2005 Alumni Achievement Award Recipient - Marc L. Rigas
Marc
L. Rigas, ‘94g, ‘98g, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Bioengineering,
was nominated by the Graduate School to receive the Alumni Achievement Award
presented by the Penn State Alumni Association. Rigas manages the review
of grant applications in bioengineering and computational biology as a scientific
review administrator for the National Institutes of Health, Center for Scientific
Review (CSR), in Bethesda, Maryland.
Previously, he was a research scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development and was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His research interests included computer modeling in physiology with an application to environmental problems and risk assessment. While at EPA, Rigas served as a member of an interagency coordinating committee to develop the National Children’s Study, authorized by the Children’s Health Act of 2000. The study, currently in the pilot phase, will examine environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21.
Rigas received the CSR Director’s Cup Award in 2004 in recognition of his outstanding determination and team effort on a large trans-NIH scientific project. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, and the International Society of Computational Biology.
At Penn State, Rigas was actively involved in the Graduate Student Association and, most importantly, met his wife, Jeanne. They reside in Herndon, Virginia with their daughter, Zoe, and dog, Luna.