Alumni Hall Of Fame

Terry Gaasterland

Photo of Terry Gaasterland
Graduation Year:
1992
Dissertation:
Generating Cooperative Answers in Deductive Databases

         

Terry Gaasterland received her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Duke University. Following her studies, Gaasterland worked as a software engineer in Industrial Process Control at Texas Instruments. In 1986, Gaasterland came to the University of Maryland where she worked as a Research Assistant in the Department of Computer Science. In 1988 and 1992 respectively, Gaasterland received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland under Jack Minker.

Following her professional studies, Gaasterland was named an Enrico Fermi Postdoctoral Scholar in Mathematics and Computer Science. She focused on "cooperative answering" (the concept of databases providing users with specifically tailored answers to their search queries), natural language processing, and deductive database research on the interpretation of the first three DOE-funded microbial genomes and a fourth Canadian- funded archaeal genome. Gaasterland served as a Professor and Head of Laboratory at the Rockefeller University from 1998 until 2002, where she focused on the integration of gene expression data and genome sequence data analysis in human and model eukaryotic organisms. 

While at Rockefeller University, Gaasterland built the system MAGPIE (Multipurpose Automated Genome Project Investigation Environment for Ongoing Sequencing Projects). Its goals are to analyze sequence data in real-time during and beyond the lifetime of a sequencing project and to explore how to use deductive inference and large-scale distributed data techniques to divide the results into a human-readable and- queryable form. 

From 1999 to 2003, Gaasterland received a numerous amount of honors including the Mallinkrodt Foundation Fellowship, the Sinsheimer Foundation Fellowship, the NSF CAREER Award, the Burroughs Wellcome New Investigator Award, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, and the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering. She was also the Founding Officer of the International Society for Computational Biology and was elected as Vice President in 2006. Currently, Gaasterland designs and uses computational tools to decipher and interrogate cell systems through integrated analysis of genomic and proteinic data. 

Inductees

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Narendra Ahuja
PhD 1979

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Michael Antonov
Bachelor's 2003

Photo of J. Gary Augustson

J. Gary Augustson
Master's 1969

Photo of David Baggett

David Baggett
Bachelor's 1992

Photo of Suman Banerjee

Suman Banerjee
PhD 2003

Photo of Sergey Brin

Sergey Brin
Bachelor's 1993

Photo of Paul Capriolo

Paul Capriolo
Bachelor's 2006

Photo of Anthony Casalena

Anthony Casalena
Bachelor's 2005

Photo of Charles Dyer

Charles Dyer
PhD 1979

Photo of Gary Flake

Gary Flake
PhD 1993

Photo of Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi
PhD 2003

Photo of Howard Gobioff

Howard Gobioff
Bachelor's 1993

Photo of Naresh Gupta

Naresh Gupta
PhD 1993

Photo of Patrick Jenkins

Patrick Jenkins
Bachelor's 2006

Photo of Vipin Kumar

Vipin Kumar
PhD 1982

Photo of Ronald Larsen

Ronald Larsen
PhD 1981

Photo of Haroon Mokhtarzada

Haroon Mokhtarzada
Bachelor's 2001

Photo of Idris Mokhtarzada

Idris Mokhtarzada
Bachelor's 2010

Photo of Zeki Mokhtarzada

Zeki Mokhtarzada
Bachelor's 2001

Photo of Shmuel Peleg

Shmuel Peleg
PhD 1979

Photo of Andrew Reisse

Andrew Reisse
Bachelor's 2001

Photo of Glenn Ricart

Glenn Ricart
PhD 1980

Photo of Debanjan Saha

Debanjan Saha
PhD 1995

Photo of Pooja Sankar

Pooja Sankar
Master's 2004

Photo of Jagdeep Singh

Jagdeep Singh
Bachelor's 1987

Photo of Aya Soffer

Aya Soffer
PhD 1995

Photo of Lee Spector

Lee Spector
PhD 1992

Photo of Granger Sutton

Granger Sutton
PhD 1992

Photo of Qiang Yang

Qiang Yang
PhD 1989

Photo of Shayan Zadeh

Shayan Zadeh
Master's 2002