Adam Phillippy is a research professor in the departments of Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, and Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. A pioneer of complete genome sequencing and analysis, he led the team that finished the human genome from “telomere to telomere,” enabling new studies of genomic function and disease.
The Phillippy Lab develops computational methods for the generation and analysis of massive genomics datasets, bridging the fields of computer science, genomics, and medicine. Phillippy’s team has developed some of the most widely used tools for genome sequencing, personalized genomics, comparative genomics, microbial forensics, and metagenomics. Their work has driven dramatic improvements in the cost, accuracy, and completeness of whole genome sequencing, spawning multiple ambitious projects, including the Vertebrate Genomes Project, the Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium, and the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium. Co-founded by Phillippy, these projects have since sequenced hundreds of complete genomes for humans, animals, and plants, including important endangered and agricultural species.
Phillippy has been named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher every year since 2019, putting him in the top 0.1% of researchers worldwide, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, and The Atlantic. He is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the National Institutes of Health Director’s Award, the Ilchun Molecular Medicine Award from the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the Natural and Applied Sciences Alumni Award from Loyola University Maryland. In 2022, Phillippy was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for his work on completing the human genome.
He received his BS in computer science from Loyola University Maryland and his MS and PhD in computer science from the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins in 2026, Phillippy established a bioinformatics group at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, was a senior investigator and section head at the NIH, and served as founding director of the Center for Genomics and Data Science Research at the National Human Genome Research Institute.