Briefs

REDMOND, Wash., May 25, 2005. Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship Awards Program support and recognize first-, second- and third-year faculty members who are pushing computing research in novel directions. The program has just announced its five winners for 2005 [see list], awarding US$200,000 cash grants to a handful of young professors who demonstrate exceptional creativity, the potential for high-impact, innovative research, and the likelihood of becoming leading thinkers in their field.

Wei Wang, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill was one of 5 recipients of a Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship. Wang teaches courses in data mining and bioinformatics.

One of her recent projects involves developing algorithms to find structural patterns in protein databases. Her research allows scientists to compare and identify common substructures of protein families, which are indicative of their function. These discovered patterns can then be used to classify and provide hypotheses for the functions of unknown proteins.

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