Pinnacle 2002 Associates Biographies

Sergei Gukov (Physics)
Sergei Gukov was born in Moscow, Russia. At the age of 14, upon being awarded the first prize at the Soviet Union Physics Olympiad, he entered Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, graduating in 1997 with honors in theoretical physics. In that year, Sergei moved to the U.S. as a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University, where he continued his studies in physics and mathematics. Upon receiving his Ph.D. in 2001, Sergei joined Harvard University as a Long Term Prize Fellow of the Clay Mathematics Institute. Much of his current research is in string theory, which not only forms the foundation of particle physics, but the associated mathematical reasoning has also furnished a rich field in itself, which has been exceedingly fertile for the development of pure mathematics. Sergei is also engaged in various sport activities, including yachting and whitewater kayaking, hiking and speleology, surfing and windsurfing, snowboarding and karate.

Nick Hopper (Computer Science)
Nick Hopper received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, Morris in May, 1999. He is currently a graduate student in the Ph.D. program in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He has jointly authored six publications in the areas of artificial intelligence and cryptography, and is interested in the mathematical theory of cryptography.

Derek M. Isaacowitz (Psychology)
Derek Isaacowitz is currently an Assistant Professor in the Psychology department at Brandeis University. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree from Stanford University. He has also spent time at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany. Derek is a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Dissertation Research Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology. His research interests focus on emotion in adulthood and old age: in what ways emotional experiences change with age, and how individual differences in predictors of emotion, such as optimism, may change throughout adulthood. He is also interested in the interplay of cognitive processes, particularly attention and emotion throughout the adult life-span, as well as in the adult development of individuals who have survived extreme stressors, particularly Holocaust survivors.

Ann Lewis (Computer Science)
Ann Lewis is a senior computer science major and math minor at Carnegie Mellon University where she has worked on several research projects. With Dr. Manuel Blum as an advisor, Ann worked on the HumanAut project. This project’s goal is to create a secure human-only authentication system, accessible to only one person, and robust against sophisticated attack. Other computer research projects include speech recognition for better automated reading tutors, music search engines which identify the melody by human humming, and analysis of network synchronization algorithms. She shares cryptographic interests with fellow associate, Nick Hopper. Ann is originally from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Brandon Lussier (Creative Writing)
Brandon Lussier received a BA in English and Psychology, summa cum laude with English Honors, from Hamline University in 2000. As an undergraduate he received the Henry Bridgeman Poetry Prize and a Bush Collaborative Research Grant for three months of full-time research concerning resentful poets. In 2000 he studied Classics at Kings College, London; published poems in several UK publications; and was mentored by the founder of the Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh, and the Director of the Saison Poetry Library, London. Lussier is the founder of Poets Share, The Minnesota Outreach Poetry Library, and is Director of Programs at SASE: The Write Place, a Minneapolis literary arts organization. He was a finalist in the 2001-2002 New Zealand Fulbright Fellowship Competition, and he is currently studying the Estonian language in order to translate Estonian poetry.

Norbert Palej (Music)
A native of Poland, Norbert Palej has studied with Michael Gandolfi for three years. As Michael Gandolfi’s top student, he graduated with honors and distinction from the New England Conservatory this year. Norbert won the Boston Modern Orchestra competition in 1999 and was accepted into the fellowship program at Tanglewood in 2000. Last year he was hired by Tina Packer, the director of the Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, to write music for her production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Norbert will be entering the Master’s degree program at Juilliard this September.

Christopher D. Palmer (Art)
Christopher Palmer who grew up in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1991 and is currently pursuing his Masters degree in Education at Temple University’s Tyler School of Fine Arts. He spent July 2002 in Rome at Temple-Tyler University studying the development of perspective and its philosophical and political implications.

Chris has worked as Sam Maitin’s assistant at Maitin’s studio in Center City, Philadelphia, for almost four years. During that time, he has assisted Mr. Maitin on several important projects: a large colorful outdoor sculpture installed at 21st and G Streets in Washington, DC owned by the George Washington University, a stained glass window at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Philadelphia, and the murals for the Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania. Chris has worked with Mr. Maitin on sketches and models for murals to be housed in the Please Touch Museum, a children’s museum to be constructed soon in downtown Philadelphia. He has also worked with both Mr. Maitin and the architect Sam Olshin on models for a new building adorned with Maitin’s colorful forms. This project is to begin construction in South Philadelphia in the fall of 2002.

Chris helped organize a performance and elaborate exhibition for an African American program in North Philadelphia called “North Called Home” in the Church of the Advocate, an important center in the City. He painted two large murals for the Hill House Community Center in Pittsburg known as “Jazz at Hill House” and the “Hill House History.”

When Chris receives his Masters degree, he expects to teach art in high school, continue his portrait commissions, and continue painting and exhibiting.