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 projectin 1948.?Her work was multi-disciplinary, and usedher knowledge of chemistry, mathematics, biology and computer scienceto 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.