Thayer Notes: Fall 2025

| 1960s |

John Lo '63 Th'65 Th'67: I am interested in predicting the future GDP scenario for 2 billion people in China by 2776—1,000 years since the United States was founded—to see how this Western Hemisphere startup can impact an Asian society. Common artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to collaborative innovation and breakthroughs in all fields of research and development and especially in biotechnology and neuroscience (such as gene editing). The world is ecologically betting on clean nuclear energy to control climate change while its capital flows are allocated in the direction of long-term development of water and food management systems to accommodate 20 billion people in the year 3000. Thayer has significantly increased its capacity to contribute toward that buildup, and China could one day create a similar campus in that country. It is a great experiment in human history. 

Steve Lentine ’77 (kneeling), Tom Barnico ’77, Bill Ablondi ’77 Th’80, Shoun Kerbaugh ’76, Stan Raggio ’77, David Van Vliet ’77, Bob Freidl ’76, John Reidy ’76, Joey Gleason ’78 and Paul Centenari ’79 (kneeling) visited the Second Battle of Bull Run.

| 1970s |

Shoun Kerbaugh '76 Th'77: A mixed group of Dartmouth alumni in May visited the site of the Second Battle of Bull Run, where we saw the marker in honor of Col. Fletcher Webster (Daniel Webster’s son) on Chinn Ridge, where he died during the third day of the battle. The group consisted of me, Bill Ablondi '77 Th'80, Tom Barnico '77, Paul Centenari '79, Bob Freidl '76, Joey Gleason '78, Steve Lentine '77, Stan Raggio '77, John Reidy '76, and David Van Vliet '77. In addition, we visited the site of the First Battle of Bull Run as well as the Antietam battlefield in Sharpsburg, Md. 

David Feinbloom Th’85 and family travel in Greece.

| 1980s |

David Feinbloom Th'85: My family and I have already returned from our summer adventure, finally getting to Greece. The trip was originally intended for 2020 (when you-know-what happened) to celebrate the high school graduation of our daughter. Fast-forward to 2025 and we ended up also celebrating her college graduation, son Danny’s veterinary school graduation, and Lisa’s and my 30th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a one-week cruise followed by three days on Santorini and three days in Athens. Next up was helping Danny move from Columbus, Ohio, to Gainesville, Fla., where he is doing a small animal rotating internship. We moved Rosie to Charlotte, North Carolina, last year, and I have the sneaking suspicion we’ll be moving her somewhere new in 2026. Lisa and I are still living in the Detroit, Mich., area and are still working, me in product development at Stellantis and she in her own insurance sales business— for how much longer I cannot say, as neither of us has set a date. 

Scott Gardner ’92 is president of Svante Development Co.

| 1990s |

Scott Gardner '92: I started a new role last month as president of Svante Development Co. (SDC). SDC is a subsidiary of Svante Technologies, a Vancouver, Canada-based company that is a leading carbon capture and removal solutions provider. Svante makes filters and modular rotary contactor machines that capture and remove CO2 from industrial emissions and the air. At SDC I lead a team that brings commercial structuring of carbon credit sales, evaluation and contracting with geologic sequestration partners, and project financing to support the construction of industrial-scale post-combustion carbon capture projects that implement Svante’s solid sorbent technology. I still live in Boulder, Colo., but was recently at the newly opened manufacturing facility in Burnaby, British Columbia, that can produce enough filters to accomplish 10 million metric tons per annum of CO2 capture. We are working on several projects that will implement similar machines at host industrial sites. Carbon capture and storage is an important pathway for carbon mitigation and carbon removals from the atmosphere, as the world continues the climate fight. It requires a synthesis of regulatory policy, government incentives, private market commercial structures and financing, and, of course, technology to bring projects together. 

Jeremy Howick '92: I recently had my inaugural lecture at the Global Empathy in Healthcare Network Symposium 2025—“Rehumanising Healthcare in a Divided World”—celebrating my promotion to professor at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. (The promotion was in June 2022 but there was a backlog due to Covid.) I am professor of empathic healthcare and director of the Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare at Leicester Medical School. 

Thayer and Dartmouth alumni (from left) Dieter Ulber, Ulrich Meingast, Paola Vasquez Brown Th’98, Melanie Blanchard Adv’98, Amy Myers Adv’96 Adv’99, and Carlos Alberola Lopez reunite in Brittany.

Paola Vasquez Brown Th'98: On June 14, a special reunion brought together Thayer School of Engineering alumni and longtime friends in the breathtaking Brittany region of France. I joined Dieter Ulber and Ulrich Meingast (exchange students from Germany), Carlos Alberola López (a visiting scientist under Professor George Cybenko in the late 1990s), math major Amy Myers Adv’96 Adv’99, and their families for a memorable gathering hosted by chemistry major Melanie Blanchard Adv’98. What made this reunion even more meaningful was the group’s shared history—we had all lived in the international graduate student housing on North Park Street during the 1996-97 school year. Though that housing no longer exists, it remains deeply embedded in our memories as a place where lifelong friendships were forged, fueled by the unique camaraderie of an international community. Set against the stunning coastal landscapes and rich history of Brittany, we reflected on our Dartmouth days, celebrated enduring friendships, and embraced the joy of reconnecting after years apart. This gathering was a testament to the lasting bonds formed at Dartmouth and the spirit of collaboration that continues to define Thayer alumni. 

| 2000s |

Robbie Barbero '01 Th'02: I’ve joined a new organization, Renaissance Philanthropy (renaissancephilanthropy. org). We partner with individuals, families, and foundations interested in building ambitious philanthropic initiatives, reducing the barriers to designing and implementing largescale high-impact philanthropic strategies. I’m going to be a senior fellow working on identifying and leading time-bound, thesis-driven programs that can achieve an ambitious goal or solve a critical problem—primarily focused on the life sciences space. I have a PhD in bioengineering and more than 20 years of experience operating across a range of responsibilities in the biotechnology and life sciences sector, including in public policy, research and development, business development, startup management and fundraising, and quality and manufacturing roles. 

Bryan Bollinger '03 Th'03: I am happy to report I am returning to Dartmouth this summer as a professor of business administration at Tuck. Before joining Tuck, I was a professor of marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business, where I served as the academic director of doctoral studies. My interdisciplinary research portfolio aims to understand the causal effects of marketing and policy decisions and the interdependent reactions by consumers and firms. Examples include drivers of solar adoption and pricing, the role of home-automation and dynamic pricing on demand response, and response to information. My research has been supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, and others. At Tuck, I will be teaching customer analytics and a course I developed while at NYU titled “Sustainability and Marketing.” I am excited to return to the Upper Valley for many reasons, one of them being the terrific access to the outdoors (another being Lou’s breakfast). I am excited to be back at Dartmouth and hope to be able to interact with Thayer and Revers Center initiatives, given my research on sustainability and renewable energy.

| 2010s |

Sharang Biswas ’12 Th’13: I wanted to draw your attention to the publication of my first book, The Iron Below Remembers. Set in an alternate version of the British Isles where South Asian imperial interest colonized much of the globe thanks to its advanced technology, Professor Laxman Yadav is dating Saviour, one of the world’s most famous superheroes, while also investigating possibly the most important archeological find of all time. Equal parts pulp caper and meta-textual academic text, this novella leans as heavily on footnotes as it does on explorations of queer romance. Steven Jin ’12 Th’12: I am a senior software engineer at a Series B startup. I switched careers several times and now I feel I’m happy with the career I’ve chosen. 

Evan Landau ’15: Toward the end of 2024, I cofounded a carbon removal startup based in Spain. Along with a team spanning six countries, I am working as the head of industrial design and production helping to build small-scale, low-maintenance, and user-friendly direct air carbon capture hardware. The company is currently in a prefunding prototype development stage and in the process of speaking with potential investors, with an official launch targeting late summer or early fall. 

Anna Miller ’16 Th’17: For the past year and a half, I’ve been working at an interesting startup in Seattle called Starfish Space (starfishspace.com). We’re developing a servicing satellite that can dock with other satellites to provide lifetime extension (propelling satellites when they run out of fuel), space debris removal, and eventually in-orbit assembly and repair. We have a launch coming up for a prototype that will attempt the first-ever commercial satellite docking—it’s a very exciting time! 

Andreas Tzavelis ’17 Th’17: I just finished my MD/PhD at Northwestern and moved to Philly to start my research track residency in anesthesiology at Penn Medicine! 

| 2020s |

Vanessa Pinney ’21 Th’22 Th’23: Things have been very exciting of late! I switched jobs and am now working for New Energy Risk as a business development associate helping first-of-a-kind clean energy projects get financed by underwriting their technology risk. It’s been a superinteresting job at the intersection of infrastructure, climate finance, novel project development, and insurance. I assess the financial models and engineering design documents of first-of-a-kind technology projects. In addition, I have been running the Young Professionals in Energy chapter in Boston, which plans two-plus events per month to get recent graduates and professionals in their 20s and 30s involved in the energy industry. Many of the events are regular networking events, but we also organize a variety of tours, panels, and even some collaborations with local nonprofits to increase access to renewable energy in underserved communities!