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Sewickley Academy Science and Technology Hall of Fame
Alumni
Alumni Honors & Awards
Science & Technology Hall of Fame
On Friday, October 2, 2015 at 11:30 a.m. in Rea Auditorium, Sewickley Academy inducted its first three alumni, Mark E. Schafer ’75, Ph.D., Carolee T. Bull ’81, Ph.D., and Beth Willman ’94, Ph.D. into the Science and Technology Hall of Fame.
The Academy inducted Robertson Parkman ’53, M.D. into the Hall of Fame on Friday, October 11, 2019, at 11:30 a.m. in Rea Auditorium.
The Academy inducted Robertson Parkman ’53, M.D. into the Hall of Fame on Friday, October 11, 2019, at 11:30 a.m. in Rea Auditorium.
The Science and Technology Hall of Fame honors alumni who have made significant contributions to the fields of science, medicine, engineering, or technology, as determined by awards, grants, original research, or practical innovation, as acknowledged by experts in their field.
Inductees must have performed significant service to others in the classroom or in the field, work that has greatly enhanced the learning experience for their students or the quality of life for the community benefiting from their efforts.
Sewickley Academy Science and Technology Hall of Fame Members
Robertson Parkman ’53, M.D. – 2019
Robertson “Robby” Parkman, M.D., was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pediatric and Marrow Transplant Consortium in 2010, and from the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation in 2007. In 1996, he received the H. Russell Smith Award from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, given to a scientist who has made the most significant contribution to pediatric research. For almost 50 years, he has dedicated his career to clinical, teaching, and research missions of pediatric bone marrow transplantation and immunology. His pioneering work included a new approach to treat genetic diseases in newborns utilizing their own umbilical cord blood cells. His team’s collaborative work at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston with Peter Bent Brigham Hospital led to the first bone marrow transplantation unit in New England. For 12 years, he performed military service as a surgeon for the U.S. Public Health Service. He served as head of the Division of Research Immunology/Bone Marrow Transplantation at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles 1983 – 2002. Dr. Parkman earned his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and his medical degree from Yale University. He is a professor of pediatrics and microbiology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, an adjunct professor in pediatrics – stem cell transplantation at Stanford University, and a former associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Mark E. Schafer '75, Ph.D. – 2015
In the mid-1980s, Mark Schafer ’75 established what would become the country’s leading independent measurement laboratory for medical ultrasound, working with companies that ranged from startups to multinationals. Over the years, he has worked to advance the application of ultrasound technology to medicine, developing ultrasound devices for: dissolving blood clots in the leg; removing cataracts; non-invasively treating stroke patients; harvesting stem cells; identifying malignant vs benign breast cancer; accelerating wound healing; treating epilepsy and depression; continuously monitoring heart function during surgery; and crushing kidney stones (lithotripsy). His most recent entrepreneurial effort combines ultrasound and light to treat bacterial biofilms, which are responsible for 80 percent of all chronic infections in humans. This will have application to acne, eczema, rhino-sinusitis, and diabetic wounds. He has 22 patents and over 60 research publications. A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he earned a M.S. from Penn State, and a Ph. D. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University. As a researcher, scholar, and innovator, he is hailed as a leading international expert in ultrasound technology.
Carolee T. Bull ’81, Ph.D. – 2015
Dr. Bull is a world leader in research on organic and sustainable crop production, bacterial taxonomy, biological control of plant pathogens, and phytobacteriology. She has worked as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and as a USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Postdoctoral Fellow in Fresno, where in addition to her rigorous research program, she made it her goal to make the Salinas Valley (known as the Salad Bowl of the US) as well known for producing outstanding scientists as it is for growing lettuce. Dr. Bull has developed an award-winning mentoring program for undergraduate researchers, many the sons and daughters of field workers. Dr. Bull received the Secretary’s Honor Award (the highest award for service to the nation in agriculture) from the USDA in 2014. Dr. Bull was appointed tenured Professor of Bacterial Systematics and Plant Pathology and Head of the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology at Penn State University in September 2015. She earned her B.S. from Ohio University, M.S. from Washington State University, and Ph.D. from Oregon State University.
Beth Willman '94, Ph.D. – 2015
Beth Willman ’94, Ph. D., became Deputy Directory of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project in September 2015, where she has been active as a chair of the Stars, Milky Way and Local Volume Science Collaboration. LSST is a billion dollar project being constructed on Cerro Pachon in Chile, and is the highest priority in ground-based astronomy for the United States through the next decade. Prior to that she served as chair of the Astronomy and Physics departments at Haverford College, where she taught for seven years. Both beloved and respected by students, she received the college’s three highest teaching awards. In 2005, as a post-doctoral student at New York University studying galaxy formation and dark matter, she discovered a new ultra-faint galaxy now known as Willman 1. Recipient of numerous National Science Foundation grants for research, she has served as a James Arthur Fellow at the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics at New York University and a Clay Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Dr. Willman earned her B.A. in astrophysics at Columbia University and Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Washington.
Robertson Parkman ’53, M.D. – 2019
Robertson “Robby” Parkman, M.D., was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pediatric and Marrow Transplant Consortium in 2010, and from the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation in 2007. In 1996, he received the H. Russell Smith Award from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, given to a scientist who has made the most significant contribution to pediatric research. For almost 50 years, he has dedicated his career to clinical, teaching, and research missions of pediatric bone marrow transplantation and immunology. His pioneering work included a new approach to treat genetic diseases in newborns utilizing their own umbilical cord blood cells. His team’s collaborative work at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston with Peter Bent Brigham Hospital led to the first bone marrow transplantation unit in New England. For 12 years, he performed military service as a surgeon for the U.S. Public Health Service. He served as head of the Division of Research Immunology/Bone Marrow Transplantation at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles 1983 – 2002. Dr. Parkman earned his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and his medical degree from Yale University. He is a professor of pediatrics and microbiology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, an adjunct professor in pediatrics – stem cell transplantation at Stanford University, and a former associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Mark E. Schafer '75, Ph.D. – 2015
In the mid-1980s, Mark Schafer ’75 established what would become the country’s leading independent measurement laboratory for medical ultrasound, working with companies that ranged from startups to multinationals. Over the years, he has worked to advance the application of ultrasound technology to medicine, developing ultrasound devices for: dissolving blood clots in the leg; removing cataracts; non-invasively treating stroke patients; harvesting stem cells; identifying malignant vs benign breast cancer; accelerating wound healing; treating epilepsy and depression; continuously monitoring heart function during surgery; and crushing kidney stones (lithotripsy). His most recent entrepreneurial effort combines ultrasound and light to treat bacterial biofilms, which are responsible for 80 percent of all chronic infections in humans. This will have application to acne, eczema, rhino-sinusitis, and diabetic wounds. He has 22 patents and over 60 research publications. A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he earned a M.S. from Penn State, and a Ph. D. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University. As a researcher, scholar, and innovator, he is hailed as a leading international expert in ultrasound technology.
Carolee T. Bull ’81, Ph.D. – 2015
Dr. Bull is a world leader in research on organic and sustainable crop production, bacterial taxonomy, biological control of plant pathogens, and phytobacteriology. She has worked as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and as a USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Postdoctoral Fellow in Fresno, where in addition to her rigorous research program, she made it her goal to make the Salinas Valley (known as the Salad Bowl of the US) as well known for producing outstanding scientists as it is for growing lettuce. Dr. Bull has developed an award-winning mentoring program for undergraduate researchers, many the sons and daughters of field workers. Dr. Bull received the Secretary’s Honor Award (the highest award for service to the nation in agriculture) from the USDA in 2014. Dr. Bull was appointed tenured Professor of Bacterial Systematics and Plant Pathology and Head of the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology at Penn State University in September 2015. She earned her B.S. from Ohio University, M.S. from Washington State University, and Ph.D. from Oregon State University.
Beth Willman '94, Ph.D. – 2015
Beth Willman ’94, Ph. D., became Deputy Directory of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project in September 2015, where she has been active as a chair of the Stars, Milky Way and Local Volume Science Collaboration. LSST is a billion dollar project being constructed on Cerro Pachon in Chile, and is the highest priority in ground-based astronomy for the United States through the next decade. Prior to that she served as chair of the Astronomy and Physics departments at Haverford College, where she taught for seven years. Both beloved and respected by students, she received the college’s three highest teaching awards. In 2005, as a post-doctoral student at New York University studying galaxy formation and dark matter, she discovered a new ultra-faint galaxy now known as Willman 1. Recipient of numerous National Science Foundation grants for research, she has served as a James Arthur Fellow at the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics at New York University and a Clay Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Dr. Willman earned her B.A. in astrophysics at Columbia University and Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Washington.
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Sewickley Academy Alumni
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