Leroy Hood,President of Institute for Systems Biology, USA. Dr. Hood’s outstanding contributions have had a resounding effect on the advancement of science since the 1960s. Throughout his career, he has adhered to the advice of his mentor, Dr. William J. Dreyer: “If you want to practice biology, do it on the leading edge, and if you want to be on the leading edge, invent new tools for deciphering biological information.”Hood was involved in the development of six instruments critical for contemporary biology—namely, automated DNA sequencers, DNA synthesizers, protein sequencers, peptide synthesizers, the ink jet printer for constructing DNA arrays and large scale synthesis of DNA and the nanostring instrument for the single molecule analysis of RNA (and later DNA). These instruments opened the door to high-throughput biological data and the era of big data in biology and medicine. He helped pioneer the human genome program—making it possible with the automated DNA sequencer. Under Hood’s direction, the Human Genome Center sequenced portions of human chromosomes 14 and 15.