Michael Waterman

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Michael S. Waterman is a Professor of Biology, Mathematics, and Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC), where he holds an Endowed Associates Chair. He previously held positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Idaho State University and earned a doctorate in statistics and probability from Michigan State University in 1969.

Waterman is one of the founders and current leaders in the area of computational biology. He focuses on applying mathematics, statistics, and computer science techniques to various problems in molecular biology. His work has contributed to some of the most widely-used tools in the field. In particular, the Smith-Waterman algorithm (developed with Temple Smith) is the basis for many sequence comparison programs. In 1988, Waterman and Eric Lander published a landmark paper describing a mathematical model for fingerprint mapping. This work formed one of the theoretical cornerstones for many of the later DNA mapping and sequencing projects, especially the Human Genome Project. Waterman also authored one of the earliest textbooks in the field: Introduction to Computational Biology.