Ming Li is a Canadian computer scientist, known for his contributions to

Kolmogorov complexity In algorithmic information theory (a subfield of computer science and mathematics), the Kolmogorov complexity of an object, such as a piece of text, is the length of a shortest computer program (in a predetermined programming language) that prod ...

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, ...

, machine learning theory, and analysis of algorithms. Li is currently a university professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

. He holds a Tier I

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in Bioinformatics. In addition to academic achievements, his research has led to the founding of two independent companies.

Education

Li received a Master of Science degree (Computer Science) from

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

in 1980 and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Computer Science) under the supervision of

Juris Hartmanis Juris Hartmanis (July 5, 1928 – July 29, 2022) was a Latvian-born American computer scientist and computational theorist who, with Richard E. Stearns, received the 1993 ACM Turing Award "in recognition of their seminal paper which established ...

, from Cornell University in 1985. His post-doctoral research was conducted at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

under the supervision of

Leslie Valiant Leslie Gabriel Valiant (born 28 March 1949) is a British American computer scientist and computational theorist. He was born to a chemical engineer father and a translator mother. He is currently the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Compute ...

Career

Paul Vitanyi Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo P ...

and Li pioneered Kolmogorov complexity theory and applications, and co-authored the textbook ''An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications''. In 2000, Li founded Bioinformatics Solutions Inc, a biomedical software company, for

tandem mass spectrometry Tandem mass spectrometry, also known as MS/MS or MS2, is a technique in instrumental analysis where two or more stages of analysis using one or more mass analyzer are performed with an additional reaction step in between these analyses to increa ...

protein characterization. Originally developed to identify novel peptides through

de novo peptide sequencing In mass spectrometry, de novo peptide sequencing is the method in which a peptide amino acid sequence is determined from tandem mass spectrometry. Knowing the amino acid sequence of peptides from a protein digest is essential for studying the biolo ...

, the technology has been adapted to address antibody characterization. Other products have included protein structure prediction, general purpose homology searching, and next generation sequencing glyco-peptide research. In 2013, Li co-founded RSVP Technologies Inc, an artificial intelligence company. Utilizing

deep neural network Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural network (machine learning), neural networks to perform tasks such as Statistical classification, classification, Regression analysis, regression, and re ...

s, and natural language processing, RSVP Technologies has created software to automatically listen and respond to questions in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. The software has been applied on voice-control navigation systems, personal tour guide applications, robotics, and other intelligent electronics.

Awards and honours

* 1996 - E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship,

NSERC The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; , CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering research in Canada. NSERC directly funds university professors and students as ...

* 1997 - Award of Merit, FCCP * 2001 - Killam Research Fellowship, Canada Council for the Arts * 2002 -

in Bioinformatics, Tier I * 2006 - Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Pioneer Awardhttps://uwaterloo.ca/math50/international-honours-and-awards * 2006 - Fellow, Association for Computing Machinery * 2006 - Fellow, Royal Society of Canada * 2009 - Premier’s Discovery Award (Innovation Leadership) * 2010 - Killam Prize * 2021 -

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

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 ...

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Ming Living people Canadian computer scientists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Wayne State University alumni Cornell University alumni University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Waterloo Year of birth missing (living people)