Michael O'Kelly, PhD

Michael J.T. O’Kelly has a PhD in physics (MIT ’08) and three BS degrees in physics, mathematics and chemistry (CMU ’00). Michael has performed research in bioinformatics, biophysics, artificial intelligence, and Antarctic astrophysics. At the turn of the millennium he was at the South Pole, prepping a microwave telescope for the austral winter observing season. He would love to go back some day.

His PhD thesis, Silencing and Recombination in Yeast Ribosomal DNA, investigated the processes that cause aging and senescence in yeast. Michael’s work in bioinformatics led him to his current career as a computational biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, where he studies cancer. By analyzing hundreds of genomic microarrays, he teases out which genetic alterations are statistically significant in their disease involvement, separating them from passenger mutations.

Michael is founder and CEO of HighlightCam, an online webcam service that automatically finds the best parts of your videos and shows you just those highlights. He would be thrilled to tell you a lot more about his company.