Page 21 - CEGE Magazine - Fall 2016

This summer, Rudin worked in an environmental research laboratory at UMN under the guidance of Professor Bill Arnold and doctoral candidate Jill Kerrigan. “It has been a great opportunity to experience a working lab. I participate in the weekly update meetings and hear about all the research going on in Profes- sor Arnold’s group.”
Kerrigan’s research involves examining soil cores from lake sediment and deter- mining trends in antibiotic concentration over time. Rudin helps concentrate and analyze the sediment. “The project is more complex than I expected. I was surprised about all the steps involved
in preparing the samples for analysis— concentrating the sample and ensuring that it does not get contaminated; many simple things can cloud the data. It has also been really cool to go into the UMN Cancer Research Center and to see the liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometer. As a student researcher,
I am very lucky to have access to such impressive equipment.”
Rudin is not an “all work” kind of guy, however. He keeps up with his family (twin brothers: one studies architecture at UMN, and the other studies com- puter science at UMD), friends, and his girlfriend Megan. And Rudin is the drum major for the University of Minnesota Marching Band. Getting all this done requires balance.
“It’s like a teeter-totter: the goal is to keep everything balanced, but not necessarily static. Priorities are constantly shifting up and down, always in motion, but overall, balance is maintained.”
His friend, a former drum major, inspired him to try out for the drum major role. The position is competitive and entails
more than most people expect. The drum major leads the band through example, teaches marching fundamen- tals (developing lesson plans and guiding practice on the eld), promotes the band, conducts the band during games and parades, and works with other band leaders to coordinate events.
The audition process is quite rigorous, lasting two-and-a-half months. It includes interviews, training, and performances. It was a stretch for Rudin to put himself out that way. It is one thing to be one player in a very large band and quite another
to be out in front as a solo performer. Rudin did not make the cut the rst
time he auditioned, but gained a lot of con dence through the audition process. The con dence he gained helped him pursue other goals and made him much bolder about trying new things. He was successful in his junior and senior years.
“I put in a lot of time, but so do all the band members. We all contribute differ- ent pieces. I rarely do anything alone.”
Rudin has kept his grades up and earned some merit-based scholarships, includ- ing the 3M/Coleman Family Foundation Scholarship, which was created by alum- nus and football fan H. Richard (Dick) Coleman (BCE, 1973). As the drum major, Rudin is usually pretty busy during Gopher football games, but last season he was able to meet and thank Coleman on the eld before a game. (The 3M/ Coleman Family Foundation Scholarship has now supported more than 50 civil engineering students.)
Being the drum major precludes Rudin’s involvement in some of the extra-cur- ricular engineering activities. Yet he has good relationships with his classmates and often works with them on the more dif cult assignments.
Interesting factoid:
About 30%
of the marching band members are from the College of Science and Engineering.
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 21