Open access advocate Philip E. Bourne to receive 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award

Philip E. Bourne, a computational biologist and professor with the University of California, San Diego, will be presented with the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award this week in recognition of his efforts as a leading advocate for the free and open dissemination of science and scientific data.

Bourne will receive the award on Tuesday, April 28, at the annual meeting of the Bioinformatics Organization in Boston. Established in 1998 to host collaborations in bioinformatics and promote open access to biological information, the organization's annual award recognizes an individual for promoting free and open access to materials and methods used in the life sciences, as envisioned by the 18th century scientist and statesman for which it is named.

"Dr. Bourne is well known in the field, and particularly well known for his contributions in open source and open access bioinformatics," said Bioinformatics Organization President J.W. Bizzaro, who will present Bourne with the award this week. "In particular, his work with the SciVee project is just one example of his many contributions in so many areas. He stands out as one of the more prolific laureates so far."

Bourne is co-founder of SciVee, the Web 2.0 resource dedicated to the dissemination of scientific research and science-specific research networking. Launched in late 2007 as a collaboration between the National Science Foundation and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego, SciVee has been used by hundreds of thousands of students and professional scientists as a means of learning and sharing their research through online science videos that supplement peer-reviewed journal articles, stimulate discussion, and promote collaboration. SciVee earlier this month announced a number of significant upgrades to its site, along with the addition of 32 new science categories.

"Clearly, open access is the best way that leads to new ways of disseminating and comprehending science, and that is what projects like SciVee are all about," said Bourne, Director of Structural Bioinformatics and an SDSC Distinguished Scientist, and a professor with the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego.

Bourne is also an academic participant in the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), which has contributed hundreds of hours of science-related video programming to SciVee.