May 9, 2008
President’s Award goes to stellar science student with time for others
Deep in the caves of Appalachia lives a tiny creature that had a role to play in the 2008 President’s Award and the success of Patrick Sullivan ’08.
The creature is a shrimp-like stream dweller called Gammarus minus that few people had ever noticed.
Sullivan is a senior in biology who has done anything but hide in a cave. He has impressed his professors, the AU community, his supervisor at the National Institutes of Health, and most recently, the Peace Corps.
He encountered Gammarus minus in the course of an academic career that has regularly led him into laboratories, often with funding from research awards. As a sophomore, he studied the genes of diabetic mice. This year, he has been working up to five days a week on cancer drug trials in the Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
As for the Appalachian crustacean, Sullivan’s work on a genetic survey of this unusual and reclusive creature was so significant he ended up coauthoring a manuscript for submission to the academic journal Evolution.
When not in the lab, he devoted much of his free time to helping others.
Sullivan helped to raise over $5,000 for Habitat for Humanity while serving as director of the Sixth Annual American Classic 5K race.
He created a letter-writing campaign that raised around $4,500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
He helped to raise over $4,000 while serving as director of the Derby Days Fundraiser for the Children’s Miracle Network.
Along the way, he has sung in AU’s choir, rowed on its crew team, served as a tour guide, trained for the Ironman Triathlon, been vice president of Sigma Chi Fraternity, served on faculty search committees, and tutored other students in calculus, chemistry, and biochemistry.
He shone in all of his classes, as well, maintaining a near-perfect a 3.96 GPA. The senior from Honolulu, Hawaii, who has majored in biology and minored in biochemistry, will graduate Sunday from the College of Arts and Sciences with honors.
Both his long-term and short-term goals are entirely in character. In the long run, his plans include medical school. Following graduation, though, he’s preparing to serve in the Peace Corps.
Wherever he goes, AU’s 2008 President’s Award winner will be sure to make his mark.
