It seemed ludicrous to Dr. Zahi Hawass, G'83, Gr'87, that, "When you visit Disneyland, you park your car five miles away, yet when you visit the [Great] Pyramid you park the car right in front of the Pyramid."
   Hawass, director general of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt, has gradually been changing this practice. Since earning his doctorate in archaeology from Penn in 1987, he has overseen a four-phase plan to preserve the ancient edifices on the Giza Plateau and protect them from "site pollution." This refers to the camel drivers, picnickers, souvenir vendors, and tour buses that detract from the mystique of the 4,000-plus-year-old mausoleum and its surrounding structures.Continued...

Dayton Duncan
Fleshing Out the Characters of Lewis & Clark

''History is not just a bunch of facts and figures and names and dates. It is a story that is best told and remembered [by putting] you as the reader or viewer into the moment history was being made," says Dayton Duncan, C'71. "We are in the midst of history and we just don't know what tomorrow will bring. People back in history also didn't know that. They had to make choices just as we make choices, and they made mistakes just as we make mistakes." Continued...

Dr. Stanley Prusiner
Perseverance Pays Off for Nobel Recipient

For a scientist whose work had long been dismissed by critics, there couldn't be much better vindication than receiving the Nobel Prize in medicine. Still, Dr. Stanley Prusiner, C'64, M'68, was notably gracious in October, after being notified that he had received that honor for a quarter-century of research linking protein particles he discovered in the brain, called prions, to mad-cow disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other fatal, brain-ravaging illnesses. Continued...

Suzanne Biegel
Spy Games and Space Stations: Is This Work?

There's no rule that employee-training sessions have to be terminally boring. With that in mind, Internal & External Communication, Inc., offers its Fortune 500 clients an opportunity to trade in dull transparencies and training manuals for the "principles of play." Continued...

Dr. Richard Garfield
Revenge of the Interns

Who pays for the CEO's annual bonus? The junior intern, of course. Corporate Shuffle, the new card game designed by Dr. Richard Garfield, C'85, Gr'93, features rules as illogical as those in any corporate workplace. Continued...

Dr. Salih Memecan
Finding Humor In "The Wild Western" of Turkish Politics

Once a shy child who stuttered, Dr. Salih Memecan, Gr'83, found in cartooning a less intimidating form of expression -- and a career. Continued...

Gladys Tantaquidgeon
Preserving her tribal heritage

A connecticut casino has raised millions of dollars for the mohegan tribe, thanks in part to Gladys Tantaquidgeon, CCT'29. the 98-year-old Mohegan medicine woman, anthropologist, and social worker used her knowledge and artifacts to gain tribal status for her people -- and permission for the tribe to build the mohegan sun casino last October. Continued...

Resource for Writers
Attention, wordsmiths: The Kelly Writers House has now added an Alumni E-Directory to its homepage. This resource will enable Penn writers -- students as well as alumni -- to find contact information about alumni involved with writing of all kinds, from journalism to poetry. It also features an entry form through which alumni can submit information about themselves.

Copyright 1997 The Pennsylvania Gazette Last modified 11/10/97