Aspen Ideas Scholar: Austin Huang

This year, Pfizer leaders nominated three scholars to represent our company among a diverse group of 300 global leaders, selected for their work and accomplishments—and for their ability to transform ideas into action. Meet our scholars and learn about their experience at the 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival.

Meet Austin Huang, Biomedical Data Science Lead for Computational Biomedicine / Genome Sciences and Technology within Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development. He leads a broad range of projects to enable human-derived evidence for translational efficacy using advanced analytical methods - machine learning, artificial intelligence, probabilistic modeling - applied to large-scale electronic medical record (EMR) and molecular biomarker data.

What are you most looking forward to learning at the Aspen Ideas Festival?
I want to understand what the broader unmet needs are in human health from the perspective of others both inside and outside of the pharmaceutical industry. Being at Pfizer we’re in a unique position to shape how pharmaceutical research can be targeted to solve the most important challenges in this space.
What panels are you looking forward to attending at the Aspen Ideas Festival?
Look forward to seeing DiSanzo and Kraft's talk on the intersection of artificial intelligence and medicine. I’ve also long been interested in the precision medicine, which our own Mikael Dolsten is giving a talk on.
If you were speaking on a panel at Aspen Ideas Festival, what would you be speaking about?
I would love to engage in discussion on this intersection between curing human diseases and the role of data science, machine learning, and AI in advancing that goal. Fortunately, we will have a chance to discuss those things during the twitter live session.

Check back in a few days to hear about our scholars’ experiences.

What were your favorite panels or sessions that you attended?
What did you learn from these panels?
What is one thing you learned at Aspen that you’d be applying to your work life?

About our Scholar: Austin Huang

Austin Huang, PhD, is the Biomedical Data Science Lead for Computational Biomedicine / Genome Sciences and Technology within Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development. He leads a broad range of projects to enable human-derived evidence for translational efficacy using advanced analytical methods - machine learning, artificial intelligence, probabilistic modeling - applied to large-scale electronic medical record (EMR) and molecular biomarker data. He also works on technology initiatives to transform pharmaceutical research as a knowledge-driven enterprise through innovation in big data and cloud computing. Austin Huang received his PhD from the Harvard - Massachusetts Institute of Technology division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and holds a concurrent faculty appointment in the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University. He is based in Cambridge, MA.

Find out more about the Aspen Ideas Festival and the Aspen Scholars Progam