NIH Names Dr Philip E. Bourne First Associate Director for Data Science

National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, has announced the selection of Philip E. Bourne, PhD, as the first permanent Associate Director for Data Science (ADDS). Dr Bourne is expected to join the NIH in early 2014.

“Phil will lead an NIH-wide priority initiative to take better advantage of the exponential growth of biomedical research datasets, which is an area of critical importance to biomedical research. The era of ‘Big Data’ has arrived, and it is vital that the NIH play a major role in co-ordinating access to and analysis of many different data types that make up this revolution in biological information,” said Collins.

Dr Bourne comes to the NIH from the University of California San Diego, where he is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Industry Alliances of the Office of Research Affairs and a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He also is the Associate Director of the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB) Protein Data Bank. Dr Bourne was trained as a physical chemist and obtained his PhD from The Flinders University in South Australia.

Dr Bourne’s professional interests focus on relevant biological and educational outcomes derived from computation and scholarly communication. This work involves the use of algorithms, text mining, machine learning, metalanguages, biological databases, and visualisation applied to problems in systems pharmacology, evolution, cell signaling, apoptosis, immunology and scientific dissemination. He has published more than 300 papers and five books. One area to which he is extremely committed is to furthering the free dissemination of science through new models of publishing and better integration and subsequent dissemination of data and results.

Collins added: “I also must recognise and thank Dr Eric Green, who served as the Acting ADDS since I announced the search to fill this new position. His willingness to take on this challenging role in its inception, and to get the ball rolling on the enormous tasks that accompany this high-priority initiative, is sincerely appreciated. Eric is certain to remain a tremendous source of knowledge and support as Phil continues the NIH’s effort to manage ‘Big Data’.”