Blum Groupmate News January 2008

Brij Sinha. This year has gone by very quickly for us.

We are still stationed in Houston and I still work for The

Dow Chemical Company. I am responsible for the

Specialty Films business at Dow and was supposed to

move to Midland, MI (Dow headquarters) last year but so

far have been able to convince them otherwise. We really

did not want to go back to the cold country. Judith

continues to be a domestic engineer (stay at home mom)

but keeps herself busy with home projects and taking care

of us. Sheilo and Nidhi (our daughters) are now a Junior

and a Senior in high school, respectively and are busy with their studies. Nidhi says that she is

interested in majoring in Finance and wants to go to UT Austin. Sheilo has her own car and

drives Nidhi & her to school every day. We spent about 2.5 weeks this past summer in Europe

and got a chance to see Paris, Strasbourg, Vienna and Warsaw. We really enjoyed it a lot. My

brother lives in Warsaw so we got a chance to spend several days with him as well. I am

attaching a picture of the two girls enjoying the ambience in Europe.

We still reminisce about Rolla days and the time spent there. I am in regular touch with

Subra and we met his family in Bombay last December when his family and ours were visiting

India at the same time. Rest is fine. Thanks for taking the time to keep in contact with all your

former students. Look forward to the Holiday letter. (Nidhi and Shilo)

Bing Zhang. I got two news for 07. My daughter,

Zhiyi Zhang, is almost 1 year old now. And I

moved to a new position inside the group as a lab

manager. (Zhizu and Zhiyi)

Ravi Vohra. As for 2007, completed my first year

with Capgemini and moved to Chicago. I Love

everything about Chicago but the traffic and the

winters (I sure miss Rolla winters now !!).. It was

very challenging and rewarding year; beginning to

understand supply chain technologies and

management. Wish all the best to the FDBGroup and your family.

Gu Xu. We had a wonderful 2007. Rui has finished

the first half of freshman in USC. He like the School

because of the good sports and parties. Jin has traveled

very hard for interviews in 7 medical schools and

accepted by Mizzou and SLU. Xie is panning to build

a new house in 2008. I tried to finish the kinetic paper

and do good research. We have a lot to do in the New

Year. (Rui, Xia, Gu, Jin)

Blum Holiday Letter January 2008 2/6

Pavan Challa. Excited to see your mail after a long

time. This year I was busy with business trips and I

dealt two more clients this year apart from Nestle

Purina petcare. Presently I am in working at Harley-

Davidson, Milwaukee WI. I am proud to say that I am

given crucial projects to complete this year. Time is

going so fast that we had our first Wedding

anniversary on Dec 15th 2007. Thanks and have an

ecstatic New year 2008. (Pavan and Yashodha)

Sunil Pillalamarri. We have celebrated this

new year in a special way as it is also our son's

(saketh rana) first birthday. He is growing really

fast, started walking and keeping both of us

extremely busy. I will be leaving Freescale at

the end of this month to join 3M electronic

materials in Minneapolis. I guess I can't stay

away from snow for too long. This has been a

challenging year for me to stay away from lab

and work on project management. (Saketh

Rana, Sunil, Sumalatha)

R. Allen Waggoner. Merry Christmas from the Waggoners

Dear Dr. Blum, We are still teaching in the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chulalongkorn University. Everything goes well. Now Max is 11 years old and Mink is 9 years old. They are growing up very fast. For the photo, we had a little time to go to Dream World in April. We were very happy in that day. May God bless you, your family and everyone in Blum’s group have a happiest year. Best regards,

Win, Suntree, Max, Mink Kulkeratiyut

Blum Holiday Letter January 2008 4/6

Kaz Nagashima. After my contract with

AIST national research institute expired the

end of March 2007, I started working at

Japanese subsidiary of MKS Instruments, Inc.

(www.mksinst.com). Although their major

customers are semiconductor manufacturing

equipment makers, you might know the

company’s name with the capacitance

manometer and some other vacuum

peripherals in your lab. Anyhow, two months

of long scrutiny were needed for lawyers and

bureaucrats to issue a J1 visa for my on-the-

job training in the US. From June 18, I spent

eight weeks in Boston suburb, four weeks in Rochester NY, and seven weeks in San Jose. Of

course, I had to study semiconductor, vacuum, and plasma physics from scratch. I could recover

my speaking and listening English during that time, but I am losing it again after returning to

Japan. My job at MKS Tokyo office is pre-sales activities for vacuum chamber cleaning

products that utilize remote plasma of reactive gas. Reading semiconductor-related articles, I

often encounter the name of Brewer Science: Rolla’s photo resist seems to be known worldwide.

You will be able to find my most recent paper at Articles in Press on the web of the “Journal

of Magnetic Resonance” or it may appear at the first page of the February 2008 issue. I made the

manuscript of simple theory alone with no spectrometer in hand. My research does not need a

big budget, as was also evident in MUSIC theory’s case.

I also got cards From:

Gambogi's. Still in NJ. Bob works for Johnson and Johnson, Joan for Colgate-Palmolive.

Maver's. Still in NJ. Tammy works for Rohm and Haas.

Erin Bharadwaj (Young). Well, I've had some big changes over the last year, and am looking

forward to more in 2008. I got married on March 24, 2007 to another UMR Alumni, Bharadwaj

Krishnamurthy. We had a small but very fun wedding in Kansas City. His parents came from

India. Several of his aunts and uncles live in the US and were able to attend, as well as most of

my extended family and some close friends. This made the event really special. We then

honeymooned in Hawaii, which I think is the most beautiful place I have ever been. I would

really liked to have stayed, but the cost of living is outrageous there.

My husband works for J P Morgan, in downtown Houston, so we moved to a house in

Humble, which is a suburb on the NorthEast corner of Houston. I have still been working for

ExxonMobil in Beaumont, so I commute 140 miles a day (3 hours). So, I've been looking for a

position nearer to home. I have just accepted a position with the Houston Valero refinery, and

will start March 1st. I will be starting in a similar position to what I do now, but have the

potential to move up pretty quickly since I have some experience. I'm sad to leave what I know,

but excited about the change too. The new job seems to be a really good fit for me. I start with a

Blum Holiday Letter January 2008 5/6

higher salary, more vacation, much shorter commute and I think the work environment will be

better.

As you could probably guess from my husband's name, he is from India. I will be taking my

first trip to India next month to meet the rest of my new in-laws! We plan to spend a few days in

Paris on the way back. So we are buried in plans for that...I need an Indian visa...he needs a

French visa... So, in next year's news letter, I can tell you about India and Paris!

Hyoryoon Jo. My family in New York really enjoys here. We recently bought a small house.

In winter, here has a lot of snow, which requires remove snow everyday. Surrounding many

lakes make snows called as ‘snow effect’

Gregory is 9th grader this academic year and Mihee keep working at Library. Her major was

library science in Korea and she is doing

interlibrary loan work at public library.

Pictures: (i) I was cleaning snow in one of the

snow storms. (ii) Finally, snow stopped and

accumulation reached to half of first floor of

my house. (iii) Gregory enjoys playing violin in

local art center. (iv) Mihee stood next of her

favorite.

Gregory recently earned his black belt on Tae

Kwon Do. He still remembers you and we

often chat about your lab and your mustache.

I am doing fine with Indium. I am still

formulating flux for solder paste. This is

interesting work. Flux should not corrosive at

room temperature but it should provide good

chemical reaction at elevated temperature.

Recently, EU started their lead free regulation

for environmental safe electronics. So, we are

Blum Holiday Letter January 2008 6/6

developing Lead-Free Solder Paste. Mainly Tin Silver Copper (SAC) alloy is major but there are

other options available.

I can not forget Life in Rolla and I always appreciate for your warm support and strong guide

on my life and science. I hope you and your family stays warm. I miss Rolla and you.

Burak Metin. It's been more than a year in solar

industry working for SoloPower Inc. in California.

It is really expensive living here but very nice

weather throughout the year. I was in Turkey for

more than a month (end of the summer). Spent a lot

of time in the village after 7 years. Collected lots of

walnuts, would not do it again though, as I hope I

will not do the thing I was doing in the picture.

Hope 2008 will be a good year for everybody.

Lea Dankers. This year was eventful for me. The

spring was busy with teaching and classes and

working on my thesis. During the early part of the

summer I moved west to Milpitas, California and I

eventually found a job at Honeywell working on

packaging for their electronic materials area. Over

the course of the summer, I enjoyed sight seeing

throughout northern California such as Napa, San

Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. I returned to

Rolla at the end of August to defend my thesis

before starting my new job. Since then, I have really enjoyed working for Honeywell. The

people I work with are really nice and laidback and the project is exciting, however, there is a lot

of big corporation politics which took me by surprise. California is crowded and busy, but I still

like the new adventures and the various things there are to do during the weekend, and the

weather is great! I have attached a picture of me in Monterey if you want to see.

All t h e b e s t f o r 2 0 08!

Frank