Lina Faller , a junior computer science major, became interested in learning more about bioinformatics after sitting in on a graduate level course taught by her mentors, Drs. Thomas and Bergeron. Lina's experience was challenging as she explained: "The fields of computer sciences and the life sciences are very different. To be able to work on my research project, I needed to pick up quite a few concepts of genetics." A resident of Wakefield , Massachusetts , Lina is excited to learn more about the interdisciplinary field of bioinformatics and about how computer scientists can apply their expertise in the life sciences.
Professor R. Daniel Bergeron is the chair of the Department of Computer Science. He arrived at the University of New Hampshire in 1974 and specializes in computer graphics, data visualization, scientific data modeling, and bioinformatics. Professor Bergeron is relatively new to the field of bioinformatics himself and describes his mentoring experience with Lina as a process of “learning together.”
Dr. W. Kelley Thomas is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and the director of the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies. He has been a part of the University of New Hampshire faculty for five years. Since Lina and Dr. Thomas both shared the same interdisciplinary interests in computer science and genetics, she was recommended to him by her former genetics professor. Dr. Thomas provided Lina with the opportunity to observe a graduate level class he was co-teaching with Dr. Bergeron during the spring of 2006. During that following summer, Dr. Thomas was enthusiastic about mentoring Lina in her research project and became very interested in her observations.
Read Lina Faller's research article, Bioinformatics: Merging Computer Science and Genetics>>
