| Outside Activities -
Gary Wilson,
Ph.D. |
| I spend most
of my time away from McMurry enjoying my family and friends. We are active
in our church and travel to visit family whenever possible. There's no
substitute for faith, friends, and family. |
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| We also travel and love the desert mountains of the southwest
(desert rats can't get enough of the rugged beauty and wide open
spaces). Favorite spots include the
Guadalupe
Mountains of west
Texas, one of the great secrets of the
southwest. We enjoy golf and tennis as a family and would rather see
America
than the inside of an amusement park. In the summer of 2003 we ventured
to Mesa Verde and
Durango,
CO. The photo at right is from our hike to
Spud
Lake,
nearly 11,000 feet and well off the beaten path. |
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| In 2005 we went to the Grand Canyon and did hiking in Sycamore Canyon
Wilderness, southwest of
Flagstaff
(see photo at right). Probably the
most memorable moment came during another hike when we were run off
Slate
Mountain
northwest of
Flagstaff
by lightning and hail. It is not much
fun being pelted by marble size hail while wearing shorts and T-shirts and
trying to run down a slippery trail with the smell of ozone in the air. |
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| Marci and I took another trip over the 2005-2006 Christmas
holidays that few would think glamorous. We joined a group from the American Belarussian Relief Organization (www.abro.org)
traveling to
Mogilev,
Belarus
, to visit orphans and
spread some Christmas cheer. One of
the children (Ruslan – photo at right) has
stayed with us for six weeks each of the last three summers and is returning
for 2008. It has been an indescribable
joy to be associated with this organization and invest into the lives of
these children. |
 
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| Our whole family is active in our church, where Marci and I lead
a small group and help with the junior high Sunday school class. I made the “mistake” of
introducing our boys to the wonders of guitars, and now both are accomplished
musicians and play for our church and others regularly (Thomas typically
plays at two weekly). Marcus plays
the bass and Thomas plays lead guitar much better than I ever did. It is humbling but rewarding to watch them
grow in their faith and as musicians. |
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| In my spare time, I am vice president of Intuitive Systems, Inc. The
company was started in 1998 by John Parker (McMurry Class of '94), Lon
Outland (McMurry Class of '93) and me to develop software for educational
purposes. Lon and John both have extensive experience in designing and
writing software for defense and commercial industries. For years I had
an idea for a product but lacked expertise; then they decided to start a
company but lacked a product. A few calls and we decided this was a
venture worth pursuing. |
  |
VirtualUnknownTMMicrobiology was beta-tested Spring
1999 at six colleges, universities, and professional schools from
Virginia
to
Nebraska
to
Texas
. It is a very realistic simulation of the process
used to study and identify unknown bacteria. Release date for version
1.01 was
July 19,
1999. In June 2000, the software was awarded one of three
prizes at the Slice
of Life/Computers in Healthcare Education Symposium, held at the
University of Utah
School of
Medicine. This international conference included participants (mainly
medical school faculty) from over 15 nations and every continent. Over
60 software packages were demonstrated. A description of the
award-winning project is available here.
Version 2.03 BC was bundled with the 7th edition media update of Fundamentals
of Microbiology byTortora, Funke,
& Case (Benjamin Cummings). We have now expanded the product to
include Gram positive cocci, and the new version is available for purchase as
version 3.11 SP2. It is has a greatly improved tutorial and two
new manuals (Basic
Training Manual, or the abbreviated Micro Lab Basics – see sample –
both available free of charge) that shows how the software can be used
throughout a microbiology course. The software is widely adopted,
especially by institutions wanting distance learning in microbiology.
We are continuing refinement and expansion to include even more
features to support ASM's recommendations for
microbiology lab content.
Plans are underway for a new, expanded software line tentatively
called Microbiology Lab Central, which will encompass all of
the ASM curriculum guidelines for a microbiology lab. |
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