Burkhard Rost

Burkhard Rost is a distinguished scientist leading the Department for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where he has served as Chair of Bioinformatics since 2009. His multidisciplinary background includes studies in physics, history, philosophy, and psychology, culminating in a doctorate from EMBL Heidelberg in 1994. Rost's career spans influential roles at Columbia University and leadership positions such as President of the International Society for Computational Biology. His research combines machine learning and evolutionary information to advance understanding of protein structure and function, pioneering technologies like PredictProtein, the first internet server for protein structure prediction. Rost's lab has developed advanced tools for predicting enzymatic activity, protein interactions, and subcellular localization, significantly impacting the field of computational biology. His scientific excellence is recognized through numerous honors, including the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship and fellowship of the International Society for Computational Biology. With over 300 scientific publications and an h-index of 100, Rost's work has established him as one of the most influential figures in computational biology, continuously pushing the boundaries of protein structure prediction and functional annotation.