“David E. Shaw, the legendary quantitative investment manager turned innovator in computational biochemistry, spoke to a packed auditorium of Columbia Engineering students and described his research and development of high-speed simulations that could lead to better understanding of protein behavior and improvements in drug discovery for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. Shaw was featured as part of the School’s “Engineering Icons” series, which brings leading experts who are having a major impact in different fields of engineering and the applied sciences to campus. Dean Mary C. Boyce introduced Shaw, referencing his time as a professor in Columbia’s Computer Science department in the 1980s before he became a forerunner in computational finance through his quantitative investment firm, D.E. Shaw Group. Since 2001, Shaw’s primary focus has been on efforts in molecular biology through D.E. Shaw Research (DESRES), where he is chief scientist. The evening began as a Q&A between Dean Boyce and Shaw, who also holds an appointment as senior research fellow at the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at Columbia University. Shaw showed several videos of high-speed molecular dynamics simulations performed by Anton, the specialized supercomputer built by his research group. Shaw noted that computer science has been a common thread guiding his multi-faceted career. A former teacher and mentor once counseled him to “stop trying to think of big ideas” and focus on the close study of a concrete application, since this often reveals fundamental problems whose solution leads naturally to new, big ideas.”