By Cheryl Cranick, Honors Program

Phil Ventimiglia ’92 (ENGR-Honors) has been at the forefront of technology innovation for nearly two decades, working for industry giants such as Lockheed Sanders, IBM, Dell, and currently NCR Corporation. “I have spent my entire career developing new technologies and products. It is who I am. It is like breathing,” said Ventimiglia. But his career really began much earlier; at his family home in fact, when his engineer father introduced him to “the dawn of the personal computer,” he said. First tinkering with equipment that his father brought home, Phil eventually enrolled at UConn, bringing with him not just his first Commodore 64 but also his budding fascination for technology. Continue reading →

Chad Landmon is Co-Chair of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP’s Intellectual Property Practice and Chair of the FDA Practice Group. He is recognized as a leading advocate for pharmaceutical companies before FDA and premier patent litigator and counselor on issues involving the development and marketing of generic drugs and human tissue. He has a rare knowledge of intricate FDA processes and litigating complex patent cases involving drug products throughout the country. Continue reading →

Dr. Anthony “Tony” Chiodo is currently a professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. There, he directs the multidisciplinary Spine Program for the management of patients with conditions and pain of the spine. He is also medical director and co-principal investigator of the Spinal Cord Injury Model System at the University of Michigan, one of fourteen such centers funded by the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. He directs and started the Adult Spasticity Clinic and was a founder of the Adult Assisted Ventilation Clinic. His current research interests include pain after spinal cord injury, sleep disordered breathing after spinal cord injury, and interventional management of painful spine conditions. Continue reading →

Professor Neafsey emigrated from Granby, Quebec before high school. She considered a major in computer science at Cornell, but decided computers needed to be more “usable” for her poor punch card typing skills. She joined the honors program in nutrition at Cornell and received her B.S. and M.S. in nutritional biochemistry. Following research stints at Penn and Yale, she obtained a teaching position at Albertus Magnus College and provided nutrition counseling services at two primary care practices in New Haven. Her interest in drug-nutrient interactions led her to pursue a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology at UConn followed by post-doctoral work at Tufts University. She was at Tufts when the UConn School of Nursing contacted her to help them develop a graduate pharmacotherapy course and an undergraduate curriculum that integrates pathophysiology, pharmacology, and nutrition over a series of courses. After one semester of teaching UConn nursing students, she was hooked! Continue reading →