Thayer Notes: Spring 2025

Engineering sciences majors Tom Avril ’89 (left) and Rob Albright ’89 catch up during reunion in the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center.

| 1940s | 

Warren Daniell ’48 Th’50: One of my neighbors at Newbury Court in Concord, Mass., is George Kinzie ’64 Th’65 Th’66. We see each other often and enjoy reminiscing about our Thayer days. At 98, it’s good to have such memories. 

| 1950s | 

Ron Read ’57 Th’58: My first job after graduating from Thayer in 1958 was with Vickers in Troy, Mich. Vickers designed and built hydraulic pumps and motors. We didn’t have computer-aided design equipment, everything was done using a drafting board and T-square. But the design challenges and applications were exciting. One of our best projects was to build and install the wing-fold motors on the X-B 70. 

| 1980s | 

Carrie Fraser ’86 Th’87: I have been working as head of corporate marketing at Stellix. Headquartered in Foxborough, Mass., Stellix companies offer business transformation and technology consulting and engineering services to life sciences and industrial customers, with a primary focus on laboratory and manufacturing automation, data, and digitalization. I would love to hear from any other alumni involved in these areas for networking purposes (cfraser@ stellix.com). 

On a more personal note, my husband, Bob Donaldson ’84 Th’85, and I recently celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. We live in Harvard, Mass., and have three amazing adult children: one working in the culinary arts in Philadelphia, a robotics engineer who works in the AV industry in Massachusetts, and a mechanical engineer who just started his first job in Maine working for a small design firm serving the diagnostic and medical device industry. 

With the engineering kids still local, I sometimes tell friends it feels like I live in an engineering fraternity, with multiple projects underway at any given time and a high-end 3D printer currently parked in the living room. 

Tom Avril ’89: We ’89s were all highly impressed by the facilities upgrades we saw during the Cluster Reunion Reception [for ’88, ’89, ’90, ’94, ’99, ’03, ’04, ’05, and ’19] last summer. I had a great time catching up with Rob Albright ’89 as well as Rob Eleveld ’89, Andy Wells ’89, and others. I recently took a buyout from my job as the science writer at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and I am now pursuing my long-delayed plan of writing a novel. Topic is yet to be disclosed, but it’s safe to say that it’s about as far removed from my Thayer School studies as possible. 

Scott N. Miller ’92 recently earned his pilot’s instrument rating license.

| 1990s | 

Scott N. Miller ’92: I recently joined a maritime defense tech startup as the chief technology officer focused on building unmanned ships designed to operate across the world’s oceans. Prior to that, I ran Dragon Ventures with the goal of helping companies navigate from a prototype to production. Outside of work, I recently passed my pilot’s instrument rating and had a great trip up to Dartmouth to celebrate. 

Andrew Van Ness ’05 Th’08 Th’09, wife Corinne, and daughters Aurelia and Adelaide visit Assateague Island in Virginia, which includes a national park with wild ponies.

| 2000s | 

Andrew Van Ness ’05 Th’08 Th’09: After finishing up my MEM, I moved back to New York City, where I worked for a few different firms ranging from construction monitoring, owner’s rep work, and sustainability before finally moving into mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design. I spent about 10 years focusing on large healthcare and higher education clients in and around. I earned my professional engineering license in 2016. In 2021, my wife and I left New York City to move to Northern Virginia, where she grew up. A bit of an adjustment for me as a lifelong city dweller, but our two daughters love it. I’m currently working at a large architecture and engineering firm, HDR (hdrinc.com), leading its building engineering services group here in the Mid-Atlantic. I haven’t had much opportunity to get to Hanover, but I am always happy to chat with Thayer grads here in the area. 

Sreevalli Sreenivasan Th’17 Th’26 has published her first children’s book.

| 2010s | 

Sreevalli Sreenivasan Th’17 Th’26: I have written a children’s book, Let the Elephants Bee, on a peaceful solution to the human-elephant conflict. 

Harrison Munden ’23 works at Tesla, where he was able to grab a seat in the Cybertruck the day it was officially released to the public.

| 2020s | 

Jordan Koehler ’23 Th’23: This fall, I moved to Seattle and started my PhD in molecular engineering at the University of Washington. I will be doing research rotations this year, so no set thesis yet. However, my research focus in general is drug delivery and vaccine design for infectious disease. 

Harrison Munden ’23: I graduated in 2023 and have spent the last year at Tesla in Palo Alto, Calif. My role is a 3D user-interface developer, and I work on all of the 3D models and 3D interactions for the Tesla mobile app. My major was engineering sciences modified with studio art, which was a perfect combo for this role. Not only am I using my technical skills from Thayer, but the liberal arts approach also comes in handy, as a huge part of my role is focused on refining the visual aesthetics of the 3D scenes.

Bishal Dev Sharma Th’24: I am a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Lynd/Olson Lab at Thayer. My research focuses on studying intracellular metabolites to develop metabolic engineering strategies that enhance ethanol production during fermentation by Clostridium thermocellum, a thermophilic microbe. I plan to defend my thesis this spring. My time at Thayer is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Beyond research, the community at Thayer and Dartmouth has truly made my journey fulfilling. After completing my PhD, I aim to transition into industrial research. 

Outside of academic work, I enjoy hiking, kayaking, photography, and traveling. I recently developed a passion for pickleball and last winter I learned to ski, which I adore. I’m a strong advocate for life-work balance and have been involved with the All-Dartmouth Steering Committee for Student Mental Health and Wellbeing, supported initiatives such as Graduates in Need of Decompression (GrIND), and contributed to the Thayer Council and the Graduate Student Council. Since 2022, I have served as the first-year mentoring coordinator at Thayer and have mentored more than 40 Dartmouth students both professionally and personally. I believe kindness is an inexhaustible resource and strive to inspire others with this value. 

Bryan Shea Th’24: I am the 2025 student body president of the MEM program and a proud first-generation immigrant and first-generation student. As such, I have developed town halls for students to voice their opinions and needs to program directors, created weekly social gatherings—with food from around the world—to keep the community engaged, acted as a primary tour guide to convince prospective students Dartmouth is the best place to pursue their education, and became a trained peer supporter to help students who are struggling socially and academically. I was also there for international students, showing them around the area, walking them through procedures at Dartmouth, teaching several how to drive, and taking them to get groceries. 

I chose the MEM program because of the integration of the Thayer and Tuck curriculums and the sense of community that Dartmouth brings. A technical background is crucial to running a successful business nowadays. Academically, I succeeded by performing well in advanced engineering courses curated for the top engineers in the world. In my MBA courses at the Tuck School of Business, there was nothing more nerve-wracking than being called on by the vice chairman of mergers and acquisitions at Goodwin Procter LLP to structure a deal on the fly in front of my peers, many older than me and with years of work experience. The program fostered my ability to speak up, regardless of who I was speaking to or before. Professionally, in the MEM program I worked as a senior business operations intern at Solidworks and portfolio operations at Fidelity Investments. 

Upon graduating, I look forward to applying the knowledge I have gained from Thayer and Tuck in the fin-tech industry. I will be forever grateful for the opportunities Dartmouth has provided me. 

Summer Hargrave ’25: During this last year at Thayer, I’m a product designer for the DALI Lab and recently joined the Cable Makerspace team. For my DALI project—which I’m completing for CS 25: “Intro to UI/UX Design II” credit—I’m working on a project called DeanHub, a dean-facing platform that allows academic deans and student affairs staff to visualize key aspects of a student’s journey, consolidating all relevant information in one place to facilitate more effective advising. At the Cable Makerspace, in addition to general monitoring and training duties, I’m the onboarding project lead. We’re exploring ways to improve onboarding processes and materials and finding ways to encourage students, especially newcomers, to maintain cleanliness and care in the space. Our user research focuses on surveying other student staff and students who use the space, conducting online research into makerspaces at similar universities, and speaking with program managers from those makerspaces to learn about their practices. 

I’m looking to go into UI/UX design long-term, ideally living abroad in a design-focused city such as Copenhagen or Berlin! Immediately post-grad, however, I applied for a Fulbright English teach assistant position in Thailand and two Asia fellowships that would work to place me in a design role somewhere in Asia. Overall, I’m really interested in seeing design in global contexts and exploring career opportunities outside of the United States.