Rolf Backofen

Prof. Dr. Rolf Backofen is a full Professor of Bioinformatics in the Department of Computer Science at the Faculty of Engineering, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany. He leads the Chair for Bioinformatics and has been a central figure in advancing computational methods in molecular biology. His work bridges computer science and life sciences, particularly in modeling biological sequences and structures.

His research interests include:

• Constraint programming in biological modeling
• Protein structure prediction using simplified models
• Analysis of protein energy landscapes
• Detection of RNA sequence/structure motifs
• Prediction and evaluation of alternative splice forms
• Identification and description of regulatory sequences

He is also coauthor of the well-regarded textbook Computational Molecular Biology: An Introduction (Wiley & Sons, 2000).

Rolf Backofen received his PhD in Computer Science from Saarland University in 1994, where he worked at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). He completed his habilitation at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich in February 2000. He served as Chair for Bioinformatics at the University of Jena from November 2001 to June 2005 before joining the University of Freiburg, where he has held the Chair for Bioinformatics since.

Despite the unavailability of the full publication list due to a server error (404), his scholarly impact is evident through his long-standing academic leadership and textbook contribution. He maintains an Erdös number of 3 via multiple paths.

He is actively involved in research and supervision, though specific names of advisees and current grants are not listed in the text. His lab, part of the Institute of Computer Science at Freiburg, focuses on algorithmic bioinformatics and computational biology, contributing significantly to the European bioinformatics research community.