Erez Lieberman Aiden is Assistant Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine, where he is Director of the Center for Genome Architecture, and of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Rice University. His work integrates mathematical and physical theory with the invention of new technologies.
Erez recently invented a method for three-dimensional genome sequencing; he subsequently led the team that, in 2009, reported the first three dimensional map of the human genome. Together with collaborator Jean-Baptiste Michel, he developed culturomics, a quantitative approach to the study of history and culture that relies on computational analysis of a significant fraction of the historical record. This work led to the creation of the Google Ngram Viewer, a tool that has been used many millions of times and which has become an integral element of Google's online dictionary.
Erez's research has won numerous awards, including a New Innovator Award from the the National Institutes of Health; a Junior fellowship from the Harvard Society of Fellows; recognition for one of the top 20 "Biotech Breakthroughs that will Change Medicine", by Popular Mechanics; the Lemelson-MIT prize for the best student inventor at MIT; the American Physical Society's Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Biological Physics; and membership in Technology Review's 2009 TR35, recognizing the top 35 innovators under 35. In 2012, he recieved the President's Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, the highest government honor for young scientists, from Barack Obama.
His last three research articles have all appeared on the cover of Nature and Science. His work has also been featured on the front page of the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Uncharted: Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture, forthcoming with Penguin Press.