Cowen honored for mentoring

Professor Lenore Cowen of the Department of Computer Science was one of two recipients nationwide to receive the 2020 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award. Presented by the Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E), the award recognizes faculty who provide stellar undergraduate research experiences and mentorship, in addition to guiding students looking to take the next step into research-focused graduate programs in computing.

At Tufts, Cowen holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Mathematics and leads a research group in the field of computational biology. Her research interests span discrete mathematics, algorithms, and computational molecular biology. She applies her passion for computational biology and data science to training the next generation of successful researchers as well, with a hands-on mentoring style and a focus on helping students understand the research process.

Since 2002, Cowen has mentored 19 undergraduate students, many of whom have published with her as co-authors. Her mentees have gone on to PhD programs at institutions including MIT, Princeton University, University of Southern California, and Brown University. Students mentored by Cowen have been recognized with runner-up and honorable mention awards in the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards.