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In the News

Rochester, You Have Another Astronaut . . . . . . and Other Alumni in the News
photo of University of Rochester alumnus Josh Cassada and other astronauts in spacesuits during training for their flight to the international space stationPREPARE FOR LIFTOFF: Josh Cassada ’00 (PhD) (second from left) and SpaceX astronauts Anna Kikina, Nicole Mann, and Koichi Wakata suited up to test equipment at SpaceX headquarters in California in the days leading up to their October mission to the International Space Station. (Photograph: SpaceX)

Josh Cassada ’00 (PhD) will be aboard the International Space Station for several months as part of a four-member crew that docked with the station this fall.

Cassada served as the pilot for a NASA SpaceX commercial crew that lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 5. The spacecraft‐named Endurance‐docked with the space station the following day, joining a team of seven already on board.

Cassada and his crew mates‐Commander Nicole Mann and Mission Specialists Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos‐are scheduled to be aboard the space station for up to six months before returning to Earth in the spring of 2023.

The mission is the first for Cassada, Kikina, and Mann, who is also the first Indigenous woman from NASA to go to space. The crew will conduct scientific studies to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth, according to NASA.

Cassada is the third Rochester graduate to travel to outer space. In 1998, physiologist Jim Pawelczyk ’82 completed a 16-day mission on the Space Shuttle Columbia, serving as a payload specialist responsible for the operation of a laboratory aboard the shuttle. Pawelczyk is a professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn State University.

And in 1973, Ed Gibson ’59 was part of a team that set a then world record for time in space when they were aboard the former Skylab 3 for 84 days. During the mission, Gibson participated in three space walks. Gibson’s record was later eclipsed by American scientist and astronaut Norman Thagard, who spent 115 days on the Russian space station Mir.

Alumnus Named Chicago Carillonneur

Alex Johnson ’18, an award-winning musician who was introduced to the carillon at Rochester, has been named university carillonist at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago.

Johnson, who most recently taught carillon at the University of Texas in Austin, was appointed this fall, becoming Chicago’s seventh carillonneur. Considered the single largest musical instrument ever built, the Chicago carillon comprises 72 bells and 100 tons of bronze.

In 2021, the Diapason magazine, an international publication that covers carillon, organ, and church music, named Johnson among its “20 Under 30,” a recognition of contributions to carillon performance and composition for musicians and leaders under the age of 30.

While on a campus tour before enrolling at Rochester, the Texas native was intrigued to find out that any student could play “the bells,” a reference to the Hopeman Memorial Carillon in the tower of Rush Rhees Library.

Shortly after graduation, he was one of two musicians from the United States to earn first prize at Belgium’s International Queen Fabiola Carillon Competition, where he also received first prize for improvisation and a prize for best performance of a Belgian contemporary work.

Richard Rice ’65 Teams Up for Squash Championship

The team of Richard Rice ’65 and James Zug Sr. won the 75-plus division without losing a game at the US National Doubles Squash Championships in Philadelphia last spring. The national tournament marked the debut of Rice and Zug as partners. Zug won his first doubles title 50 years ago in the open division.

The national doubles tournament featured 81 teams across 12 divisions on six courts, all of which were livestreamed on the YouTube channel of US Squash.