astronomy

Glen de Vries

Glen de Vries is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Glen de Vries rather than just read about it. In short: Glen de Vries (June 29, 1972 – November 11, 2021) was an American entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology. He was the co-founder and co-CEO of Medidata Solutions.

Key takeaways

Glen de Vries belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Glen de Vries to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Glen de Vries from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Glen de Vries (June 29, 1972 – November 11, 2021) was an American entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology. He was the co-founder and co-CEO of Medidata Solutions. In October 2021, de Vries flew into space on Blue Origin NS-18 in a suborbital flight.

Early life and education De Vries grew up in New York and showed a passion for computers and science at a young age. In middle school, he founded a rocket club in the science lab. He attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Manhattan and the Bronx, NY. His mother encouraged him to learn ballroom dancing in high school, and he danced competitively with her. De Vries attended Carnegie Mellon University and graduated in 1994. He taught himself to speak Japanese. De Vries received his undergraduate degree in molecular biology and genetics from Carnegie Mellon University, worked as a research scientist at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, and studied computer science at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematics.

Career

In 1994, Glen de Vries and Ed Ikeguchi created OceanTek, a startup that developed Web applications for conducting clinical trials. In 1999, along with Tarek Sherif, de Vries and Ed Ikeguchi founded Medidata Solutions to provide online systems for designing and running clinical trials. Medidata made its IPO on the Nasdaq Stock Market on June 25, 2009. In 2013, he endowed the first student fellowship of NYU Center for Data Science, the Glen de Vries Permanent Fellowship Fund. De Vries sold Medidata to Dassault Systèmes in 2019 for $5.8 billion.

Blue Origin flight On October 13, 2021, de Vries accompanied actor William Shatner and two tourists on a New Shepard launch vehicle as part of the Blue Origin NS-18 suborbital flight into outer space.

Death De Vries was killed in the crash of a Cessna 172 in a heavily wooded area outside Hampton Township, New Jersey, on November 11, 2021, at the age of 49. He was a certified private pilot with an instrument rating. The plane's other occupant, Thomas Fischer, also died in the crash. The cause of the crash was not identified. The National Transportation Safety Board found no mechanical issue or meteorological reason that could explain it. De Vries was reportedly en route to Branchville, even though it has no airport. Authorities lost track of the plane during its fatal descent. As a tribute, his initials were added to the mission patch of Blue Origin's crewed flight Blue Origin NS-19, which took place on December 11, 2021. In October 2023, his collection of rare luxury watches was auctioned.

Published work de Vries, Glen; Blachman, Jeremy (2020). The patient equation: the data-driven future of precision medicine and the business of health care. New Jersey: Wiley. ISBN 978-1119622147.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Glen de Vries

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Glen de Vries claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Glen de Vries before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Glen de Vries ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Glen de Vries

In research: Glen de Vries appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Glen de Vries in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Glen de Vries is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1972 births, 2021 deaths, Accidental deaths in New Jersey, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Glen de Vries outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Glen de Vries in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Glen de Vries means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Glen de Vries out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Glen de Vries in simple terms?

Glen de Vries (June 29, 1972 – November 11, 2021) was an American entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology. He was the co-founder and co-CEO of Medidata Solutions.

Why does Glen de Vries matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Glen de Vries?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Glen de Vries.