| Study Abroad Journals |
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Spring break allowed Briggs students to participate in some great Study Abroad/Away experiences.
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| Retirement Party for Sue Rose |
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 Please join us in thanking Sue Rose (LBC Instructional & Equipment Tech) for 46 years of service at MSU that includes 32 years with LBC.
A reception will be held on Thursday, April 11, 2 PM to 5 PM in room C101 of Holmes Hall. Lyman Briggs is collecting letters to include in her memory book and gifts for her "Fun on the Run" post-retirement travel plans (checks must be made out to Sue Rose). Send to:
Denise Poirier
Lyman Briggs College
28 East Holmes Hall
MSU
East Lansing, MI 48825
Please send by Friday, April 4, 2008
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| Alumni Updates |
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Barker, Diane ('79, Microbiology) - Has been serving as the co-chair for the Lyman Briggs Alumni Association. Recently promoted to Facilities Manger for MSU's East Complex Housing - which includes Holmes Hall! Welcome home!
Brooks, Gina ('01, Science & Technology) - Received Master's Degree in 2007 from MSU College of Medicine. Hired as Records Officer and Coordinator of Enrollment Services for MSU's College of Human Medicine.
Calder, Mac, D.O. ('98, Physiology) - Completing a 4 year program in Emergency Medicine where he served 3 local Detroit hospitals.
Davis, Barbara ('73 Mathematics) - M.S. from Indiana University ('77) President of the Kalamazoo Parliamentary Law Unit & member of the National Association of Parliamentarians.
Gann, Susan Russell ('84, Geology) - Working as a hydrogeologist, living in the U.K. and is now established as a freelance environmental consultant.
Glitman, Reada ('00, Science & Technology) - With the American School of Lima as and Early Intervention & Learning Differences Teacher
June, Robert ('81, Physical Science) Received MS in inorganic chemistry, now working at Marquette University Office of Institutional Research.
Malinowski (Dudley), Jennifer ('01, Zoology) -Received MS in Natural Resources from Ohio State University. Hired as Academic Specialist Environmental Sciences for the Learning Resources Center at MSU.
Mandrekar, Paraj ('93, Microbiology) - Received his Master's Degree in Genetics from UW-Madison. Hired into Promega Corp, a biotech company specializing in DNA testing systems. 15 years of research in Forensic DNA including work in helping to identify victims of World Trade Center.
McDonald (Jones), Annette ('75, Zoology) - Advance work in Biology at University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Living in Nenana, Alaska (pop. <600), 50 miles southwest of Fairbanks. Owner of Parks Highway Service & Towing. Annette invites you to visit the Nenana Ice Classic contest at Nenana Ice Classic to guess the date for the ice melt on the Tanana River.
Meeks, Rome ('06, Science & Technology) - With The Impact Movement of African American Christians committed to making an impact on community and world.
Tell us what you are doing by submitting information at: Newsletter Submission Form |
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Join Our List
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Greetings!
The response to our February E-newsletter was amazing. We have heard from many of you. In every case you are telling us that Lyman Briggs has been an important part of our personal and professional success.
You are also telling us that we need to communicate with you more regularly so...Coming Soon: A New and Dynamic Alumni Web Community!
This issue is dedicated to bringing you some basic information about Lyman Briggs College. You are Lyman! We want to support you with valuable information so that you can be Briggs Ambassadors where ever you are. Tell them that you got your start at Lyman Briggs.
As always, we love hearing from our alumni and friends. Send your comments, stories, news and pictures to mckean@msu.edu.
We would also appreciate your help in finding other alumni and friends of Briggs - those who lived in Holmes Hall, or were Briggs students that did not graduate from Briggs.
Take a moment to.....
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| What Makes Briggs the "Best of Both Worlds? |
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 What is the Briggs Difference?
We all know that Briggs offers the 'Best of Both Worlds' but perhaps we forgot just how much that means!
- Briggs is a place where learning and living are integrated in a dynamic ways.
- Briggs offers the intimate setting and individual attention of a small college with all the resources and opportunities of a major research university.
- Briggs allows for greater attention from faculty and an environment where undergraduate learning is the #1 priority.
- Briggs is a national model for a program that interconnects science, mathematics and the history, philosophy and sociology of science (HPS) with a Liberal Arts emphasis.
- Briggs connects education with real life experiences through study abroad/away, service learning projects, and senior seminar that connect learning to an understanding of the philosophical and societal implications of science.
- Briggs emphasizes both written and spoken communications.
- Briggs fosters student involvement in faculty research.
- Briggs specializes in preparing pre-professional students, helping students who are seeking admission to graduate schools and connecting graduates to success in the job market.
For more information on Briggs Curriculum Visit:
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| Professor LaDuca Group Discovers Novel Coordination Polymers |
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If you think that is a mouthful how about the fact that Dr. Robert LaDuca and his Briggs undergraduate research group have described and depicted (see below) the first ever "doubly self-penetrated three-dimensional coordination polymer: Co3(oxy-bisbenzoate)3(bis-4-methylpyridine-piperazine)2"?.
 Over the past three years the group has discovered nearly 100 new coordination polymers, many with never-before-seen and beautiful structural types. Several of these have potential use as luminescent, magnetic, and gas absorption materials. All of the groups's work is carried out by Lyman Briggs and Chemistry major undergraduates.
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| Why I Give to Briggs - Dr. Jeffrey Boswell, M.D. |
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(Dr. Boswell is a 1978 Briggs graduate who agreed to share his thoughts on why he gives to Briggs.)
I entered LBC in 1974, and that was early enough in the College's history to feel connected with its very beginnings. Dr. Smith-Eliott was the Assistant Dean of LBC at that time, and she had been my father's MAT thesis advisor when he had gone to MSU on a NSF grant/Academic Year Fellowship (1964 - 1965); she was a very gracious lady and that added additional "connectedness" for me. That sense of connectedness, and the opportunity of having the "best of both worlds" (small college in a big university) was really important - I had lived on Kwajalein Island in the then Trust Territory from 1966 to 1973 and readjusting to the States was difficult during my senior year of high school in Hamilton, Texas. I needed someplace small enough to feel secure and an environment challenging enough to make me think again (and that didn't happen much during my senior year of high school).
Of course, during those days the State of Michigan was doing well economically, MSU was very vigorous in recruiting out-of-state students, and getting a National Merit Scholarship from MSU (even though it only just about covered my book costs) was neat. During my junior and senior years I served as a "Briggs Aide" and that covered my room and board expenses; I don't believe that program exists any more.
When I got to Baylor College of Medicine in 1978, I found I was competitive with the kids who came from Harvard, from Rice, from UT, and from the California schools (those schools, and Texas A&M supplied most of the class). Our entering class numbered 168, and I was one of 5 who tested out of the 2-term sequence of biochemistry on the basis of my junior-year MSU biochem classes (BCM let you take the National Board of Medical Examiners' subtest in biochemistry and if you beat the preceding BCM's class average on the exam you were given credit and got to sleep an hour later than everybody else for the first 2 quarters of school! (such a deal!) The State of Texas was desperately trying to churn out physicians back then, so BCM had accelerated the curriculum to a 3-year MD program by compressing 2 years' worth of basic sciences into 5 quarters. Not having the additional strain of biochem helped me through that period, and I did graduate in less than 4 years - "MD with honor", no less.
LBC helped me learn to think with both halves of my brain. That is the best way I know to put it. I can grasp systems and relationships and predict the effect of changes in variables upon outputs (and other variables) as a result. That has proven useful in medicine, and in my practice of occupational medicine (I've worked in chemical plants and a refinery for 20 years now) - some days you have to out-engineer the engineers, and other days you have to out-human the human resource people. Plasticity is important!
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