The press conference will be chaired by ISMB/ECCB Conference Chair Prof. Dr. Thomas Lengauer,Ph.D. of the Max-Planck Institut fur Informatik, Saarbraken, Germany and Co-Chair Prof. Dr. Burkhard Rost of Columbia University, New York, together with Co-Chair Prof. Dr. Peter Schuster of the University of Vienna.
"Our meetings gather the new interdisciplinary community of bioinformaticians and reach out to the communities of computer scientists that supply the computational methods and biologists that ultimately reap the fruits of the research," says Lengauer, "Thus the scientists come from different academic fields, as well as from both academia and industry. Therefore, we are continually experimenting with meeting formats that can intertwine the interests of all.
"For that reason," he continues, "this joint meeting should be of particular interest to science journalists. In all of our parallel tracks, as well as in the main meeting, explanations are inclusive and the focus is on work of interest to the broadest community. The application of computational methods can solve problems of great biological and human significance, and a broader public is sure to benefit." A brief summary of the keynote talks and topics for the parallel tracks is attached to this announcement.