Eugene Myers

Gene Myers is the recipient of the 2001 Kanellakis Prize for his distinguished contributions to the theory of sequence analysis and its application to genomics. Myers was a major contributor to the development of the algorithm underlying BLAST, the sequence analysis tool most widely used by biologists. After establishing the feasibility of shotgun sequencing large mammalian genomes through a series of mathematical analyses and simulation studies, he went on to lead the design of a paradigm-breaking assembler essential to its accomplishment. He further led the software development behind three historic achievements: the sequencing of the Drosophila, Human, and Mouse genomes in 1999, 2000, and 2001. These are the highlights among Myers' many contributions to fundamental algorithmic methods in genomics, including sequence comparison, approximate pattern matching, and sequence assembly.