Short Bio.
Dr. Pop is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) and currently serves as the Interim Director of the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, and as the Director of the Center for Health-related Informatics and Bioimaging. Dr. Pop received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University where he focused on algorithms for computer graphics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications. Dr. Pop’s current research interests include metagenomic assembly and analysis algorithms, software testing in bioinformatics, and dynamic models of microbial communities. His lab has developed a number of widely used open-source software tools, such as the assembly suite AMOS, the NGS aligner Bowtie, and the metagenomic assembly package MetAMOS. He also co-led the data analysis working group for the Human Microbiome Project and led the sub-group responsible for the assembly of the data generated in this project. Dr. Pop is actively involved in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels and is strongly interested in the development of educational resources for introductory computer science and bioinformatics.