A leading authority on DNA form and function will help shape the future of bioinformatics and genomics research and teaching programs at the University of California, Davis. Craig Benham, a professor in the Department of Biomathematical Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, has been selected as the founding associate director of the UC Davis Genome Center. Benham, 54, will also serve as the Genome Center's interim director until the campus hires a permanent director to oversee its genomics initiative. UC Davis, an international leader in life sciences research and education, launched the initiative in late 1999 to unite scientists from across the campus in better understanding the actions of genes in growth, health, disease and behavior. As part of the initiative, the campus plans to hire 25 new faculty members in genomics, bioinformatics and pharmacology, and break ground this year on a $95 million Genome and Biomedical Sciences Building. "Craig Benham is an outstanding mathematical biologist who recognizes the importance of linking functional genomics research with advanced computational and mathematical research," said Mark McNamee, dean of the Division of Biological Sciences. Benham, whose official appointment began March 1 and who will start full time in July, said he's looking forward to the opportunity to assist UC Davis' emergence as a leader in computational biology and genomics. UC Davis has a breadth and depth of expertise in the life sciences, mathematics and computational sciences, Benham said. While other institutions across the country are establishing programs that combine computational and life sciences, Benham said, UC Davis is unusual in placing priority on emerging areas of importance to biology. Benham predicted computational sciences will transform biology in the 21st century in much the same way that chemistry revolutionized the discipline in the 19th century. With huge databases of information amassing from the mapping of genomes for humans and other organisms, computers and mathematics are rapidly becoming essential tools of modern biology, he said. The very structure of DNA, which encodes the set of instructions for living organisms, makes biology an information science, he said, and rapid advances in genomics and bioinformatics create a need for educational programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. "The demand from industry for people with this training is immense," said Benham. "For the students, it's a really wonderful opportunity. It offers a chance to get in on the ground floor of new technology in a biological discipline with good employment opportunities." Benham developed the course of study for graduate students in Mount Sinai School of Medicine's biomathematical sciences program, which was one of the first of its kind. Benham joined the Mount Sinai department as a professor in July 1988 and became acting chair 19 months later. He previously was a faculty member in mathematics departments at the University of Kentucky, Wisconsin's Lawrence University and University of Notre Dame. A native of Chicago, he earned three degrees in mathematics -- a bachelor's from Swarthmore College and a master's and doctorate from Princeton University. He conducted his postdoctoral training in the Biology Division at the California Institute of Technology. He has written numerous scholarly articles on DNA structure and function, as well as patterns of loops and knots in proteins that carry out the DNA's instructions.