Owen R. White

Owen R. White is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, serving as Associate Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences and Associate Director of Research Collaboration & Development. He leads a team of 25 scientists and engineers developing genomic annotation pipelines and data analysis tools for state-of-the-art research in microbiome and multi-omic studies.

His academic background includes:

• BS in Biotechnology from the University of Massachusetts (1985)
• PhD in Molecular Biology from New Mexico State University (1992)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Genome Informatics at the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) (1994)

Dr. White's research spans bioinformatics, genomics, transcriptomics, and metagenomics with emphasis on data management, metadata standards, ontologies, and cloud systems. His work has been foundational for large-scale initiatives like the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) and Integrative Human Microbiome Project (iHMP), generating over 50,000 datasets totaling 10 terabytes of multi-omic data.

Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward neuroscience multi-omics (BRAIN Initiative), cloud-based data infrastructure, and ethical data sharing frameworks. His work consistently bridges microbiome research with emerging fields like single-cell analysis and Alzheimer's disease biomarker discovery through integrated data platforms.

Notable awards include:

• Benjamin Franklin Award for Open Access in the Life Sciences (2015)
• Kumho Science International Award in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (2001)

As Principal Investigator for major NIH-funded centers, he has secured sustained support for the HMP Data Analysis and Coordination Center and iHMP Data Coordination Center. His team's work combines fee-for-service models with collaborative research funding to maintain cutting-edge genomic analysis capabilities.

The Institute for Genome Sciences houses his computational team responsible for developing production annotation pipelines, database systems, and visualization tools that serve researchers across the University of Maryland School of Medicine and national consortia.