Message From ISCB ISCB Honors Michael S. Waterman and Mathieu Blanchette Merry Maisel ach year, the International fu¨ r Informatik and chair of the ISCB early 1970s. In a memoir published on Society for Computational Awards Committee. ‘‘So much of our his Web site, Waterman has written: ‘‘I E Biology (ISCB) takes work is based on methods for finding was an innocent mathematician until nominations for its two major awards. sequence homology that, if we weren’t the summer of 1974. It was then that I met Temple Ferris Smith and for two An awards committee, composed of a constantly citing it, it would amaze us that the methodology was first devised months was cooped up with him in an group of current and past directors of only 25 years ago by Mike Waterman and office at Los Alamos. that the Society along with previous Temple Smith. Since then, Waterman experience transformed my research, recipients, evaluates the nominations developed the dynamic programming my life, and perhaps my sanity.’’ and selects the winners. In 2006, the approach to RNA structure prediction, Smith, now director of the awards committee honors two began the combinatorial study of RNA BioMolecular Engineering Research outstanding scientists. secondary structure, improved the Center at Boston University, was also statistical tests incorporated into BLAST visiting Los Alamos from a small Senior Scientist Accomplishment and related tools, and worked on the university in Michigan. Award: Michael S. Waterman assembly problem for genomes past and At Los Alamos, their fellow scientists present. He has also made important and friends included Stanslaw Ulam, contributions to phylogeny, tree Nick Metropolis, Marc Kac, and Gian- comparison, motif searching, cryptogene Carlo Rota, all towering names in analysis, parametric alignment, gapped computational science, at a time when alignment, optical mapping, haplotype the lab was a hotbed of intellectual estimation, gene family evolution, and a ferment. Waterman relates that it was host of other problems whose solutions Smith who, although trained in nuclear have brought our discipline immense physics, introduced the group to the power and respect.’’ prospects of applying mathematics to The ISCB award recognizes members biological questions. One result was the of the computational biology Smith–Waterman algorithm for community who have made major determining the degree of similarity contributions to the field through (homology) of amino acid sequences research, education, service, or a from DNA, RNA, or proteins. In their combination of the three. justly famous three-page paper, published in the Journal of Molecular ‘‘Michael Waterman’s contribution to Biology in 1981, Waterman and Smith the field goes well beyond being a changed the face of molecular biology researcher, educator, and journal and participated in launching the editor,’’ said Pavel Pevzner,who is Ronald bioinformatics revolution. R. Taylor Professor of Computer Science Waterman joined the staff at Los at the University of California San Diego. Alamos in 1975, then moved to the DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020105.g001 ‘‘He and David Sankoff are responsible University of Southern California in for transforming bioinformatics from a Michael S. Waterman 1982. He has been honored as a USC ‘stamp collection’ of ill-defined problems The founding editor of the Journal of into a rigorous discipline with important biological applications. Without such a Computational Biology and one of the transformation,’’ Pevzner said, Citation: Maisel M (2006) ISCB Honors Michael S. originators of the discipline, Professor ‘‘bioinformatics would never be able to Waterman and Mathieu Blanchette. PLoS Comput Michael S. Waterman, has been named Biol 2(8): e105. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020105 attract the top talent in computer science winner of the annual Senior Scientist DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020105 and statistics or the other members of the Accomplishment Award. Waterman is generation of talented young scientists Copyright: Ó 2006 Merry Maisel. This is an open- professor of biological sciences, who are working in the field today.’’ access article distributed under the terms of the computer science, and mathematics at Creative Commons Attribution License, which Waterman obtained a bachelor’s in permits unrestricted use, distribution, and the University of Southern California. mathematics from Oregon State reproduction in any medium, provided the original ‘‘Professor Waterman has contributed University and a doctorate in statistics author and source are credited. work of prime importance in half a dozen and probability from Michigan State Abbreviations: ISCB, International Society for fields of computational biology,’’ said University, then began his academic Computational Biology Thomas Lengauer, professor of career at Idaho State University. He Merry Maisel is a freelance science writer based in computational biology and applied was invited to spend several summers at San Diego, California, United States of America. algorithmics at the Max-Planck-Institut Los Alamos National Laboratory in the E-mail: [email protected] PLoS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org0001 August 2006 | Volume 2 | Issue 8 | e105 Professor and holds the USC Associates Mathieu Blanchette, assistant departments of the Universite´de Endowed Chair in the Natural Sciences. professor in the School of Computer Montre´al. After graduating, he did an In 2003, Professor Waterman became Science at McGill University in Montre´al, M.Sc. there as well, writing a thesis on Faculty Master of Parkside will receive the 2006 Overton Prize. breakpoint phylogeny under the International Residence College at ‘‘Mathieu Blanchette is responsible direction of David Sankoff. He then USC, which is home to 600 students for fundamental, highly cited went to the University of Washington, and an international center. contributions in several areas of obtaining a Ph.D. in Computer Science ‘‘Computational biologists today are bioinformatics,’’ said Professor (2002) under the supervision of Martin all beneficiaries of his work,’’ Lengauer Thomas Lengauer of the Max-Planck- Tompa. He spent the next year as a said, ‘‘He has trained more than a Institut fu¨ r Informatik, who is chair of postdoctoral researcher at the Center handful of prominent computational the ISCB Awards Committee. for Biomolecular Science and genomicists, served on virtually all the ‘‘His doctoral thesis contained Engineering of the University of panels and committees that guide perhaps the first reasonable algorithm California Santa Cruz, where he government in evaluating grants and for gene order phylogeny, based on a worked with David Haussler. He took fellowships, and has generally guided solution to the breakpoint median up his current position at McGill in the development of the discipline. He problem, and it also elaborated the 2003. has been an active member of ISCB now-famous concept of phylogenetic Blanchette said: ‘‘Computational since its founding, and he worked with footprinting. As a postdoctoral biology is, I believe, the greatest topic a Pavel Pevzner and Sorin Istrail to start researcher, he played a central role in computer scientist can study. It has the RECOMB, the Conference on Research working out algorithms for hardest algorithmic challenges and the in Computational Molecular Biology, reconstructing ancestral mammalian most important implications, and it which held its tenth meeting in April.’’ genomes. His most recent work brings together the most fun Waterman said: ‘‘It is an honor to join continues his interest in the inference collaborations. The main challenge, the select company of the previous award of evolutionary scenarios and gene though, is asking the right question: winners: David Sankoff, David Lipman, and regulation. And he has been active in one that is biologically relevant, Janet Thornton. We have all been fortunate the bioinformatics community since his mathematically clear, and in our choice of the right problems.’’ student days, presenting papers at the algorithmically solvable.’’ The award will be presented to Computing and Combinatorics Regarding the award, he noted: Waterman at the ISCB’s annual conferences and the Research in ‘‘Chris Overton was one of the first meeting, Intelligent Systems for Computational Molecular Biology explorers of the world of Molecular Biology (ISMB) in Fortaleza, meetings, among others. He is bioinformatics, before the name even Brazil, from August 6 through 10, 2006. currently organizing several workshops existed, and he opened the area to Dr. Waterman will deliver the annual and conferences, has attracted many young people like me. I am immensely Senior Scientist Accomplishment students to his new lab, and has been grateful for the work he did and Award keynote lecture, titled Whole highly successful in obtaining funding greatly honored to receive this award Genome Optimal Mapping, as the in a competitive environment,’’ in his memory. I owe this, and finale to the conference. Lengauer said. everything I am, to my invaluable TheOvertonPrizewasestablished interactions with three key mentors, Overton Award: in 2001 by the ISCB in memory of G. who still have much to teach me. Mathieu Blanchette Christian Overton, who was Director David Sankoff knows how to ask the of the Center for Bioinformatics at right questions. Martin Tompa can the University of Pennsylvania and a solve them the right way. And David major contributor to the field. He was Haussler has the most insightful a member of the ISCB