NCBO Collaborator Nathan Baker elected AAAS Fellow

Baker's research is in the areas of computational biophysics, nanotechnology, and informatics.  He currently serves as the chief scientist for Signature Sciences at PNNL and the laboratory's Signature Discovery Initiative.  Signatures are distinguishing collections of features that identify, detect or predict a phenomena of interest, such as cyber intrusion, energy grid failure or disease progression. 

Baker is actively involved in the development of new algorithms and software for computational biology and modeling in support of several research projects.  He leads a National Cancer Institute activity called the caBIG Nanotechnology Working Group that is developing computational methods for the prediction of nanomaterial properties and the design of improved nanoparticles.  He is also chair for an American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) subcommittee on nanotechnology informatics that is working to develop new standards for data sharing and analysis in nanotechnology.  Baker is an editorial board member for the Biophysical Journal and editor-in-chief for Computational Science & Discovery.

After his research training at the University of California, San Diego, Baker joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University in St. Louis in 2002 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2006.  He joined PNNL in 2010.  Baker earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and a doctorate from UC San Diego.