Christine Heitsch was recently awarded the UIUC Alumni Achievement Award.

The UIUC Alumni Achievement Award is given to alumni who, by outstanding achievement, have demonstrated the value derived from a mathematics education (BS, MS, or PhD). Nominees may qualify for outstanding professional achievement; cumulative performance through the years; or recent acknowledgement by community or professional peers.

From the award website:

Christine Heitsch
BS Mathematics (with Highest Distinction and Magna Cum Laude) 1994
Christine Heitsch is a Professor in the School of Mathematics at Georgia Institute of Technology and is Director of the Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology (SCMB), an NSF-Simons Research Center for Mathematics of Complex Biological Systems. She received her PhD from University of California Berkeley in 2000. During her trail-blazing career she has leveraged mathematics, especially combinatorics, to understand the role and function of RNA in biological systems. Read more about Christine Heitsch.