With Charlotte Golden, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Josh Halpern, 18, will perform this month with the Polaris String Quartet on National Public Radio’s From The Top, a nationally-syndicated program that features young musicians across the country. The show is expected to air locally at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19 on 90.9 WGUC-FM. If you miss the live broadcast, you can listen online at fromthetop.org. The quartet formed last fall as part of the Starling pre-college program at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, and won the gold medal at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in May. Josh was recently named a 2012 National Merit Semifinalist and will go on to compete for college scholarships to be awarded next spring. Josh is the son of Alan and Julie Halpern.

Allie Alter, daughter of Mitchell and Linda Alter, has qualified for the trials in diving for the 2012 Olympics. She’ll go to Seattle for the trials in June. Allie, 17 is a student at New Albany High School. Grandparents are Betty and Sid Alter. Their son Joel was honored as Temple University’s Man of The Year. He is a liaison for Temple University Health System and has raised $50,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

You may know that Israeli Dr. Dan Shechtman just won a Nobel Peace Prize for chemistry, but did you know about his Dayton connections? Allan Katz tells us that Shechtman, 70 — a distinguished professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa — was a National Research Council Fellow in one of the research laboratories at Wright-Patt. “He and his family were in Dayton for three years, until he assumed a faculty position at the Technion in 1975,” Allan recalls. Shechtman returned to Dayton during the summers of 1976 to 1981 to continue his research on high temperature, advanced metallic materials. “At Wright-Patt, he worked for the same research group leader who hired me into the lab in late 1977,” Allan adds. “I first met Danny in summer 1978 and have maintained a professional and personal relationship with him and his family ever since.” Shechtman’s wife, Zippi, a professor of education with the University of Haifa, taught at Hillel Academy during their time in Dayton. “Danny told us that his family was ‘adopted by the Beth Abraham community,’” Allan says. Shechtman received the Nobel for his discovery of quasicrystals, mosaics of atoms that form regular patterns that never repeat themselves. Shechtman is also an associate at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and a professor at Iowa State University.

Brothers Zach and Josh Weprin along with Stephan Harman have opened Fusian, a sushi eatery at University Place, 1200 Brown St. near UD. This is their second location; the first Fusian is in downtown Cincinnati. In addition to traditional raw options, Fusian serves up soy wraps with braised steak and baked chicken with fresh vegetables, made-to-order sushi rolls and smoothies. Fusian is also offering a Facebook contest that will award one winner Fusian sushi for the rest of his or her life.

Send your Schmooze items to: Charlotte Golden at CharFJ@aol.com