Apr 10, 2020

Bioinformatics Community Mourns Huck Alum James Taylor

Highly esteemed data scientist and advocate worked with a number of Huck Institutes researchers at the Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics.

Penn State and the wider scientific community are mourning the death of Dr. James Peter Taylor, a pioneering bioinformatician who was heavily involved in the development of the influential Galaxy platform and who worked alongside a number of Huck researchers while doing his postgraduate studies at Penn State.

"I may have been on James’ thesis committee, but I learned far more from him than he did from me," said Ross Hardison, a longtime Penn State faculty member.

Taylor was born in 1979. He received his BS in Computer Science from the University of Vermont in 2000. He completed his PhD at Penn State in just three years, gained postdoctoral experience at NYU, and eventually become an Assistant Professor at Emory University in 2008. In 2014, he joined the Biology department at Johns Hopkins University.

He passed away on April 2. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and collaborators at this difficult time.

A much more comprehensive description of Taylor's life, impact, and legacy can be found on the Galaxy Project's website, along with tributes from friends and colleagues.