Duke TIP alumni honored for service
Contact: Leslie Maxwell
Duke University Talent Identification Program
(919) 668-9127
leslie.maxwell@duke.edu
Distinguished Alumni Awards honor achievements in career, community
Updated: July 5, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke University Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) is honoring three outstanding Duke TIP alumni for their service to their fields and communities.
Jane Willis, Trey Ideker and Ananth Natarajan are recipients of the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Awards, honors given annually to Duke TIP alumni in recognition of the accomplishments of former Duke TIP students.
“Bestowing these Distinguished Alumni Awards each year gives us the opportunity to reconnect with our former summer program participants and celebrate their outstanding accomplishments and the role Duke TIP played in their lives,” said Joy Baldwin, Director of Identification and Support Services for Duke TIP. “These distinguished alumni exemplify the heart and soul of our mission. They are outstanding individuals who are using their potential to contribute to the world around them.”
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Jane Willis (Duke TIP ’82 and ’83; teaching assistant in ’84 and ’85): As a Duke TIP Summer Studies Program student, Jane Willis studied Latin, math and logic.
After Duke TIP, Willis graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics and economics. After receiving her undergraduate degree, Willis stayed at her alma mater to earn her law degree. Now, as a graduate of Harvard Law School, Willis is a partner with Ropes & Gray, LLP, in Boston, Mass., representing clients as diverse as the Boston Red Sox, national retailers and investment banks.
Willis was an outstanding contributing member of the team of attorneys who received the 2008 Denis Maguire Pro Bono Award, recognizing the dedication and commitment of 32 attorneys at the firm who provided approximately 2,000 hours of work to clients in the Boston Housing Court. In 2007, Willis was also named as a Massachusetts Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers, a national organization that identifies outstanding lawyers in each state.
Outside of her legal career, Willis's claim to fame is that she was one of the students depicted in the best-selling novel Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which later became the motion picture 21. Though card counting is not illegal, casinos don’t allow people caught counting cards to remain in the casino.
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Trey Ideker (Duke TIP ’85 – ’87): Since attending three Duke TIP Summer Studies Programs where he studied biology, astronomy and computer science, Trey Ideker has pursued science, contributing to a better understanding of systems biology and human health.
Ideker received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from MIT. He then received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Washington. Ideker is now serving as associate professor at the University of California – San Diego in the School of Medicine and the Department of Bioengineering.
His research focuses on genome-scale approaches for constructing and comparing network models of cellular processes and disease. With this research, Ideker and the colleagues and students in his lab hope to provide a blueprint of normal and diseased cell functions. The research also aims to enable scientists to simulate the effects of drugs on cells long before the drugs are tested on humans.
In 2009, Ideker is being honored as the recipient of the Overton Prize, awarded by the International Society of Computational Biology. This honor is bestowed upon a scientist in the early- to mid-stages of his or her career who has made a significant contribution to the field of computational biology.
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Ananth Natarajan (Duke TIP ’84 – ’86): At Duke TIP, Ananth Natarajan studied Spanish, physics and pre-calculus. Natarajan graduated from high school at 14 and attended Duke University, where he majored in biomedical engineering and graduated at 18. He went on to receive a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and an M.D. from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine.
Natarajan is currently an associate professor of medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
In 1997, while he was a medical resident at USC, Natarajan founded a company called Infinite Biomedical Technologies, which develops innovative products and materials for clinical care settings. Because of his achievements in his chosen field, Natarajan was named one of the Top 100 Young Innovators and Leaders in Technology and Business by MIT’s Technology Review.
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About Duke TIP: The Duke University Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) is a non-profit educational organization that is recognized as a leader in identifying and serving the educational needs of academically gifted youth. Through identification, recognition, challenging educational programs, information, advocacy and research, Duke TIP provides resources to gifted students, their parents, educators, and schools for the development of the students’ optimal educational potential.
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