Desmond G. Higgins Explained

Des Higgins
Birth Name:	Desmond Gerard Higgins
Birth Date:	1959 7, df=yes
Alma Mater:	Trinity College, Dublin (PhD)
Thesis Title:	A numerical taxonomy of the Pterygote insects
Thesis Url:	http://search.proquest.com/docview/301410442
Thesis Year:	1988
Academic Advisors:	Paul M. Sharp^[1] ^[2]

Desmond Gerard Higgins is a Professor of Bioinformatics at University College Dublin,^{[3] [4]} widely known for CLUSTAL,^[5] a series of computer programs for performing multiple sequence alignment. According to Nature, Higgins' papers describing CLUSTAL are among the top ten most highly cited scientific papers of all time.^{[6] [7]}

Education

Higgins was educated at Trinity College, Dublin where he was awarded a PhD in 1988 for research on numerical taxonomy of Pterygote insects.^[8]

Research

Research in the Higgins laboratory focuses on developing new bioinformatics and statistical tools for evolutionary biology. The CLUSTAL program for multiple sequence alignment has been developed in the Higgins lab and the T-Coffee software was initially developed in the lab with by Cedric Notredame. Multivariate statistics are used to analyse microarray data sets and molecular evolution such as the evolution of promoters, introns and non-coding RNA.^{[3] [9]}

Awards and honours

Higgins was elected a Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) in 2015.^[10] He was awarded the Kimura Motoo Award in 2016 for his contributions to the advancement of evolutionary biology and molecular phylogeny.^[11] In 2018, Higgins received the Benjamin Franklin Award for open access in the life sciences. In March 2023, Higgins was awarded the Lennart Philipson Award in recognition of his major contributions towards enabling bioinformatics technologies based on multiple sequence alignment. ^[12]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Des Higgins, PhD: Computational Biology Tree. academictree.org. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170714003201/https://academictree.org/compbio/peopleinfo.php?pid=58294. 2017-07-14.
2. Sharp. Paul M.. Cowe. Elizabeth. Higgins. Desmond G.. Desmond G. Higgins. Shields. Denis C.. Wolfe. Kenneth H.. Kenneth H. Wolfe. Wright. Frank. Codon usage patterns in Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Drosophila melanogaster and Homo sapiens; a review of the considerable within-species diversity. Nucleic Acids Research. 16. 17. 1988. 8207–8211. 0305-1048. 10.1093/nar/16.17.8207. 3138659 . 338553.
3. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20150405025534/http://www.ucd.ie/conway/research/researchers/conwayfellowsa-z/professordeshiggins. 2015-04-05. Professor Desmond Gerard Higgins B.A.(Mod), PhD.. University College Dubin. Dublin.
4. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20141214110940/http://www.bioinf.ucd.ie/. 2014-12-14. Des Higgins laboratory. University College Dublin. dead.
5. , Broad Institute
6. 10.1038/514550a. 25355343. The top 100 papers: Nature explores the most-cited research of all time. Nature. 514. 7524. 550–3. 2014. Van Noorden . R. . Maher . B. . Nuzzo . R.. Regina Nuzzo . free.
7. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20150605122305/https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/2014/10/30/irish-professor-des-higgins-in-top-10-most-cited-papers-of-all-time. 2015-06-05. Irish professor Des Higgins in top 10 most cited papers of all time. Colm. Gorey. 2014. siliconrepublic.com. Dublin.
8. PhD . Des. Higgins . A numerical taxonomy of Pterygote insects . Trinity College, Dublin . 1981 . 842505334. .
9. Des Higgins
10. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20150415092214/https://www.iscb.org/iscb-fellows. ISCB Fellows. International Society for Computational Biology. 2015-04-15.
11. Web site: Prof Des Higgins to Receive Kimura Motoo Award . UCD School of Medicine . 31 May 2021.
12. Web site: EMBL Alumni Awards Announced for 2023 . EMBL Alumni Awards . 29 March 2023 . 31 March 2023.