1949

At our mini-reunion in early October Matt Wayner received the prestigious Gold Pick Axe award, well-deserved recognition of his fascinating career. Excerpts from Matt's citation reinforce the point:

"Words like electrophysiological and neurochemical and neuroanatomical...are [his] lingua franca. Speaking at scientific gatherings in France or Canada or Japan is old hat to this distinguished professor and researcher. He has taught at Syracuse, Florida State, Arizona State, and in such further-flung venues as Japan and Australia and China. Today he is Blumberg Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

"Husband of Therese, father of Lisa, Matthew, and Timothy, grandfather of two, and the bondee of a perspicacious cat named Graycid, Matt was born in New Jersey, raised in Massachusetts, [and] came to Dartmouth with the Navy Vss. He joined Delta Upsilon, and in 1949 got his degree, married Therese, and published the first of hundreds of articles in learned journals. An M.S. at Tufts was followed by a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, the latter earned while he was on one of the National Science Foundation's first predoctoral fellowships.

"A few years later Matt was awarded an NSF grant in support of his work in biotechnology, specifically a study of how the brain controls appetite and thirst—and, indirectly, body weight. His investigation of the sensory factors in olfactory and taste data are the direct result of his experiences in both Thayer Hall and the DU basement.

"Not just an academic, Matt, with Therese's help, has been entrepreneurial too, founding and operating successful publishing companies and publications which they have now spun off.

"Today, having developed a nationally competitive biology department at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and having created his institution's first doctoral degree, Matt has downsized his administrative responsibilities and returned to the lab to work with doctoral students. With one of these he has discovered a neurotransmitter that inhibits frequency-dependent synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus (that's part of the brain, not the green at a veterinarian college).

"All '49ers are proud to acknowledge Matt Wayner is a classmate of ours not because we understand what he's doing but because we don't."

Demonstrating that apples don't fall very far from the tree, Matt's daughter Lisa is a molecular cell biologist and immunologist in a Seattle cancer center and Matthew Jr. is an ophthalmologist in San Antonio. Tim manages the family's real estate interests and his own business. Congratulations all around.

Head agent Paul Bjorklund reports that we contributed $110,776 to the Alumni Fund, missing our goal by only four grand and change. We increased our contributor base from 218 to 225 with a lowered scoring base (due to deaths and the elimination of longtime non-givers). This raised our participation rate to 72 percent. The average gift sneaked up from $500 to $508, falling short of inflation. About 15 percent of '49ers accounted for 70 percent of the total. Thanks to all, whatever you gave.

RR #l, Box 215 A, Fairlee, VT 05045;

Wayner's investigation of tke sensory factors in olfactory and taste data are the direct result of his experiences in Thayer Hall and tke Delta Upsilon kasement. Bob Nutt '49