Equad News Summer 2014 Volume 26, Number 1 School of Engineering and Applied Science Princeton, NJ 08544-5263
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EQuad News Summer 2014 Volume 26, Number 1 School of Engineering and Applied Science Princeton, NJ 08544-5263 www.princeton.edu/engineering [email protected] 2 EQuad News Summer 2014 DEAN’S Volume 26, Number 1 NOTE Dean H. Vincent Poor Ph.D. ’77 Vice Dean N. Jeremy Kasdin Engineering and biology: Associate Dean, Undergraduate Affairs A vital connection Peter Bogucki What is it that makes crossing borders between academic Associate Dean, Graduate Affairs fields so appealing? The way Eric Wieschaus, Princeton Brandi Jones biologist and Nobel laureate, describes it on page 9 of this Associate Dean, Development magazine, emerging outposts of research and teaching that Jane Maggard span multiple fields are like cities that arise at the border Director of Engineering Communications of two countries. The sometimes chaotic mix of cultures and Steven Schultz Danielle Alio Photo by ideas creates a nexus of creativity and progress. The rich Senior New Media Editor opportunities, in turn, attract more people who might not Teresa Riordan Staff Writer even be from the originating areas. John Sullivan So it is with engineering and biology. The articles in this Contributors magazine describe work that can be hard to classify. In Anna Azvolinksy NEWS Stacey Huang ’15 some cases engineers are using their expertise in complex John Greenwald Catherine Shen systems or mechanics to make fundamental discoveries Catherine Zandonella about growth and structure in living organisms; in others, Additional editing MIGHTY MATH: VALEDICTORIAN POGREBNIAK ADVANCES Morgan Kelly engineers are creating tools that will bring needed advances MEDICINE THROUGH COMPUTATION Graphic Designer for human health. The bottom line is that it exemplifies what Matilda Luk By her own account, when Katherine “She is very intelligent and she also has Katherine Pogrebniak (left), Dan Fernandez I see as the best in engineering: bringing together whatever Pogrebniak first arrived at the National Eye a superb work ethic,” said Mona Singh, a worked with Mona Singh Web Designer expertise is needed to solve a problem, whether a funda- (right), a professor of com- Neil Adelantar Institute in the summer before her sophomore professor of computer science and the Lewis- puter science and the Lewis- mental question of science or an immediate societal need. EQuad News is published year at Princeton, she knew relatively little Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. Sigler Institute for Integrative I want to take a moment here to highlight and congratulate twice a year by the Office of about the highly complex research in Singh, who advised Pogrebniak for her inde- Genomics, on a computational Engineering Communica- method for evaluating how our 2014 valedictorian, Katherine Pogrebniak (the second BSE tions in collaboration with the national laboratory. pendent project, said her contribution to the Princeton University Of- certain substances bind student in a row to receive this honor). Her research fits fice of Communications. It By the end of the summer, she had her lab was akin to that from an advanced with proteins, a fundamental perfectly the theme of this magazine, combining the tools serves the alumni, faculty, students, staff, corporate sketched out the framework of a model to graduate student. question of modern biology. of computer science and “big data” to bring fresh insight to affiliates and friends of the analyze a protein that researchers believe In a second internship at the NIH last “I started with math,” said Princeton University School Pogrebniak, “but I have always medicine and biology. of Engineering and Applied could be a critical factor in the development summer, Pogrebniak helped a team of re- Science. been interested in biomedi- The collaborative spirit of engineering includes you – of an eye disease that affects children. searchers develop a new method of using cal problems because I was alumni, colleagues and friends. Please stay in touch and EQuad News MRI excited about their real-world C-222, EQuad, “She has this tremendous ability to learn,” magnetic resonance imaging ( ) in the let’s find ways to work together. Princeton University said Yuri Sergeev, a senior researcher at treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis applications.” Princeton, NJ 08544 the Bethesda, Maryland, institute, which is (MS). Daniel Reich, a principal investigator at T 609 258 4597 F 609 258 6744 a branch of the National Institutes of Health NIH and the team leader, called Pogrebniak “an [email protected] H. Vincent Poor Ph.D. ’77 (NIH). He said Pogrebniak brought an intense outstanding young star,” and said that through www.princeton.edu/ About the cover Dean focus to her work, first learning biological The scientific images represent a range of work engineering/eqnews her work the lab was able to achieve Michael Henry Strater University from molecules to whole organisms: in the L, Copyright © 2014 by aspects of the project and then bringing her a major goal in imaging research. a model of an enzyme studied in the lab of Professor of Electrical Engineering The Trustees of computational skills to bear on working out In May, the results of Pogrebniak’s work A. James Link BSE ’00; in the I, nucleoli from Princeton University egg cells of the African clawed frog from the lab In the Nation’s Service and a solution. at the NIH were presented at the annual of Cliff Brangwynne; in the F, bearded dragon in the Service of All Nations Pogrebniak’s peers and professors speak embryo lung tissue from the lab of Celeste meeting of the International Society for Nelson (exhibited in “Art of Science” 2011). 450456 of the intellect and determination that have Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in Milan. led her to the top of her class. A computer “Katherine made quite an impression on science major from Jacksonville, Florida, she me and all my colleagues,” Reich said in a 1 9 22 26 28 30 32 is the valedictorian of the Princeton Class of letter to the University. He noted that in apply- News LIFE Faculty Undergraduate Graduate Alumni Ideas 2014, and delivered an address at the Uni- ing computation to solve biological problems, Engineering News News News News Illustrated versity’s Commencement ceremony on June 3. “none of us has any doubt that Katherine will and Biology become a world leader.” 2 3 NEWS NEWS MIGHTY MATH: VALEDICTORIAN POGREBNIAK ADVANCES MEDICINE THROUGH COMPUTATION (continued from page 1) MODERN EXPERTISE BUILDS BRIDGE TO ANCIENT MARVEL Understanding the big picture Computation and health Many engineering lectures concern themselves available materials Pogrebniak is the first woman earning a Colleagues uniformly speak of Pogrebniak’s with cutting-edge technology but at a recent and historic records Bachelor of Science in Engineering at Prince- consideration for fellow students and co- talk on bridge construction, Princeton profes- of Roman construction eton to be named valedictorian. She also workers. She has served for two years as a sor Branko Gliši asked his audience to go techniques, to draw received a certificate in engineering biology. residential college adviser at Wilson College; back nearly 2,000 years. their conclusions, For her independent research, Pogrebniak Eduardo Cadava, an English professor and the “You have to think like a Roman,” Gliši some of which run joined a group in Singh’s lab, which is studying college master, spoke of her “wild intelligence told students and faculty gathered for a counter to historical how proteins bind with other molecules, – which she wears with grace and humility.” brown-bag lunch. He gestured to a schematic assumptions. called ligands. These binding interactions Pogrebniak said she has long wanted to diagram of an arch on the screen behind him. Mehrotra majored in are a fundamental process and understand- work in medicine. “You minimize connections because they add civil and environmental ing them could lead to new drugs and medical “I started with math,” Pogrebniak said. complication.” engineering and graduated in 2013. A carving from Trajan’s therapies. “But I have always been interested in biomedi- Gliši , an assistant professor of civil and Built under the Emperor Trajan, the bridge Column in Rome (at left and upper right) and a contem- Pogrebniak assisted the effort by finding cal problems because I was excited about environmental engineering, was speaking has inspired wonder for centuries. porary Roman coin provided ways to find repeated measurements in mas- their real-world applications.” about Trajan’s Bridge, a wood-and-masonry “Brilliant, indeed, as are his other achieve- clues to the bridge’s form. sive data sets that could skew an analysis by Pogrebniak will attend the University of structure that the Romans constructed be- ments, yet this surpasses them,” wrote Cas- (Images courtesy of Branko suggesting that certain interactions are more Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar in the fall tween 103 and 105 A.D. to span the Danube sius Dio, the Roman consul and historian. Gliši ) common than they really are. and plans to obtain a master’s degree in River between what is now Serbia and The researchers reviewed historic repre- “I was very impressed with Katherine’s computational biology. After that, she intends Romania. At more than a kilometer long sentations of the bridge that were proposed degree of scientific maturity in dealing with the to pursue a medical degree and a doctorate at (six-tenths of a mile), it is considered a wonder by scientists over the past two centuries, but problems and coming up with alternatives,” Stanford University. of the ancient world, but nearly all details rejected all or elements of various analyses said Dario Ghersi, a postdoctoral researcher The summer before her senior year at of its form and construction have been lost. either because of instability issues or the use who worked with her on the project. “We tried the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Gliši and former undergraduate Anjali of techniques that the Romans were unlikely to many things to reduce the redundancy in this Disorders and Stroke, she assisted with ways Mehrotra have reconstructed the engineering have mastered, such as fixed joints.