Adam Siepel, Cornell assistant professor of biological statistics and computational biology, has been named one of five awardees for Microsoft Research's 2007 New Faculty Fellowship Program. The fellowship includes an award of $200,000 to support Seipel's research in computational genomics, with applications in identifying novel genes and regulatory elements in the human genome. He also will receive access to such Microsoft resources as software, conferences and engagements with Microsoft Research.

Microsoft makes these awards to young researchers in whom, they say, "lie the seeds of tomorrow's great innovations."

"The caliber of the Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellows is simply stunning. They have already obtained significant results," said Sailesh Chutani, director of External Research and Programs at Microsoft. "The clarity of their vision and the scope of their research demonstrate their potential for future leadership in their chosen field. Adam Siepel of Cornell distinguished himself for his work in tracing the intersections between computer science, computational biology, statistics and genomics. ... We look forward to seeing breakthrough ideas and great results from [the fellows]."

Siepel joined the Cornell faculty in 2006 and became involved in the analysis of the newly sequenced genome of the rhesus macaque, a worldwide project that was a recent cover story in Science. His work involves using Cornell Theory Center's high-performance computers to sort through the billions of bits of data that represent the genome of an animal or human and look for patterns that point to genes and other functional elements of the genome linked to diseases or reveal secrets of evolution.

The Microsoft award comes on the heels of a $647,000 Faculty Early Career award to Siepel from the National Science Foundation for similar research in genomics and bioinformatics.