Department of Surgery
Duke Univeristy Medical Center
I am happy to have this opportunity to provide this letter of professional reference at the request of Ryan DeWitt, applicant for a tenure tract faculty position in your department. I am a professor in the Department of Surgery at Duke University and Medical Center and scientific director of the Guenther Epilepsy Radiosurgery Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Mr. DeWitt has worked with me since 2004 as a media consultant on projects at both institutions. Although Mr. DeWitt interacted with several colleagues and staff members for these projects, I was the primary point of contact in the design process. I have spent many hours working with Ryan and feel very comfortable with offering these comments from the perspective of a client and partner in the design process.
What initially impressed me about Mr. DeWitt was his portfolio. In particular, his work involving medical and scientific graphics and animation showed a remarkable talent for capturing and presenting medical-scientific concepts to both professional and non-medical, non-scientific audiences. I direct a group at Loma Linda University which is developing an experimental, non-invasive surgical procedure for treatment of intractable epilepsy, and we decided to contract Ryan to help with developing media concepts for presenting these procedures to patients and family. I have more recently contracted with Ryan to assist with the development of animation media for inclusion in a web site here at Duke University and Medical Center devoted to the history and instrumentation of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery.
What I have come to value most about Ryan is the way he approaches the design process. Ryan has a wonderful way of engaging others. I think much of this style evolves from his innate sense of curiosity. Ryan always seems genuinely interested in what we’re doing, and that makes communicating information to him all that much easier. Moreover, he mines information with probing questions and through dynamic exchanges with the client. I’ve worked with graphic designers before, and in these previous interactions, I have walked away from my initial interview sensing that the information exchanged was restricted to that which I was willing to volunteer. In my interactions with Ryan, I come away feeling that he got from me the information he needed. And this was reflected in the final product. In the former case, I was delivered a product that I would have produced myself had I had time and drawing skills. With Ryan, I got a product that presented my ideas in ways I could not have visualized on my own.
Ryan will keep me engaged throughout the design process using sketches, storyboards, and digital prototypes. His presentations are always well organized and efficient. His work stays within the constraints and goals which we establish during the initial information mining. When problems are identified, he will work with us to find a solution. He has outstanding problem solving skills, which perfectly complement his interpersonal skills.
Most recently, Ryan has been working with me on a project at Duke related to a specialty area of neurosurgery in which a frame is affixed to the patients skull that allows a surgeon to accurately position a surgical instrument anywhere within the cranial vault. Although these frames are now manufactured by medical device companies, in the early days of stereotactic neurosurgery (as these procedures are referred) such companies did not exist and the handful of surgeons who practiced such procedures came up with their own designs. For several years, we have been collecting these early frames which are on display at the Medical Center Library at Duke University. Ryan was approached to help develop animation which would allow us to show how these various frames allowed the neurosurgeon to navigate the 3 dimension space of the intracranial compartment. Ryan was able to digitally replicate these devices and provided recommendations for a technology platform which enabled these to be viewed and virtually manipulated in a 3D web environment. His technical skill matched with a design sense enabled him to accurately model these complex devices while being sensitive to animation and aesthetic.
Having had the opportunity to watch Ryan present his solutions to design problems, I am very confident that he will be outstanding as a teacher and an excellent addition to your faculty. He is a good communicator, does a outstanding job presenting his subject matter and engaging his audience, thinks well on his feet, and obviously cares about delivering his message. I understand that he has already lectured at NC School of Design, and you will accordingly already be familiar with his skills. I know that he was trained at NC State, where he received his Master’s degree. In reviewing his CV, there was little evidence of scholarly achievements at this point in his career, but I think that this would be something that Ryan would soon rectify in an environment like NC State.
I would offer my highest recommendation to you with regards to Mr. DeWitt’s application for faculty appointment in the School of Design. If he is offered the appointment, I hope to maintain a professional relationship with Ryan on projects already underway at both Duke and Loma Linda, as well as future projects.
Sincerely,
Robert D. Pearlstein Ph.D.
Department of Surgery
Associate Director for Medical Affairs
Free Electron Laser Laboratory, Department of Physics
Duke University and Medical Center
Scientific Director
Guenther Radiosurgery Program
Department of Radiation Medicine
Loma Linda University