Luay K. Nakhleh (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: لؤي نخله; born May 8, 1974) is a Palestinain-Israeli-American computer scientist and computational biologist. He is the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

. Nakhleh's research is on computational and statistical approaches to phylogenomics and

comparative genomics Comparative genomics is a branch of biological research that examines genome sequences across a spectrum of species, spanning from humans and mice to a diverse array of organisms from bacteria to chimpanzees. This large-scale holistic approach c ...

Early life and education

Nakhleh was born on May 8, 1974 to a Christian Palestinian family in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. His grandfather

Elias Elias ( ; ) is the hellenized version for the name of Elijah (; ; , or ), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several holy books. Due to Elias' role in the scriptures and to many later associated tradit ...

was the first Israeli-Arab to be named Deputy Speaker of the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

. As his highschool did not own a computer, Nakhleh spent three years taking classes in

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

before being accepted into the Israel Institute of Technology. After earning his

Bachelor of Science degree A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

, Nakhleh spent a year as a highschool teacher. He then moved to the United States for his postgraduate studies. Nakhleh earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in computer science from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

in 1998, and a PhD degree in computer science from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

in 2004. During his graduate studies, Nakhleh received a 2001 Texas Excellence Teaching Award, 2003-04 James C. Browne Graduate Fellowship, and 2005 Bert Kay Dissertation Award.

Career

Following his PhD, Nakhleh remained in Texas and became an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

of computer science at

in July 2004. His early work at Rice focused on creating PhyloNet, an online tool for analyzing, reconstructing, and evaluating reticulate

phylogenetic network A phylogenetic network is any graph used to visualize evolutionary relationships (either abstractly or explicitly) between nucleotide sequences, genes, chromosomes, genomes, or species. They are employed when reticulation events such as hybridi ...

s. He also collaborated on using language data to elucidate the (reticulate) evolutionary history of the

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

. His co-authored paper on perfect phylogenetic networks was included as one of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

's top 20 papers published in their flagship journal,

Language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

. He received a 2009 CAREER award from the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

and 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship to support his research on the evolution of biological networks. While serving as chair of the Computer Science department in 2018, Nakhleh was promoted to J.S. Abercrombie Professor of Computer Science. On January 1, 2021, Nakhleh became the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering. As Dean of Engineering, Nakhleh was also elected a Fellow 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 Mo ...

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991, and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It represents 50,000 medical and Biomedical engineering, biomedical engineers, and academic i ...

, and

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

Personal life

Nakhleh and his wife Mika have two children together. He holds both U.S. and Israeli citizenship.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakhleh, Nuay Living people 1974 births Israeli Arab Christians American computer scientists Israeli computer scientists Rice University faculty University of Texas at Austin alumni Texas A&M University alumni Technion – Israel Institute of Technology alumni Fellows of the International Society for Computational Biology Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering