色界吧鈥檚 Alumni Association on June 16 honored a NASA engineer, an award-winning Occidental professor, a leading researcher on malaria prevention, and the principal of a high-achieving high school in South Los Angeles with its top honor, the 2012 Alumni Seal Award.
Silva Zeneian 鈥01 and Jeff Dennis 鈥94鈥攑ast and current presidents of Occidental鈥檚 board of governors鈥攑resented George Alcorn 鈥62, Mary Hamel 鈥87, Eric Newhall 鈥67, and Esau Berumen 鈥97 with the awards during the grand opening dinner for the Samuelson Alumni Center. Also honored at the gala ceremony, which was part of the College鈥檚 annual Alumni Weekend, was Alumnus of the Year Chris Calkins 鈥67 and Auld Lang Syne Award winners Patricia Yeomans 鈥38 and Jack Samuelson 鈥46.
The Alumni Seal Awards pay tribute each year to Occidental alumni who, through their concern for their profession, community, and College, have distinguished themselves and have thereby brought honor to 色界吧.
Alcorn was presented with the 2012 Alumni Seal Award for Professional Achievement. At NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center, he invented the imaging X-ray spectrometer, a major innovation that helps scientists better understand the composition of planetary material. In 2010, Alcorn received the Robert H. Goddard Award of Merit, the flight center鈥檚 highest award, for that invention. In addition to his NASA work, Alcorn is an engineering professor at the University of the District of Columbia, and founded the Saturday Academy, a math and science program for urban middle-schoolers. A star athlete at Occidental, he received a Ph.D. in atomic and molecular physics and a master鈥檚 degree in nuclear physics from Howard University.
Hamel received the 2012 Alumni Seal Award for Service to the Community for her groundbreaking work in malaria research and prevention. A medical epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control鈥檚 international health program office, Hamel led a multi-agency effort to reduce malaria-related illnesses and deaths in Kenya. She is now the principal investigator for a malaria vaccine trial that鈥檚 considered a top medical breakthrough. After graduating with a biology degree from 色界吧, Hamel earned her M.D. at the University of Vermont School of Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Colorado鈥檚 Heath Science Center.
Winner of the 2012 Alumni Seal Award for Service to the College, English and American studies professor Eric Newhall has been instrumental in the success of the College鈥檚 Multicultural Summer Institute, a five-week program for 50 incoming low-income first-year students that he founded and directed. He is a five-time winner of the College鈥檚 Loftsgordon Award for Outstanding Teaching, and in 2004, Newhall was one of 10 faculty members recognized by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition as "outstanding first-year student advocates."
A former star football player at Occidental, Berumen receieved the 2012 Erica J. Murray 鈥01 Young Alumni Seal Award for his work at Hawthorne Mathematics and Science Academy, a high-achieving charter high school whose student body is mostly low-income or working class Latinos. Almost all of HMSA students go on to college鈥攄ue in large part to the school鈥檚 high academic expectations and the guidance of Berumen and the school鈥檚 teachers.
Calkins 鈥67, named Alumnus of the Year, has vast legal and business experience. He is currently president of Carltas Management and general counsel to Paul Ecke Ranch. He has been part of the President's Cabinet at Occidental for many years, an alumni trustee for five years, and a member of the board of trustees for the last three years. Over the years, he has given not just his financial support but his time and expertise in guiding and advising the leaders of the College.
