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New Master's Degree in Bioinformatics Offered at GSLIS

March 10, 2006
For more information, contact: Marlo Welshons, Assistant Dean for Publications and Communications

The National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $250,000 to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for GSLIS Associate Professors Carole Palmer and Bryan Heidorn to develop curriculum for a new master's degree specializing in the burgeoning field of bioinformatics.

While bioinformatics is frequently associated with data mining and molecular modeling, informatics is impacting all biological sciences and all stages of research, from data collection and analysis through dissemination of results. To respond to the qualitative changes in biological research and specific scientific workforce gaps, the GSLIS program will train professionals to fill important roles on scientific teams.

"The daily practice of science is more effective with well-trained professionals devoted primarily to the information, in service to the science. We expect our graduates to complement the expertise of biological and computer scientists and work within the laboratories, academic departments and research centers, museums, and libraries that together provide the infrastructure for science. They will specialize in how to acquire, store, organize, archive, and integrate information, concentrating in areas of such as digital library and repository development, data curation and preservation, and ontology and standards development," Palmer explained.

Library and information science specializes in information management and systems, which makes it a natural fit with bioinformatics. Palmer and Heidorn believe that applying LIS skills will improve scientific communication and therefore lead to quicker, more efficient advancement of science.

"The expertise found at GSLIS, combined with the vast resources of a globally respected research university, makes the formation of this degree that much more exciting. Illinois is home to some of the world's most innovative scientific research centers—from the Institute for Genomic Biology to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications—and students in the program will benefit from interactions with scholars from these centers and others across campus," Heidorn said.

Palmer's research is concerned with the influence of digital resources on scientific and scholarly work and developing better systems to support interdisciplinary research and scientific discovery.

Heidorn develops and studies novel information systems such as text mining, information retrieval, and enhanced electronic document functionality to facilitate scientific work.

Palmer and Heidorn will be developing the library and information science concentration as part of a campus-wide, interdisciplinary master's program. Other concentrations include computer science, chemical and biomolecular engineering, animal sciences, and crop science.

An advisory panel has been established to consult with Palmer and Heidorn as they develop the curriculum for the degree. They include such nationally respected institutions as the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of National History, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Peabody Museum at Yale, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Biomedical Informatics Research Network.

Applications for the M.S. in Bioinformatics GSLIS concentration are being accepted now through May 15 for Fall 2006 enrollment. More information is available at http://sci.lis.uiuc.edu.

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