Dr. Colby T. Ford is a professional AI cloud architect, data scientist, and computational biologist who uses machine learning and distributed computing to solve problems in the fields of infectious diseases and human genomics. For the last 8+ years, he has been consulting for companies across industries, leading the conversation for digital transformation using artificial intelligence and cloud computing. He currently serves as the Principal of Life Sciences at BlueGranite, a top-tier Microsoft partner, and focuses on building cloud-based bioinformatics solutions in the Azure cloud. In academia, his research includes the use of large-scale machine learning architecture in the study of infectious disease genomics and rare human diseases. In addition to his consulting and academic career, Dr. Ford is a co-founder of a digital health startup that focuses on the use of wearable devices to help study neurological disorders.

Given Dr. Ford's interdisciplinary education background and parallel experience in industry and academia, he has a unique viewpoint and approach to effectively solve genomics research problems with cutting-edge technologies previously only used in industry blended with methods previously only seen in academia.