (AARS) display garden gives a portrait of things to come. Each year, Manito and the other 130 such gardens across the country display the new … » More …
Everyone calls them genius awards, except the foundation that gives them. When describing recipients of its annual $500,000 grants, the MacArthur Foundation avoids “genius”-rather, says the Foundation, MacArthur Fellows are people who transcend boundaries, take risks, and synthesize disparate ideas and approaches. That’s a dead-on definition of Loren Rieseberg (’87 Ph.D. Botany), an evolutionary biologist at Indiana University Bloomington who received a MacArthur Fellowship in October 2003.
When Rieseberg arrived at Washington State University in 1984 to pursue his doctorate, he was a model student, energetic and eager, recalls his advisor and former WSU professor, Douglas Soltis, now at University of Florida. Soltis handed him … » More …
Bee-trap manufacturers like to use a chemical substance called pheromones to attract bees into traps and away from people. Problem is, they don’t always work.
Providing the right amount of pheromones is imperative. Too many pheromones or too much of one of its components repels bees, and the amount of pheromones that is optimal for attracting bees may vary during a day, depending on temperature and light. Prashanta Dutta, assistant professor in mechanical and materials engineering, has been working with Spokane-based Sterling International to build a better bee trap-one in which the release of very tiny amounts of pheromones can be carefully monitored and adjusted.
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