Interview with Professor Chris Rawlings, conducted by Professor Tilli Tansey, for the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, 04 August 2016, in the School of History, Queen Mary University of London. Transcribed by Mrs Debra Gee, and edited by Professor Tilli Tansey and Mrs Sarah Beanland.
Professor Chris Rawlings PhD (b. 1954) started his bioinformatics career at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in 1982 during which time he was the Project Manager for the computing infrastructure needed for the Human Gene Mapping Workshops (10.5 and 11). From 1991 to 1996, he led a group that researched the application of advanced logic languages to genetic mapping and protein structure bioinformatics. In 1996 he moved to SmithKline Beecham, where he was responsible for the bioinformatics platforms supporting human genetics, comparative genomics, and gene expression. From 2000 to 2004, he was the Director of Bioinformatics at Oxagen Ltd, where his group worked on the identification and validation of genes and drug targets from human genetics and genomics technologies. He moved to Rothamsted Research in 2004, where he now leads the Department of Computational and Systems Biology, which comprises over 40 staff and students engaged in research into, and application of, bioinformatics, mathematical modelling, and statistics to problems from the agricultural sciences. His personal research interests are in the development and use of data integration systems for supporting systems biology and for candidate gene discovery from multi-omics datasets. He is a visiting Professor in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, and was also one of the founding members and former Vice President of the International Society for Computational Biology.
The History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group is funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is a registered charity (no. 210183). The current interview has been funded by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award entitled “Makers of modern biomedicine: testimonies and legacy” (2012-2017; awarded to Professor Tilli Tansey).
The interview is part of the History of the Modern Biomedicine Interviews (Digital Collection).
Access to the transcript of this video interview and its related material:
History of Modern Biomedicine Interviews (Digital Collection), items e2017232-e2017239.
Access to the transcript of a longer, audio interview:
Example of how to cite: Tansey E M (intvr); Yabsley A (prod) (2017) Rawlings, Chris: 01 - Early interests in science: Physics & Biophysics (04-Aug-2016). History of Modern Biomedicine Interviews (Digital Collection), item e2017233. London: Queen Mary University of London.
Note: Video interviews are conducted following standard oral history methodology, and have received ethical approval (reference QMREC 0642). Video interview transcripts are edited only for clarity and factual accuracy. Related material has been deposited in the Wellcome Library.
© The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2017.
Professor Rawlings has contributed to the Wellcome Witness Seminar on Human Gene Mapping Workshops c.1973-c.1991
