Endowed Research Fund Honors Life of Natasha Parker
Marylee Williams Thursday, October 23, 2025Print this page.
Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science (SCS) has established an endowed research fund to support CMU students and honor the life of Natasha Parker, an SCS undergraduate who continuously gave back to the school.
Natasha died in July 2024, and her family established the Natasha Parker Endowed Research Fund to advance research into Ramsey theory, an area of mathematics that Natasha studied and one day hoped to investigate for her Ph.D. Along with this fund, the family created a scholarship for a student studying either computer science or mathematics.
"She was somebody who was incredibly passionate about computer science and math, and in general, learning," said Jenny Parker, Natasha's mother. "We would go to the beach and she would sit there and read a math book with a smile."
Natasha's parents, Jenny and Trent, decided to establish this fund because they wanted to support other students who were equally passionate about studying Ramsey theory, which explores the existence of highly structured objects within seemingly random objects — or order in chaos.
"I think she enjoyed the challenge of it, researching this theory," said Trent. "It's one of those theories that you're likely to spend a lot of time on and not find the answer. You're not always having breakthroughs, and it can be a painstaking process. Not everyone has the drive for that kind of research. But for Natasha, it was an unsolved problem and it just clicked for her."
A common way to illustrate Ramsey theory is through the party problem. At any party of 43 people, you are guaranteed to find five people who all know each other or five people who are all strangers, which illustrates the order hiding inside apparent chaos. While this mathematical theory might seem abstract, it's crucial for areas like combinatorics, graph theory and more. Natasha studied the theory with John Mackey, a teaching professor in the Computer Science Department (CSD) and the Department of Mathematical Sciences in the Mellon College of Science.
"Natasha was a wonderful, kind, brilliant young woman," Mackey said. "It was truly a gift that she came to Carnegie Mellon to study computer science and mathematics. She was equally passionate about creating new science and sharing science with her students as a teaching assistant. We miss her, and her spirit lives on in our work and play."
Along with performing research, Natasha served as a teaching assistant for 15-251: Great Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science. According to a fellow TA, she is remembered as a kind and patient teacher who generously gave her time to students who needed support.
"She loved to help other students learn," Jenny said. "She really wanted to see other kids succeed. In the summer, when she was home, Natasha would help her younger friends applying to colleges. Her friends gave her their essays, and she would help correct them. She wanted to see her friends go to their dream schools like she did."
Aaron Aupperlee | 412-268-9068 | aaupperlee@cmu.edu