Amarda Shehu, associate professor of Computer Science, who works at the intersection of computer science and biology, grew up without a computer. She said when she saw her first computer in 1998, she didn't even know where the 'on' button was.
What Dr. Shehu and two of her outstanding colleagues did have was an abundance of imagination and persistence. Their research has a common thread, as each of them researches across several disciplines working with colleagues across the university.
Each year, George Mason University selects three faculty members who show exceptional promise in their disciplines to receive the Mason Emerging Researcher-Scholar-Creator Award. This year all three winners – Max Albanese, Huzefa Rangwala and Amarda Shehu – were from the Volgenau School of Engineering.
To qualify for this award and its $3,000 stipend, the faculty members must be within 10 years of receiving their terminal degrees and have growing national and international recognition for their work. The award's selection committee is composed of University Professors representing a broad range of academic disciplines. "In the six years that I have chaired this committee, these were by far the most difficult decisions that the committee has had to make," said Associate Dean for Research Peter Barcher.
Shehu holds affiliated appointments in the department of Systems Biology and the department of Bioengineering. She researches computational structural biology, biophysics, and bioinformatics with a focus on issues concerning the relationship between sequence, structure, dynamics, and function in biological molecules. Her research is supported by various National Science Foundation (NSF) programs. Over the past five years, she's received over $1.5 million in funding from the NSF.
It didn't even occur to Shehu to apply for the award. She calls herself "lucky," but as she describes the evolution of her career and research, it is clear that luck played a small role in her success. Her mentor, Jana Kosecka, associate professor of Computer Science encouraged her to apply.
During Shehu's years at the American University in Bulgaria, and later in graduate studies at Rice University in Texas, she came of age professionally in a world dominated by males. But as a girl in Albania, being a math/science geek was mainstream. She competed in myriad math "Olympiads," and was rewarded for her success with status among her teachers, parents and peers. Describing her childhood in Albania, Shehu said, "Education was the only liberating experience; it was like sports here."
Enamored with Western culture at a young age, her literature professor father and her physician mother encouraged her to master German and English. While she loved music, and dreamt diva dreams, her father pointed her firmly toward math and science. "Sopranos are poor," he said.
As a mathematician, she understood the beauty of patterns, and in high school Shehu had her first important mentor. That inspiring, creative biology teacher provided an introduction to computational biology. "I cared about the relationship between what I was learning and human health." That is the principle that guides her research.
The research is long and arduous, but it is advancing medicine as well as computer science as Shehu's work leads to new software solutions that solve biological conundrums. For example, she is examining how certain proteins participate in the formation of cancer and other diseases, and she has collaborated with colleagues from Mason's Krasnow Institute to study addiction; "They don't put menthol in cigarettes for taste!"
A version of this story by Molly Brauer appeared on the Office of Research and Economic Development webpage.