====== James Taylor ======

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**James Taylor** was an American computational biology and genomics researcher at [[Johns Hopkins University]]. He died on April 2, 2020 at age 40.((//Johns Hopkins biologist and computer scientist James Taylor dies at 40.// (2020, April 3). The Hub. https://web.archive.org/web/20230214072908/https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/04/03/james-taylor-obituary-tribute/)) His widow is [[Meredith Greif]].

===== History =====

==== Education ====

Taylor earned his Bachelor of Science in computer science from the [[University of Vermont]] in 2000 and his PhD in computer science in 2006 from [[Pennsylvania State University]], where he was involved in several vertebrate genome projects and the [[ENCODE Project]]. Before arriving at Johns Hopkins, he was an associate professor in the departments of Biology and of Mathematics and Computer Science at [[Emory University]] from 2008 until 2013.

==== Career ====

Taylor held appointments at the [[Krieger School of Arts and Sciences]] and the [[Whiting School of Engineering]] at [[Johns Hopkins University]], arriving in the Department of Biology in 2014. 

His research focused on understanding genomic and epigenomic regulation of [[gene]] [[transcription]] through integrated analysis, with the goal of achieving a complete understanding of the structure and function of genomes. He also developed a strategy to support the health of the Chesapeake Bay by detecting microorganisms in the Baltimore Harbor and monitoring their levels continuously using newly developed, portable, and rapid [[DNA]] sequencing technologies.

Taylor was a member of the [[Science Gateways Institute]] Steering Committee, and had been a member of the [[National Center for Genome Analysis]] Scientific Advisory Board from 2014 to 2016; a member of the [[iPlant]] Scientific Advisory Board from 2013 to 2016; a member of the [[XSEDE Project]] User Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2014; and co-chair of the [[International Arabadopsis Informatics Consortium]] Engineering, Architecture and Infrastructure Working Group in 2011.