Adam Phillippy, PhD

Senior Investigator

• Homepage
• Scholar
• Twitter

adam.phillippynih.gov

Adam began his career at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in 2001, followed by graduate school at the University of Maryland from 2005 to 2010 under the advising of Dr. Steven Salzberg. After receiving his PhD in computer science, he established a bioinformatics research group at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) and in 2015 moved his lab to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), where it currently resides. He has made foundational contributions to bioinformatics, specifically in the areas of genome alignment, genome assembly, and microbial forensics. Early in his career he made key contributions to the FBI's genomic investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks, and most recently he pioneered the use of single-molecule and nanopore sequencing for the accurate reconstruction of complete genomes. For this work he was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2019.