October 24, 2000
Clinton names two University of Washington researchers as Presidential Early Career Award winners
Two University of Washington professors – one developing new methods to combine disparate digital information and another studying ways to heal damaged hearts – were named by President Clinton today as winners of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Alon Y. Halevy, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering, and Charles E. Murry, an associate professor of pathology, were among 59 scientists and engineers nationwide who were presented with the award during a ceremony at the White House Old Executive Office Building. Neal Lane, the president’s science adviser, made the presentations.
The award, established by Clinton in 1996, is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers, according to a news release from the White House. Recipients receive five-year research grants.
Alon Y. Halevy
Halevy (who recently changed his name from Levy) is an assistant professor in the UW Department of Computer Science & Engineering. He joined the faculty in 1998.
Halevy’s work is in database systems and artificial intelligence, with a special interest in building bridges between the two fields. He focuses on building tools that integrate data from multiple disparate databases – from different sites on the World Wide Web, for example. As part of that focus, he has developed new techniques for managing data in XML (eXtended Markup Language), an emerging standard for sharing data on the Web. He has also developed techniques for the flexible and efficient construction and maintenance of Web sites. He is currently working with faculty in bioinformatics to apply his techniques to the integration of genomic data.
Halevy won another major award – the Sloan Fellowship – in 1999. He is co-founder of Nimble Technology, a start-up company involved in commercializing portions of his research work.
The National Science Foundation nominated Halevy for the award.
Dr. Charles E. Murry
Murry is an associate professor of pathology in the University of Washington School of Medicine. A native of North Dakota, Murry has taught and researched at the UW since his appointment in 1996.
The Murry lab studies the biology of myocardial infarction and how the body repairs the damage after a heart attack. Murry is trying to understand the mechanisms that regulate repair of the infarcted heart and to develop molecular strategies to induce muscle regeneration. This would reduce scarring of the heart, and prevent post-infarction cardiac dysfunction. Among the strategies he is exploring is the transplantation of stem cells for healing infarcts.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, one of the National
Institutes of Health, nominated Murry for the award.
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High-resolution images of Halevy and Murry are available on the Web at the following locations:
Halevy: www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/images/halevy.jpg.
Murry: www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/images/murry.jpg.
