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Dr. Nancy Cox
The 2002 Alumni Of The Year is Dr. Nancy Cox, Class of 1974 at Hillsboro High School.
Dr. Nancy Cox, who as a researcher at the University of Chicago, was the first to identify a gene for Type 2 Diabetes, was selected for the 2002 Outstanding Alumni Award by the Hillsboro Education Foundation. The award was presented at the Foundation's annual dinner on Friday, May 17, 2002 at the Hillsboro Country Club.Dr. Cox works as the scientific director of the Computational Biology and Bioinformatic Care Facility at the University of Chicago. She is principal investigator on three grants awarded from the National Institutes of Health. In addition to research, Dr. Cox serves on the External Review and Advisory Board of Joslin Diabetes Center, the Mammalian Genetics Study Section of the National Institutes of Health, and the Program Committe of the American Society of Human Genetics.
She has published more than 150 scientific articles, including those describing the first mapping of a gene for a simple form of Diabetes called MODY, the first mapping studies in Type 2 Diabetes, the first identification of a gene for MODY, and the first identification of a gene for Type 2 Diabetes.
After graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1974 she earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Notre Dame in 1978. She was named a Notre Dame Scholar and graduated with high honors.
She was awarded a fellowship by Yale University in the Medical School's Department of Human Genetics, and earned a Ph.D. in Human Genetics in 1982.
Washington University in St. Louis awarded her a post-doctoral fellowship from 1982-1985. From 1985-1987, she worked as a Research Associate at the University of Pennyslvania. She then joined the University of Chicago in 1987, first in the Department of Medicine. When the university started a new department of Human Genetics she was named Associate Professor of Human Genetics and Medicine with tenure.
Dr. Cox lives in Inverness with her husband, Dr. Paul Epstein, and their two daughters.
