astronomy

John C. Wooley

John C. Wooley is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John C. Wooley rather than just read about it. In short: John Culver Wooley (July 27, 1945 – April 20, 2015) was an American biophysicist and research administrator whose work was pivotal in establishing bioinformatics and computational biology as recognized scientific fields in the United States. He served as associate vice chancellor for research at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), and co-founded and was the managing editor of one of the first bio…

Key takeaways

John C. Wooley belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John C. Wooley to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John C. Wooley from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Culver Wooley (July 27, 1945 – April 20, 2015) was an American biophysicist and research administrator whose work was pivotal in establishing bioinformatics and computational biology as recognized scientific fields in the United States. He served as associate vice chancellor for research at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), and co-founded and was the managing editor of one of the first bioinformatics journals, the Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (JBCB).

Early life and education Wooley earned a bachelor's degree in physics, chemistry, and biochemistry from Michigan State University. He completed a Ph.D. in biophysics at the University of Chicago in 1975, working with physicist Albert V. Crewe on high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy for studying chromatin structure. Wooley was the son of Jean (née Culver) Wooley and Chalmers Wooley of Illinois.

Career After a faculty appointment at Princeton University, Wooley joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1984. He became the founding director (1988) of NSF's new Division of Infrastructure and Resources—now the Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI)—overseeing cross-cutting biology research infrastructure and training programs and advancing the integration of computing with biology. He was the Director for the NSF's Division of Instrumentation and Resources and helped lead NSF's contributions to the Human Genome Program's early years. He created the first U.S. federal programs to fund research in bioinformatics and computational biology, explicitly aimed at strengthening the interface between computing and biology. During this period, he also sponsored workshops that brought structural and computational scientists together to plan modernization of the Protein Data Bank (PDB)—moving from flat files to a searchable resource. At NSF, for his role in advocating, establishing, and leading the Biological Instrumentation Facilities and the Biological Research Centers, Wooley received NSF's top performance award, the "NSF Superior Accomplishment." Wooley subsequently served in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as Deputy Associate Director in the Office of Health and Environmental Research (OHER), within the Office of Energy Research (later the Office of Science), by 1993. He later served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Associate Director in the DOE Office of Science, coordinating major aspects of the Human Genome Project (including bioinformatics) and leading efforts in microbial genomes and computational structural biology. In addition to leading agency roles important for the Human Genome Project, Wooley chaired the National Research Council committee that produced Catalyzing Inquiry at the Interface of Computing and Biology (2005), a widely cited study on research and education at the computing–biology interface. He also served as a working-group leader at the CRA–NIH Computing Research Challenges in Biomedicine Workshop (Bethesda, 2006), a meeting that produced recommendations for NIH, NSF, and DOE collaborations at the computing–biomedicine interface. Later, he was appointed as a Special Government Employee to the federal Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee (BIOAC) (DOE/USDA) from 2004 to 2010.

Research and leadership Wooley's research spanned structural genomics, bioinformatics, and metagenomics, often emphasizing infrastructure and education. At UC San Diego, he helped build cross-disciplinary initiatives linking advanced computing and the life sciences and was associated with projects such as the Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG) and the CAMERA metagenomics cyberinfrastructure effort.

Personal life and death Wooley died on April 20, 2015, at age 69, after a long battle with cancer. He was survived by his wife, Su-Yun (Su) Chung, and their son.

Selected publications Wooley, John C.; Godzik, Adam; Friedberg, Iddo (2010-02-26). "A Primer on Metagenomics". PLOS Computational Biology. 6 (2) e1000667. Bibcode:2010PLSCB...6E0667W. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000667. PMC 2829047. PMID 20195499. Zhang, Y.; Thiele, I.; Weekes, D.; Li, Z.; Jaroszewski, L.; Ginalski, K.; Deacon, A. M.; Wooley, J.; Lesley, S. A.; Wilson, I. A.; Palsson, B.; Osterman, A.; Godzik, A. (2009). "Three-dimensional structural view of the central metabolic network of Thermotoga maritima". Science. 325 (5947): 1544–1549. Bibcode:2009Sci...325.1544Z. doi:10.1126/science.1174671. PMC 2833182. PMID 19762644. Sun, S.; Chen, J.; Li, W.; Altintas, I.; Lin, A.; Peltier, S.; Stocks, K.; Allen, E. E.; Ellisman, M.; Grethe, J.; Wooley, J. (2011). "Community cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis: the CAMERA resource". Nucleic Acids Research. 39 (Suppl_1): D546–D551. doi:10.1093/nar/gkq1102. PMC 3013694. PMID 21045053. Li, Weizhong; Wooley, John C.; Godzik, Adam (2008-10-15). "Probing Metagenomics by Rapid Cluster Analysis of Very Large Datasets". PLOS ONE. 3 (10) e3375. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.3375L. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003375. PMC 2557142. PMID 18846219.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John C. Wooley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John C. Wooley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John C. Wooley before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John C. Wooley ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John C. Wooley

In research: John C. Wooley appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John C. Wooley in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John C. Wooley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 2015 deaths, American biophysicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John C. Wooley outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John C. Wooley in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John C. Wooley means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John C. Wooley out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John C. Wooley in simple terms?

Why does John C. Wooley matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John C. Wooley?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John C. Wooley.