A part of the USDA ARS Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Unit
My Research group focuses on developing new computational methods to advance agriculture by understanding and controlling microbial communities and applying machine learning to agricultural data.
The lab has a unique research-service model. We are in a service unit of the ARS which runs its own sequencing center and provides consulting and collaborative support to the the 2000 scientists and postdocs across the ARS with a particular focus on scientists in the Southeast. We also conduct research into new computational methods
Research areas
- Applying machine learning to agricultural data (sequence, image, and chemometric data)
- Engineering and optimizing microbial consortia
- Developing Software (e.g. Itsxpress, Guidemaker) for bioinformatics
- Applying Volatiles mass spectrometry and Machine learning to agricultural challenges
- Viral metagenomics
Service areas:
- Design and Sequencing of amplicon, metagenome and metatranscriptome experiments
- The development of training courses for ARS, like our 2019 UF/ARS Machine learning Workshop
- I help guide SCINet ARS’s scientific computing initiative as Chair of the SCINet Advisory Committee
- I an working to establish the ARS AI Center of Excellence in collaboration with our Associate Administrator and Chief Scientific information officer
- Editorial board for the journal ACS Agriculture Science and Technology