Get to know Henry A. Gabb, PhD student

An interest in medical informatics led Henry A. Gabb to pursue a doctoral degree in LIS. Gabb's research goal is to mine the vast scientific literature and genetic databases for biomarkers that predict drug efficacy.

Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree?

I studied many interesting case studies while working on a master's in medical informatics. At first glance, these cases looked like computer science problems, but on closer inspection turned out to be information science problems. I decided to pursue a doctorate in LIS to see if I could solve some of the problems described in these medical case studies.

Why did you choose the iSchool at Illinois?

I was already living in Champaign. The #1 LIS program was just a few minutes away, so it didn't make sense to look elsewhere.

What particular topics interest you most?

I initially intended to study the problem of undiscovered public knowledge, particularly in medicine, but I got sidetracked by a toxicology problem. There's a lot of interest in the health effects of exposure to environmental chemicals. The EPA, NIH, et al. have published lists of suspected harmful chemicals that have never undergone risk assessment. I'm studying the degree to which these chemicals are present in everyday consumer products. This will help the EPA and NIH prioritize these chemicals and their prevalent combinations for comprehensive risk assessment based on likely consumer exposure. Some of this work was recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

What do you do outside of class?

I'm a frustrated historian, so I like to read anything about medieval history. I like programming, so I'm always looking for a shiny new programming language to try or an interesting problem that can be solved using computers. Apart from that, I go horseback riding with my daughter and watch a lot of college football on weekends.

What career plans or goals do you have?

I rejoined Intel last October after being away for four years. I'm looking forward to applying what I learned at the iSchool to information science problems within Intel.

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