{"id":24534,"date":"2023-07-27T10:11:35","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T10:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/?page_id=24534"},"modified":"2023-12-07T12:21:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T12:21:42","slug":"michael-ashburner","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/community\/obituaries\/michael-ashburner\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Ashburner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"vf-grid | vf-grid__col-3\"><div class=\"vf-grid__col--span-2\"><!--[vf\/content]-->\n<div class=\"vf-content\">\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">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.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u2019s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI).<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1994, Michael took on a leadership role establishing EMBL\u2019s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) to provide a centralised resource for biological data. For the period 1994-2001 he was the \ufb01rst 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.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Condolences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you would like to add a message of condolence for inclusion on the&nbsp;EMBL Alumni Obituaries\u2019 page, please contact the&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:alumni@embl.org\">Alumni Relations team<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"\"><!--[vf\/content]-->\n<div class=\"vf-content\">\n\n<figure class=\"vf-figure wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"837\" class=\"vf-figure__image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Plos_ashburner-modified-1-1024x837.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24544\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Plos_ashburner-modified-1-1024x837.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Plos_ashburner-modified-1-300x245.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Plos_ashburner-modified-1-768x628.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Plos_ashburner-modified-1.jpeg 1240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"vf-figure__caption\">Michael Ashburner (Image: Wikipedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":498,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-title-left-aligned.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-24534","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24534"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29397,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24534\/revisions\/29397"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=24534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}