Photo: Courtesy U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patently Qualified
Head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Silicon Valley outpost Michelle Lee, JD '92, stepped in to oversee the national USPTO in January while the organization searches for a permanent director. Lee, an MIT-trained engineer and corporate attorney, has spent the past 25 years in the businesses of patent law and technology protecting America's innovation communities. She has vowed to tackle the backlog of unexamined patent applications—estimated to number close to 600,000 last year—and use her industry experience to improve overall patent quality.
Out of the Blue
At the height of his Blue Period, Picasso produced The Old Guitarist, a painting that inspired Wallace Stevens's poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar," which in turn inspired David Hockney to create 20 etchings. Georgia Shreve, '69, amplifies the artistic echo with original music set to Hockney's images and Stevens's verse. Shreve, a New Yorker contributor and poet, studied music theory under composer Howard Cass. For the past 10 years she has run Ideation Productions, a New York-based company that develops talent across film, music and theater. She will present the multimedia arrangement at Carnegie Hall in May.
Photo: Manny RotenbergDesigning Woman
In March the League of Professional Theatre Women in New York City honored the work of Judith Dolan, MFA '73, PhD '96, with its 2014 Ruth Morley Design Award. No stranger to praise, Dolan is a Tony Award-winning costumer whose designs (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Glass Menagerie, Candide, LoveMusik) have gained international recognition. Her costuming career spans 40 years and has been featured in opera, film and television productions. The first "non-New Yorker" to receive the award, Dolan is a professor of theater and dance at UC-San Diego and an associate artist for Houston's Alley Theatre.
