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Columbia University in the City of New York
Chris H. Wiggins
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS
428 S.W. Mudd
Mail Code 4701
Wiggins is an applied mathematician with a PhD in theoretical physics working on computational biology. His research interests includes applied mathematics, mathematical biology, biopolymer dynamics, soft condensed matter, genetic networks and network inference, and machine learning.
Research Interests
Applied mathematics, mathematical biology, biopolymer dynamics, soft condensed matter, genetic networks and network inference, machine learning.Wiggins received a B.A. in Physics with a minor in Math from Columbia College in 1993 and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Princeton University in 1998. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia and is affiliated with Columbia's Data Science Institute, Department of Systems Biology, and Department of Statistics.
As of January 2014, he is also the Chief Data Scientist at the New York Times. He co-founded hackNY.org, an experiential learning program pairing computational and quantitative students with NYC startups via a 10-week structured internship program and twice-annual student `hackathons' (24-hour coding events).
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
- NSF International Fellow, Hahn-Meitner Institut, Berlin, Summer 2001
- NSF Mathematical Sciences Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 1998-2001
- Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher, Institut Curie, Physico-Chimie Curie, Paris 1998
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Chief Data Scientist, The New York Times, 2014-
- Associate Professor, Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, and Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (C2B2), Columbia University 2006-
- Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, and Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (C2B2), Columbia University, 2001-2006
- Assistant Professor/Courant Instructor, Courant Institute, NYU, 1998-2001
HONORS & AWARDS
- American Physical Society Fellow
- 2014- Chief Data Scientist, The New York Times
- 2011-2014 Selected as mentor for TechStars NYC
- 2011 Selected among 25 “People to watch in Silicon Alley” (Crains)
- 2010 Selected among 100 “Silicon Alley Insiders” (Business Insider)
- 2008 Featured in April 2008 Scientific American “Insights” piece: `At the Edge of Life's Code'
- 2008 Selected for (invitation-only) Google/Nature Magazine ‘SciFoo’ interdisciplinary conference
- 2007 Janette and Armen Avanessians Diversity Award, SEAS, Columbia University
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Learning probabilistic phenotypes from heterogeneous EHR data, R Pivovarov, AJ Perotte, E Grave, J Angiolillo, CH Wiggins, N Elhadad, Journal of biomedical informatics 58, 156-165, 2015
- Noise expands the response range of the Bacillus subtilis competence circuit, A Mugler, M Kittisopikul, L Hayden, J Liu, CH Wiggins, GM Suel, ...arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.07571, 2015
- Statistical Inference for Nanopore Sequencing with a Biased Random Walk Model, KJ Emmett, JK Rosenstein, JW van de Meent, KL Shepard, CH Wiggins, Biophysical journal 108 (8), 1852-1855, 2015
- Integrative analysis of T cell motility from multi-channel microscopy data using TIAM, V Mayya, W Neiswanger, R Medina, CH Wiggins, ML Dustin, Journal of immunological methods 416, 84-93, 2015
- Single-molecule dataset (SMD): a generalized storage format for raw and processed single-molecule data, M Greenfeld, JW van de Meent, DS Pavlichin, H Mabuchi, CH Wiggins, …, BMC bioinformatics 16 (1), 1, 2015
- Pegasus: a comprehensive annotation and prediction tool for detection of driver gene fusions in cancer, F Abate, S Zairis, E Ficarra, A Acquaviva, CH Wiggins, V Frattini, ..., BMC systems biology 8 (1), 97, 2014
- Multiple LacI-mediated loops revealed by Bayesian statistics and tethered particle motion, S Johnson, JW van de Meent, R Phillips, CH Wiggins, M Lindén, Nucleic acids research, gku563, 2014
- Bias in synapse stability leads to suppression of naive CD8 T cell activation by memory CD8 T cells during secondary responses (IRC9P. 709), V Mayya, E Judokusumo, R Medina, S Zairis, C Wiggins, L Kam, M Dustin, The Journal of Immunology 192 (1 Supplement), 191.10-191.10, 2014
- Stylistic clusters and the Syrian/South Syrian tradition of first-millennium BCE Levantine ivory carving: a machine learning approach, AR Gansell, JW van de Meent, S Zairis, CH Wiggins, Journal of Archaeological Science 44, 194-205, 2014
- Empirical Bayes methods enable advanced population-level analyses of single-molecule FRET experiments, JW van de Meent, JE Bronson, CH Wiggins, RL Gonzalez Jr, Biophysical journal 106 (6), 1327-1337, 2014
- Multiple Lac-Mediated Loops Revealed by Bayesian Statistics and Tethered Particle Motion M Lindén, S Johnson, JW van de Meent, R Phillips, C Wiggins, Biophysical Journal 106 (2), 22a, 2014