Staff News — In memoriam, career adviser, mystery in testing world
In Memoriam: Network engineer Christopher Thomas
Christopher S. Thomas, a network engineer in the Office of Information Technology and Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE), died Dec. 29 at 67 in Los Angeles from colon cancer.
Thomas, whose expertise was in computer networking, helped UCLA attain leadership in high-speed networking for academic use. An avid fan of UCLA’s football and basketball teams, he assisted the UCLA Athletics Department and other PAC-10 schools in setting up a process for exchanging videos of their games via the Internet-2 network rather than by courier. In 2008, he received the Innovations in Networking Award from the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC).
During 1970-80, Thomas led systems programmers who supported UCLA’s large mainframe computers. One of his proudest achievements was the development of Bruin Online, an email system for UCLA students that ran on the mainframe.
But for all his technical skills, his colleagues said Thomas’ most significant contribution for which he will be remembered is the many technologists and staff members he hired and mentored. During his 40-year career at UCLA, he trained and advised many technologists, junior and senior, across the campus.
"Chris’ 40 years represent an amazing perspective on technology in that he was part of several generations of IT changes at UCLA," said Vice Provost of Information Technology Jim Davis when the department marked Thomas’ four-decade career. "He was instrumental in building the robust computing environment we now take for granted, and his contribution to our organization and to UCLA was nothing short of remarkable."
Thomas graduated with a B.A. and M.A. in psychology from UCLA. Throughout his life, he was an amateur radio operator. As a 13-year-old in 1957, he was one of the first Americans to detect the signals from Sputnik I after the Russians launched it.
He is survived by his stepfather, Milton Stark and cousin, Penelope Coates. A campus memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Jan. 25 at the Young Research Library, Room 11348. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Chris Thomas Memorial Fund at UCLA, which will assist IDRE in employing undergraduate and graduate students to do research with faculty and information technologists.
Career adviser to med students wins national recognition
Mitsue Yokota, a career adviser and well-being program coordinator in the student affairs office at the David Geffen School of Medicine, is one of four national winners chosen by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) for planning a strong and effective series of programs for Career Development Month.
Yokota hosted numerous career development events, including resident roundtable discussions; lunchtime information sessions; a panel discussion about careers in global health; a workshop to help students evaluate their educational experiences and make career decisions; and a workshop about self-directed specialty exploration.
The AAMC judges praised the "intentional way these career programs were couched in a larger effort to address student wellness and build community" and how these comprehensive activities "addressed non-traditional career paths, such as global health."
A 1998 UCLA undergrad, Yokota joined the medical school’s student affairs staff in 2010 and recently earned her UCLA doctorate in education. "Mitsue defended, finished and filed her doctoral dissertation in education while working 60-plus hours a week to ensure a stellar career development month," said Meredith Szumski, director of student affairs. "Our students love her and love this program; she’s truly an asset to UCLA."
Mystery selected top 10 books on K-12 education
The
American School Board Journal selected a mystery written by UCLA staffer Ron Dietel as one of the top 10 notable books on K-12 education for 2011. Dietel, assistant director for research, use and communications at the UCLA Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing, has written "The Perfect Test: An Education Experiment That Went Terribly Wrong," (Sense Publishers). "The Perfect Test" is Dietel's second book, following the publication of a non-fiction entitled, "Get Smart: Nine Sure Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in School."
Dietel "offers a cautionary tale of a world where testing is taken to an extreme," according to the journal. The book is set in the future in La Cañada, Pasadena, Glendale, Palos Verdes and Burbank. "Imagine a world in the not-too-distant future where a reform-weary education system rejoices when two Stanford graduates create the perfect national test. In Dietel’s futuristic spoof of our current testing mania, the test makes the U.S. No. 1 in math and science. Then one of the test developers discovers a secret list of the names of students who are exceptions to the high-stakes consequences of the tests."
The journal is published monthly by the National School Boards Association, which serves more than 40,000 school board members and top-level administrators from districts across the nation.
