Celera Genomics Announces Celera Fellowship Program; Company Honors Dr. Michael Waterman as First Fellow.Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 16, 2000 Celera Genomics (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : CRA See Community Reinvestment Act. ), a PE Corporation business, today announced the launch of the Celera Fellowship Program. The program commenced with a lecture by Michael Waterman Michael S. Waterman is a Professor of Biology, Mathematics, and Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC), where he holds an Endowed Associates Chair. He previously held positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Idaho State University. , Ph.D., Celera's first Fellow. Dr. Waterman's lecture titled "Hearing Distant Echoes" will focus on the history and evolution of computational biology. Dr. Waterman, often referred to as the father of computational biology, is responsible for introducing some of the most important mathematical algorithms that have allowed scientists to assemble large genomes. In 1976 he introduced what is now known as the Smith-Waterman algorithm, an alignment algorithm which paved the way for computer-based comparison of genomic sequences. This algorithm is a key component of the BLAST system. Among many other achievements is the Lander-Waterman formula that provides the foundation for the design and analysis of physical mapping projects. Dr. Waterman founded the major journal for this field, Journal of Computational Biology, and the premier conference in this field, RECOMB RECOMB Conference on Computational Molecular Biology . He also wrote the first textbook on computational biology. The Celera Fellowship Program is intended to recognize preeminent scientists and engineers in bioinformatics, computation, technology, and the life sciences. Celera Fellows will perform collaborative research with scientists and engineers at Celera. "The fellowship program is being established to provide researchers the opportunity to work with the scientific teams at Celera, addressing the major issues that face us in genomics and proteomics," said J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., Celera's president and chief scientific officer. "It is very fitting that our first Fellow is among the leading scientists in computational biology." Currently, Dr. Waterman is an associate endowed professor of mathematics, biological sciences, and computer science at the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission (USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. ). Prior to joining USC, he was a project leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) (previously known at various times as Site Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National . Dr. Waterman received both his MA and Ph.D. in statistics at Michigan State University Michigan State University, at East Lansing; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1855. It opened in 1857 as Michigan Agricultural College, the first state agricultural college. . PE Corporation comprises two operating groups. The Celera Genomics Group, headquartered in Rockville, Md., intends to become the definitive source of genomic and related medical information. The PE Biosystems Group (NYSE: PEB PEB Physical Evaluation Board PEB Presidential Emergency Board PEB Post Exposure Bake PEB Professional Engineers Board (Singapore) PEB Pre-Engineered Building PEB Personal Electronic Ballot PEB Performance Evaluation Board ), now conducting business under the Applied Biosystems name, develops and markets instrument-based systems, reagents, software, and contract services to the life science industry and research community. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, Calif., and reported sales of $1.4 billion during fiscal 2000. Information about the company, including reports and other information filed by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is available on the World Wide Web at www.pecorporation.com or by phoning 800/762-6923. Copyright(c) 2000. PE Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Celera, Celera Genomics, and PE Biosystems are trademarks of PE Corporation. |
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