Ming Li is a Canadian computer scientist, known for his fundamental contributions to

Kolmogorov complexity In algorithmic information theory (a subfield of computer science and mathematics), the Kolmogorov complexity of an object, such as a piece of text, is the length of a shortest computer program (in a predetermined programming language) that produ ...

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

, machine learning theory, and analysis of algorithms. Li is currently a professor of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...

. He holds a Tier I

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in Bioinformatics. In addition to academic achievements, his research has led to the founding of two independent companies.

Education

Li received a Master of Science degree (Computer Science) from

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

in 1980 and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Computer Science) under the supervision of

Juris Hartmanis Juris Hartmanis (July 5, 1928 – July 29, 2022) was a Latvian-born American computer scientist and computational theorist who, with Richard E. Stearns, received the 1993 ACM Turing Award "in recognition of their seminal paper which establis ...

, from Cornell University in 1985. His post-doctoral research was conducted at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

under the supervision of

Leslie Valiant Leslie Gabriel Valiant (born 28 March 1949) is a British American computer scientist and computational theorist. He was born to a chemical engineer father and a translator mother. He is currently the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Comput ...

Career

Paul Vitanyi Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

and Li pioneered Kolmogorov complexity theory and applications, and co-authored the textbook ''An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications'',. In 2000, Li founded Bioinformatics Solutions Inc, a biomedical software company, primarily providing solutions for

tandem mass spectrometry Tandem mass spectrometry, also known as MS/MS or MS2, is a technique in instrumental analysis where two or more mass analyzers are coupled together using an additional reaction step to increase their abilities to analyse chemical samples. A comm ...

protein characterization. Originally developed to identify novel peptides through

de novo peptide sequencing In mass spectrometry, de novo peptide sequencing is the method in which a peptide amino acid sequence is determined from tandem mass spectrometry. Knowing the amino acid sequence of peptides from a protein digest is essential for studying the biolo ...

, the technology has been adapted to address antibody characterization. Other products have included protein structure prediction, general purpose homology searching, and next generation sequencing glyco-peptide research. In 2013, Li co-founded Technologies Inc, an artificial intelligence company. Utilizing statistical machine learning,

deep neural network Deep learning (also known as deep structured learning) is part of a broader family of machine learning methods based on artificial neural networks with representation learning. Learning can be supervised, semi-supervised or unsupervised. De ...

s, and natural language processing, the company develops a unique language-understanding platform for knowledge mining, sentence parsing, practical question-answering, and human-computer chatting. The software has been applied on voice-control navigation systems, personal tour guide applications, robotics, and other intelligent electronics.

Awards and honours

* 1996 - E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship,

NSERC The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada, CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering rese ...

* 1997 - Award of Merit, FCCP * 2001 - Killam Research Fellowship, Canada Council for the Arts * 2002 -

in Bioinformatics, Tier I * 2006 - Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Pioneer Awardhttps://uwaterloo.ca/math50/international-honours-and-awards * 2006 - Fellow, Association for Computing Machinery * 2006 - Fellow, Royal Society of Canada * 2009 - Premier’s Discovery Award (Innovation Leadership) * 2021 -

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

International Society for Computational Biology The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is a scholarly society for researchers in computational biology and bioinformatics. The society was founded in 1997 to provide a stable financial home for the Intelligent Systems for Mole ...

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Ming Living people Canadian computer scientists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Wayne State University alumni Cornell University alumni University of Toronto alumni University of Waterloo faculty Year of birth missing (living people)