Dr. Margaret Oakley Dayhoff -- Pioneer in Bioinformatics
Dr.
Margaret Oakley Dayhoff (1925-1983) was a pioneer in the use of computers
in chemistry and biology, beginning with her PhD thesis project
in 1948. Her work was multi-disciplinary, and used
her knowledge of chemistry, mathematics, biology and computer science
to develop an entirely new field. She is credited
today as a founder of the field of Bioinformatics. This
field is defined as the use of computers in solving information problems
in the life sciences, mainly involving the creation of extensive electronic
databases on protein sequences and genomes. Dr.
Dayhoff was the first woman in the field of Bioinformatics. She was also the first woman to hold office in the Biophysical
Society, serving first as Secretary and later as President.
