Blum Group Holiday Letter - December 2008 Bing Zhang. Nice to see the note from you

again. As my kids growing older, they are much

different and more fun. My son is in the third grade of

kindergarten now. In the early of 2008, we bought an

apartment, so finally settled down after keep moving

for years. Not much different in the work from last

year. Except the economy crisis is slowing everything

down. Wish you for another good year!

Win, Suntree Kulkeratiyut. Merry Christmas and

Happy New Year 2009. Everything goes well. Max

will study in the secondary school (7th grade) next year.

In the picture, we went to Doi-Toong Palace, Chiengrai

province in the northest of Thailand on the King's

Birthday holiday (Dec 5-7). The flowers there were so

beautiful. May God bless everyone have a good new

year 2009.

GU Xu. Thank you very much for the Holiday greetings.

2008 was an exciting year for my family. Can you believe that my

family has met the President-elected Obama in Rolla and Rui, Jin

and Xie have shaken hand with the future President?

Rui has finally decided his major of economics in USC. Jin

has completed her first semester of the medical school in Boston

University. Xie is building a new house in Rolla for fun and to fill

the net-emptiness. The proudest thing for me in 2008 was the

publication of our paper of “Surfactant enhanced free

radical-polymerization of styrene in emulsion gels, (49) 2008,

3233-3238 , Polymer.”

We had a wonderful trip to Mexico and met Jin in a Spanish

School in Guatemala (picture above at right) and a big trip to China

for two 80th birthday of our fathers and two class reunions.

My biggest wish for 2009 is exploring the opportunities to do the research of organized chemical

reactions and polymerizations in self-assembly systems.

R. Allen Waggoner. The big news for us this year was the birth of Michaela, at the end of March.

Tracy and the kids spent most of the summer in Taiwan. Since their return, Casey has quickly recovered

his English, while

Dad has learned a

few key words of

baby-Chinese(whi

ch Casey expects

him to know). As

2008 comes to a

close Michaela has

zoomed through

crawling and is on

to standing up

while holding on

to things.

Burak Metin. I am still working at SoloPower

Inc. as an R&D Scientist. The company moved to a big

facility in San Jose beginning of 2008. It was a very

busy year and lots more coming up next year. Bringing

up a product using a new technology is very hard at

least in solar industry. It is very stressful and hard, but

at the same time fun to try to make something new. We

did not seem to be affected from the economic crisis at

least up to now. California is a great state to live. There

are lots of places to visit, lots of wine to drink, lots of different food to eat, and lots of good weather to

live. Well, it is expensive though. The picture is from a horse riding with Lea along one of the beaches of

Half Moon Bay. I wish everybody a healthy year. Pavan Challa. I was waiting for this time of the year to

send you my part in the newsletter. Life has been exciting for me this year. We went to India in summer 2008 which we enjoyed a lot. We moved to Philadelphia in late june as I am working as Team

lead at Rohm and Haas after I completed my assignment at Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee. Most importantly, there is an addition in my family (my son Keerthan). He was born on

November 18th 2008 6:15PM. Attached is our latest family photo. Hope things are going on smoothly on your side too. Our best wishes to our research group, Linda, Rebecca and Frank Jr. Have a Happy, productive and prosperous new year 2009 (Pavan, Yashodha and Keerthan Challa)

Kaz Nagishima. I visited Boston suburb (Mar 15-21 and Sep 15-17) and Rochester (Sep 18-19)

in order to maintain my English language and driving skills. I used my Massachusetts driver’s license

and Bank of America ATM card to buy beers and distasteful sushi during the

whole weeks: Nothing new, nothing exciting, and routine duty as usual.

This year, I could frequently step into flat panel display (FPD) factories.

If your home TV is a liquid crystal type of Sharp or Panasonic, it is likely

from the clean rooms of my customers. When you for the first time enter

the surreal space with a lot of humongous equipment in multi-floors, you will

be definitely stunned and cannot move for a while. I am responsible for remote plasma source (RPS)

units, which decompose NF3 into N and F radicals to clean chemical vapor deposition chambers.

Dramatic reduction in the failure rates may be touted as my biggest accomplishment in 2008.

Limitations in the usage of such plasma products lead to my new interest in patents. From April, I

started going to a prep school for patent attorney national exam. The class is a mixture of

scientists/engineers and no-such-background people of omni-generation from college kids as the youngest

to semi-grandpas as the oldest. Catching up the cram-all-by-tomorrow courses of “law” is very hard for

this over-40 guy whose brain cells have already died by nicotine and alcohol. In addition, for a bogus

American, his original language now appears very unclear, and Chinese characters are hard to write. A

series of the annual national exams (multiple-choice, technical essays, and oral) starts from mid May and

the final survival rate is typically less than 6 % of the initial every year. I will challenge my first one in

this spring, but it may take three or more years to pass.

It was very busy up until the end of September, but Lehman Shock abruptly propagated into even

this far-east island in October. Due to sharply dwindling subsidy and unforeseeable economic prospects,

I was asked to leave MKS Instruments by the end of December. So, bringing my carrier plan a bit

forward, I will start working at a patent office from January 6. This country’s patent-writing and

litigation-handling industry may not be very much recession-sensitive, as is evident from my short

job-seeking term in this financial crisis.

Macduff Okuoum. This isBakariNyakunoat timeofbirth(left),August24th. Bakariat3months(right)

Wegotourfirstchild,aboy,BakariNyakunoinSummer.Otherwise,notmuchelsehaschangedin

ourlives. MacduffandJuliet/

Raj Durairaj .Last year, 2008, lots of things have happened. I had to come to India several times

from China and stayed with my family. It looks like I may retire in India. For this we are in the process

of buying a house in India. At end of March 2009, I will be completing two years in China. Our plant

was built in 6 months and started their production at the end of 2007. It is one of the modern plants

producing primarily the phenolic resins. Major products are tackifying, reinforcing and resorcinolic

novolak resins. Our plant will be the largest in the Asia region for the phenolic resin production.

Currently, I am on vacation in Chennai (India), staying with my wife and son I will be going back to

China again on February 14th. Wiriya (and Supanee) Meesiri. May this year be the best one yet . . . bringing you good fortune,

health, longevity and prosperity . . . With Warmest Wishes,

Sunil (Sumalatha and Saketh Rana) Pillalamarri. I am glad to see your holiday letter. Our first year in Minnesota has been good, though we definitely hated it for it's weather in winter. The job has been good and

challenging, on both technical and political grounds. Earlier this year, my wife took a job with Northwest Airlines. We travelled quite a bit this year (domestic), due to the free tickets. Our son (Rana) just turned two. He was

born on new years eve. That makes our every new year more special. Between the job, travel and spending time with my son, we hardly find any time for additional activities.

Subra Narayan. 2008 was a rollercoaster year in that it was gratifying in terms of research but very

dismal in terms of corporate earnings and the ripple effects on Wall St. After a long hiatus, Padma has gone back to

work at Purdue Univ as an IT administrator in their Libraries. Krithika is an 8th grader and thoroughly

enjoys playing the flute and violin, while Amrit who is in 2nd grade is rather obsessed with soccer, not quite a chip off the ole' block. My passion for birding has been rekindled after several decades and it is summed up here, 'The Joy of

Birding' http://www.boloji.com/writers/subranarayan.htm (PS Hello to Wiriya and Allen) Photo caption: Mahabalipuram, 7th century Rock temple, S. India, summer '08

Feng Dong. Thanks Frank for the group

letter. Hope mime can still make it for the official letter. Considering the current economic crisis & especially the Detroit "big

three" situation, Hua & I are quite lucky still having jobs. Hope it will get better in 2009. There is not much change during 2008.

Jimmy is in 8th grade & Nick is in 5th grade, so we'll have both of them graduating this summer. We took a trip to Great Smoky

Mountains in June. It was a great trip. Bob O’Connor. Hello subra, allen, feng, gu, and other beautifuls (kaz, crystal, george, etc)

present during my exaggerated stay at UMR, if such an abbreviation is still politically acceptable!!! Per

our mentor’s instructions, everyone seems to be doing great, excellent, and celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Origin of Species in fanatical style, except kaz perhaps. Considering this work, kaz, is selection simply at play or did you not give full disclosure on your attorney endeavors and

motivation? Me is doing fine, still single (interested georgie?), though there was a close call in 2008, and working/playing at the Wash.U. medical school (mice, humans, and MRI) and chemistry department (cell walls, antibiotics, and MAS). Though I am sure it is an illusion, especially considering they are all

home for the holidays, I have nearly completed my Darwinian mission as my youngest is now in 12th grade, considering soccer and architecture at U.Ill.Chicago or Case Western, and my two girls are in their second and fourth years at KU, one with biology in mind and the other interior design, surreal. Take

care…chow…and apologies to those not specifically recognized! Lea Dankers. 2008 was an eventful year. I am still working for Honeywell and enjoying life in

California. Last summer my family visited from Minnesota and we all had a lot of fun touring San

Fransisco, the wine country, and the Big Sur area. I have had a lot of visitors here throughout the year so I am becoming an expert tour guide. The picture is from a

whitewater rafting trip with my mom and Burak leading the journey and me just trying to keep up (along with the guide and another rafter). I hope everyone has a wonderful 2009!

Bob and Joan Gambogi. Bob is still at J&J in Consumer

Healthcare leading a fundamental research group supporting Oral

Care. Joan is at Colgate with a new role building a research team

to develop next generation technologies for Hard Surface Care.

We have two children

(Craig-14 and Julia-11).

Both keep us busy with

carpools for running and softball related activities. This year Bob

ran his first half Iron Man triathlon (1.2 mi swim, 56 bike and 13.1

miles running) along with a few marathons. Joan keeps active as

well and did a sprint triathlon with some of her friends at work.

We had several family vacations; one to London and one to go

skiing in Canada between the various activities the kids are

involved in. We would love to see anyone from the old group if

they are in our area. Best Wishes for the New Year

Erin Young. I just realized that I didn't hear anything about a group holiday update! And thought that you may not have my new email address. We are doing well. A lot of changes this last year. I really like my new job. I'm now on the ultra low sulfur diesel unit, which is a brand new unit. Still in its first cycle.

We also bought a house which we love. And we've had lots of guests!