Erkan Tüzel and James Kingsley, PhD candidate in physics, examine a
component of a high-performance computing cluster that Tüzel and his
research team use to run course-grained models to simulate the behavior of
complex biological systems. Opposite page, Luis Vidali and Jeffrey Bibeau,
a PhD candidate in biology and biotechnology, study cultures of the moss
Physcomitrella patens, a model system Vidali uses in his research.
The project was due the next day, and time had gotten
away from them. So as dusk dissolved into night, and the frst fakes of a winter
storm swirled through the trees, they hunkered down in the offce they share in
the WPI Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center and wrestled ideas from the
whiteboard to the keyboard, driven by caffeine and the immutable deadline.
At work that long winter night in 2010 were not undergraduates struggling through an academic rite of passage,
but two new professors at WPI, one a physicist, one a
biologist, racing to fnish their frst joint grant application
for what was emerging as a powerful partnership.
"It's a good thing we both love coffee," says Luis Vidali,
assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, as he
recounts the story of the all-nighter with Erkan Tüzel,
assistant professor of physics.
By two in the morning it was time for a break. Tüzel
32 > wpi.edu/+research
and Vidali emerged from the cocoon of their concentration,
stretched their legs, and looked out the window to see everything covered in white. "The storm wasn't supposed to be that
bad," Tüzel remembers. "But it had turned into a blizzard."
Tüzel headed to his nearby apartment; Vidali, unable
to drive through the deep snow, bunked down in the offce.
Tüzel returned at frst light with sandwiches and snacks,
and they resumed work, submitting the application just
before the deadline. "It would be a better story if we got the
grant," Tüzel says with a laugh.