Friday, September 11, 2009

Dr. Richard Bruskiewich - International Rice Research Institute

http://beta.irri.org/index.php/Home/Welcome/Frontpage.html
International Rice Research Institute - IRRI

http://www.sfu.ca/alumni/our_alumni/outstanding/

Dr. Richard Bruskiewich, BA ’87 - Academic Achievement
Senior Scientist, Bioinformatics, International Rice Research Institute – Manila, Philippines

Dr. Richard Bruskiewich is one of the world leaders in Bioinformatics. After completing his degree at SFU with a minor in Computing, Richard trained in Biological Sciences at UBC and became interested in combining computational analysis with biology. As a PhD student he became renowned for being the first person to transfer the genome database, Acedb, to the PC. This led to post-doctoral research at the Sanger Centre in England, one of the most internationally prestigious centers for computational genetic analysis. During this time he made salient contributions to many important genomic analyses, including the analysis of the human chromosome 22. With several world-class opportunities available to him, he took the road less traveled by choosing to carry out his research in a developing country, joining the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. At the IRRI, he is responsible for using bioinformatics to decipher the genetic structure of rice, one of the largest and most important food crops in the world. His work develops both understanding and prediction of those genetic features that are critical to crop yield and environmental and disease resistance under various conditions. Since food – particularly rice – is one of the biggest health determinants in the third-world, Richard’s research impacts the developing world in ways often overlooked by the western world.

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