Your Gifts at Work

As a child growing up in El Paso, Danny Olivas spent many nights on the roof of his house with his dad, gazing at the stars and looking for craters on the moon. But it wasn’t until a trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston that Olivas says he was truly “bitten by the space bug.”

Looking back, Olivas, an astronaut and University of Houston alum, says it was that early visit, looking at artifacts from the Apollo era, that made him realize he might be able to play a role at NASA.

“My father, years before, had worked at a machine shop in Los Angeles, and he began explaining some of the parts he built on rockets,” Olivas said. “I was just really fascinated by the thought that my father helped contribute to what I just finished seeing at this museum.”

Now, the veteran of two spaceflights, Olivas says it was his passion for engineering -nurtured while a graduate student at the University of Houston – that made his career at NASA possible.

“It was that pursuit of a passion that … NASA saw,” he said. “That is really what they were looking for – not so much people who wanted to become astronauts as people who were passionate about whatever they were doing.”

Olivas developed his interest in mechanical engineering as a child, watching his father take apart machines and put them back together.

“There was not a single machine that he was afraid of tearing apart,” he said. “That, as a kid, was very influential for me, and ultimately helped me develop my love and passion for machines and mechanisms.”

Olivas followed that passion to the University of Texas at El Paso, where he earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. His next stop was a job at a chemical plant in Freeport – a job chosen because of its nearness to Houston and NASA.

While there, Olivas and his wife Marie decided to pursue graduate degrees. Both found the University of Houston a good fit, particularly for working students.

“We had wonderful experiences while we were there,” he said. “What I liked most about it is they were able to accommodate my working schedule, and my wife’s working schedule. They were very flexible in helping us achieve our educational goals and ultimately our career goals.”

Though they were commuter students and spent much of their time on campus during off hours, both Olivas and his wife made sure to take part in the active campus life – she on a dance team, and he on an intramural basketball team.

“You never really think of book-worm type graduate students having this sports competitive edge to them, but sure enough we did,” he said. “We’d go there and mix it up and have a great time doing it. There was a lot of camaraderie at [UH], and we enjoyed that.”

Olivas remembers being impressed by the caliber of graduate students on campus – many of whom, like himself, were pursuing graduate degrees while working full-time.

“They were all from different companies, and they were all basically doing what I was doing – this pursuit of higher education and trying to better themselves through education,” he said. “The professors really went out of their way to really try and work with the students.”

One of the professors who went out of his way to help Olivas was Charles Dalton, a professor of mechanical engineering. Olivas remembers showing his thesis to Dalton.

“He took that document, and he just ripped it to shreds, and justifiably so,” he said. “In doing so, he made me a better engineer.”

After graduating from UH in 1993 after just two years, Olivas earned a doctorate from Rice University, and took a job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. In 1998, he was accepted into the astronaut training program at NASA.

Olivas made his first spaceflight in 2007 on Space Shuttle Atlantis, during which he worked on the International Space Station. He made his second spaceflight on Space Shuttle Discovery in August 2009, also working on the space station.

“The view from space is so breathtaking that words alone cannot do justice to how wonderful it is,” Olivas said of his trip. “And you can’t help but feel a sense o f disappointment in not being able to carve some of that out and be able to share that with people.”

Though it’s impossible to share that feeling of seeing Earth from space for the first time, Olivas tries to share his experience with others, including UH students, in many ways. He has made several visits back to campus, meeting with faculty and grad students. He also regularly attends Cougar football games.

To students, Olivas advises that they find their passion and continue to challenge themselves.

“If there is no challenge, then there is no learning, there is no opportunity to grow,” Olivas said. “You should push yourself to failure. You should know what your personal limits, what your personal boundaries are. If you don’t give up, that is when you learn. That is when you succeed.”

When joking about thermodynamics or the expanding universe, comedian Saidas M. “Sai” Ranade offers a glimpse into another part of his life.

Ranade, who earned his master’s and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Houston, has found that his experiences as an engineering consultant and his knowledge of physics and mathematics provides the perfect fodder for his personal brand of comedy.

“Comedy is about perspective. It’s about what makes your life unique, and how you get your audience involved,” he said. “For me, coming from India, an engineer, and being a Ph.D., it was like three strikes and you’re in!”

Ranade fell into comedy when a friend told him about a stand-up class being held at a local comedy club.

“I got into comedy because I was always interested in the idea of humor,” he said. “I really took the class to meet some interesting people.”

But even before those classes, Ranade was practicing early versions of his jokes while a student at UH. During his time there, he held leadership positions in the university’s program board, the India Students’ Association and the International Students’ Association.

“It allowed me to practice a lot of things, including some of my jokes,” he said. “So I want to apologize to a lot of those people who suffered from those initial versions of my jokes.”

Ranade, who grew up in Mumbai, India, earned the opportunity to continue his studies in the U.S. as the top chemical engineering student in his class. He wound up at UH after his professor met a UH professor at a conference in England and was urged by him to send good students to Houston.

“It was kind of an amazing thing in terms of being first in class – I was first by one point out of 1,200,” Ranade said. “Sometimes you look back and wonder, is it effort? Is it destiny? What is it?”

While he didn’t know what to expect in the U.S., Ranade said he soon discovered a world of opportunity.

“When I came [to UH] I didn’t really have any expectations. I was just coping with the circumstances as they unfolded,” he said. “There were world-class programs and the opportunity to meet students from all over the world.”

The chemical engineering department offered him the challenges and opportunities he was seeking, as well as high-caliber professors, such as John Lienhard, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, who taught one of his classes.

“The expectations were very high,” he said. “The standards were very rigorous at the chemical engineering department … but at the same time, the University of Houston allowed me to practice skills, not just academic, but comedic and leadership skills as well.”

At the time, Ranade said he also remembers being inspired by other things happening on campus.

“Carl Lewis was a student then, and we had the Phi Slama Jama going on, so inspiration was all around,” he said. “But to me, it was an excellent opportunity to learn, to practice and to broaden my horizons.”

Ranade, who earned his master’s degree in 1982 and his Ph.D. in 1985, said the university was crucial to his success.

“I would say it gave me an amazing start to my life in the United States,” he said. “It was just the perfect launching pad for my career as an engineer, as a consultant, as well as, if you can believe it, a comedian.”

In his day job, Ranade is an engineering consultant. He travels the world – he makes regular trips to Colombia in South America – teaching different topics such as process control, mathematical modeling and competency mapping.

When possible, at night, he makes appearances at comedy clubs in the U.S., where he has become popular with audiences. In 2000, he won the comedy category of the late Ed McMahon’s “Next Big Star” program, and he’s been a finalist in Houston’s Funniest Person Competition twice. In addition, his comedy routines air almost daily on comedy channels on Sirius and XM Satellite Radio.

“Comedy to me is really about engagement and connection,” he said. “I’m there to make people feel better even if it is for a short time while they are there. My job is to entertain them, and I’m going to use every trick in the book to do that.”

Ranade draws from his own life when coming up with jokes.

“I talk about cultural issues, the language issues that one confronts, as well as professional matters that set me apart,” he said. “Like when we had a lot of layoffs, I made humor about layoffs. Or coming from India, and having an awareness of security concerns in the United States also gave me an opportunity to dwell on that topic.”

He’s always writing new material, and searching for interesting ideas or concepts to be used in his next joke.

“To me, the real part is the simplicity of comedy. It’s you and the microphone and immediate feedback,” he said. “You don’t get that in many jobs.”

Ranade said he finds he is most successful with his comedy when he is doing well with his consulting job, and vice versa.

“For me, these days, I only do what I love to do. I love comedy. I love physics, mathematics and engineering. I’m at my best when I do both,” he said. “If I’m doing good work in chemical engineering and mathematics and physics, it appears that my jokes are also better.”

As he sees more professional and personal success, Ranade said he always remembers the role the University of Houston has played in his life.

“Whatever opportunities I have had … one factor of my success is the University of Houston,” he said.

Ranade said he is pleased with the progress that is being made at UH, and particularly its efforts to achieve Tier-One status.

“Over the last 25-30 years, it has grown in amazing ways in the right direction,” he said. “I am seeing progress, I am seeing excitement … We have a world-class university in a world-class city that is very dynamic, very international. I think that combination is simply unbeatable.”

Though she couldn’t understand the language at the time, Barbara Padilla remembers being touched by opera at a young age. She loved the music so much that during family vacations to the beach she would mimic the voices coming from her mother’s car radio.

“When we were driving to the beach and my mom was playing opera, I used to reproduce the sounds,” Padilla said. “I just knew that I could, so I did it. And my mom was very tickled.”

Now an opera sensation herself, and runner-up in the 2009 season of “America’s Got Talent,” Padilla, a UH alum, hopes that others are able to get as much out of her music.

“I just remember the happiest moments of my life and I relate that to music,” she said.

Padilla’s journey to the national spotlight was a long one, filled with moments of personal tragedy and triumph.

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Padilla was studying music and singing with the state choir in her hometown, when she was diagnosed in 1996 with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The treatment called for chemotherapy and radiotherapy performed near her vocal chords.

“They were sure I wasn’t going to be able to sing again – my neck was totally burned,” she said. “But I never even had a scratch in my voice. I just kept singing.”

Padilla fought the disease for five years, and eventually she made her way to Houston for a second opinion at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. While in Houston, one of the sponsors of her trip made a phone call to Peter Jacoby, music director at the University of Houston’s Edythe Bates Old Moores Opera Center.

“He is going to tell you, ‘I don’t know why I took the phone call. I don’t know why I said yes, but I said yes,'” Padilla said. “He saw me the next day, and I sang for him one of the pieces I knew … he said, ‘You know, I am going to give you a full scholarship.'”

She went home to Mexico to go through another round of radiation. When she again defied doctors’ predictions and didn’t lose her voice, she came to Houston in January 2000 to begin her career at the University of Houston. That summer, she had another relapse. She went back to Mexico for a bone marrow transplant – a procedure doctors weren’t sure would help.

“I was like, I’m not going to do this anymore. This is just too painful. But [friends and family] told me, ‘No, we believe in you,'” she said. “When you have people around you that believe in you so much, you go, ‘Well, I owe them.’ So I did it.”

Against all odds, Padilla again came through the surgery. Within a month, she was ready to travel again. She came back to Houston in January 2001, and has been well ever since.

At the university, Padilla lived her first year on the 16th floor of the Moody Towers. She spent her time in the practice rooms at the Moores School of Music, at the library and on the stage at the opera house, performing roles in several productions, including the lead in Mozart’s “La finta giardiniera.”

“I enjoyed every minute of it,” she said. “I just wanted to suck everything in … like a sponge. Whatever you learn, you learn for life, and I really wanted to seize the moment and learn from all of these people.”

She describes the UH faculty as second-to-none, and credits professors such as Jacoby and Buck Ross with helping her succeed.

“It’s like working with the greatest opera company,” she said of her time on the stage at UH. “Once you have that professional experience, when you go out to the real world, it is very smooth.”

While still a student, Padilla had multiple opportunities to shine in the “real world.” In 2001, she earned top honors at the National Association of Teachers Singing competition in the advanced adult category. She also performed both the Mexican and American national anthems before a sold-out crowd at a U.S.-Mexico soccer game in Reliant Stadium.

“I was singing in front of 70,000 people, so it was an experience,” she said of the soccer game. “It was fantastic.”

After graduating with a master’s degree in vocal performance in 2004, Padilla took some time off to be a stay-at-home mom with her newly adopted daughter. But in 2009, when auditions for “America’s Got Talent” came to Houston, she took the opportunity to try out.

With an emotional rendition of “O mio babbino caro” from the opera “Gianni Schichi” by Puccini, she wowed the judges, who sent her on to Las Vegas. She continued competing each week, until she was finally named in second place.

“At this point, I still can’t believe I made it to the top 40, let alone runner-up,” Padilla said. “Keep in mind that it’s the biggest talent show in the world. Last season more than 100,000 acts auditioned for the show. So, yeah, being runner-up is kind of awesome.”

These days, she is performing with other “America’s Got Talent” finalists in a show in Las Vegas. But she always looks forward to coming back to Houston and UH.

“What Houston means to me? Oh, imagine a second opportunity at life,” she said. “It’s like going back to your mother’s house. It is home. You never stop being a part of it.”

Growing up in Nigeria, Hakeem Olajuwon saw his first athletic success on the soccer field, using his fancy footwork to fend off points as a goalie.

“Soccer in Nigeria is like basketball in America,” Olajuwon said. “In Nigeria, playing soccer is natural.”

But after picking up that first basketball in high school, Olajuwon found his true passion – one that would lead him first to a stellar career at the University of Houston, and eventually to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The path to basketball greatness began at a title game during an international tournament held in Angola. The head coach for the opposing team was so impressed with Olajuwon, he encouraged him to play in the U.S.

“I responded to him that I didn’t know anybody in America,” he said.

That same coach helped connect Olajuwon with Guy Lewis, then the head basketball coach for UH, who agreed to bring him to America for a tryout.

Instantly, Olajuwon felt at home in Houston, he said.

“When I came to Houston, I first of all felt comfortable,” he said. “The weather is very, very similar. And I was living on campus at [high] school, so now, living on campus at the university, I have a little background.”

Olajuwon lived in Moody Towers when it was brand new.

“It was wonderful,” he said. “Living on campus, it was just a wonderful life for a student to experience. When you live on campus, you don’t worry about the outside world.”

For Olajuwon, the only worries were school and basketball. Because of values instilled in him by his parents, higher education was very important to Olajuwon.

“In Nigeria, education has been perceived as the gateway to success,” he said.

Olajuwon, a physical education student in the College of Education, enjoyed attending classes at UH, including his favorite, a business law class that he said gave him “exposure to the real world.”

But despite the comfortable surroundings, Olajuwon’s first year on campus wasn’t without some difficulty. He was red-shirted his first year, and only played sporadically. But after asking coaches how to earn more time in the game, Olajuwon began working out with NBA star Moses Malone, who then played for the Houston Rockets. Under Malone’s tutelage, Olajuwon developed the skills that would earn him the nickname “the Dream” in later years.

By the 1982-83 season, Olajuwon was an integral member of “Phi Slama Jama,” the so-called “college dunking fraternity” made up of Olajuwon and other players, including Clyde Drexler and Michael Young.

“That was a wonderful experience to have a bunch of guys with that level of talent at the same time,” Olajuwon said.

From practice to post-season play, Olajuwon said the UH Cougars felt almost destined to win.

“When we stepped onto that court, we believed we were supposed to win,” he said. “To play on that kind of team is special. It is not something that is common.”

The unifying force for the team was Guy Lewis, the head coach whom Olajuwon described as a mentor.

“For us, there was tremendous respect and regard for Coach Lewis,” he said. “He demanded the best from you … each individual player had to give his best to him every time. That is the kind of coach he was to be able to gather all of that talent together.”

With Lewis’ leadership, the UH Men’s Basketball Team made it to three Final Fours and two national championship games.

In 1983, though his team lost the title, Olajuwon was named the NCAA Tournament Player of the Year.

In 1984, he was the overall first pick by the Houston Rockets in the 1984 NBA draft. Within his first year with the Rockets, the team went from a 29-53 record to a 48-34 record.

Throughout his 18 year NBA career, Olajuwon continued to earn recognition, from being named the NBA’s all-time leader with 3,459 career blocked shots to being named NBA Most Valuable Player in 1993-94 to being selected as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.

During the 1993-94 season, he led the Houston Rockets to their first national championship, following that up with a second national title the next year.

“In college, we went to the Final Four three times, and played in the finals twice. We had been close so many times,” Olajuwon said. “When you finally win your first championship, it has so much value, because you have been there so many times.”

The 1994-95 season was particularly special for Olajuwon, because he was reunited with his old college friend, Clyde Drexler, in Houston. The two had talked for years about wanting to play together again, and finally winning a national title. When Drexler was traded to Houston, the two decided nothing would stop them.

“It was a dream, and now it was a reality. We had to make it happen,” Olajuwon said. “That year was very special.”

After retiring from the NBA in 2002, Olajuwon was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. He continues to have an impact on the sport today by holding workshops and giving back to younger players. Olajuwon has worked with several NBA stars, including Yao Ming and Kobe Bryant, teaching them his signature moves.

Reflecting back on his career, Olajuwon said he is thrilled at the opportunities he found at the University of Houston, and couldn’t imagine having gone anywhere else.

“If you look at it, it is the realization of the ideal,” he said of his experiences. “To be here at the University of Houston, to be drafted by the Rockets in Houston … that is something that is part of a dream situation.”

Though they may quibble about the exact details of the beginning of their relationship, UH alums Melissa and Rick Noriega can agree on two shared passions – commitment to public service and loyalty to their alma mater.

It was that Cougar loyalty that initially brought them together.

In Melissa’s version, Rick attended a board meeting of a young alumni group, seeking support for a UH-themed St. Patrick’s Day party he wanted to throw at a local bar. She noticed his nice smile, and the thoroughness of his presentation.

“You would have thought he was moving an army to Germany,” she said. “He had flip charts and schedules and all kinds of stuff. He was very organized.”

In his version, Rick remembers Melissa “picking apart” his proposal, questioning him about mundane details, such as whether he was going to have name tags.

“It turns out, she was the only one that showed up,” he said. “After she came to the party, we started dating.”

The two have been together ever since, marrying on Valentine’s Day in 1991. Over the years, they have become known for their dedication to serving their community.

For Rick, that includes 11 years as Texas state representative for District 145 in Houston; 30 years of military service, including a year in Afghanistan in 2004; and his current work as president of AVANCE, a nonprofit organization that provides educational programs for children and intensive parent education and support in at-risk communities.

For Melissa, that includes 27 years working for the Houston Independent School District, filling her husband’s seat for a year in the Texas House of Representatives while he was serving overseas, and her current role as an at-large member of the Houston City Council.

“We feel called to public service. It is more rewarding than any new job title – knowing that you are advancing the ball down the field and trying to make the world a better place,” Rick said. “That has kind of been our family mission statement.”

While Rick was drawn into political service fairly quickly, Melissa said she didn’t truly contemplate a political career – beyond her year in the Texas House – until she volunteered alongside her husband, who served as the incident commander at the George R. Brown Convention Center following Hurricane Katrina.

“We had all these folks coming from New Orleans – many of them coming with their stuff on their backs or nothing at all, and Houston stepped up,” she said. “I have never been so proud to be from Houston. I decided to run for city council because I saw what Houstonians could do when they set their minds to it. It was amazing.”

In addition to serving the public-at-large, the two also remain committed to serving the University of Houston. Both are lifetime members of the University of Houston Alumni Association, and regularly attend football games and other events on campus. They also make it a point to promote the university and its Tier One efforts whenever possible.

“I feel duty-bound to be loyal and continue to contribute to the university that we love,” Rick said. “In so many different ways, it gave us that really solid foundation to be able to do what we love to do.”

Melissa, the first in her family to graduate from the University of Houston, earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology in 1977 and her Master’s of Education in counseling in 1983. Other family members soon followed. Her two brothers, Charles and Steve, are graduates and both were fraternity presidents. Charles was in the student senate and Steve was Mr. UH and a founder and president of the Young Alumni League. Her father, Charles Meisgeier, is professor emeritus and was founding chair of the College of Education’s Educational Psychology Department.

“There was a time when our son, Ricky, was at the charter school (on campus), my father was in the faculty senate and chair, and both my brothers are alumni – we were all going to the football games,” she said.

As an undergraduate, Melissa was active on campus, serving as president of the Phi Mu Fraternity and vice-president of the Pan-Hellenic Council. She even ran for Homecoming Queen.

“I was very involved with all of the fraternity and sorority things,” she said. “It’s interesting to look back – sometimes people can make fun of that fraternity stuff, but I find as an adult that the things I learned there have been as helpful as anything else I’ve done.”

She spent a lot of time on campus, attending classes, studying and hanging out with friends, playing bridge at the Cougar Den in the University Center’s basement.

“The extra-curricular activities were very valuable,” Melissa said. “I learned how to read a budget, I learned how to plan an event, I learned how to meet people and introduce myself and talk about anything.”

Rick’s introduction to UH began at an early age.

“I grew up, obviously as a Bill Yeoman/Guy Lewis fan. That was our team. I watched through all the national golf championships, and the Carl Lewis years, through the Phi Slama Jama years,” he said. “I remember the first University of Houston football game I attended.”

But it was an ROTC scholarship that eventually brought Rick to UH fulltime to complete his undergraduate degree.

The son of a post World War II veteran, Rick felt the call to military service during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, when he joined the U.S. Army Reserves. During a reserve meeting, an assistant professor of military science at UH showed up, looking for possible ROTC candidates.

“I had two years of community college experience and knew that I wanted to complete my degree, but it was one of those things where I’d take a few hours here and a few hours there,” he said. “Through ROTC, the opportunity for a scholarship allowed me to complete my undergraduate degree and that led to my commissioning as an officer.”

Rick majored in journalism with a minor in military science. He ultimately graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism in 1985. During his time at the university, he wrote for The Daily Cougar for a semester, and earned his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army through the ROTC program.

Longtime communications professor Ted Stanton was one of his favorite professors, in part, because he instilled in him the value of good writing.

“That is something that has stayed with me and is something I use every day,” he said. “Ted was a real stickler for being able to write well, so I certainly credit him with that training.”

Rick worked throughout college, and he appreciated the flexibility available at UH that allowed him to do that.

“My experience was a lot of what I think Mr. Hugh Roy Cullen talked about, of having a quality institution for the working men and women of Houston, where they could achieve their dreams and educational desires while at the same time working,” he said. “So I’m really grateful for the experience and for the university maintaining that value here in the great city of Houston.”

His UH experience also paved the way for his continuing his education at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he earned his Master’s of Public Administration.

Together, Rick and Melissa say UH provided the foundation for much of their later success, adding that they plan to continue to support UH and its Tier One efforts.

“I think the city of Houston and the University of Houston are marching hand in hand toward whatever the future is going to bring,” Melissa said. “I think the world is changing so rapidly that you are going to have to have the kind of intellectual heft … that comes with Tier One status for Houston.”

Rick agreed, adding, “It seems to always be getting better. I truly believe that the best days at UH are yet to come.”

— By Michelle Klump

As a child growing up in Taiwan, Margaret Cheung’s interest in natural phenomena was first grabbed by colorful photos in science magazines. Then, that interest was further spurred by sights viewed through a microscope and at the Hong Kong Planetarium.

By 15, Cheung knew she wanted to be a scientist, and she began following a path that would eventually lead her to the University of Houston, where she is a professor and researcher in the physics department.

“I have always been fascinated by how things work, and physics is a wonderful tool to understand how things work,” Cheung said. “I wanted to know why materials became life-like through physics, so it turned out it was an excellent discipline for me to pursue the understanding of fundamental science.”

After receiving her undergraduate degree in chemistry in Taiwan, Cheung was admitted to the University of California at San Diego, where she earned her Ph.D. in physics. While in graduate school, she developed a lifelong mentorship with her Ph.D. adviser – an early experience that taught her the importance of mentoring her own students.

After pursuing postdoctoral work at the University of Maryland, Cheung found her way to the University of Houston in 2006.

“The Department of Physics was starting new research areas, such as biological research,” she said, explaining her decision to come to UH. “In addition, the resources in the Houston area, such as the Texas Medical Center, make UH a great environment for innovative research. That is why I am here.”

At UH, Cheung started a research and education program in theoretical biological physics and soft matter. Her research group – The Cheung Group – studies the behavior of biological molecules in cells using physics theories, modeling and computer simulations.

“This knowledge will impact disease-related research, so we can detect how symptoms develop at an early stage,” Cheung said. “For instance, in diseases like infectious diseases and cancerous diseases, we use computer simulations and modeling to try to understand and predict their behavior inside a cell, particularly under normal and under disease conditions.”

The knowledge that this research could help people with diseases makes it particularly rewarding and exciting, she said.

Cheung’s research is supported by the National Science Foundation, which in July 2009 awarded her $219,000 to study the behavior of protein folding and interactions in a cell.

In her research, Cheung works with undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students, and maintains a close, mentoring relationship with all of them.

“I like the way that students and faculty members are very close,” she said. “I have several excellent graduate students and collaborators that really helped me jumpstart my research program.”

Cheung said she tries to develop personal relationships with students so they are not intimidated or afraid to ask her questions. She keeps as many lines of communication open with her students as possible – she even has a Twitter account, and sends Tweets about the latest news for her research group.

“By removing this barrier, it helps students come forward and talk to you about what they want,” Cheung said. “You can give them some timely advice that will turn out to be crucial to some of the students.”

In addition to her work with her research group, Cheung spends countless hours working with elementary, middle school and high school girls, trying to get them interested in thinking about math and science as a career.

“Once I came to UH, I realized there is a need for role models in science, so I offered workshops for high school students and teachers, as well as reaching out to young girls in elementary and middle school, for them to share the excitement of research,” she said. “It is very important to bring the excitement of research into the classroom.”

In 2009 alone, Cheung’s outreach work has impacted more than 400 young people in the Houston area.

It means a lot to her to serve as a mentor to young girls, because when she was young, her own mentors helped her focus in on her career.

“I realize that girls are often quite intimidated by science and mathematics. Without mentorship, students will miss out on the opportunity to consider science and engineering as their career options,” Cheung said. “This is very important in middle school and high school, because they could miss out on classes that will train them to learn more mathematics and physics. Without that background, they may not have the opportunities to pursue a degree in these very exciting fields.”

And for those who are interested in science as a career, Cheung likes to point out that the University of Houston, with its access to major leaders in the energy and health industries, is a great place to study.

“It is an exciting time to do science in general,” Cheung said. “I’m very happy that UH is at the right time and right location. Houston is the city of energy and health. With all of these right ingredients combined, it makes UH an excellent place for research. It is very exciting.”

Long before it became one of the most popular blogging platforms on the Internet, WordPress was just a side project for creator Matt Mullenweg, who fiddled with its programming code between classes at the University of Houston.

“It was kind of funny – when I was at UH, when WordPress first started, we had no users, so I ended up setting up blogs for all of my friends just so we could get the first five or 10 users,” Mullenweg said.

Now, WordPress has more than 23 million individual users and thousands more added every day from around the world.

“The fact that it has ended up being so useful for so many other people has ended up being a very pleasant surprise,” he said.

The journey from UH student to Internet innovator – Mullenweg was named one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web, Inc.com’s 30 Under 30 and Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web – was not a direct one.

In fact, though he grew up around computers and technology, Mullenweg’s first passion was the jazz saxophone. A student at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Mullenweg focused on his music for hours and hours a day.

“I really dove into it,” he said.

It wasn’t until his senior year of high school when he became involved in an economics competition run by the Federal Reserve that Mullenweg first began to contemplate another option. His team made it all the way to nationals in Washington, D.C., and Mullenweg got into blogging as a way to share his photos with friends from home.

He began the blog the summer before he started at UH and kept at it.

“I got frustrated with [the existing blogging software] and started hacking on the software myself,” he said.

At first, the blogging was on the side, done in spare time while he pursued his studies of economics, political science and philosophy at the university, where his father had earned a degree in computer science years earlier. Mullenweg said he enjoyed those subjects, particularly the classes taught by his favorite professor, the late Ross Lence.

“I was a big fan,” he said of Lence, who taught political philosophy at UH until his death in 2006. “He really inspired me to do a lot of reading of the classics, which I hadn’t really studied before.”

But soon, even in his political science classes, Mullenweg found his mind returning to the problems he perceived on the Web, the limitations of existing blogging software, and the ability of open-source software to solve those problems.

“In political science, you read a lot about how to organize movements and how things historically have worked,” he said, adding that he saw a correlation between the political movements he studied and the concept of open-source software, which allows users to use it, edit it and improve it for free.

“Open source was something I had attached myself to philosophically,” Mullenweg said. “I believed a lot in free software.”

He began to use those principles as he continued to develop what would eventually become WordPress, free software that enables people to publish blogs or entire websites online.

As the software gained users, Mullenweg began attracting the attention of Web technology companies. On a trip to San Francisco to see a friend, he visited not the Golden Gate Bridge or Alcatraz, but technology companies like Google and Yahoo!.

When he returned to Houston with the intention of going back to school, one of those companies – CNET – offered him a “dream job – the kind I would have hoped to get if I had finished school.”

Mullenweg left UH after his sophomore year and moved to San Francisco.

“It still wasn’t an easy decision though, because my parents had always emphasized education so much, and also because my dad had worked so hard to go to school,” he said. “It felt careless in a way to be throwing that away to focus on the Web and WordPress, which no one really knew was going to go anywhere.”

In 2005, Mullenweg left CNET and founded Automattic, a Web development and services company, which continues to run WordPress, along with several other Web services such as Akismet, Polldaddy, IntenseDebate, Gravatar and VideoPress.

While he continues to get excited about the latest technological breakthroughs, and even on occasion still dives into the software code, Mullenweg said his passion is fueled by the connections that blogs are able to build between people around the world.

“The fact that we are enabling people to publish who have never had a voice before, and even in places where their voice might actually be suppressed by the government, or ruling forces, is very humbling,” he said. “WordPress is just a tool. [Users] are using the tool to actually make a difference in the world. The more people we can touch in that way, the more fulfilled I can be.”

Though he has found immense satisfaction in his job, Mullenweg said he has found himself recently feeling wistful about school – particularly when he visits college campuses across the country.

“I think I didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that dedicated scholastic endeavors provide for you – like you get to read the classics and really dive deep into them and discuss them with your classmates and professors who studied it for 20 or 30 years,” he said. “I think I treated my schoolwork more like something to get out of the way, so I could work on this Internet stuff. Now, I kind of miss the ability to just sit down with a book for a few weeks and really contemplate it.”

Despite his decision to leave school, Mullenweg said he generally recommends that students finish school, and take advantage of opportunities offered on college campuses.

When he thinks back on his time at UH, Mullenweg said he appreciates the university’s accessibility.

“It was a fantastic educational institution right in my hometown and provided me with an opportunity with scholarships and everything to be able to financially go to school and not have to work a day job like my dad did,” he said. “That was really special.”

Once he got there, Mullenweg said he was inspired by a few professors who “blew me away with their thoughtfulness” and inspired him with their fervor for knowledge.

“That sort of devotion and depth of research was kind of cool, because I think when you see someone who is really, really passionate about something, no matter what the topic, it is infectious,” he said. “Their passion for history and political science and philosophy and philosophy of language and all of those courses I took that I really enjoyed inspired my passion for the Web and publishing.”

Long before he became a legend in the courtroom, amassing one of the longest winning records in legal history – long before he even thought about law school – famed attorney Richard “Racehorse” Haynes was considering a career in medicine.

“I worked for a couple of weeks at the hospital, and I said, ‘Man, I’ve got to get a profession where if I screw up, you can appeal,'” Haynes said. “Because if you are a doctor and you screw up, you’ve got to go to the funeral, and I didn’t want to do that.”

With that realization, Haynes put his pre-med days behind him and joined the Marines to fight during World War II. When he came home, he enrolled at the University of Houston, where he would attend as an undergraduate and law school student before launching a successful career that would last more than five decades and find him defending clients in some of the most memorable murder cases in Texas’ history.

A Houston native and an athlete throughout his high school years at Reagan High School – Haynes got his nickname “Racehorse” while playing football in junior high – he decided UH was a good option.

“Some of my friends were going there, and I thought, ‘It’s a great place to go. They will crank up the athletic program, and we will be playing football and basketball and running track against some of those smaller schools. UH is the place to be,'” he said. “And sure enough, it was.”

An accounting major as an undergraduate, Haynes did throw himself into athletic endeavors on campus, joining the football, basketball and track teams as well as the unsanctioned boxing team. He met his wife through a friend on the football team. The two married in 1950 and lived in an apartment just off campus.

In addition to athletics, Haynes embraced campus life, participating in a number of activities, including helping to put on Frontier Fiesta, for which Haynes served as the master of ceremonies.

“You’ve got to get involved in those different activities and meet some of the people – get involved and grow up,” he said. “That is why I think UH is a great school, because you can grow up there.”

As the student body president, Haynes made a point to speak his mind, even if it meant stating his case before the university president himself. On one occasion, Haynes said he protested to the president about a request that students sign affidavits declaring that they were not communists.

“I wouldn’t sign it,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m not a damn communist, and I don’t need to sign an affidavit to anybody to say I’m not. Just check my war record.'”

After successfully advocating for other students, Haynes realized he just might have found his talent. He enrolled in law school at the University of Houston – one of a class of about 39.

“The classes were smaller, and you couldn’t goof off very much,” he said. “I met some really fantastic people at the University of Houston. They made a tremendous contribution to the state of Texas and to the nation.”

One of those people was John Mixon, who joined the faculty at the UH Law Center in 1955 – the year before Haynes graduated. Mixon still serves on the faculty today.

“Professor Mixon is … one of the most brilliant human beings that I ever met,” Haynes said. “So anybody that takes a property law course from him has really hit the ball out of the park, because he knows what he is talking about.”

Though he learned a lot from his professors and other classmates at the law school, Haynes said some of the most valuable lessons he learned were taught off campus, when professors encouraged the students to go to the county courthouse and watch trials.

“There were always a lot of great personal injury lawyers and lawsuits,” he said. “We could come and sit in the courtroom and watch them.”

He learned a lot about arguing in front of a jury while watching those trials, but it was personal experience that helped to develop his own courtroom style – a mixture of folksy charm, tough-as-nails questioning, and a dash of theatrics.

His first lesson about how staged drama can impact a jury came within a few days of receiving his law license, when he was already preparing for trial in front of a jury. At that time, courtrooms still contained spittoons for chewing tobacco, and Haynes, in his first address before a jury, accidently knocked it over.

“It made them laugh, and anyway, they found my client not guilty,” Haynes said. “After that, every time I had a case in that courtroom, I moved the spittoon over there so I could kick it a little bit and get the attention of the jury.”

Eventually, the judge got wise to his trick, and asked him if he was planning on kicking the spittoon over again that day.

“I said, ‘I’d like to kick it one more time judge, and I won’t kick it no more,'” he said. “That was the last time I kicked it in the courtroom.”

Through the course of his career, Haynes became known for winning high-profile cases. He represented John Hill, a prominent Houston plastic surgeon accused of killing his wife, and Fort Worth multimillionaire T. Cullen Davis, who was accused of killing his stepdaughter, his estranged wife’s boyfriend and attempting to kill his wife. In 1985, the National Law Journal named him one of the top litigators in the country.

Despite the high-profile cases, Haynes said his favorite case was defending a poor construction worker who was accused of stealing money from his employer.

“I felt really good, because I felt like I had enhanced that fellow’s life and made him believe in justice and made the jury believe in justice,” he said.

Though he is almost 83, Haynes said he has no plans to retire yet.

“Right now, people say, ‘Why are you still practicing?'” Haynes said. “Well, I’m still practicing because I don’t know how to do it yet. By the time I think I know it, it changes.'”

What he does know, he is willing to share – especially with law students. Haynes likes to come back to campus to visit the law school. When he is there, he is constantly amazed at the changes.

“You can hardly drive across it without getting lost,” he said of the campus. “And it’s beautiful. I like to see it from the air. … We’ve got the acreage, we’ve got the buildings, now we’ve got the president. We are doing good. U of H is on the way.”

Haynes loves to show off his Cougar pride, both in the courtroom and out in the community, because he knows he is certain to meet another Cougar.

“I wear my Cougar ring and many times, I have a Cougar pin, because I’m going to have Cougars in the jury and in the courtroom, and that helps,” he said. “The Coogs have a tremendous possibility in Houston and Texas to be all over. The Coogs have just knocked the ball out of the park.”

Long before he became the fastest man in the world, Carl Lewis was a self-described “small, skinny kid” looking for the best place to nurture his growing talent.

After breaking the national high school long jump record as a student in Willingsboro, N.J., Lewis was recruited by hundreds of colleges. But after multiple interviews, he finally found what he was looking for at the University of Houston, with Tom Tellez, the men’s track coach.

“Houston was the only school that told me what they could do to advance me, which is what the college experience should be,” Lewis said. “Everyone else was saying, ‘Look at what you could do for our college.'”

Tellez and UH lived up to its promise, helping train Lewis to achieve remarkable feats – 10 Olympic medals, including nine gold medals, and a world record for speed.

“When I came here my freshman year, I was a very shy, little, skinny kid. People don’t remember that,” he said. “I’m none of those things now, and a lot of that is because of my experience here [at UH].”

Lewis arrived on campus in fall 1979, and spent his first year in the Moody Towers – a dorm experience he recommends for all undergraduates.

“I loved the experience. I loved being on campus,” Lewis said of living in the dorm. “I enjoyed very much not just the atmosphere of being in school, but also the camaraderie of my teammates.”

He enjoyed wandering around the campus – then much smaller than it is today – and taking other classes that helped to shape him into the man he would become.

One such class was a speech class, which Lewis credits with teaching him how to present himself to the public.

“What happened is that I realized that I couldn’t be what I wanted to be without being able to articulate my ideas, so I took speech classes here,” he said. “I said, ‘How can I become a better public speaker? How can I extend my vision?’ I learned that at the University of Houston. That wasn’t a natural thing.”

While learning new skills, Lewis also took the opportunity at UH to advance his natural abilities. He spent his days training with Tellez and the track team. Very quickly, that training began to pay off.

Lewis credits his longtime coach with teaching him how to compete in multiple events without injuring himself.

“I came in here with bad knees,” he says. “Coach Tellez changed my technique and I was injury-free.”

Lewis’ ability to compete successfully in both track and field events – a rarity among track athletes at that time – soon became readily apparent. By 1980, Lewis had qualified for the Olympics in long jump and as a member of the 4×100 meter relay team. The American boycott of those Olympics meant Lewis didn’t compete that year. But he spent the intervening years until the next Olympics training with Tellez and becoming a formidable challenger in another event – sprinting.

He won six National Collegiate Athletic Association titles for the University of Houston, and by 1984, he was considered a heavy favorite at that year’s Olympics in Los Angeles. He exceeded expectations when he won his first four gold medals there – in the 100 meter, the 200 meter, the long jump, and the 4×100 meter relay.

At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Lewis added two more gold medals and one silver medal to his resume. He earned his seventh and eighth gold medals in 1992 in Barcelona, and his final gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta at the age of 35.

In 1999, as a testament to his lengthy career and multiple achievements, Lewis was named “Sportsman of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee, and “Olympian of the Century” by Sports Illustrated magazine.

Since retiring from the sport, Lewis has gone on to act in movies, serve as a mentor to students, and launch his own sports social networking Web site – www.fitforever.com. He also likes to promote the University of Houston, particularly the educational opportunities it offers, during his travels around the world.

“What people do not know, especially in the places I have been, is the educational side of the University of Houston, and the contributions … why it was founded, and what it is all about,” Lewis said. “I felt that it was time to start talking about that as well.”

He gives back to the university in countless ways, with donations of both money and time. In 2000, the university’s new track and field facility was named for Lewis in recognition of his accomplishments and all of his contributions.

“The reality is I became a man and a person in Houston,” Lewis said. “Houston will always be a very important part of me, no matter where I am.”

And he will always consider himself a proud Cougar.

“If I didn’t come here, you wouldn’t know me,” he said. “I feel that strongly.”

A self-described “small-town guy,” Kevin Kolb admits he was a little nervous about his decision to attend the University of Houston.

Having spent much of his life following his father to coaching jobs in rural Texas, Kolb felt at home in locker rooms and on football fields, but he wasn’t sure what to expect in Houston. He was a little scared of the “big city” and unsure about connecting himself to a program that wasn’t widely known. But as a former player for then head coach Art Briles, Kolb trusted that together the two of them could create something memorable at UH.

“I just knew that he was driven and he had the desire to win,” Kolb said. “I wanted to be the guy that helped him get there. I had a lot of faith in him, and I think he had a lot of faith in me. We looked forward to achieving change together.”

The decision, Kolb said, was the absolute right one. After breaking school records and leading the university to its first conference championship in football in years, Kolb’s success with the Cougars translated into personal success. His professional career started as the 36th overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft, and has led three years later to a chance to lead the Philadelphia Eagles as starting quarterback for the 2010 season. Kolb is now starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals.

“It is gratifying,” he said of his new position. “I worked hard to get here. I wanted the opportunity, and I know that this position comes with a lot of responsibility, but I am looking forward to the challenge and getting it done.”

Kolb’s strong work ethic began as a young boy when he found his place on the football field.

“My dad was a coach, so from the time I was little he had me in the locker room, and around the guys and passing the ball back and forth quite early,” he said.

A standout star in high school at Stephenville, Kolb fielded scholarship offers from many schools, including Oklahoma State University. Though he knew he wanted to play for Briles, it was advice from his uncle to consider what cities had the best job opportunities that helped to seal the deal for Kolb.

“That is something that an 18-year-old kid doesn’t think about,” Kolb said. “He said, ‘Where do you want to live when you graduate?’ Houston made the most sense. And once I got there, I understood what he was talking about. The networking that goes on within the campus, and the people that you get to meet – it can take you to endless possibilities.”

Much of that networking came as a student at the Cyvia and Melvin Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, the top-ranked program where Kolb was a student.

“It was always something I was interested in,” he said of the entrepreneurship program. “I knew as a young kid I wanted to play football, or start my own business, and so that was just something that fit my personality. When I get done with football, I still want to go down that path.”

The classes he attended and the experiences he had in the entrepreneurship program will no doubt help him when he eventually makes that move to start his own business, Kolb said.

“The entrepreneurship program is totally different,” he said. “It is an open forum, and you can speak out when you want. We got to dissect a lot of different business plans. It was a good way to do hands-on learning that you don’t get to experience elsewhere.”

Kolb spent his first year living on campus at Cullen Oaks – an experience he loved because of the sense of community he felt on campus.

“When I got there, the thing I liked about UH is that it was in a big city, but it had a small-town atmosphere,” he said.

That first year, Kolb started as quarterback and continued to lead the team for the next four years, helping the university rebuild a winning tradition. Over the years, he broke countless school records in passing and total offense, and racked up numerous awards, including Conference USA Freshman of the Year in 2003 and Conference USA Offensive Player of the year in 2006.

In 2003, he helped lead the team to the Hawaii Bowl – the Cougar’s first trip to a bowl game since 1996. He would lead them to two more bowl games, and in 2006, he led the team to win its first Conference USA Championship in a decade – an amazing moment for Kolb and the rest of the team.

“I remember, I walked out of the tunnel – it was the first game that had been completely sold out – I walked out and got the chills,” Kolb said, describing the championship game. “Coach Briles, he hugged me around the neck, and said, ‘We earned this.’ To see that, your last home game, to see everybody out there and win the conference championship – that is something I will never forget.”

That season, Kolb said, he remembers a renewed sense of pride on campus, as students and alumni relished Houston’s time in the spotlight.

“Our main goal was to put Houston back on the map,” he said. “I think we were able to do that, and it was gratifying at the end of my career there.”

Though his schedule with the Philadelphia Eagles is busy, Kolb said he still keeps up with the Cougars, and often chats with Case Keenum, UH’s star quarterback. He said he expects great things from the team in the future.

“Those guys have done a great job of picking up where we left off,” Kolb said. “That is what makes an alumni feel really good – when you start something and the next group helps to continue with the successes.”

When he thinks back on his time at UH, Kolb said he feels nothing but pride in his school.

“It is such a hidden gem,” he said. “It is such a gift from God that I wound up going there. I met a ton of cool people, and it was such a cool program. I met friends there who I would have for the rest of my life.”