Biographical sketch of author

Barry Robson   IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, P.O. Box 218, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598 (electronic mail: robsonb@us.ibm.com). Dr. Robson is Strategic Advisor to IBM's Computational Biology Center. He was an “early player” in bioinformatics, protein modeling, and computer-aided drug design and is a coinventor of several successful therapeutics and diagnostics, including the Proteus/Protherics/Enfer diagnostic for mad cow disease. He was awarded a Ph.D. degree from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne for experimental and theoretical studies in protein folding in 1972, a D.Sc. degree from the University of Manchester for computational biochemistry in 1984, and the title of Distinguished Engineer from IBM for contributions to bioinformatics in 1998. He is also Professorial Lecturer at Mount Sinai Medical School, New York. Dr. Robson sat on the board of five biopharmaceutical companies and was the scientific founder of the Proteus group of pharmaceutical companies, where he served as Science Director for nine years, and The Dirac Foundation at the Royal Veterinary College, London, where he served as its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. He was Visiting Scholar and lecturer in bioinformatics at Stanford University Medical School in California, where he also assisted California companies in start-up ventures, specializing in industrialization of academic research and development, notably as Chief Science Officer at Gryphon Sciences and as Principal Scientist at MDL Information Systems. Dr. Robson is author of some 190 papers, books, and patents and was a Nature “News and Views” correspondent on proteins for five years. His current research is in exploration of possible novel algorithms as bioinformatics tools, protein modeling, and linkage of genomics to the electronic patient record for more personalized drug design.