Sorin Istrail

Sorin Istrail is the James A. and Julie N. Brown Professor of Computational and Mathematical Sciences and Professor of Computer Science at Brown University, where he leads the Istrail Laboratory within the Department of Computer Science and the Center for Computational Molecular Biology. His career spans academia and industry, with notable roles at Celera Genomics and Sandia National Laboratories.

• Born in Târgu Neamț, Romania
• Summa Cum Laude BSc in Mathematics, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (1975)
• PhD in Mathematics and Physics, University of New Mexico (2000)

Research focuses on computational biology, genomics, and algorithmic complexity, particularly in haplotype inference, gene regulatory networks, and protein folding. His work on the human genome project and the computational intractability of the Three-Dimensional Ising Model Problem (STOC 2000) has had significant scientific impact.

Recent publications emphasize disease genomics, regulatory genome analysis, and computational methods in virology. Awards include Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (2021), Applied Biosystems Science Fellow (2003), and recognition in the Top 100 DOE Discoveries (2001). Grants from the NSF and Brown University support his work in haplotype reconstruction and computational ecology.

• Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Computational Biology (2000-2020)
• Co-founder, RECOMB Conference Series (1997)
• Editorial roles in MIT Press and Springer-Verlag series

He has mentored over 30 students and researchers across institutions, with alumni at MIT, Google, and academic positions. His lab integrates computer science, statistics, and biology to address fundamental questions in molecular genetics and precision medicine.