| Alumni
Fellows recognized during Homecoming
One
of the founders of the modern biotechnology industry,
a leading researcher on fetal alcohol syndrome and
two pioneers in integrated sustainable agriculture
were honored during Homecoming as 2004 Alumni Fellows.
The
Alumni Fellows program, sponsored by the OSU Alumni
Association, annually brings back to campus distinguished
alumni, who meet with students, faculty and staff
to discuss their careers, according to Jeffrey Todd,
executive director of the Alumni Association.
This
year’s recipients are Bill and Karla Chambers,
founders of Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc.; Ann Streissguth,
director of the Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit at the
University of Washington School of Medicine; and
Barry Willis, retired director of research for Agilent
and before that, Hewlett Packard’s Analytical
Medical Lab.
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2004
Alumni Fellows (from left) Barry Willis, Bill
Chambers, Karla Chambers and Ann Streissguth. |
Stahlbush
Island Farms, Inc., run by the Chamberses, is a
farm and food processing company that has grown
into a large family-owned agricultural business
marketing products in 42 states and 15 other countries.
It has been certified as a sustainable farm and
has won awards for the highest wheat yield in the
nation and for sustainable agricultural practices.
Bill
Chambers, president of Stahlbush, has two degrees
from the College of Agricultural Sciences: a bachelor’s
degree in 1981 and a master’s degree in 1984.
Karla Von Borstel Chambers, vice-president and co-owner
of Stahlbush, also graduated in 1981 in agricultural
sciences and earned a master’s in interdisciplinary
studies in 1982.
Streissguth
graduated from OSU in 1954 with a degree in home
economics and went on to become a pioneering psychological
researcher of fetal alcohol syndrome. In 1973, she
was a member of the team of researchers that first
identified the harmful effects of alcohol use during
pregnancy. The following year, she became the principal
investigator of a longitudinal study on alcohol
use and pregnancy that continues today. She organized
the first international conference of fetal alcohol
syndrome in 1980. For more on Streissguth, see the
December 2003 Stater.
Willis
is considered one of the founders of modern biotechnology
and is credited with helping bridge the gap between
traditional medical research and biochemistry. He
organized the Hewlett Packard team known as “the
DNA project,” which helped create many of
the tools and processes used to map the human genome.
He also helped design a diode-array spectrophotometer,
which allows scientists to measure the entire spectrum
of a chemical’s optical properties.
He
graduated from Oregon State in 1963 with a bachelor’s
degree in chemistry.
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