Brief Bio
I earned a B.S. in Biology and Computer Science from Loyola College in
Maryland, followed by a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
from Iowa State University (ISU). Upon graduation, I received both the ISU
Research Excellence Award and the university-wide Zaffarano Prize for
Graduate Research.
After completing my Ph.D. in 2007, I began my academic career as a faculty
member at the University of Notre Dame, where I spent ten years before
joining the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I am currently an
Associate Professor and serve as the interim Program Director for the
UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII) Ph.D. program in Data Science
and Engineering.
My research focuses on genome-centric bioinformatics, parallel and
distributed computing, and the integration of biological applications
with second- and third-generation sequencing technologies. Central to my
work is the development of scalable computational tools that advance our
understanding of genome biology. My group has introduced a variety of novel
biological problems--such as the influence of codon usage on protein
folding--to the broader computer science research community and has
developed several bioinformatics frameworks that have contributed to
high-impact publications in genomics. Cumulatively all of my publications
have been cited over 14,300 times per Google Scholar..
Most of my work
has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with
additional recent funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),
the Department of Energy (DOE), and the state of Tennessee.
Education
Research
Recent Teaching
Research group
- Iyanu Oduwole (4th year PhD; Genome Science and Technology, co-advised by Drew Steen @USC)
- Mengling He (second year PhD; Data Science)
- Jai Mehta (EECS sophomore)
Group Alumni
- Ashley Babjac (NSF GFRP fellow; postdoc at University of Georgia)
- Owen Queen (undergraduate Goldwater scholar recipient; Knight-Hennessy Scholar/PhD student at Stanford)
- Zhixiu Lu (EECS PhD; Senior Data Scientist at Cincinatti Children's)
- Cai John (Bredescen PhD; Computational Biologist II, Foundation Medicine. Was co-advised by the late Wellington Muchero)
- Katrina Schlum (UT-ORII GST PhD; now a bioinformatics specialist at Cincinatti Children's)
- Gabe Wright (CS PhD, co-advised by Tijana Milenkovic; now an Asst. Prof at MSOE)
- David Molik (IBMS PhD, advised by Mike Pfrender; Department Head for the Center for Scholarly Publishing, Associate Professor in Hale Library at Kansas State University)
- Shenglong Zhu (CSE PhD, co-advised by
Danny Chen; now works at Amazon)
- Abigal Prosice (2018-2019; UTK undergraduate)
- Will Markley (2015-2018; undergraduate)
- Mara Staines (2016-2017; undergraduate)
- Olivia Choudhury (2012-2017; PhD now at Amazon in their genomics teacm)
- Caleb Reinking (CRC); now CRC development lead,
former programmer and lead programmer for VectorBase
- Xuanli (Lexi) Li (2013-2016; undergraduate)
- Chris Ray (2014-2016; undergraduate)
- RJ Nowling (2014-2016 PhD; co-advised by Mary Ann McDowell)
- Kim Ngo (2013-2015; undergraduate co-advised by Patricia Clark)
- Lauren Assour (2009-2015; PhD Computer Science and Engineering, Naughton Fellow)
- Irena Lanc (2008-2014; PhD Computer Science and Engineering)
- Erliang Zeng
(former Managing directior, Bioinformatics Core; now at University
of Iowa)
- Wei Zhang (2009-2014; PhD Computer Science and Engineering)
- Andrew Thrasher (2008-2013; PhD Computer Science and Engineering)
- Rory Carmichael (2009-2012; former analyst; 2013 MS)
- Andrew Rider (2008-2013; PhD Computer Science and Engineering, coadvised by Nitesh Chawla)
- Brian Kachmarck (2009-2012; undergraduate)
- Paul Baranay (2011-2012; BS undergraduate; NSF graduate fellow)
- Shawn O'Neil (2009-2012; PhD Computer Science and Engineering)
- Allison Regier (2007-2011; PhD Computer Science and Engineering)
- Michael Olson (2008-2009; MS Computer Science and Engineering)
- Benjamin Drda (2008-2010; undergraduate honors thesis)
Recent Professional Activities
Bioinformatics updates
