Volume 3, Issue 2 March 2003

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2002
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Comments, questions, suggestions? Send us your feedback by emailing lab-notes@coe.berkeley.edu. December 2002 1970: Professor Wilbur Somerton and the Birth of the MESA Program Thank you for sharing with your readers the work done by Bill Somerton and others in founding the MESA project. Professor Somerton was my foster father — when I lost my parents (at age 14) Bill and his wife, Irma, took me into their home and raised me with their own family. I was always treated as a family member, and in the 37 years that I knew him as a family member he was generous and supportive of all my activities. In 1990 I returned to school to finally get my bachelor's degree. In 1994 I received my bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Washington. Bill and Irma were there to see me graduate, and were as proud as they were of any of their own children. Bill's support and acceptance and his obvious pride will always be an inspiration to me. In the two years since his death, I have come to realize how much I counted on his being there. We didn't always agree — but I always admired him and I was always pleased when I did something he approved of. I miss him very much, and I will always be proud of the role that he took in helping minority students to achieve their academic goals. — Alice McConaughy Jan/Feb 2003 MTBE: A Tasty Morsel? Many moons ago, in 1967, while I was struggling to survive as an engineer in an unfriendly environment of a US Public Health Service research facility in Cincinnati, an interesting incident in Mother Earth occurred. It required a team of PHS officials to travel from Cincinnati to Riverside, CA to investigate a contaminated ground water supply. As it happened, the contaminant was a large quantity of salmonella organisms in a water well in a region which at that time was a large poultry production area. Have you ever considered the potential biological hazard imposed by the presence of a dead chicken in a deep well such as once used in the vicinity of Riverside for irrigation of citrus? — David K. Eberly May/June 2003 1972: The release of SPICE, still the industry standard tool for integrated circuit design It's a great invention and a powerful analytical tool for engineers. — Shri Kulkarni Lab Notes is published online by the Public Affairs Office of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. The Lab Notes mission is to illuminate groundbreaking research underway today at the College of Engineering that will dramatically change our lives tomorrow. Editor, Director of Public Affairs: Teresa Moore Writer, Researcher: David Pescovitz Designer: Robyn Altman Subscribe or send comments to the Engineering Public Affairs Office: lab-notes@coe.berkeley.edu. © 2003 UC Regents. Updated 2/28/03.