“Youth is not wasted on the young. The young maximize it and use it very well,” he said, acknowledging the 2013 fellows of the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study.

Twenty USC undergraduates and one PhD candidate earned this distinction at the induction ceremony held in May in the Harman Academy’s wood-paneled quarters on the second floor of Doheny Memorial Library. As director of the academy and associate dean of USC Libraries, Starr joined USC Libraries Dean Catherine Quinlan and the academy’s Director of Programs Karin Huebner in presenting the inductees with cardinal stoles and certificates.

Since its founding in 2011, the academy has offered a series of panels and discussions to inspire undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral students and faculty members to integrate multiple fields of learning and adopt an interdisciplinary or polymathic perspective. After attending at least 10 meetings across two semesters, students become fellows who have explored the four “Quadrants of Polymathic Inquiry”: critical and integrative thinking, communication, study of the great polymaths and “tapestry” — or the interweaving of technology, art and philosophy.

This year’s inductees completed polymathic projects, such as composing a concerto for taiko drums and writing a poem in Anglo-Saxon meter. Their postgraduation plans range from attending Oxford University on a Marshall Scholarship to serving as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps.

At the ceremony, inductee Pavitra Krishnamani, a double major in psychology and global medicine who took part in a project about influenza vaccination in Morocco, gave a speech reflecting on the academy’s role in her USC education.

“I’ve always put my heart into a variety of different activities,” she said. “I call it having a passion for life; having a passion for art, history, music, dance, biology — all things that make us human and jointly all things that help us understand what it means to be human.

“Engaging in interdisciplinary discussions at the Harman Academy has helped me gain a better understanding of exactly that, of humanity,” she added. “I truly believe that it’s a place where we can celebrate life.”

Warren Tichenor II, an economics and aerospace engineering double major, also remarked on how the academy encouraged his personal growth.

“If I leave you with one sentence about what the academy’s meant to me, I’d like to say it’s encouraged me to think unbounded and to live my dreams,” he said. “Because without that, you’re not going far.”

During the 2012-13 academic year, the Harman Academy hosted discussions with the Honorable Jane Harman, member of the USC Board of Trustees, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and former U.S. Representative; William Fain, architect; Dana Gioia, USC’s Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts; Ronald D. Sugar, member of the USC Board of Trustees and chairman emeritus of Northrup Grumman Corp.; and Maja Matarić, vice dean for research and professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

“The distinguished researchers and practitioners who have led academy sessions this year have shared their discoveries and revealed how philosophy informs robotic engineering, how contemporary multimedia studies inform historical investigations, and how video game design communicates messages and creates meaning for players,” Quinlan said.

Thanks to these unusual adventures of the mind, this year’s fellows have matured as intellectuals, according to Huebner.

“They’ve learned how to look at whatever their field is from multidisciplinary ways and whatever their interests are,” she said. “They’ve also learned how to communicate more articulately — no jargon-filled narratives. And they’ve learned to collaborate with fellow students.”

“Making the Most of the Second Half of Life: An Encore Career Event,” which was organized by the USC Emeriti Center in partnership with the USC Career Center and the USC Alumni Association, was held on June 6 at the Leonard Davis Auditorium.

Marci Alboher, a former New York Times columnist and author of The Encore Career Handbook: How to Make a Living and a Difference in the Second Half of Life, and Helen Dennis, an expert in aging, employment and retirement, served as speakers for a conversation moderated by Paul Irving, president of the Milken Institute.

“The event showcased the culture that values senior wisdom, knowledge and experience, and acknowledges that when people engage in purposeful and interesting work post-retirement, their energy and health increases,” said Janette Brown, executive director of the USC Emeriti Center.

In 2006, the Emeriti Center established Trojan Encore as “a way for USC retired faculty and staff to volunteer or work in paid USC part-time positions,” Brown explained.

The audience learned about “re-careering,” applying current skills and experience in a new career or supporting a special cause as an encore volunteer.

Susan Cook ’80 and Professor Emeritus of Religion John Orr shared their stories during the gathering.

Cook recalled her career path in which she started her own business and then became executive director of the Arcadia Performing Arts Foundation. Orr described his two encore careers in later life, first by becoming a documentary photographer for cities that have experienced environmental threats and then serving as an advocate for those dealing with hearing loss. As a member of the Hearing Loss Association of Los Angeles, Orr works with movie theater chains and LA performance venues to improve their assistive-listening systems.

Each attendee received a copy of Alboher’s book and had the opportunity to network with panelists during lunch. A recording of the event is available for viewing on the Emeriti Center website.

Speaking at the university’s 124th commencement ceremony, Gioia described the church as “a living tradition that would nourish me if I had the courage and resolve to become an artist myself.”

Gioia, former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, said that as a Catholic, he was “part of a communion that went back 2,000 years to ancient Rome and Jerusalem to the Caesars and the Apostles. … I knew I stood at the center of the Western tradition — intellectually, artistically, spiritually.”

This was a tradition that included philosopher-saints, such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and artists, such as Michelangelo, Mozart, Dante and El Greco, he said.

Gioia, who received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts just moments prior to his commencement speech, also noted his own life’s passages and the lessons learned from them.

“I was born among the working poor, into a family full of immigrants,” he said. “My family had little money and less education.”

No one in his family had ever gone to college, and many people in his family spoke little or no English. By the law of averages, Gioia said, he should have had an average life. But this wasn’t the case for him.

“I have enjoyed a degree of success, fame and financial security beyond anything my parents or grandparents could have imagined. When I look back on my own life to ask why I have succeeded, I see two things at the center: my family and the Catholic Church, especially the Catholic schools I attended for 12 years.”

He spoke of his education by the Sisters of Providence — how they pushed him to master skills outside the curriculum. Gioia learned how to play the piano, attended concerts, and fell in love with poetry and art through their efforts. And he received early lessons in elocution by reciting the poems he had grown to love. Later, he learned Latin and theology.

“I got a great education,” he said. “But I learned something beyond academics from these dedicated nuns, priests and brothers. They always linked what I was learning to things of the spirit.”

He told the graduates that embracing a “very Catholic” sense of human existence has guided him through life.

“A Catholic education trained me in the habit of high imagination. It gave me the long view through history into the past and into the future, and even beyond time into eternity,” Gioia said. “This habit filled me with a sense of the richness of our existence in a world where we feel the presence of things both visible and invisible. What better training could a young poet ask for?”

Gioia concluded his remarks by noting that he did nothing to deserve all the love and hard work his parents, the nuns and priests, and his teachers had shown him — it was freely given. And so he has tried to spend his life, he said, paying back at least a small portion of the blessings he had received.

For the full version of this story, visit The Catholic University of America website.

Different tax planning strategies used by multinational corporations to shift income out of the United States and into low-tax jurisdictions will be examined at the hearing, which will include discussions on whether profit shifting is eroding the U.S. tax base and how companies are shifting profits among different foreign jurisdictions without affecting U.S. tax collections.

Kleinbard will testify that his experience and research shows that U.S. multinational firms, as well as multinational firms resident in other countries, engage in large-scale base erosion and profit-shifting. In his academic papers, he refers to this as the generation of “stateless income.”

Kleinbard recently commented widely about Apple’s overseas tax shelters after congressional investigators announced that the havens saved Apple billions of dollars. He has been interviewed by dozens of news outlets on the topic, including The New York Times, in which he said, “There is a technical term economists like to use for behavior like this … unbelievable chutzpah.”

In a New York Times op-ed on the matter, Kleinbard wrote: A recent “Senate hearing showcasing the international tax strategies of Apple Inc. demonstrated what happens when aggressive corporate tax planning collides with antiquated international tax laws: the generation of tens of billions of dollars of ‘stateless income’ — income taxed essentially nowhere in the world. In Apple’s case, this income should have been taxed in the United States. In other cases, the right answer could be that a multinational’s stateless income properly belongs to the firm’s ‘host’ countries, where its actual customers are located. But in no tax system ever constructed is the appropriate answer that business income should escape taxation everywhere in the world.”

Kleinbard said that though many reform proposals have been brought forth, transparency will pave the way for the legislative battles that are sure to follow.

Also testifying will be Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and Paul Oosterhuis, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meager & Flom LLP.

Kleinbard joined USC’s law school in 2009 after serving as chief of staff for the U.S. Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan office that assists Congress on every aspect of the tax legislative process.

Shah studies how the brain accomplishes the incredible feat of perceiving, recognizing and understanding images of objects and scenes. His research also looks at how the brain organizes the vast array of conceptual dimensions activated by an image or a word.

“For instance, a fraction-of-a-second-glimpse of a picture of a giraffe can activate associations that it is a living thing, 15 feet tall, that can be found in Africa,” explained Shah, a research assistant in the laboratory of Irving Biederman, holder of the Harold Dornsife Chair in Neurosciences and professor of psychology and computer science.

“The neural basis for this extraordinary access to the interpretation of an image has previously defied scientific analysis,” he continued. “My research aims to explore the visual recognition map in the brain, advancing the neural cartography of object recognition.”

For his exceptional work, Shah received the Brian Philip Rakusin Scholarship in Neuroscience, which honors the most outstanding student entering his or her junior or senior year in USC Dornsife’s neuroscience program. The scholarship will provide him with financial support for his senior year.

Shah and other top students were recognized with several awards during a luncheon held at the Davidson Continuing Education Center in April. The event brought together students and faculty to celebrate the accomplishments of stellar undergraduate and graduate students in USC Dornsife’s biological sciences department and neuroscience program.

“The students we’re honoring are fulfilling the promise that they had when they were admitted to USC,” said Albert Herrera, master of ceremonies for the luncheon and professor of biological sciences at USC Dornsife.

Not only are they model students with top grades, but they’re seizing the opportunity to work with faculty in laboratories while engaging with them in their classrooms, Herrera noted.

William McClure, professor of biological sciences, presented Shah with his award, which honors the memory of Brian Rakusin, the first student enrolled in USC Dornsife’s undergraduate neuroscience program.

McClure was a mentor for Rakusin, a neuroscience student who was an undergraduate when he died in 2003.

“Brian’s name was on the rolls before our program was even approved by the curriculum committee,” McClure said.

Ken Rakusin, Brian’s father who attended the event, said that endowing a scholarship in his son’s name will give other students the opportunity to make strides in a field that had meaning for his son.

“The world was deprived of what our son could do in the future, but now we’re helping someone else do things that will help others,” Rakusin said. “It’s a ‘pay it forward’ moment. Hopefully when the students who win this prize are able to get to a point in their lives where they can do something similar, they will help someone else.”

Brian’s mother, Lisa Rakusin, recalled her son’s intelligence and passion for neuroscience. She advised winners of the annual Rakusin Scholarship to follow their dreams.

“It’s not about how much money you make or the initials that come after your name, but finding what feeds your soul,” she said.

Shah said that receiving the Rakusin Scholarship was a great honor.

“The recognition motivates me to strive for more excellence in my work both in class and in my research,” he said.

Of Ken Rakusin’s recommendation to help others in the future: “I most definitely will,” Shah said.

Other winners recognized at the luncheon were:

Undergraduate Course Honors:

BISC 120Lg: Kaitlin Aquino, Harrison Lee, Hajin Lee
BISC 121Lg: Moriah Mulroe
BISC 220L: Mincheol Park, Miya Okado, Jonathan Bushman
BISC 221L: Christina Yang
BISC 315: Megan Nathan
BISC 320L: Kaitlin Kogachi, Adeel Mohammadi
BISC 325: Brian Lentz
BISC 330L: Thalia Bajakian, Kellie Spector

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards:

BISC 104L: Meghen Miles
BISC 120Lg: Sarah Hu, Rebecca Sawyer, Jamie Smith, Megan Hall, Tyler Beebe
BISC 121Lg: Alle Lie
BISC 150L: Jillian Shaw, Stephanie Chan
BISC 220L: Xiao Liu, Patrick Sun
BISC 221L: Megan Hall
BISC 300: Rohan Sachdeva, Johanna Holm
BISC 320L: Hong Seok Shim, Jennifer Cardell
BISC 330L: Carolyn Truong
BISC 403: Jared Peace
BISC 469L: Brian Seegers

Brian Philip Rakusin Scholarship in Neuroscience: Manan Shah

Outstanding Student of the Year Award: Katherine Fu, Russell Stewart

Milton Okin Award: Morgan Cheeks, Sara Meghji, Jeremy Paluch, Benjamin Rostami

Milo Don Appleman Award: Ashley Hu

SCynergy Award: Kacie Amacher

Harrison M. Kurtz Award: Emily Smail

William E. Trusten Award: An Ying Alice Lie

Siegel comes to USC from the University of California, Davis, where he was CIO and vice provost for Information and Educational Technology, with primary responsibilities for research, academic and administrative computing. As a member of the chancellor’s cabinet, he led the development of a coordinated information technology strategy across the university, including the Davis and Sacramento campuses.

“A hallmark of Peter Siegel’s work at UC Davis was the formation of strong partnerships with faculty on campus and with technology leaders at partner institutions throughout the nation in many areas,” Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Garrett wrote in a memo to USC faculty and staff. These areas included “big data” academic programs and technology plans; an advanced data center design for managed and co-located research and clinical systems; instructional technologies to support faculty breaking new ground in the classroom and online; and best-of-breed models for administrative services.

A nationally recognized advocate for electronic accessibility and universal design, Siegel also speaks regularly on cloud computing, big data challenges and strategies, computer privacy and security issues, collaboration technologies, the role of technology planning in academia, and cyber-infrastructure in support of research.

Prior to joining UC Davis in 2006, Siegel was CIO at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for six years; he served as director for Academic Technology at Iowa State University for two years; and he held a variety of positions in high-performance computing and networking during his 22 years at Cornell University.

In addition, Siegel has been active for many years in Educause, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and Internet2. He recently completed stints as chair of the Internet2 Research Advisory Council, member of the Internet2 Board of Trustees and board of directors of CENIC, campus representative on the Kuali Foundation Board and member of the Kuali Rice Board.

The award is designed to recognize service that benefits faculty and the university and that goes beyond the requirements of an honoree’s formal role.

The other recipients were James Brecher of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Suraiya Rasheed of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

For several years, Swerling chaired the Committee on Nontenure-Track Faculty that monitors the working environment, conditions of employment, benefits eligibility, and opportunities for participation in governance and professional advancement.

“USC’s recognition of nontenure-track faculty is now considered one of the better approaches to making the university a more inclusive environment,” said Patricia Riley, president of the Academic Senate and professor. “Jerry’s committee helped push along the changes that treat nontenure-track faculty as important, significant members of the faculty at large.”

Riley said that before Swerling’s appointment, very few units on campus had clear standards for promotion of nontenure-track faculty. The committee focused on making nontenure-track faculty’s rights and responsibilities more coherent across campus. As a result of the committee’s efforts, nontenure-track faculty can now apply for sabbaticals and serve on the university’s various governance committees than ever before.

Swerling was nominated by his peers and chosen out of a pool of applicants for the award. Individuals with the most nominations for the Distinguished Faculty Service Award advance through a series of interviews and are selected by a nominating committee appointed by the Academic Senate, the representative body of the entire faculty at USC that works to address academic and administrative issues throughout campus.

Bolonyai and Lendrum were chosen for the multisport “at-large” category, marking USC’s first first-team selections since 2006.

In addition, men’s water polo player Matthew Burton was selected to the Capital One Academic All-America second team.

The at-large team for the Academic All-America program includes the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo for both men and women, bowling, crew and field hockey for women, and volleyball and wrestling for men. The teams are selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Bolonyai and Lendrum, who landed top honors for their strengths in the pool and in the classroom, bring USC’s all-time total of Academic All-America first teamers to 31 since the award began in 1952.

They join an elite group of Trojans to earn this distinction: Athletic Director Pat Haden is a two-time honoree (1973-74), as is volleyball’s Katie Haller (1992-93), the first USC woman to have earned the recognition. Bolonyai is the third consecutive USC woman to receive the honor, following volleyball’s Emily Adams in 2004 and tennis player Anca Anastasiu in 2006. Lendrum is the second swimmer to earn the award, joining Ray Looze who received it in 1990.

The last time USC featured at least two All-American first teamers in one year was in 1995-96, when football players Jeremy Hogue and Matt Keneley joined men’s tennis player Lukas Hovorka. Keneley went on to win again in the fall of 1996.

Bolonyai is the first Trojan water polo player to earn Capital One Academic All-American first team honors and the fourth USC women’s athlete to win. A 2013 NCAA champion with the Women of Troy and a 2012 Olympian for Hungary, Bolonyai’s power in the water is matched by her strength in the classroom. Holding a 3.39 cumulative GPA as an economics and mathematics major at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Bolonyai has been dominant in all realms since coming to the university as a freshman from Hungary in 2010. Since then, she’s become a two-time AWPCA Academic All-American and a three-time MPSF Scholar-Athlete, in addition to her CoSIDA All-District and national honor.

Lendrum, a two-time USC swimming captain, was a 2012 and 2013 All-American who earned 2012 CoSIDA Academic All-America second team honors last year. Lendrum, who has a 3.76 GPA in biochemistry at USC Dornsife, earned a host of academic honors this year. He won a prestigious 2013 NCAA postgraduate scholarship, was named the 2013 Pac-12 Swimming Scholar Athlete of the Year and collected his third straight Pac-12 All-Academic first team selection. Lendrum helped lead USC to fourth place at the 2013 NCAA Championships, the Trojans’ best finish since 2001. At the 2013 Pac-12, Lendrum was part of USC’s winning 800-yard free relay and also finished a career-best third in the 200-yard backstroke, marking the fourth straight year he reached the final of the event.

A two-time AWPCA All-American, Burton was a captain and a key contributor during USC’s fifth consecutive national championship season in 2012, tying for fifth on the team with 29 goals during USC’s perfect 29-0 season. A true freshman on USC’s undefeated 2008 national championship team, Burton finishes his USC career with five NCAA championship rings. He is the first USC men’s water polo player to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America honors thanks to his strong 3.69 GPA as he rounds out his master’s degree in communication management.

In May 2012, Lew became the first Asian-American president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors. Previously, he served as president of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association (APAA) from 2009 to 2011.

“Mitchell Lew is an accomplished physician, a farsighted businessman and an extraordinary Trojan,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “His dedication to advancing our academic mission, and to raising awareness about USC’s accomplishments in teaching, research and community service, is unflagging. I look forward to his contributions as a member of our Board of Trustees.”

Lew, who holds a bachelor’s in biological sciences from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and a Doctor of Medicine from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, worked for 10 years in private practice in obstetrics and gynecology before moving over to the business side of medicine. Recognizing the need for better-organized and more cost-efficient health care delivery systems, he founded Genesis Healthcare, a Southern California-based managed services organization. As president and CEO, Lew built Genesis into a major player in the Orange County market before selling it to Prospect in 2005.

Lew has also worked to shape the delivery and management of health care through his involvement with the California Association of Physician Groups, which is dedicated to improving health care quality and value.

His passionate involvement with the Trojan Family extends across the university. Lew serves on the Board of Councilors at USC Dornsife and the USC Associates Board of Directors. He and his wife, Deena ’85, also a USC graduate, have established scholarships with the APAA and at USC Dornsife, and are benefactors of programs such as the university’s Joint Educational Program and the Lew Distinguished Visiting Innovator program at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Lew and his wife are proud parents of Trojans Amanda ’13 and Troy.

Dedicated to making USC a leader in composites research and education — the field he helped define — he endowed the M.C. Gill Chair in Composite Materials in 1986. In 2001, he made a gift to endow the Merwyn C. Gill Foundation Composites Center at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

“M.C. was a true pioneer of the composites industry, and his legacy will live on at USC through the endowed chair and the center he created,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “But he also holds a special place in our collective heart for his leadership, friendship, wit and stalwart dedication to the Trojan Family.”

A 1937 graduate of USC, Gill started his company in a garage in Montebello, Calif., in 1945. His initial focus was postwar consumer items, such as laminated placemats, lampshades and wall coverings. The company’s first product was “Wallfab,” a washable laminated wall covering consisting of a decorative fabric on flexible polyester resin with an opaque paper backing.

After several years, Gill shifted to the emerging field of composite materials for the aircraft industry. Composites — used in everything from fishing rods and wall paneling to bulletproof vests and satellites — are generally made of plastic reinforced with fibers, and are less expensive, lighter, stronger and more heat-resistant than metal or wood. Soon “Wallfab” evolved into “Gillfab,” a puncture-resistant liner for aircraft cargo compartments.

Now based in El Monte, Calif. — on Easy Street, just off of Merwyn C. Gill Way, which was renamed in Gill’s honor in 2002 — the Gill Corp. is the oldest family-owned composites company in the world. According to its website, the corporation has produced and put into service more aircraft cargo liner laminates than any other manufacturer.

Gill headed the company well into his 99th year. Following his retirement in April 2010, about three months before his 100th birthday, he was named chairman emeritus.

A generous benefactor to numerous community organizations in addition to USC, Gill was a strong supporter of the Boy Scouts of America and was instrumental in developing the Composites Merit Badge. In 2006, he and his wife extended their support to Think Tank Thuto, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization benefiting schools in Botswana and other African countries. That same year, he established a scholarship program at the University of Arizona’s College of Engineering.

Over the years at his alma mater, Gill was a member of the presidential level of the USC Associates, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Board of Councilors, Archimedes Circle, Cardinal and Gold, and the USC Norris Auxiliary.

He was elected an honorary trustee of the university in 2004, and took great pride in referring to himself as “one of the oldest, if not the oldest ever, trustee of USC.”

Among other honors, Gill received USC Viterbi’s Stevens Distinguished Alumni Award in 1988. In 2004, the USC Alumni Association honored him with an Alumni Merit Award, and in 2011, he received the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Gill is survived by his wife, Hester; children Stephen, Phillip and Debaney; stepchildren Dirk, Annelize and Carine; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.