Health Care Technologies Applying engineering concepts and practice to solve problems in biology and medicine and translate basic science to bedside care. M A r k e r S A n d M i l e S to n e S 2005 School receives $10 million gift from Ernst and Sara Volgenau to establish new Department of Bioengineering 2010 BS in Bioengineering approved 2013 MS in Biostatistics approved 2015 PhD in Bioengineering approved
Computational Biology Research Promotes Understanding of Human Health Amarda Shehu, associate professor of computer science, who works at the intersection of computer science and biology, grew up without a computer. She said when she saw her frst computer in 1998, she didn't even know where the 'on' button was. What Shehu did have was an abundance of imagination and persistence. Her research now spans several disciplines as she works with colleagues across the university. Shehu holds afliated appointments in the Department of Systems Biology and the Department of Bioengineering. She researches computational structural biology, biophysics, and bioinformatics with a focus on issues concerning the relationship between sequence, structure, dynamics, and function in biological molecules. Her research is supported by various National Science Foundation (NSF) programs, as well as other state programs and private foundations.
Over the past fve years, she's received more than $1.5 million in funding from the NSF. During Shehu's years at the American University in Bulgaria, and later in graduate studies at Rice University in Texas, she came of age professionally in a world dominated by males. But as a girl in Albania, being a math/science geek was mainstream. She competed in myriad national and international math competitions and dominated math Olympiads in high school. She was rewarded for her success with status among her teachers, parents, and peers. Describing her childhood in Albania, Shehu says, "Education was the only liberating experience; it was like sports here." Enamored with Western culture at a young age, her literature professor father and her physician mother encouraged her to master German and English. While she loved music, and dreamt soprano dreams, her father pointed her frmly toward math and science.
V O LGE N AU S C HO O L O F E N GI N E E RI N G 2 0 1 5 A N N UAL R E P OR T
|
19
