Dr Richard Durbin awarded Fellowship by the International Society for Computational Biology
The ISCB Fellows program was created in 2009 to honour society members who have distinguished themselves through outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. This year only four researchers from the 3,000 members in 70 countries were awarded Fellow status, bringing the total to 17.
“Honoring outstanding members through a class of Fellows is an important statement from the ISCB Board of Directors about the quality of researchers in our scientific community. We received many excellent nominations from around the world, and we had no hesitation in selecting Dr Durbin for his outstanding work. We hope to continue to witness many more of his accomplishments in the years to come.”
Burkhard Rost ISCB President and Alexander von Humboldt Professor/Chair, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Sciences at Technical University Munich
Richard was nominated for the award by members of the ISCB for his excellence in research and service to the ISCB community. His work has developed cutting-edge computational techniques and approaches to biological investigation for more than 25 years.
“This is a great surprise and honour. I deeply appreciate the recognition conferred by ISCB and its members. As DNA sequencing technology and computing power grows, the possibilities for genomic and biological investigation are astounding, and rely ever more heavily on computational methods and analysis. I am extremely grateful to be living through such interesting times, and to have such great colleagues at the Sanger Institute and around the world who are dedicated to delivering this potential.”
Dr Richard Durbin Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Currently joint head of Human Genetics and leader of the Genome Informatics Group at the Institute, Richard was one of the first scientists to join the Sanger Institute in 1993 while also holding a joint appointment at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. During his tenure at the Institute, Dr Durbin has guided the growth of computational biology from the sequencing of the nematode worm in 1998 and the first human genome in 2002 to the vast computing and analytic demands of sequencing and mining the information from 10,000 genomes as part of the UK10K Project that he is now leading. He also coordinates the international 1000 Genomes Project which, in addition to providing a global view of human genetic variation, has been important in developing new algorithms and processing techniques to characterise human genetic variation using new technology sequencing data.
“Richard’s work has been hugely influential in computing biology and the world-wide genomic community. I am delighted that his continuing research has received such recognition from the ISCB. The analytical techniques he has developed throughout his career at the Institute have repeatedly driven forward genomic understanding. From helping the Institute to deliver the largest contribution to the Human Genome Project more than a decade ago to leading the ambitious 1000 Genomes Project, and now the UK10K Project, Richard has always worked at the forefront of this exciting area of research.”
Professor Mike Stratton Director of the Wellcome Trut Sanger Institute
More information
Selected websites
The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is a scholarly society dedicated to advancing the scientific understanding of living systems through computation. Founded in 1997, the ISCB today serves a global membership of more than 3000 scientists in over 70 countries.
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, which receives the majority of its funding from the Wellcome Trust, was founded in 1992. The Institute is responsible for the completion of the sequence of approximately one-third of the human genome as well as genomes of model organisms and more than 90 pathogen genomes. In October 2006, new funding was awarded by the Wellcome Trust to exploit the wealth of genome data now available to answer important questions about health and disease.
The Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.
