Princeton Alumni Weekly | The Weekly Blog: Tiger of the Week Archives

September 7, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Jim Lee '86

Jim Lee '86 (Victor Ha)

Relaunching some of the world’s most beloved comic-book heroes requires careful planning, attention to detail, captivating storylines, and extraordinary artwork. Oh, and free pizza, too.

For Jim Lee ’86, co-publisher of DC Comics and the artist behind the new Justice League series that hit stores Aug. 31, last week was the culmination of all of the above. After helping to lead the company’s effort to attract new readers, he delivered pizza to fans who had camped out at Manhattan’s Mid Town Comics for Justice League 1’s midnight release.

Lee, the illustrator behind legendary titles such as X-Men I, has high hopes for reinvigorating Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, and others by paring down their extensive “continuity” – the long list of storylines that the characters have collected in more than 70 years on the shelves. As he explained to NPR’s Melissa Block, “We’re sort of shortening and simplifying the backstory so that new readers can jump in and understand what’s going on from the very first issue. … When a book is up to issue 900-something, you don’t feel like you can kind of jump in and really understand what’s going on right off the bat.”

So far, reviewers and readers have been divided, but from a publicity standpoint, the relaunch has been a success, with The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Wired, and several other media outlets covering the story. And according to Rich Johnston of the blog “Bleeding Cool,” Lee was the right artist for the job. While comics aficionados may be accustomed to Lee’s style, Johnston wrote, “for the unfamiliar eye it simply looks glorious.”

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August 31, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Ryan Boyle '04

Ryan Boyle '04, pictured at the 2010 World Lacrosse Championship. (Courtesy Timon Lorenzo '07)

Ryan Boyle ’04 just keeps winning. The former Princeton All-American and current pro lacrosse star helped the Boston Cannons capture their first Major League Lacrosse championship Aug. 28. For Boyle, it was his fourth MLL title in eight seasons. He also has represented the United States in the World Lacrosse Championship three times, winning two gold medals. And at Princeton, he was part of four Ivy League championship teams and one NCAA championship, in 2001.

Boyle’s Midas touch comes partly from his ability to help the players around him. He led Boston in assists this year – no surprise to those who followed his Princeton career – and teammate Matt Poskay told Lacrosse Magazine that Boyle “is the essential quarterback of the team.” In the league semifinals, Boyle assisted on a last-second goal that propelled Boston to the final. He added a goal and three assists in the title game.

While collegiate lacrosse continues to grow, professional lacrosse remains a niche sport. Boston averaged more than 8,600 fans per home game this year; the league championship, played in wet conditions in Annapolis, Md., less than a day after Hurricane Irene passed through, drew just over 5,000. But Boyle is one of the game’s bona fide stars, excelling in MLL and the indoor pro circuit, the National Lacrosse League.

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW's Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

August 24, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Bill Frist '74

Bill Frist and Jill Biden listen to USAID Administrator Dr. Raj Shah en route to a refugee camp in Kenya. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Since leaving the U.S. Senate in 2007, former majority leader Bill Frist ’74 has returned to his first career – medicine – with an emphasis on health in developing nations, continuing the yearly visits to Africa that he began making during his first Senate term. Earlier this month, he accompanied Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, on a goodwill trip to camps in Kenya, where thousands of Somalians have fled, seeking relief from a crippling famine in their home country. Since returning, Frist and Biden have urged individuals to contribute to the aid efforts currently supported by governments and international organizations, co-authoring an op-ed piece in USA Today.

Frist explained what he saw in the Horn of Africa in a related column, published in The Wall Street Journal:

“Mrs. Biden and I spent most of our time engaging refugees who emotionally recounted their painful, weeks-long treks through parched lands with little food and water, having no choice but to leave their husbands in war-torn Somalia, often losing a child or two along the way to dehydration or lung infection.

“The extreme drought has destroyed crops and caused the death of 80% of the livestock. For most Somalis who live a pastoral lifestyle, these conditions amount to an American losing their home, job and all worldly possessions, with no food or water available to beg for or borrow.”

But Frist added that “there is much Americans can do – immediately and inexpensively – to save lives and quickly reverse the current trajectory of catastrophe,” like supplying nutrient-rich liquids to combat dehydration and providing vaccines to halt the spread of disease in densely populated camps.

Frist, a cardiothoracic surgeon and two-term Republican Senator from Tennessee, is chairman of the nonprofit Hope through Healing Hands, which promotes “using health as a currency for peace.”

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

August 17, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Katherine Milkman '04

Digging up interesting research topics is nothing new for Katherine Milkman ’04, an assistant professor of operations and information at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Milkman’s senior thesis, an operations research study of short-fiction selections in The New Yorker, drew coverage in The New York Times, and during her Ph.D. studies at Harvard, she co-authored a study that showed movie renters prefer low-brow flicks over high-brow fare, even when their stated preferences indicate otherwise. (Portfolio framed it as the “Harold and Kumar or Citizen Kane” question.)

At Wharton, Milkman has continued to explore choice in a social-science context, and her papers continue to reach beyond academia, adding insight to questions like why some patients don’t keep their appointment for a flu shot and how readers pick the news stories that they pass along to their friends. This week, another timely finding from Milkman and co-author John L. Beshears of Stanford has popped up in the media. Milkman and Beshears found that stock analysts who are wrong about their forecasts tend to become more entrenched in their erroneous positions, a phenomenon that could contribute to market bubbles. The research was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

August 10, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Alexander Wolff '79

Alexander Wolff '79 (Courtesy Alexander Wolff '79)

As a boy growing up in Princeton, Alexander Wolff ’79 was too young to remember Bill Bradley ’65’s time on the hardwood at Dillon Gym. But when Wolff’s parents, who were not basketball fans, followed the star forward’s career, Wolff said he had “this vague sense that I was missing something important.”

In the last three decades, Wolff has not missed many important basketball stories, chronicling the game at all levels – and in several countries – for Sports Illustrated. On Thursday, Wolff and broadcaster Jim Durham will receive this year’s Curt Gowdy Media Awards at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. The Gowdy Awards, first presented in 1990, recognize writers and broadcasters who’ve made “outstanding contributions to basketball.”

Wolff joined Sports Illustrated in 1980, shortly after graduation, but his first experiences as a reporter came during his undergraduate years at Princeton. His family had left for Rochester, N.Y., when Wolff was 12, and when he returned as a freshman, Princeton’s basketball reputation was reaching another peak, following its 1975 NIT Championship. Wolff typed play-by-play reports for the athletic communications office at Tiger football and basketball games, and he wrote news stories for the Trenton Times as a member of the University Press Club.

Continue reading Tiger of the Week: Alexander Wolff '79 …

August 3, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Ranjit 'Ricky' Gill '09

Ricky Gill '09 (Courtesy Gill for Congress)

Ranjit “Ricky” Gill ’09 graduated from Princeton two years ago and still has a year to go in law school at the University of California, Berkeley. But that hasn’t stopped him from planning his next step. In May, the 24-year-old announced plans to run for a seat in the House of Representatives as a Republican candidate in California’s 9th district, which includes his hometown of Lodi. He’ll turn 25 – the minimum age for a representative – before the election in 2012.

In the last few months, the precocious Gill has been turning heads, partly due to his extraordinary fundraising. He collected more than $426,000 from individual donors in the first quarter of his campaign, and his overall fundraising ranked third nationally among non-incumbent Republicans, according to The Ticket, Yahoo’s politics blog. The Fix, a Washington Post blog, called Gill one of nine big “winners” in the second-quarter fundraising race. And in a July 28 National Journal profile, David Wasserman wrote that the Indian-American Gill “may be the perfect GOP candidate for a district where non-whites are now 50 percent of all residents and Vietnamese and Filipino-Americans are numerous.”

Gill, a Woodrow Wilson School major, has a remarkable résumé (beginning with his service on the California state Board of Education at age 17), and he counts distinguished alumni Jim Leach ’64 and Bill Frist ’74 among his mentors. In March, Gill told The Daily Princetonian that his undergraduate experience helped to shape his career ambitions.

“I think Princeton has certainly contributed to a desire to serve,” he said. “I credit Princeton a lot for putting me in a position to even contemplate [running for Congress].”

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

July 27, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Matthew Scherrer '01

Matthew Scherrer '01, right, with Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Leroy Petry. (Courtesy Matthew Scherrer '01)

Matthew Scherrer ’01 first heard about Leroy Petry in 2008, shortly after the wounded Army sergeant picked up and threw a live enemy grenade during a firefight in eastern Afghanistan. The valiant act saved at least two U.S. soldiers. It also cost Petry his right hand.

Scherrer, like Petry, had served in the Second Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. Since 2007, the Princeton ROTC alumnus has been a board member of the Second Ranger Battalion Assistance Foundation, created by Scherrer’s father, Richard, and Mark Wilkins, the brother of a Ranger officer. The fund provides immediate, short-term assistance to help wounded soldiers and their families, often paying for flights to Germany, where many receive treatment. “It’s always upsetting when we have to put the money to work,” Scherrer said, “but it’s very satisfying to be able to help in a small way.”

Scherrer contacted Petry at the Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, to offer the foundation’s resources, helping Petry’s wife and four children to visit more frequently. The two men became friends and stayed in touch as Petry returned to work as a liaison officer for the U.S. Special Operations Command Care Coalition.

Then, a few months ago, Scherrer received a text message from Petry, asking for the full names and Social Security numbers of the foundation’s leaders and the donors who had helped his family. Scherrer thought it a bit unusual but sent along the information. In a follow-up message, Petry explained that he was receiving the Medal of Honor and wanted his friends from the foundation to join him at the White House.

“Obviously, we were all floored by it,” said Scherrer, who joined Petry and his family at the ceremony July 12.

Continue reading Tiger of the Week: Matthew Scherrer '01…

July 20, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers '87

Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers '87 (Contra Costa Times/Eddie Ledesma/ZUMA Press)

Nearly two years after Sonia Sotomayor ’76 was sworn in as the first Latina justice on the Supreme Court, another Princeton alumna is on the verge of making history in the U.S. legal system. In May, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ’87, an Alameda County (Calif.) Superior Court judge, was nominated for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and last week, Gonzalez Rogers passed muster with the Senate Judiciary Committee. If confirmed by the full Senate, she’ll become the Northern District’s first Latina judge.

Gonzalez Rogers, who majored in politics at Princeton, earned her J.D. from the University of Texas and practiced law for a dozen years at Cooley LLP in San Francisco, making partner at the firm. She joined the California state court system in 2008, receiving her nomination from then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., had high praise for Gonzalez Rogers, calling her “an American success story” in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing July 13. “Her path in life has been extraordinary, rising from modest beginnings to graduating from one of the best universities in the country, Princeton,” Feinstein said. “During school breaks and weekends she worked cleaning housing, and cutting grass to help pay her tuition. She took pride in the calloused hands she got doing that work.”

Gonzalez Rogers was joined at the hearing by her husband, Matt Rogers ’85, their three children, and several family members who made the trip from Gonzalez Rogers’ home state of Texas.

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

July 12, 2011

Tiger of the Week: William "Red" Whittaker '73

Red Whittaker ’73 in front of his lunar lander (Tim Caulen/Courtesy Carnegie Mellon University)

Robot designer William “Red” Whittaker ’73 likes challenges. One of his latest goals: sending one of his robots to the moon. With a team of students, the Carnegie Mellon robotics professor is competing for the Google Lunar X Prize, which will award $20 million to the first privately funded team to create a robot that can land safely on the moon’s surface, travel 500 meters, and transmit data and images back to Earth.

Whittaker has developed dozens of robots that have cleaned up nuclear damage at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, harvested alfalfa, mapped mines, traveled into active volcanoes, and sought meteorites in Antarctica. His ground vehicles have driven thousands of autonomous miles. In August, he will receive the Feigenbaum Prize for his contributions to machine intelligence.

Continue reading Tiger of the Week: William "Red" Whittaker '73…

July 6, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Lori Dickerson Fouché '91

Lori Dickerson Fouché ’91 (Courtesy Business Wire)

In the last five years, Lori Dickerson Fouché ’91 has been recognized as a rising star in the business world, earning distinction as one of The Network Journal’s “40 Under Forty” (2007), Business Insurance’s “Women to Watch” (2009), and Black Enterprise’s “75 Most Powerful Women in Business” (2010). On July 5, Fouché earned the sort of promotion that those lists envisioned when she was named chief executive officer of Fireman’s Fund Insurance. The Novato, Calif.-based company is part of the Allianz Group, the world’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance.

Fouché majored in history at Princeton, earned a certificate in American studies, and captained the varsity softball team. She holds an MBA from Harvard and has spent her entire career as an executive or consultant in the insurance industry. Most recently, she served as the president of commercial insurance for Fireman’s Fund.

In a 2009 interview, Fouché told Business Insurance that she entered the field as an intern during college and began to see it as a career shortly after graduation, when she started working full-time as an underwriter. “As an industry, I think we are in great shape and a good one to be a part of, and I think there’s a lot of diversity,” Fouché said. “There are a lot of roles available as the industry spans different skill sets and interests that people have. I think the opportunities are rich.”

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

June 29, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Diana Matheson '08

Princeton women’s soccer fans remember Diana Matheson ’08 for her dynamic and tireless play in the midfield during four All-Ivy seasons, including a memorable freshman year in which she helped her team reach the NCAA College Cup semifinals and became one of the program’s first All-Americans in over a decade. (Esmeralda Negron ’05, who recently rejoined the Tigers as an assistant coach, was an All-American that season as well.)

Tiger followers also may recall that Matheson, a native of Oakville, Ontario, had a distinguished career with the Canadian national team, beginning in 2003, when she deferred admission to Princeton in order to play for her country at the Women’s World Cup (Canada finished fourth). Matheson donned the red-and-white again in 2007 Cup, missing a couple of weeks of class at the start of her senior year, and played for Canada at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

After scoring five goals in international play in 2010, Matheson is back on the pitch this week as the vice-captain of Canada’s 2011 Women’s World Cup squad. The team dropped its opener to host Germany, 2-1, June 26, but will have two more chances to prove itself in group play, facing France June 30 and Nigeria July 5.

According to columnist Richard Starnes of The Ottawa Citizen, Matheson will be a key factor as Canada tries to advance from the group stage:

“Often [Matheson] slips under the radar, something that may have hindered her progress in the past. To the casual observer she is seldom noticed. Closer scrutiny shows she is always on the go. She is the engine of the Canadian team and it is hard to imagine Canada making the strong challenge it is capable of in Germany if she has a bad tournament.

However, there’s the true worth of the player, the reason why [Canadian coach Carolina] Morace relies on Matheson so heavily. She hardly ever has a bad game. She has deceptive speed, superior skill and the strong decision-making ability that can make her a game changer.

Midfielders who always seem to have time to make their moves are seldom rushed and can set the tempo to suit the team. Matheson has that ability.”

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.

June 22, 2011

Tiger of the Week: Joe Kennedy '81

Joe Kennedy '81 (Courtesy Pandora Media Inc.)

Pandora Media Inc., the company behind the popular internet radio service Pandora, had an up-and-down week on Wall Street following its initial public offering June 15, and CEO Joe Kennedy ’81, who was on hand to help ring the New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell, seemed ready to manage expectations with his comments before the IPO, calling it “just one step in the process of building a lasting great company.”

At the same time, Kennedy has envisioned growth opportunities for the company, which draws revenue from advertising and subscriptions. Pandora has 90 million registered users and accounts for about 3 percent of U.S. radio listening, Kennedy told New York Times Dealbook reporter Evelyn Rusli. That should continue to expand, he said, as it becomes easier to access the personalized radio service in cars, homes, and “everywhere people want to use Pandora.”

Kennedy, a veteran executive who previously served as CEO of E-Loan, majored in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton. The New Jersey native includes a few home-state tracks in his Pandora favorites (see Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes), and last week, Pandora’s hometown of Oakland, Calif., also was eager to claim Kennedy as one of its own, using the company’s success to promote the city as a technology hub. “This is the place where [Kennedy] can find the kind of talent he needs to make his business possible,” Mayor Jean Quan told the Oakland Tribune. “We are proud that Pandora grew up here.”

Video: Watch Kennedy’s interview with New York Times Dealbook reporter Evelyn Rusli.

Do you have a nominee for Tiger of the Week? Let us know. All alumni qualify. PAW’s Tiger of the Week is selected by our staff, with help from readers like you.