Paul Bayer '84 was named the executive vice president of real estate giant National Retail Properties. After joining the company in 1999, Bayer served as director and, starting in June 2002, vice president of leasing. Since the company invests in high-quality retail properties such as shopping centers subject to long-term leases, Bayer's specialty proved valuable. According to statistics released in the fall of 2006, the company owns 691 investment properties with a leasable area of 9.3 million square feet.
The world's largest general scientific society recently elected Dartmouth Medical School professor Jennifer Loros as a fellow, an honor bestowed on only 449 scientists this year. The American Association for the Advancement of Science honored Loros for her research on the molecular dissection of the circadian clock using the mold model Neurospora crassa. Loros is a member of the AAAS section on biological sciences.
Dartmouth researchers Susan Taylor and Charles Daghlian have been working with NASA as part of a team analyzing comet material collected by the Stardust spacecraft that returned to Earth in 2006 after its six-year journey. Student Emily Koepsell '09 worked with the two researchers, analyzing particles using a scanning electron microscope, as part of the Women in Science Project. The chemical and physical makeup of the particles in the comet, named Wild 2, is believed to hold valuable information about the solar system and its creation. The high-temperature minerals found in the particles suggest that the Solar System saw more matter-mixing during its formation than previously thought. The largest particle proved to be very rich in carbon, one of the basic building blocks of life, according to Daghlian.
Dr. William J. Dignam '41, an honored leader in obstetrics and gynecology, died Dec. 5. He was 81. After training at Harvard Medical School, he served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy and Naval Reserve Medical Corps from 1945 to 1956. Dignam was a founding member of the University of California Los Angeles department of obstetrics and gynecology, and served as chairman and president of many national obstetrics and gynecology societies. According to UCLA, he estimated that he served as the attending physician at 30,000 births. He is survived by his wife, two sisters, four daughters and 14 grandchildren.
