New ӳý fellowship awarded
Ilan Wapinski
Photo by Maria Nemchuk, ӳý
A Harvard graduate student working at the ӳý has been named the inaugural recipient of a yearlong research fellowship that pays tribute to former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers. Ilan Wapinski, a computer science PhD candidate in Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, will apply the award to his ongoing thesis research in comparative genomics and molecular evolution.
“Among many highly deserving applicants, the selection committee felt that Ilan most emulated characteristics reflective of Larry Summers, including leadership, creativity and independence,” said Deborah Hung, chair of the selection committee and core member of the ӳý. “Ilan’s graduate work certainly reflects these qualities, leading the committee to feel that he has great promise to be a leader in his field.”
“Ilan is an exceptional student — brilliant, creative, independent, motivated, enthusiastic, and productive — and he embodies the spirit of the ӳý in performing groundbreaking, outstanding and collaborative science in genomics,” said ӳý core member Aviv Regev, one of Wapinski’s graduate advisors.
Wapinski first arrived at the ӳý less than a year ago, moving from Harvard’s Bauer Center for Genomic Research with Regev and the rest of her laboratory. In the three years since he began working with Regev, he has pursued one of the most challenging problems in genomics — reconstructing the evolutionary origins of genes and their regulatory controls.
As a critical step in his research, Wapinski created a novel computational method called SYNERGY, which can accurately resolve the history of genes on a genome-wide scale. The method and its application to several species of fungi were described earlier this month in a groundbreaking study published in Nature. Wapinski is now working on the next big steps in his project, including experimentally validating the predictions made by SYNERGY and also applying the method to a variety of other organisms. In addition, he has initiated several collaborations with researchers at the ӳý and elsewhere, helping put SYNERGY to work to address a range of important scientific questions.
Called a creative and thorough scientist by his mentors and one who is unafraid of learning new skills, Wapinski exhibits resourcefulness and fortitude that have shone through in his short yet already distinguished scientific career. He graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and then spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During his graduate studies in computer science at Harvard University and more recently at the ӳý, Wapinski has given talks at international scientific meetings and won two consecutive awards for outstanding poster presentations at the annual Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology meeting. The Summers Fellowship now adds to this growing list of accolades.
“I am truly excited to be the inaugural recipient of the Larry Summers Fellowship,” said Wapinski. “The fellowship honors the former Harvard president and his foresight in envisioning the unique potential of an institute like the ӳý for making important scientific discoveries. I am especially honored and grateful to be given the opportunity to take part in those discoveries.”
The Lawrence H. Summers fellowship, created to honor the former Harvard president’s contributions to the scientific community, aims to provide support and recognition to an exceptional young scientist at MIT or Harvard who is working in the laboratory of a ӳý core member or associate member, or in a ӳý program or platform. This year’s award recognizes a graduate student. In the next academic cycle — September 2008 through August 2009 — the award will similarly acknowledge an outstanding postdoctoral researcher.
