Julio C. Facelli

Julio C. Facelli is a Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair for Faculty in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He also serves as Director of Graduate Studies in Biomedical Informatics, Associate Director for Biomedical Informatics at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and holds adjunct appointments in Nursing, Chemistry, and Physics. Previously, he directed the Center for High Performance Computing (1995-2013) and served as President of the University of Utah Academic Senate (2019-20).

Dr. Facelli earned his PhD in Physics from the University of Buenos Aires in 1982, followed by post-doctoral research at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on applying advanced computing techniques to biomedical problems, with current projects spanning Environmental Health Informatics, Big Data Applications to Biomedical Informatics, Protein Structure Prediction for variant pathogenicity analysis, Crystal Structure Prediction of pharmaceuticals, and Distributed Information Systems for clinical research. His work leverages shared computational infrastructure across projects to maximize synergy and expose trainees to diverse biomedical challenges.

His publication record includes over 250 peer-reviewed articles, with recent work emphasizing Alzheimer's prediction from EHRs, viral antigen detection post-COVID, health disparities in diabetes treatment, and fairness frameworks for biomedical AI. Research trends show increasing focus on translational applications of computational methods to clinical decision support, health equity, and pandemic response.

• Reed Gardener Award on Faculty Excellence (2012, 2019)
• Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (2014)
• Fellow of the Academy of Science Health Educators (2017)
• Chair of the Coalition for Scientific Computing (2003-2004)

Dr. Facelli's research has been funded by NSF, NIH, DOD, and DOE. He serves as a reviewer for major funding agencies and international journals, and participates in advisory panels at NSF and NIH. His group maintains strong collaborations with clinical departments through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, focusing on real-world implementation of informatics solutions. Current initiatives include developing scalable data models for EHR audit logs and creating risk scores for heart failure readmissions in home healthcare settings.