Dr. Bonnie Hurwitz is an Associate Professor of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Arizona and Bio5 Research Institute Fellow.  She has worked as a computational biologist for two decades on interdisciplinary projects in both industry and academia.  Her research on the Earth and human microbiome incorporates large-scale –omics datasets, high-throughput computing, and big data analytics to answer questions in systems biology.  In particular, Dr. Hurwitz is interested in how viruses re-engineer host metabolism and the implications on host-driven processes. Dr. Hurwitz is well-cited for her work in computational biology in diverse areas, from plant genomics to viral metagenomics, with over 6500 citations.