Amanda Randles Returns to the Heidelberg Laureate Forum as a Laureate

Each year, the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) brings together the world’s leading mathematicians and computer scientists—recipients of the Fields Medal, Turing Award, ACM Prize in Computing, and Abel Prize—for a week of deep scientific exchange with a select group of early-career researchers. 

This year, Amanda Randles, Ph.D., director of the Duke Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation, attended the HLF in a historic way: she is the first participant to attend both as a student and return as a laureate.

Dr. Randles first took part in the inaugural forum in 2013 as a graduate student. This September, she was invited back to the stage as a laureate after receiving the ACM Prize in Computing—one of the field’s top honors recognizing her pioneering work in high performance computing and biomedical simulation.

“HLF was a definitive experience for me as a graduate student. I still remember the excitement of meeting people like Vint Cerf, Fred Brooks, and John Hoproft,”  Dr. Randles said. “Returning this year as a laureate was incredibly rewarding. Walking into the gala with my own table was surreal, and it was especially meaningful to meet so many talented young researchers who reminded me of the energy and sense of possibility I felt when I first attended. I hope to help spark that same momentum for the next generation and I can’t wait to see future attendees return as laureates themselves.”  

At the forum, Dr. Randles delivered a lecture exploring how her team uses advanced computing to simulate and predict cardiovascular health outcomes. {embed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=199foJeCTsE]

Continuing the HLF Tradition

The HLF is designed to foster dialogue across generations, inspiring the next wave of scientific discovery through direct mentorship and collaboration.

Aristotle Martin, a graduate student in the Randles Lab, attended this year’s forum as a participant. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for him. 

“There were two laureates I was really excited to meet: Leslie Lamport and David Patterson,” Dr. Martin said. “I was familiar with Lamport’s contributions in distributed systems, and use his invention, LaTex, on an almost daily basis in my research. I was also excited to meet with David Patterson, because as an undergrad I read a few of his textbooks for my computer architecture classes, and he is pretty much a household name in the field. It was just nice to put a face behind the names.”

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