ORLY ALTER portrait
  • USTAR Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Human Genetics, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute and Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah
  • CSO and Co-Founder, Prism AI Therapeutics, Inc.
(801) 585-7738

Professional Service

  • NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) -DOE Cancer Moonshot Collaboration (Bethesda, MD). Invited Member, Scientific Advisory Committee, Innovative Methodologies and New Data for Predictive Oncology Model Evaluation (IMPROVE) Project. 02/2023 - present
  • Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE25) (Fort Worth, TX). Invited Member, Organizing Committee; https://siam.org/conferences/cm/conference/cse25. 03/2025 - 03/2025
  • International Linear Algebra Society (ILAS). Role: Invited Member, Selection Committee. Invited Member, Selection Committee, ILAS Speaker to the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) (Seattle, WA). 01/2025 - present
  • University of Utah Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute. Associate Director; https://sci.utah.edu/people/orly.html. 02/2024 - present
  • Supercomputing 2024 (SC24) (Atlanta, GA). Invited Member, Program Committee, "10th National Cancer Institute (NCI) Computational Approaches for Cancer Workshop (CAFCW);" https://sc24.conference-program.com/presenter/?uid=103093. 11/2024 - 11/2024
  • NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) (Rockville, MD). Appointed Co-Chair, Steering Committee, Physical Sciences in Oncology Network (PS-ON). 01/2023 - 12/2023
  • NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) (Rockville, MD). Appointed Member, Steering Committee, Physical Sciences in Oncology Network (PS-ON) . 09/2015 - 12/2023
  • NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Systems Biology Consortium (CSBC) and Physical Sciences in Oncology Network (PS-ON) (Bethesda, MD). Invited Co-Chair and Co-Organizer, Joint Meeting. 11/2023 - 11/2023
  • Supercomputing 2023 (SC23) (Denver, CO). Invited Member, Program Committee, "9th National Cancer Institute (NCI) Computational Approaches for Cancer Workshop (CAFCW)". 11/2023 - 11/2023
  • International High-Performance Computing (HPC) Summer School on HPC Challenges in Computational Sciences (Atlanta, GA; Athens, Greece; Boulder, CO; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Toronto, Canada; Budapest, Hungary). Invited Mentor. 06/2014 - 07/2023
  • Supercomputing 2022 (SC22) (Dallas, TX). Invited Member, Program Committee, and Invited Panelist, International Conference Panel, "8th National Cancer Institute (NCI) Computational Approaches for Cancer Workshop (CAFCW)". 11/2022 - 11/2022
  • NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) Physical Sciences in Oncology Network (PS-ON). Invited Co-Organizer and Moderator, Virtual Symposium. 09/2022 - 09/2022
  • Supercomputing 2020 (SC20) Virtual. Invited Member, Program Committee, "6th National Cancer Institute (NCI) Computational Approaches for Cancer Workshop (CAFCW)". 11/2020 - 11/2020
  • Decade of the Physical Sciences in Oncology Network (PS-ON) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) (Rockville, MD). Invited Co-Chair and Co-Organizer, Virtual Symposium. 09/2020 - 09/2020
  • 2020 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting II. Invited Co-Chair and Co-Organizer, Education Session, "Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from Research to the Cancer Clinic;" https://abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/9045/session/250. 06/2020 - 06/2020
  • NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) Physical Sciences in Oncology (Minneapolis, MN). Invited Co-Chair and Co-Organizer, Symposium. 09/2019 - 09/2019
  • NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) (Rockville, MD). Appointed Co-Chair, Steering Committee, Physical Sciences in Oncology Network (PS-ON). 01/2019 - 12/2019
  • 2018 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting (Atlanta, GA). Invited Panelist, International Conference Panel, "Physical Sciences in Oncology". 10/2018 - 10/2018
  • 2018 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Conference on Applied Linear Algebra (SIAM-ALA18) (Hong Kong, China). Invited Chair and Co-Organizer, Three-Session Minisymposium, "Discovery from Data;" https://alterlab.org/announcements/Ponnapalli_Alter_SIAM-ALA_2018_Discovery_from_Data_Minisymposium.pdf. 05/2018 - 05/2018
  • 1st Gordon Research Conference on the Physics of Cancer (Galveston, TX). Invited Chair, Session. 02/2017 - 02/2017
  • American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) (Boston, MA). Invited Panelist, International Association Panel, "Provocative Questions for Medical Physics in Oncology;" https://aapm.org/org/history/SCSessionWinners.asp. 10/2016 - 10/2016
  • 5th Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Health Informatics (ACM-BCB) (Newport Beach, CA). Invited Panelist and Co-Organizer, International Conference Panel, "Translational Bioinformatics;" https://cse.buffalo.edu/ACM-BCB2014/panel.html. 09/2014 - 09/2014
  • 2014 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Annual Meeting (Chicago, IL). Invited Chair and Organizer, Three-Session Minisymposium, "Discovery from Data:" "I. Mathematical Patterns in Nature," "II. Cancer Genomic Signals and Systems" and "III. Decompositions for Big Data Applications;" https://meetings.siam.org/sess/dsp_programsess.cfm?SESSIONCODE=18977. 07/2014 - 07/2014
  • 2013 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting (Seattle, WA). Invited Chair and Organizer, Track, "Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology;" https://alterlab.org/announcements/Alter_BMES_2013_Bioinformatics,_Computational_and_Systems_Biology_Platform_Sessions.pdf. 09/2013 - 09/2013
  • NSF/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Connections 2013 Symposium (Washington, DC). Invited Participant. 07/2013 - 07/2013
  • NSF. Invited Participant, Workshop, "Future Directions in Tensor-Based Computation and Modeling". 02/2009 - 02/2009
  • SXSVD (South by SVD): Gene H. Golub's World Day Celebration in Austin (Austin, TX). Chair and Organizer, Special Symposium; https://alterlab.org/announcements/Alter_SXSVD_2008_Symposium.pdf. 02/2008 - 02/2008
  • NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) (Bethesda, MD). Invited Participant, Planning Meeting, "The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Data Portal". 01/2008 - 01/2008
  • NSF. Invited Participant, Workshop, "Petascale Computing in the Biosciences". 08/2006 - 08/2006
  • 17th International Symposium on the Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS) (Kyoto, Japan). Chair and Organizer, Invited Session, Chair and Organizer, Invited Session, "Genomic Signals and Systems;" https://mtns.papercept.net/conferences/conferences/MTNS06/program/MTNS06_ContentListWeb_2.html#tup10. 07/2006 - 07/2006
  • NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) (Bethesda, MD). Invited Participant, Planning Meeting, "A Vision for the Future of Genomics Research;" https://genome.gov/11006874/vision-acknowledgements. 12/2001 - 12/2001

Honors & Awards

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS), Education Research Webinar, "Multi-Tensor Decompositions for Personalized Cancer Diagnostics, Prognostics, and Therapeutics;" https://youtu.be/s4ezu0OHKAs. 01/2020
  • 14th International Conference on Latent Variable Analysis and Signal Separation (LVA ICA 2018) (Guildford, UK), Plenary Lecture, "Comparative Spectral Decompositions for Personalized Cancer Diagnostics and Prognostics;" https://cvssp.org/events/lva-ica-2018/keynotes/#orly. 08/2018
  • 2018 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Conference on Applied Linear Algebra (SIAM-ALA18) (Hong Kong, China), Plenary Lecture, "Comparative Spectral Decompositions for Personalized Cancer Diagnostics and Prognostics;" https://math.hkbu.edu.hk/siam-ala18/Invited.html. 05/2018
  • NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) Physical Sciences in Oncology Network (PS-ON), U01 Project Grant, "Multi-Tensor Decompositions for Personalized Cancer Diagnostics and Prognostics;" https://alterlab.org/physics_of_cancer/. 09/2015
  • American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), Science Council Session Winner (SCSW) Lecture Award, "Singular Value Decomposition Identifies Transcript Length Distribution Functions from DNA Microarray Data and Reveals Evolutionary Forces Globally Affecting Glioblastoma Multiforme Metabolism;" https://aapm.org/org/history/SCSessionWinners.asp. 07/2014
  • Bloomberg L.P., Distinguished Speaker Lectures, "Discovery of Principles of Nature from Matrix and Tensor Modeling of Large-Scale (Molecular Biological) Data," and "(Physics-Inspired) Mathematical Vocabulary for Discovery from Data;" https://alterlab.org/teaching/Bloomberg_L.P./. 05/2014
  • NSF/Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS), Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, "Integrative and Comparative Tensor Algebra Models of DNA Microarray Data from Different Studies of the Cell Cycle;" https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0847173. 08/2009
  • NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), R01 Project Grant, "Tensor Computations for Modeling Large-Scale Molecular Biological Data – from Discovery of Patterns to Discovery of Principles of Nature;" https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7292994. 08/2007
  • 6th International Conference on Independent Component Analysis and Blind Source Separation (ICA 2006) (Charleston, SC), Plenary Lecture, "Uncovering the Molecular Biological Principles That Govern Cellular Systems with Blind Source Separation Models;". 03/2006
  • International Linear Algebra Society (ILAS), Linear Algebra and its Applications (LAA) Lecture, "Genomic Signal Processing: From Matrix Algebra to Genetic Networks;" https://alterlab.org/in_the_news/Alter_ILAS_Bulletin_2005_Feature.pdf. 06/2005
  • NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), K01 Individual Mentored Research Scientist Development Award in Genomic Research and Analysis, "Mathematical Tools for Gene Expression Data Analysis;" https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6862432. 04/2000
  • DOE/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, DOE/Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Computational Molecular Biology, "Analytical and Computational Tools for Genome-Wide Gene Expression Data Analysis;" https://app.dimensions.ai/details/grant/grant.8700796. 09/1999
  • American Physical Society (APS), Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Atomic, Molecular, or Optical Physics (DAMOP) Award Finalist, "Impossibility of Determining the Quantum Wavefunction of a Single System and Fundamental Limit to External Force Detection;" https://alterlab.org/in_the_news/Ripin_APS_News_1998_Feature.pdf. 04/1998
  • 5th International Conference on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations (FICSSUR 1997) (Balatonfüred, Hungary), Plenary Lecture, "Impossibility of Determining the Quantum Wavefunction of a Single System and Fundamental Limit to External Force Detection". 05/1997

In the News

  1. Mention: 7th most cited Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) USA paper of the year 2000 and 45th most cited PNAS paper of all time, Google Scholar (February 11, 2024).
  2. Mention: BME 6770, Genomic Signal Processing course may "be pivotal for … career," Amazon Science (April 6, 2022).
  3. Mention: Among the most shared Applied Physics Letters (APL) Bioengineering research as of 2021, APL Bioengineering (October 30, 2021).
  4. Press Release: J. Kiefer, "Genome-Wide Pattern Found in Tumors from Brain Cancer Patients Predicts Life Expectancy," American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) EurekAlert! (May 15, 2020).
  5. Mention: Among the top 10 most downloaded Applied Physics Letters (APL) Bioengineering articles as of 2019, APL Bioengineering (May 14, 2019).
  6. Feature: A. J. Engler and D. E. Discher, "Rationally Engineered Advances in Cancer Research," Applied Physics Letters (APL) Bioengineering 2 (3), Special Topic: Bioengineering of Cancer preface 031601 (September 2018).
  7. Mention: Among the top 10% most cited Public Library of Science (PLoS) One articles as of 2017, PLoS One (June 30, 2017).
  8. Feature: F. Pavlou, "Big Data, Hidden Knowledge," The Pathologist (June 15, 2015).1
  9. Feature: R. Atkins, "Calculating Cancer Cures," National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Innovation Podcast and Radio Series (April 19, 2015).2
  10. Press Release: J. Kiefer, "New Method Increases Accuracy of Ovarian Cancer Prognosis and Diagnosis," American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) EurekAlert! (April 15, 2015).
  11. Recommendation: M. Méchali, Faculty Opinions recommendation 1728974 (February 2010).
  12. Feature: S. N. Dwivedi, "Rao Conference at the Interface between Statistics and the Sciences (Hyderabad, India, December 30, 2009 – January 2, 2010), Rao Best Poster Prize," International Biometric Society (IBS) Bulletin 27 (1), pp. 6–7 (January–March 2010).
  13. Press Release: B. Rische, "Mathematical Modeling Correctly Predicts Previously Unknown Biological Mechanism of Regulation," American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) EurekAlert! (October 13, 2009).
  14. Excerpt: O. Alter, International Linear Algebra Society (ILAS) Linear Algebra and its Applications (LAA) Lecture, "Genomic Signal Processing: From Matrix Algebra to Genetic Networks," IMAGE: ILAS Bulletin 35, pp. 2–15 (December 2005).3
  15. Feature: National Research Council, Mathematics and 21st Century Biology. Washington, DC: National Academies Press (July 2005), 149 pp.
  16. Feature: M. E. Kilmer and C. D. Moravitz Martin, "Decomposing a Tensor," Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) News 37 (9), (November 2004).4
  17. Feature: J. Wixon and J. Ashurst, "Genome Informatics," Comparative and Functional Genomics 4 (5), pp. 509–514 (October 2003).
  18. Citation: K. S. Thorne et al., "Noise in Gravitational-Wave Detectors and Other Classical-Force Measurements is Not Influenced by Test-Mass Quantization," Physical Review D 67 (8), article 082001 (April 2003).
  19. Commentary: L. Y. Dirix and A. T. van Oosterom, "Gene-Expression Profiling to Classify Soft-Tissue Sarcomas," Lancet 359 (9314), pp. 1263–1264 (April 2002).
  20. Feature: B. H. Ripin, "1998 Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Atomic, Molecular, or Optical Physics (DAMOP) Award Finalists," American Physical Society (APS) News 7 (8), p. 5 (August–September 1998).5