Leroy Hood, President of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology and an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, will receive the National Academy of Engineering’s Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize.  The Russ Prize – a $500,000 biennial award “recognizing a bioengineering achievement that significantly improves the human condition” – was conferred on Hood “for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science.”

Hood has been a visionary in exploiting the synergies between science and technology, and in viewing biology as an information science.  He co-authored the Computing Community Consortium’s research white paper “P4 Medicine:  Personalized, Predictive, Preventive, Participatory – A Change of View that Changes Everything.”

The National Academy of Engineering announcement quotes UW CSE professor Ed Lazowska:  “No single person has done more to create the genomics era than Leroy Hood.  Lee is a visionary who integrated science and technology, creating instruments that allow us to tackle some of the most fundamental problems in modern biology and medicine.”  Read the announcement here.