Professor Simon Tavaré BSc MSc PhD FMedSci FRS

Simon Tavaré joined Columbia University in the City of New York in 2018 as the Herbert and Florence Irving Director of the Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics and a Professor in the Departments of Statistics and Biological Sciences. From 1978 to 2003 he was a professor at the University of Utah, Colorado State University, and the University of Southern California. 

In 2003, he became a professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and the Department of Oncology at the University of Cambridge. From February 2013 to January 2018 he was director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. 

His current research focuses on mathematical and technological aspects of cancer research, particularly around understanding tumour heterogeneity, copy number variation, and single-cell DNA sequencing methods. 

Simon is an elected fellow of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Royal Society, and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He was president of the London Mathematical Society from 2015 to 2017, and was elected a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2018.