50 YEARS BIOINFORMATICS

50 years ago, Paulien Hogeweg coined the term Bioinformatics, together with Ben Hesper (Hesper, Ben; Hogeweg, Paulien (1970). “Bioinformatica: een werkconcept”. Kameleon. 1(6): 28–29). At the ripe age of 50, bioinformatics is spread out over all the different life sciences fields, playing a crucial role in today’s data-intensive science.

At the Utrecht Bioinformatics Center, we believe this deserves national attention and that we should celebrate together. We are looking forward engaging with the public, highlighting the great research done by our scientists and increasing the visibility for Utrecht as one of the birthplaces of Bioinformatics.

We are currently working on organising a number of activities throughout the course of the year with a kick-off symposium on February 20. We also aim at contributing to several other events such as the “Weekend van de Wetenschap”,  “Meet the Professor”, “Breaking Science”, “Betweter Festival” and possibly connecting with primary and secondary schools, organising simple workshops that recapitulate the importance of computer-aided experiments in the modern life sciences.