Faculty Spotlights – Page 13

An interview with Dr. Olga Troyanskaya,
Assistant Professor of Computer Science,
Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics

Most people who use common bread yeast use it to bake crusty loaves of bread. Olga Troyanskaya is using bread yeast to help find a cure for cancer. That’s far from the only unusual thing about Olga Troyanskaya. In college she double majored in biology and computer science which led to her current work in bioinformatics, a subject about which she says “I didn’t even know what it was until sophomore year.” Her current quick definition of the subject is “any sort of application of innovative computer science, statistics, and mathematical techniques used to solve problems in biology – usually also based on lots of data.”

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A web enthusiast finds the newest version
of Blackboard has caught up with his needs.

Dr. Lee Silver is a professor of Molecular Biology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. As a scientist, Professor Silver has always been interested in applying the latest technology in both his research and in his classroom. From the very beginning he wanted to eliminate all paper from his classroom but before many of the ubiquitous electronic technologies that we take for granted today were developed, that was not possible. Professor Silver embraced the Internet and the web as soon as it became available. He put all the information about his courses and lectures on the web and planned to do an exam for about 150 students on the web as well. Professor Silver was a leader in applying technology in his classrooms, but it took enormous amounts of effort.

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