Keynote Speakers

Dr.  Jody Hey, Ph.D.

Professor and Director, Center for Computational Genetics and Genomics, Temple University.

 Dr. Hey is a renowned Evolutionary Geneticist with a major focus on the understanding of evolutionary mechanisms for the origin of biological taxa. In the 1980s and 1990s, he did research on natural selection and species divergence in fruit flies (Drosophila). More recently he has worked on the development of methods for studying evolutionary divergence, studying cichlid fishes from Lake Malawi, and the divergence process of chimpanzees and human populations. His research on divergence and speciation also led him to study the difficulties of defining species.

Dr. Hey has also conducted mathematical and statistical research in population genetics. He is the author of several popular computer programs used by other biologists to address questions in population genetics. In 2004, Hey and Rasmus Nielsen produced the computer program IM which implements a method for fitting an isolation-with-migration model to a pair of closely related populations or species. For many years, Hey was at Rutgers University before he moved to Temple University in 2013.

In 1998, Hey received a Guggenheim fellowship, and in 2008, he was elected to the presidency of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Web: https://bio.cst.temple.edu/~hey/

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=w3LCFbEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Vasant G. Honavar, Ph.D.

Professor and Edward Frymoyer Chair Pennsylvania State University College of Information Sciences and Technology

Dr. Honavar received his Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is known for his research contributions in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, knowledge representation, neural networks, semantic web, big data analytics, and bioinformatics and computational biology. He has published over 200 research articles as well as edited several books on these topics. His recent work has focused on scalable algorithms for constructing predictive models from large, semantically disparate distributed data, learning predictive models from linked open data, big data analytics, analysis and prediction of protein-protein, protein-RNA, and protein-DNA interfaces and interactions, social network analytics, secrecy-preserving query answering, representing and reasoning about preferences, and causal inference and meta analysis.

During 1990-2013, Dr. Honavar was professor of Computer Science and headed the Iowa State University Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory. In 2006, he became director of the Iowa State University Center for Computational Intelligence, Learning and Discovery. He was also on the faculty of the interdepartmental graduate programs in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (serving as Chair during 2003-2005), and Human-Computer Interaction.

During 2010-2013, Dr. Honavar served as a Program Director in the Information Integration and Informatics program in the Information and Intelligent Systems Division of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate of the US National Science Foundation where he led the Big Data Program and contributed to several core and cross-cutting programs. He has held visiting professorships at Carnegie Mellon University and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Web: https://ist.psu.edu/directory/vuh14

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pD_y458AAAAJ&hl=en

Owen R. White, Ph.D.

Director Bioinformatics Department  Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) and  Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

The IGS Bioinformatics group annotates (or interprets and analyses) the huge strings of sequencing data from genomic and biomedical researchers at the center. Dr. White and the IGS Bioinformatics department are involved in large-scale annotation, ontology development and data sharing. They are the lead institution for the Human Microbiome Project’s central data repository or the Data Analysis and Coordination Center (known as the HMP DACC). The HMP was launched by the National Institutes of Health to fuel research into the microbes that live in the various environments of the human body, and to look for correlations between changes in the microbiome and human health. The HMP DACC is the central repository for all HMP data, providing specialized data management and analysis infrastructure to facilitate discoveries about the microbiome. Dr. White has advanced the use of documenting standard operational procedures, matrix management and employee training practices. His current staff is comprised of 25 people that are similarly engaged in supplying both core services, developing Open Source resources for the community and performing genomic research functions for faculty at IGS. Another critical product of Dr. White's research is to engage other researchers in large-scale interoperation, for annotation, ontology development, and data sharing. The fact that Dr. White was among the second most-cited scientists is a direct reflection of his support for several significant efforts.

Web: https://medschool.umaryland.edu/facultyresearchprofile/viewprofile.aspx?id=20313

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uwYSPwUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Workshop Leader

Dr. Peter R. Hoyt, PhD

Director Microarray Core Facility, and Bioinformatics Core facility: BIOinfOSU, Oklahoma State University

Graduated from the University of Houston with a B.S. in Biology, and followed in 1977 with an M.S. in Marine Microbiology at the University of Houston Marine Science Center where he studied the antibiotic properties of natural bacteriocins in Vibrio and related species relating how they provided for competitive advantages in mixed cultures. After working as a Research Associate at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, in 1983 he entered the UTMB Graduate Program in Cell Biology and Human Genetics earning his Ph.D. in Human Genetics and Cell Biology. His research focused on gene regulation in mice during development specifically contrasting the changes in transcription factor binding to promoters within the albumin/alphafetoprotein complex. In 1988 his work earned him an Alexander Hollaendar Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee where he studied the genetic regulation and epigenetic effectors of mouse proviral elements, and generated the first transgenic mice with functional genes at ORNL. He served as a National Cancer Institute Training Fellow at ORNL while generating ORNL’s first mice with targeted gene knockouts including the oncogenic Evi1 transcription-factor locus demonstrating the role of Evi1 in development of the mesoderm and associated differentiation of tissues during development in utero. In 2000, while working at ORNL, Dr. Hoyt joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee in the new Graduate Program of Genome Sciences and Technology. He expanded on his interest in gene expression by forming the first microarray facility at ORNL, and creating high-throughput robotic platforms for purifying DNA, RNAs and proteins. In 2005, his interest in microarray technology brought him to Oklahoma State University as Director of the OSU Microarray Core Facility, and the Bioinformatics Core facility: BIOinfOSU.  Dr. Hoyt immediately developed interdisciplinary partnerships and was able to create a Graduate-level Certification Program in Bioinformatics in 2005 and serves as the Graduate Program’s Director.  His current research interests include determination mechanisms in pluripotent cells leading to differentiation. He also uses comparative genomics for identification of multiple components used in antibiotic resistance in bacteria. As Director of the Bioinformatics Core Facility, he has multiple collaborations across the OSU campus, and statewide. He has developed workshops in Microarray technology, and Bioinformatics, and is currently involved in implementation of new learning technologies at OSU focused on providing online bioinformatics curricula.