Brandeis Magazine

Windsor Westbrook Sherrill, Heller PhD’00, professor of public health sciences at Clemson University, was named the recipient of the Class of 1939 Award for Excellence for her contributions to the school. The award is presented annually to a distinguished member of the faculty whose outstanding contributions for a five-year period have been judged by peers to represent the highest achievement of service to the university, the student body and the larger community. During her tenure at Clemson, Windsor has provided instruction to more than 1,400 undergraduate and graduate students, teaching 21 different courses. She has also published in numerous refereed publications and written five book chapters. Ashok Prasad, PhD’06, a Colorado State University (CSU) chemical and biological engineering professor, was awarded a $400,000, five-year National Science Foundation grant to study how stem cells respond to the geometry and topography of their environment. He will employ mathematical and computational modeling to understand how these physical cues can direct stem cell differentiation into different cell types. The grant includes an educational component in collaboration with CSU’s Education and Outreach Center of the College of Natural Sciences to train K-12 science teachers and students. David Sim, IBS MBA’07, works in Brandeis’ Graduate Professional Studies office. Sam Sisakhti, IBS MA’07, founder of the fashion retail website UsTrendy.com, partnered with actress/singer Jennifer Lopez on a style contest last year. The company also recently launched several new design contests, including one geared toward undergrads. Alex Baron, MA’08, PhD’08, is co-founder and chief technology officer of Ovuline, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup that offers mobile and Web tools designed to increase couples’ likelihood of conceiving.