PSU Magazine Spring 2003

Counseling and Lending Services in Portland. Shauna Owen is a facilitator with Shangri-La Corp., a private nonprofit organization that pro– vides housing, employment, and other services Lo people with disabi lities. Owen Leaches a life ski lls-based program called Connections for inmates with developmental disabilities al the Oregon State Correctional Insti– tution in Salem. Amy Rice MBA is senior solu– tions consultant at Unicru, a software firm in Beaverton. Dan Sharp PhD and his wife, Betsy, have owned Beaverton Sharp Investments since 1995. Prior to becoming a money manager, Sharp was an engineer in the telecommunications industry. '02 Zach Barnes is attending the University of Southern Califor– nia School of Medicine in Los Angeles. Barnes and his wife, Jami , live in Alhambra, Cali fornia. Rebekka Boysen is a member of Teach For America Corps, which places teachers in the country's most under-funded schools. She was placed at Thomas Starr King Middle School in Los Angeles where she teaches sixth grade. Boysen and her husband, Erik Taylor, are expected their firsl child in August. Mary Cunningham is legislative director at the U.S. Student Association, a nonprofit agency in Washington, D.C. Cunning– ham served as ASPSU president during the 2001-02 academic year. Caleb Heppner MPA is execu– tive director of Child Welfare Partnership, a child welfare training, research, and education program at PSU. Thao Le is a computer pro– grammer al Case First Health Plan , a heallh care agency in Alhambra, California. Tracey Lewin is a self– employed graphic designer in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Nuclear containment in North Korea D EEP IN RESEARCH AT THE LOS ALAMOS NATlONAL LABORATORY in New Mexico, Scott Maclntosh '00, MS '03 occasionall y joked with colleagues that he was busy trying to save the world. His efforts were no lark. Long before North Korea began Oexing its nuclear-threatening muscles this winter, MacIntosh, 31, was trying to figure out a way to keep North Korean officials from getting their hands on spent-fuel rods, the ominous material that can be used to produce a nuclear weapon. "I considered it a very serious project and not something every graduate student gets to do," says MacIntosh, whose efforts were the focus of his master's thesis this past winter. Two summers ago, before activities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex became the focus of world attention, MacIntosh was investigating North Korean storage of canisters containing spent-fuel rods. The canisters had been sealed by the Interna– tional Atomic Energy Agency under an agreement between North Korea and the United Nations. "The North Koreans were saying they were con– cerned that water was leaking into these canisters, causing corrosion of the fuel rods, and that it could be dangerous," says Macintosh, who traveled to North Korea as part of a six-member team that also included representatives from the U.S. Stale and Energy departments. The real threat, says MacIntosh, was that inspecting for corrosion would mean cracking open the seals on the canisters. Those seals had been put in place to guarantee the spent– fuel rods were securely packaged and unavailable for use in a nuclear weapon. While completing a research project at the Los Alamos lab, MacIntosh devised a way to inspect the canisters without breaking the seals Using acoustical means, he could measure and determine the existence of Ouids in a canister-a system superior to more traditional ultrasonic methods. Despite his work, the North Koreans eventually succeeded in opening the canisters, a development that concerns much of the free world. "They are saying it is their fuel and they can do anything they want with it," says MacIntosh. Today MacIntosh is a consulting scientist in the Boston area where he grew up. How– ever, he will never forget the two weeks he spent in North Korea and the vastly different society he found there. "You were basically under house arrest when you go there," he remembers. "You are stuck in the house and you can't make any derogatory comments about their leaders They are very, very sensitive about that. " -Dee Anne Finken Alana Nadal is a service coordi– nator at Luke-Dorf in Tigard, assisting individuals who have chronic mental illnesses. Nadal has a two-year-old son, Mason. Cheri Olson M is a physical education teacher in Beaverton and was elected mayor of North Plains in November. Shirley Pate MS is a counselor at Joseph Gale Elementary Schoo l in Forest Grove. ln addi– tion, Pate is a counselor for Youth Contact's Kid's Turn Pro– gram. Rich Rice MEd '97 went on to earn his PhD in English from Ball State University and is now an assistant professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Julie Schablitsky PhD is an archaeologist at the Oregon Department of Transportation , Environmental Services Section and Cultural Resources Unit. Schablitsky lives in Sherwood. Jan Spencer MSW is an oncol– ogy social worker at Cancer Care Resources in Portland. Sara Beth Stickland is alterna– tive transportation coordinator at Portland State. D SPRING 2003 PSU MAGAZINE 27