Harold Ray Garner (born 5 February 1954), known informally as "Skip", is a biophysicist with research careers in
plasma physics
Plasma () is a state of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including th ...
,
bioengineering
Biological engineering or
bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number ...
and
bioinformatics
Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...
. Garner was born in St. Louis, Missouri.
He received his B.S. degree in
Nuclear Engineering
Nuclear engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with designing and applying systems that utilize the energy released by nuclear processes.
The most prominent application of nuclear engineering is the generation of electricity. Worldwide ...
(minor in computer science) at the
University of Missouri, Rolla in 1976 and a PhD in plasma/high temperature matter physics from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...
in 1982. He also holds an honorary professional engineering degree also from the University of Missouri, Rolla.
General Atomics
From 1982 to 1994, Garner was a scientist at
General Atomics
General Atomics (GA) is an American energy and defense corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, that specializes in research and technology development. This includes physics research in support of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion en ...
in San Diego where he conducted experimental and theoretical research for the Department of Energy at international fusion research facilities. In his last six years at GA, he was a founding member of "The Institute", an internal think tank, where he developed artificial intelligence/expert systems, new particle accelerators, high temperature superconductors, stealth/defense technologies and biology software and instrumentation.
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
From 1994 to 2009, Garner held the P. O’B. Montgomery, M.D., Distinguished Chair, and was a professor of biochemistry and internal medicine, a member of the McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development (Human Genetics Center).
In 2005, ''Popular Science'' published an article featuring Garner's holographic video-projection system.
Virginia Tech
In December 2009, Garner moved to
Virginia Tech
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...
and became the executive director of the
Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
The Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech (formerly the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute) was a research institute specializing in bioinformatics, computational biology, and systems biology. The institute had more than 250 personnel, includi ...
and a professor of biological science, computer science and medicine.
In 2012, Garner was demoted from executive director following an audit into his hiring and firing practices.
Garner then sued the university in 2014, claiming that the university violated his constitutional 14th amendment due process rights and his employment contract, and it caused damage to his reputation.
In a 2015 settlement, he was appointed executive director of the newly created Office of Medical Informatics Translation, Training and Ethics (MITTE) for four years without limits on outside employment.
The settlement, which resolves both federal and state cases, also stipulates that Garner will not be eligible for reappointments and will resign from his tenured professorship.
Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM)
In April 2016, Garner became a member of the
Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine
The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) is a private osteopathic medical school on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, with branch campuses in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Auburn, Alabama, and Monroe, Louisiana. ...
as a professor of biomedicine and executive director, Primary Care Research Network and the VCOM Center for Bioinformatics and Genetics.
In 2018, Garner became the associate vice-provost for research development for the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine.
In 2019, Garner was also appointed as the interim associate dean for biomedical affairs for the Carolinas Campus of the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Achievements
Garner sits on numerous corporate advisory boards and advises for numerous governmental agencies. He is also the founder of several companies – Helix, BioAutomation, Light Biology (acquired by Nimblegen, acquired by Roche), Orbit Genomics (previously Genomeon), Heliotext, Quanta Lingua and Comperity.
Notes and references
External links
Laboratory website News item about their eTBLAST bibliographic search engine ''Science'', 304, (5673) 14 May 2004
Tool web site and access to news items about the search tool
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garner, Harold
Living people
1954 births
21st-century American physicists
University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center faculty
University of Texas at Arlington faculty
Virginia Tech faculty
Missouri University of Science and Technology alumni