Ewan Birney

Dr Ewan Birney FRS

Ewan Birney

Ewan Birney is a British bioinformatician and the Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), which is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). He is known for his significant contributions to the field of bioinformatics and genomics.

Early Life and Education[edit | edit source]

Ewan Birney was born on 6 December 1972. He studied at Eton College and later attended the University of Oxford, where he earned a degree in biochemistry. He completed his PhD at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, focusing on computational biology.

Career[edit | edit source]

Birney's career has been marked by his involvement in several high-profile genomics projects. He played a key role in the Human Genome Project, contributing to the annotation of the human genome. He has also been involved in the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project, which aims to identify all functional elements in the human genome.

In 2015, Birney was appointed Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute. Under his leadership, the EBI has continued to be a world-leading center for research and services in bioinformatics.

Research and Contributions[edit | edit source]

Ewan Birney's research interests include the development of algorithms and software for the analysis of genomic data. He has contributed to the development of several widely used bioinformatics tools, including the Ensembl genome browser, which provides access to genomic information for a wide range of species.

Birney has published numerous scientific papers and has been recognized with several awards for his contributions to science, including being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014.

Personal Life[edit | edit source]

Ewan Birney is married and has children. He is known for his enthusiasm for science communication and often engages with the public and scientific community through various platforms.