Lenwood S. Heath

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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
College of Engineering
Computer Science
ProfessorAppointed: 1987
Professional Headshot of Lenwood S. Heath

Mailing Address

Department of Computer Science
2050 Torgersen Hall
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0106
United States

Contact Information

Phone: (540) 231-4352
Fax: (540) 231-7040
Mobile: (540) 392-6672
heath@vt.edu
http://people.cs.vt.edu/~heath

Qualifications

Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Computer Science, 1985.
M.S., University of Chicago, Mathematics, 1976.
B.S., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mathematics, 1975.

Expertise and Research Interests

I work on computationally solving discrete problems. By discrete I mean problems involving graphs, networks, symbolic computations, and discrete geometric sets. Often, these problems involve some kind of optimization, that is, finding the best possible solution to the problem. I have expertise in analyzing problems, determining how hard it will be to solve them computationally, and devising good algorithms for their solution.

Currently I am working on several projects in bioinformatics. One is to analyze gene expression data from microarray technologies to measure intraclonal variations among pine trees and to investigate the genetic basis for response to plant stress, such as drought. This project will eventually lead to identification of new metabolic pathways. Another project involves the computational identification of genes in microbes related to survival under extreme conditions, such as lack of water, heat, or cold.

I am taking a major role in the bioinformatics initiative at Virginia Tech, combining the work of biologists, computer scientists, and statisticians to solve biological problems.

Other Expertise

I have worked in symbolic computation, information retrieval, graph drawing, and algorithm animation. I have consulted regarding efficient allocation of bandwidth in a satellite system.

Future Research

My future research will emphasize computational biology and bioinformatics. I intend to work on fundamental computational problems that biologists need to solve to analyze experimental data and to develop models of cell functioning. I will also try to involve as many biologists and computer scientists in joint bioinformatics research at Virginia Tech. I have been working ot heighten awareness of bioinformatics among computer science faculty and students.

Industrial Relevance

Bioinformatics is obviously important for pharmaceuticals and other medical applications. There will also be applications in agriculture relevant to both plants and animals. There may be applications in the development of new materials with special properties by biological means.

Keywords

COS Keywords:

Algebra, Algorithms, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Algorithms, Computer Graphics, Computer Theory, Data Fusion, Data Mining, Discrete Mathematics, Gene Expression, Genomics, Knowledge Representation, Local Area Networks, Logic, Proteomics, Wide Area Networks.

Additional Terms:

Algorithms, Bioinformatics, Computational Algebra, Computational Biology, Computational Geometry, Genomics, Graph Theory, Networks, Symbolic Algebra, Symbolic Computation.

Memberships

IEEE Computer Society
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Previous Positions

1993-2003, Associate Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, College of Engineering, Computer Science
1987-1993, Assistant Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
1985-1987, Instructor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Applied Mathematics

Funding Received

  • National Science Foundation (NSF): ITR: Understanding Stress Resistance Mechanisms in Plants: Multimodal Models Integrating Experimental Data, Databases, and the Literature, $499,973, Sep 15, 2002 to Aug 31, 2005.
  • National Science Foundation (NSF): User-Centered Database from the Computer Science Literature, $443,391, Sep 15, 1991 to Feb 28, 1995.
  • United States Department of Defense (DOD): Dryophile Genes to Engineer Stasis-Recovery of Human Cells, $4,532,622, May 1, 2001 to Apr 30, 2006.
  • National Science Foundation (NSF): Analyzing Parallel Architectures With Algebraic Topology, $40,000, Jul 15, 1990 to Dec 31, 1992.
  • National Science Foundation (NSF): A System for Symbolic Computation in Hopf Algebras, $180,000, Aug 16, 1998 to Jul 31, 2001.
  • National Science Foundation (NSF): A Microarray Experiment Management System, $600,000, Aug 1, 2001 to Aug 31, 2004.
  • National Science Foundation (NSF): ITR-(NHS)-(sim): Computational Models for Gene Silencing: Elucidating a Pervasive Biological Defensive Response, $1,500,000, 2004 to 2009.

Publications

  • Lenwood S. Heath, Naren Ramakrishnan, Ronald R. Sederoff, Ross W. Whetten, Boris I. Chevone, Craig A. Struble, Vincent Y. Jouenne, Dawei Chen, Leonel Merwe van Zyl, and Ruth Grene, Studying the Functional Genomics of Stress Responses in Loblolly Pine using the Expresso Microarray Management System, Comparative and Functional Genomics, 3, 226-243, 2002
  • Ruth Grene, Neval Erturk, and Lenwood S. Heath, Role of Superoxide Dismutase (SODs) in Controlling Oxidative Stress in Plants, Journal of Experimental Botany, 53, 1331-1341, 2002
  • Edward L. Green, Lenwood S. Heath, and Craig A. Struble, Constructing Homomorphism Spaces and Endomorphism Rings, Journal of Symbolic Computation, 32, 101-117, 2001
  • Joseph L. Ganley and Lenwood S. Heath, The Pagenumber of k-Trees is O(k), Discrete Applied Mathematics, 109, 215-221, 2001
  • Lenwood S. Heath and John Paul C. Vergara, Sorting by Short Block-Moves, Algorithmica, 28, 323-352, 2000
  • Lenwood S. Heath, Sriram V. Pemmaraju, and Ann Trenk, Stack and Queue Layouts of Directed Acyclic Graphs: Part I, SIAM Journal on Computing, 28, 1510-1539, 1999
  • Lenwood S. Heath and Sriram V. Pemmaraju, Stack and Queue Layouts of Directed Acyclic Graphs: Part II, SIAM Journal on Computing, 28, 1588-1626, 1999
  • Lenwood S. Heath and John Paul C. Vergara, Sorting by Bounded Block-Moves, Discrete Applied Mathematics, 88, 181-206, 1998
  • Lenwood S. Heath and John Paul C. Vergara, Edge-Packing in Planar Graphs, Theory of Computing Systems, 31, 629-662, 1998
  • Joseph L. Ganley and Lenwood S. Heath, An Experimental Evaluation of Local Search Heuristics for Graph Partitioning, Computing, 60, 121-132, 1998
  • Lenwood S. Heath and Sriram V. Pemmaraju, Stack and Queue Layouts of Posets, SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 10, 599-625, 1997
  • Lenwood S. Heath, Graph Embeddings and Simplicial Maps, Theory of Computing Systems, 30, 51-65, 1997
  • Lenwood S. Heath, Deborah Hix, Lucy T. Nowell,William C. Wake, Guillermo A. Averboch, Eric Labow, Scott A. Guyer, Dennis J. Brueni, Robert K. France, Kaushal Dalal, and Edward A. Fox, Envision: A User-Centered Database of Computer Science Literature, Communications of the ACM, 38, 52-53, 1995
  • Lenwood S. Heath and Sriram V. Pemmaraju, New Results for the Minimum Weight Triangulation Problem, Algorithmica, 12, 533-552, 1994
  • Joseph L. Ganley and Lenwood S. Heath, Optimal and Random Partitions of Random Graphs, The Computer Journal, 37, 641-643, 1994
  • Joseph L. Ganley and Lenwood S. Heath, Heuristics for Laying Out Information Graphs, Computing, 52, 389-405, 1994

Profile Details

Last Updated: 6/20/2007

COS Expertise ID #844375
Reference this profile directly: http://myprofile.cos.com/heath4