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<p class="MsoNormal">Dear SPLS Faculty,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please see the information below from Nirav Merchant and consider signing up for a meeting time if you are involved in or have an interest in promoting bioinformatics and (biological) data science in research or instruction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
<div>
<p class="xelementtoproof"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">As you are well aware of the challenges in recruiting and retaining bioinformatics and biological data science talent on our campus. We are trying to develop a sustainable strategy and
roadmap that will allow us to align institutional resources, expertise and talent to meet the research needs. </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">We are bringing in two experts in this area (details below) March 27-28 to help formulate this plan. I would share this with faculty in your department<span class="contentpasted0"> </span><span class="contentpasted1">(link
to sign up for available time slot is below). Please</span> encourage them share challenges and limitations encountered in hiring trained students and staff, their short term and long-term vision/needs (bioinformatics/biological data science) for their lab/team.
If there are other faculty/research groups that could benefit from guiding this activity through their input, please have them sign up for a slot as well. </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Input and participation from your department is greatly appreciated. <span class="contentpasted2"><span style="background:white">We need to hear multiple points of views and needs from various research groups to
make this a more comprehensive solution. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span class="contentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Regards,</span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span class="contentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Nirav</span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span class="contentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">======================================================</span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" align="center" style="text-align:center;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)">
<span class="xxcontentpasted0"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:#0E101A">Building Bioinformatics capacity at the University of Arizona</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Bioinformatics and data science plays a crucial role in biology and biomedical research, the field has seen rapid
advance with availability of novel analysis methods and tools. Bioinformaticians are central to clinical and translational research, and the conduit for interdisciplinary collaboration for any project. Due to open-source and data sharing initiatives in translational
sciences along with the need for novel methods for integration of large-scale high-throughput assays, the need for a skilled workforce in biological data science (computational biology, bioinformatics, statistics) are increasing. Multiple UArizona departments
and centers have identified the lack of access to trained bioinformaticians and data science personnel as an impediment to their progress. There is a high demand for these skills in industry, academia and governmental agencies with an extremely competitive
hiring landscape for the foreseeable future. </span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">The University of Arizona needs to build the infrastructure and pipeline for internal talent to create a campus community
of trained bioinformaticians and biological data scientists. Through the strategic initiatives Aegis and Analytics Powerhouse we have invited two leading experts in the field of bioinformatics and data science training and workforce development, Ben Busby
and Jason Williams (brief bios below) to engage with our campus community and help us create a strategy and roadmap for UArizona. This roadmap will help guide current and future investments to meet the needs for our campus to be research competitive and productive.</span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Ben and Jason will visit UArizona Tucson and Phoenix campuses (<b>March 27-28, 2023</b>) to kick off the process.
We are requesting participation and input from your unit, please select any available slot on their</span></span><span class="contentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xGJjtHbOorhXgcfD0MF4zAg_Lhy-qaP0V60mPu-OjYI/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight:normal">schedule
page</span></a></span></b><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">. They are available to meet in person (BSRL 100) with individuals and teams or via zoom (details are provided on the schedule). If you need a slot longer
than 30 minutes, please feel free to choose multiple slots. If you need assistance or need to be added to a waiting list please contact Rudy Salcido
<a href="mailto:rsalcido06@arizona.edu">rsalcido06@arizona.edu</a></span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">===================================================================</span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Ben Busby Biography</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Ben Busby is a Director and Principal Scientist at DNAnexus, where he develops the scientific strategy for large biobank,
multimodal data integration, and machine learning engagements. Ben has also been involved in developing, organizing, and implementing approximately 70 national and international hackathons, codeathons, or challenges in the biomedical space since 2014, involving
thousands of graduate students, postdocs, and other researchers. Before DNAnexus, Ben founded the Bioinformatics and Data Science Department at the Foundation for the Advanced Education in the Sciences Graduate School on the NIH campus, growing the department
from 1-22 courses per year and supervising several dozen faculty. Ben continues to be actively involved in several biological data science research projects with collaborators across industry, government, and academia; and maintains a formal volunteer collaboration
involving variant annotation at Johns Hopkins University. Ben is particularly interested in helping graduate students, postdoctoral and senior researchers in academia, and biologists of all stripes in industry integrate data science into translational research
and productively integrating translational researchers into data science research teams. Ben is a guest editor at Frontiers in Bioinformatics, managing the topic "widely applicable biological data science algorithms across the fields of genomics, clinical
science, agriculture, and drug design." Ben is originally from Tucson and is particularly looking forward to working with the University of Arizona.</span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Jason Williams Biography</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255)"><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">Jason Williams is Assistant Director, Diversity and Research Readiness at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning
Center, where he develops national biology education programs. Jason focuses on developing bioinformatics in undergraduate education and career-spanning learning for biologists. His work includes the study of the barriers to introducing bioinformatics into
the undergraduate curriculum (</span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0224288" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight:normal">Article Link</span></a></span></b><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">)
as well as competencies for undergraduate bioinformatics (</span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0196878" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight:normal">Article
Link</span></a></span></b><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">). Jason has led education, outreach, and training for CyVerse, and has trained thousands of students, researchers, and educators in bioinformatics, data
science, and molecular biology. Jason founded LifeSciTrainers.org – a global effort to promote a community of practice among professionals who develop short-format training for life scientists (</span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><a href="https://www.bikeprinciples.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight:normal">Article
Link</span></a></span></b><span class="xxcontentpasted0"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0E101A">). Jason is an advisor to cyber infrastructure, bioinformatics, and education projects and initiatives in the US, UK, Europe, and Australia. He is also a
teacher at the Yeshiva University High School for Girls.</span></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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