Six outstanding alumni have been selected to receive the 2014 Alumni Achievement Awards by the School of Engineering & Applied Science.
The recipients will be honored March 20 at a dinner at the Chase Park Plaza.
The Alumni Achievement Awards are presented to alumni whose achievement has been truly outstanding. Because alumni are found in such a wide variety of careers, consideration is not restricted to alumni who have followed a traditional engineering career path. In addition to career achievement, consideration is given to contributions to education, civic causes, professional societies and public service.
The honorees are:
Harold Barron, MD
Barron is president of research & development for Calico, Google’s new anti-aging startup, aimed at tackling aging and illness. Barron combines this role with a part-time commitment at Roche, where he has served as chief medical officer and head of global product development. He is also a member of the Genentech Board of Directors. From 2004 to 2013, Barron was chief medical officer and executive vice president of global development at Genentech. He also served as chief medical officer of Roche Holding AG and senior vice president of development at Genentech, which he first joined Genentech in 1996 as a clinical scientist. Barron also is an associate adjunct professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and an associate clinical professor of medicine/cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. He has been issued several patents for his work in thrombosis and angiogenesis. A Langsdorf Scholar at Washington University, Barron earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering physics in 1985 and a medical degree from Yale University in 1989.
Gaurav Garg
Garg co-founded Wing Ventures in 2013. Wing’s first fund is $160 million, focused on about 15 early-stage technology companies with products and services directed at businesses in cloud computing, mobile and big data. The firm’s goal is to build enduring public companies. Garg was a partner at Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firm, from 2001 to 2012. During his tenure at Sequoia, he helped form a number of successful startup companies including Ruckus Wireless; FireEye, which went public in 2013 and has a market value of more than $9 billion; Jasper Wireless, which is on a trajectory to go public; Netscaler, Aruba Networks, RingCentral, as well as MobileIron and Jawbone. Prior to joining Sequoia, Garg founded Redback Networks in 1996. Redback went public in 1999 and was later acquired by Ericsson in 2007 for $2.1 billion. From 1990 to 1996, Garg held engineering positions at SynOptics and Bay Networks. Garg earned bachelor of science degrees in computer science and electrical engineering in 1988 and a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1990 from Washington University.
Peter Leemputte
Leemputte is executive vice president and chief financial officer for Mead Johnson Nutrition, the leading global manufacturer of pediatric nutrition products. He led the launch of Mead Johnson as a public company in one of the most successful IPOs in 2009. Prior to joining Mead Johnson, Leemputte served as an executive officer and CFO of Brunswick Corp., and at Chicago Title Corp. He also worked as a partner in Mercer Management Consulting’s global practice. Additionally, he fulfilled domestic and international financial assignments with Armco Inc., FMC Corp., and BP Amoco. Institutional Investor magazine named Leemputte to its All-American Executive Team as one of America’s best chief financial officers four years in a row. Leemputte is a strong advocate for Washington University, serving as a volunteer for the university. He is co-chair of the Engineering Campaign Committee and a member of the National Council and is a member of the Regional Cabinet and Campaign Committee for Chicago. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1979 from Washington University and an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1983.
Christine Lorenz
Lorenz is vice president, research and clinical collaborations, molecular imaging, at Siemens Healthcare, with responsibility for innovation and intellectual property strategies in molecular imaging. Lorenz has held several faculty positions in radiology, cardiology and biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University and at Washington University where she was granted tenure. She also is a visiting associate professor of radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She joined Siemens Medical Solutions in 2000 as a senior scientist and has since held research and development management positions with Siemens in the United States and Germany. Lorenz is an inventor on nine patents. She served as a board member of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and is a member of the Executive Council of the Women in Healthcare and Life Sciences Institute. At Washington University, Lorenz was a Langsdorf Scholar, graduating with a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1986. Lorenz earned a master’s degree and doctorate from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the European School of Management and Technology.
Stephen Sands
Sands is vice chairman of U.S. Investment Banking and global co-head of the Healthcare Group at Lazard. He has been with the firm since 1994, providing strategic and financial advice to senior executives and boards of directors at leading health care and life sciences companies globally. Previously, Sands was a partner in the health-care practice of McKinsey & Co. While on sabbatical from McKinsey, Sands co-founded two biotechnology companies — Enzytech and Opta Foods —where he served as vice president, business development and treasurer. Sands also was a director of National Imaging Associates and Isogen. He is a member of the Engineering National Council and Campaign Committee, as well as the New York Regional Cabinet and Campaign Committee. In 2008, he was awarded the New York Biotechnology Association’s inaugural The Cures Start Here Business Leader of the Year Award. Sands earned, through the Engineering 3-2 dual degree program, a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Washington University in 1979, along with a bachelor’s from Oberlin College in 1977. He earned an MBA from New York University in 1986.
Jonathan Turner, PhD
An Internet pioneer, Turner has been awarded 30 patents for his work on switching systems. In 2007, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering. As a Washington University professor, Turner established the Advanced Networks Group and developed ideas for multicast switching that were demonstrated in experimental systems and then transferred to commercial practice. His 1986 paper, “New Directions in Communications,” was reprinted as a landmark article in the 50th anniversary issue of IEEE Communications Magazine. In 1988, Turner, former chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, teamed with WUSTL colleagues Jerry Cox and Guru Parulkar to found WUSTL’s Applied Research Laboratory, which he directs. Turner, Cox and Parulkar founded the startup Growth Networks, which developed high-performance switching components for Internet routers and was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2000. Recently, Turner’s research has centered on how to enable new network services by making Internet routers more readily extensible. Turner is one of the school’s first 3-2 dual degree graduates, earning bachelor’s degrees in computer science and electrical engineering in 1977. He also earned a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, and a master’s degree in 1979 and doctorate in 1982 from Northwestern University.