Dr. Xiaohua Hu is a distinguished computer scientist and leading authority in data science and bioinformatics who currently serves as a full professor and founding director of the Data Mining and Bioinformatics Lab at Drexel University's College of Computing and Informatics. With academic credentials including a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Regina and advanced degrees from Simon Fraser University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has established himself as a prominent figure in information science education and research. His career trajectory includes significant industry experience as a research scientist at world-leading R&D centers including Nortel Research Center, GTE Labs and HP Labs before transitioning to academia. Dr. Hu founded DMW Software in Silicon Valley in 2001 and joined Drexel University in 2002, where he earned early tenure in 2007 and has since built one of the most influential research groups in the field. His leadership in establishing Drexel's data science research infrastructure has positioned the institution among the top information science schools in the United States.
Dr. Hu has made seminal contributions to data mining, bioinformatics and healthcare informatics with over 270 peer-reviewed publications that have advanced knowledge discovery methodologies across multiple domains. His pioneering integration of rough set theory with practical applications has yielded innovative solutions for complex data analysis problems in biomedical research and commercial applications. His research innovations have been successfully translated into numerous commercial products, particularly in data mining fraud detection and database marketing systems used by major enterprises. These contributions have been supported by more than $8.5 million in research funding as principal investigator, including leadership on nine NSF grants that have propelled advancements in visual analytics and decision informatics. His scholarly impact extends through his founding of the International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics, which has become a key publication venue for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of computing and life sciences.
As a thought leader in his field, Dr. Hu serves as Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Bioinformatics and Biomedicine Steering Committee and Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Big Data Steering Committee, shaping research directions for the global community. He currently co-directs the NSF Center on Visual and Decision Informatics, driving innovation in large-scale data analysis with applications spanning microbiome research, healthcare informatics and decision support systems. His mentorship legacy includes 19 Ph.D. graduates from 2006 to 2017 and nine current doctoral students, cultivating expertise that bridges theoretical computer science with practical biomedical applications. Dr. Hu's current research focuses on developing novel machine learning techniques for dimension reduction and visualization of microbiome data in non-Euclidean spaces, addressing critical challenges in big data biomedicine. His ongoing work continues to advance the integration of computational methods with real-world healthcare applications, demonstrating his enduring commitment to translating theoretical advances into tangible societal benefits.
