Grads

I would like to remind all MALS alumni that their $25 dues payment for 2009 is now due. We are also encouraging those who are able to contribute an additional $25 for the four annual Alumni Council Thesis Awards. These awards will be presented to graduating MALS students at the MALS Commencement reception on Sunday, June 14. All MALS alumni are invited to this annual event. Please join us for our gala champagne celebration. It will be held at noon in the Faculty Lounge at the Hopkins Center. MALS alumni are also invited to attend the MALS luncheon and annual meeting on Wednesday, July 8, in the Hanover Inn. The featured speaker this year will be journalist, author and MALS faculty member Christopher Wren ’57.

The MALS Alumni Council held its first Works-in-Progress program and social on February 25. This inaugural session, of what is intended to be an ongoing project, featured six MALS students presenting and discussing their thesis research. All MALS students, faculty and alumni were invited to listen and join the discussion. The event drew a large and interested crowd. Works-in-Progress is the brainchild of council member Lyn Lord ’95 (MALS’97). She participated in a similar program as a graduate student at Harvard and found it extremely helpful to her work. Other alumni attending included Mike Beahan (MALS’97), who acted as moderator; Judy Chypre (MALS’99), who helped to arrange the party; Kathy Fortin (MALS’07); Maggie Montgomery (MALS’99); Nancy Silliman ’95 (MALS’96); and Nermina Zildzo (MALS’05).

Kimberly Rose Clark (psychological and brain sciences’04) took co-ownership of Merchant Mechanics after receiving her Ph.D. from Dartmouth. The company was founded by Matthew Tullman (psychological and brain sciences’00), who is president and CEO. Kimberly Rose is currently chief research officer for Merchant Mechanics, which is a nontraditional market research firm that combines and utilizes theories from bevavioral psychology and neuroscience to understand shoppers’ behaviors. At Dartmouth Matthew’s graduate research focused on spatial navigation, understanding how we interpret and move about our environments. Kimberly Rose’s dissertation research investigated the ways in which time pressure affects our abilities and strategies in making decisions. The combination of their two areas of expertise is the foundation for the company. They not only observe consumers, they also interview them. This provides them with a direct, measurable difference in assessing what people say they do (or recall) and how they actually behaved. Their research not only provides clients with a better understanding of consumer behavior but also helps clients’ green efforts by testing prototypes before they are rolled out in a national launch. This helps eliminate potentially ineffective or unnecessary aspects of a prototype’s design and reduces the potential for wasted resources in materials and transport when left untested. Kimberly Rose has also maintained contacts in academia. She pre- sented a poster for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society in 2008, guest lectured for the psycho- logical and brain sciences department in the “Attitudes and Persuasion” course and sat on the department’s panel for “Alternate Careers in Psychology” in 2005 and 2006. Merchant Me- chanics is based in West Lebanon, New Hamp- shire, in the Wheeler Office Park. Kimberly invites you to stop by to view video clips that tie the theoretical understanding from psychol- ogy to the everyday world of shoppers actually shopping. The firm also employs Naomi Davis (mathematics’07) as research associate and frequently employs Dartmouth undergraduates and graduates as summer interns and independent contractors. For more information see www.merchantmechanics.com.

175 Greensboro Road, Hanover, NH 03755; (603) 643-3789; m.jane.welsh.adv98@ alum.dartmouth.org