Last modified: Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Gift from computer science alum Don Brown to benefit SOIC bioinformatics student
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 5, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Bloomington School of Informatics and Computing has announced that Don Brown has given a gift of $50,000 to the school to be used to support a fellowship in bioinformatics.
The initial recipient of the fellowship is Fuxiao Xin, a bioinformatics Ph.D. student who arrived at IU Bloomington in 2007 after receiving her B.S. in biology from Peking University in 2003. Her research focuses on the involvement of microRNA in breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance, as well as computational prediction of functional residues in protein structures and their involvement in human inherited and somatic disease.
Brown, a graduate of Indiana University (B.S., 1978; M.S. in computer science, 1982; M.D., 1985), is founder, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Interactive Intelligence. With more than 20 years of experience in the enterprise software industry, Brown is widely admired as a technology innovator and entrepreneurial expert. He was honored by Computer Telephony Magazine as its 1997 Star of the Industry and was Ernst and Young's Indiana Heartland 2000 Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2006 Brown received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and was named a "Top Voice of IP Communications" by Internet Telephony magazine. In 2010 Forbes magazine ranked Brown among its 10 Self-Made Small-Company Stars.
Last year IU Bloomington honored Brown with its School of Informatics Career Achievement Award.
"The School of Informatics and Computing is very grateful for Don's generosity," said Bobby Schnabel, dean of the school. "His gift will go a long way to further Fuxiao Xin's research, the findings of which could make an enormous impact on the health and wellness of many women. We're honored that Don finds our mission worthy of his support and are very proud to have him as an alumnus of our school."
Founded in 2000 as the first school of its kind in the United States, the Indiana University School of Informatics is dedicated to research and teaching across a broad range of computing and information technology, with emphases on science, applications, and societal implications. The school includes the School of Informatics at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the School of Informatics and Computing at IU Bloomington, where programs include computer science and informatics. The school administers a variety of bachelor's and master's degree programs in computer science and informatics, as well as Ph.D. programs in computer science, and the first-ever Ph.D. in informatics. The school is dedicated to excellence in education and research, to partnerships that bolster economic development and entrepreneurship, and to increasing opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in computing and technology. For more information, visit www.informatics.indiana.edu.
For more information, please contact Lisa Herrmann, manager of communications, IU School of Informatics, at 812-855-4125 or ljherrma@indiana.edu.