CURRICULUM VITAE

John H. Reif

Personal

John Henry Reif

Born: 1951

Madison, Wisconsin

U.S. Citizen 

Current Position

Hollis Edens Distinguished Professor, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University since 2003.

Professor of Computer Science at Duke University, since 1986.

Secondary appointment in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University since June, 2016.

Secondary appointment as Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from December 1, 2024.

Academic Address                              Home Address

D223 LSRC Building                            3112 Devon Road

Dept. of Computer Science                          Durham, NC 27707

Duke University

Box 90129

Durham, NC 27708-0129

U.S.A.

Email address:

Reif DNA Nanoscience Lab: Room 3245, French Family Science Center

Homepage: https://www.cs.duke.edu/~reif

Research Interests - DNA nanostructures, Molecular Computation, Efficient Algorithms, Parallel Computation, Robotic Motion Planning, and Optical Computing.

Recreational Interests - skiing and cross-country skiing, wind surfing, canoeing and hiking

Education

Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics (Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, July 1977) Thesis title: Combinatorial Aspects of Symbolic Program Optimization. Thesis advisor: Harry R. Lewis (Previously Dean of Harvard College)

M.S. in Applied Mathematics (Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Spring 1975)

B.S., magna cum laude, in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, (Tufts University, Medford, MA, Spring 1973)

Enrolled in independent study in mathematics, computation and optics during Fall 1970 - Spring 1973, funded by a grant from the Sloan Foundation's Unified Science Study Program.

Note: While an undergraduate Fall 1970 - Spring 1973 at Tufts U., Reif was in the Unified Science Study Program(USSP), an interdisciplinary independent study program (spanning mathematics, computer science, physics, and engineering disciplines) funded by a grant from the Sloan Foundation. His undergraduate projects were funding under this program and included: stochastic analysis and computer simulations of neural nets, design of computer made holograms, software for structural analysis of geodesic domes, and a computer generated a short animated movie. Reif was given a full scholarship and graduated from Tufts in 3 Years, Magna cum laude.

Wellesley High School, Wellesley, MA, Spring 1970

Faculty Positions

A. Hollis Edens Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University, September 1, 2003 to present.

Professor, Duke University, Summer 1986 to present

Distinguished Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (FCIT), King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (10/2011-9/2014).

Visiting Professor (Sabbatical), Carnegie Mellon University, Spring 1994.

Visiting Scientist, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, CA, Spring 1986

Associate Professor, Harvard University, Spring 1983 to Spring 1986

Visiting Scientist (Sabbatical), Laboratory for Computer Science at M.I.T., Fall 1984

Assistant Professor, Harvard University, Fall 1979 to Spring 1983

Assistant Professor, University of Rochester, New York, Fall 1978 to Spring 1979

Research Associate, University of Rochester, New York, Fall 1977 to Fall 1978

(Research Assistant, Harvard University, Spring 1975 to Spring 1977)

Memberships, Awards and Prizes

Awarded: Tufts Notable, Tufts University, 2010.

Fellow: Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), since 2003.

Fellow: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), since 1997.

Fellow: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 1993.

Fellow: Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications, since 1991.

Fellow: Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA), since 2024.

Awarded: Rozenberg Tulip Award in DNA Computing (Tulip Prize) International Society for Nanoscale Science, Computation and Engineering (ISNSCE), 2005

Awarded: Harvard University Thomas Hoopes Prize for directing the undergraduate honors thesis, by Philip N. Klein (now Full Professor, Brown University), June 1984.

Member: Faculty of 1000, since 2005.

Member: International Society for Nanoscale Science, Computation and Engineering (ISNSCE) Chair of Scientific Advisory Committee of ISNSCE since 2004.

Member: Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematicians (SIAM)

Member: American Mathematics Society (AMS)

Member: Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society.

Listed: ISI (Thomson Reuters) Highly Cited Researcher, Computer Science.

Listed: Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Emerging Leaders in America, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in American Education.

Current Postdoc Supervision

Daniel (Dan) Fu, Research topic: “DNA Computation on Cell Membranes” and “Casting Metallic Nanoparticles in Multi-layered Encapsulating 3D DNA Nanostructure”. Jan. 2022-current.

Xin Song, Research topic: “DNA computation and COVID-19 detection RT-LAMP protocols”, 2021-current.

Prior Postdoc Supervision

Xiaoju Guan (jointly supervised with Hao Yan), 2003-2005 (now Inner Mongolia Medical University, China).

Sang Jung Ahn (jointly supervised with Thom LaBean), 2003-2004. (Later postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Currently Research Scientist, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, South Korea)

Dage Liu, Postdoc 2001-2004 (Later Research Associate at North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison , and Univ. of Penn.)

Hao Yan, Postdoc 2001-2002 and Research Assistant Professor, CS Dept, Duke University, 2002-2004 (Currently Distinguished Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Arizona State University, August 2004-current.)

Thom LaBean, Postdoc 1998-2001 (Associate Professor, Materials Science & Engineering, North Carolina State University. Previously Research Associate Professor, CS Dept, Duke University)

Sandeep K. S. Gupta, Postdoc 1995 (currently Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5406).

Lars Nyland, Postdoc 1991-1991 (Currently Senior Architect, NVIDIA, Durham, NC and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.)

Steven Tate, Postdoc 1991-1993 (Currently Professor and Chairman, Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC)

Hillel Gazit, Postdoc 1989-1991 (Currently Software Consultant, San Francisco, CA)

Paul G. Spirakis, Postdoc 1982-1982 (Currently Full Professor and Chairman, Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, UK and Professor, Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics, University of Patras, School of Engineering, Patras, Greece and Director Computer Technology Institute, Patris, Greece.)

Current Graduate Students (Ph.D. candidates)

Rajiv Nagipogu, Tentative Ph.D. thesis topic: “Adaptive molecular computing systems”. Projected Date of Graduation: Fall 2025.

Graduate Student Supervision (Completed Degrees):

Dan Fu: Ph.D. thesis topic: “Design Optimization of Encapsulating 3D DNA Nanostructures with Curvature and Multi-layers”. Date of Graduation: Dec. 2022.   
Xin Song: Ph.D. thesis topic: “Novel Techniques and Applications in Molecular Computing, Data Storage, Diagnostics, and Fabrication”. Date of Graduation: Fall 2021.

Ming Yang: M.S, thesis topic: “Social DNA Nanorobots”. Graduation: Fall 2021.

Shalin Shah, Ph.D. thesis: “Programming DNA for Molecular-Scale Temporal Barcoding and Enzymatic Computation”. Date of Graduation: Spring 2020.

Abeer Eshra: Ph.D. thesis: “Computing Machine Implementation using DNA - Reusable DNA Circuits”. Menoufia University Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Date of Graduation: Spring 2019. (Currently Postdoc with Damian Woods at at Maynooth University, Ireland)

Reem Mokhtar, M.S. thesis: “Modeling DNA Nanodevices Using Graph Rewrite Systems”. Date of Graduation: Spring 2019.

Tianqi Song, Ph.D. thesis topic: “Theory and Experiments in DNA Analog Computation”. Date of Graduation: Summer 2018. (Currently Postdoc at Cal Tech).

Hieu Bui, Ph.D. thesis topic: “Localized DNA Computation”. Date of Graduation: Spring 2017. (Currently National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)).

Sudhanshu Garg, Ph.D. thesis topic: “Programming Molecular Devices using Nucleic Acid Hairpins
”. Date of Graduation: May 2016. (Currently Research Scientist at LinkedIn, Sunnyvale, California).

Nikhil Gopalkrishnan, Duke University Ph.D. thesis topic: “Computational and Experimental DNA Self-Assembly”. Date of Graduation: Fall 2012. (Currently Postdoctoral Assistant, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA in the laboratory of Peng Yin. Now Director of Research at 3EO Health, Inc.)

Harish Chandran, Duke University Ph.D. thesis topic: “A Theoretical and Experimental Study of DNA Self-assembly”. Date of Graduation: Fall 2012. Currently Research Scientist, DeepMind, Mountain View, California 94043 (Previously 2012-2017, Research Scientist and Tech Lead Manager at Google Research,