Michael Ashburner, EMBL-EBI co-founder and former Joint Head of EMBL-EBI , passed away on Friday 7 July 2023 at the age of 81.

It is with sadness that we mark the passing of Michael Ashburner, a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics and the founding director of EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI).

Michael was born in Brighton, England, in 1942. He studied genetics at the University of Cambridge, where he received his PhD in 1968. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, he returned to Cambridge as a faculty member in the Department of Genetics.

Michael was a leading light in the study of Drosophila melanogaster, a fruit fly commonly used as a model organism in genetics research. His work provided important insights, enabling the sequencing of the entire genome of the fly.

In 1994, Michael took on a leadership role establishing EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) to provide a centralised resource for biological data. For the period 1994-2001 he was the first Research Coordinator and Joint Head of EMBL-EBI. During this period he held a joint appointment as a Professor of Biology at the University of Cambridge.

Michael was also a co-creator of the Gene Ontology, a standardised vocabulary for describing genes and gene products. The Gene Ontology has become an essential tool for biologists around the world, and it has had a profound impact on our understanding of gene function.

Michael was a brilliant scientist, a gifted leader, and a generous mentor. He will be remembered as a valued colleague and friend and a giant in the field of bioinformatics.

Condolences

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