Irvin Lustig is one of the original developers of software used to run major airlines, telecommunications companies, manufacturing, transportation, financial services and the U.S. defense program. In some sense, he says, his software touches you every day -- you just never knew it.

Irvin Lustig

1979 Mathematics

Coral Park

Q: What do you remember about the night you won?

A: A few things: One is, there were a couple of other people from my school who won, and we were up on the stage together. The other is when they were talking about different aspects about the person, and when they were saying it, I kept saying, ''That's me, that's me.'' That was kind of cool. 'There was nobody else who did that,' I told myself. When I went up on stage and rose the trophy high up in the sky, I heard the applause coming from the back of Miami-Dade's auditorium . . .''

Q: What was your Silver Knight service project?

A: I worked at Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami School of Medicine implementing software for use in the hospital's surgical intensive care unit. I also implemented software that would analyze a heart signal to see if there was an arrhythmia. In 1977-1979, using computers this way was quite novel.

Q: Tell us about your life now.

A: I work for a software company, managing the sales and managing operations in America and in Europe, and the software is used by about half of the global 2000 companies. It's business software that helps companies work efficiently. I developed and now market the software. It's the gold standard.

Q:What advice do you have for students who want to be Silver Knights?

A: Find something that you want to do, that you really care about, whether or not you get the Silver Knight. You want to do it because you want to make a difference in the world.

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