Simon Tavaré (born 1952) is a British researcher who is the founding Director of the Herbert and Florence Irving Institute of Cancer Dynamics at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Prior to joining Columbia, he was Director of the

Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe. The site is located at the southern end of Hills Road, Cambridge, Hills Road in Cambridge, England. Over 20,000 people work at the site, wh ...

, Professor of Cancer Research at the Department of Oncology and Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Education

Tavaré was educated at Oundle School and the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1974, a Master of Science degree in 1975, and a PhD in 1979.

Research and career

Tavaré is a computational biologist and statistician, with his research focusing on three main areas: statistical methods for the analysis of next‑generation sequencing data, evolutionary approaches to cancer and methods for the analysis of genomics data. Tavaré's research has been funded by

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

, the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, Horizon 2020, the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His former students include Christina Curtis.

Awards and honours

Tavaré was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS) in 2011 One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2009. He held a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award from 2003 to 2009. In 2018, Tavare was elected a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

and a Foreign Associate of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. In 2020 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, the College of which he had been a Fellow while a professor at Cambridge between 2004 and 2019. In the June 2023 Graduation Ceremonies at

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, Tavaré was awarded Doctor of Science (DSc), in recognition of his major contribution to computational biology, statistics, and the study of cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tavare, Simon 1952 births Alumni of the University of Sheffield Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the American Statistical Association Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences British cancer researchers British bioinformaticians Living people People educated at Oundle School Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge