Outstanding law student and Center Scholar Lucy Tournas is the recipient of the 2018 Daniel Strouse Prize.
The prize, named after longtime Center Director and professor Daniel Strouse, highlights a student whose contributions to the Center, academic strength, and personal qualities most mirror Strouse. Dr. John Shufeldt – doctor, author, speaker, and 2005 graduate of ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law – created the Strouse prize to honor his favorite professor.
Tournas is a graduate of Pepperdine University, with a focus on biology and ethics, and spent 10 years working in corporate planning, product development, and marketing. After having twins at 23 weeks’ gestation and bringing home her daughter Abby, Tournas took a few years off to help her daughter thrive and to have a second child. The experience of having a special needs child re-ignited her interest in health technologies, emerging technology policy, and related regulatory schemes.
Tournas decided to attend ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and will graduate next week. Tournas received CALI awards in courses on biotechnology and health technologies and has earned distinction as a Carstens and Pedrick scholar. Along with her J.D., Tournas will graduate with a Certificate in Law, Science and Technology, with focuses in Genomics and Biotechnology, Data, Privacy and Security, and Health Law. She is particularly interested in artificial intelligence, CRISPR gene editing, brain-computer interface technology, and the role of privacy in emerging technology.
Tournas has worked as a research assistant for several Center programs and projects. With Faculty Director Gary Marchant, Tournas has worked on the Center’s workshop on anti-aging innovation (including writing about it for this blog). With professor and Faculty Fellow Diana Bowman, Tournas assisted in drafting an OECD report on gene editing and co-authored a book chapter on nanotechnology regulation.
Following graduation, Tournas will work with professor Bowman and Faculty Fellow Andrew Maynard on gene doping in sports, a project funded by the Global Sports Institute. She will also assist professor Bowman with her work on smart cities and her study of mitochondrial donation, funded through a Carnegie fellowship.