EMBnet.journal

In memory of Dr. Allan Orozco

Dr. Orozco always fought against terminal diseases such as cancer (Picture: ©Simone Ecker)

Dr Allan Orozco Solano, passed away last September 26, 2021. He was our colleague and friend, a member of EMBnet for many years as EMBnet Node Manager of Costa Rica.

Dr Allan Orozco had a bachelor’s degree in Engineering, a master’s degree in Nanotechnology and Bioinformatics, and a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Biomedicine from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He was an outstanding and recognised Professor at the University of Costa Rica (Faculty of Medicine and Engineering) and the National Academy of Sciences of Costa Rica (international talent) awarded him for his contributions to the scientific development of Costa Rica.

For more than 15 years, Dr Orozco was dedicated to teaching and research associated with Bioinformatics and its applications, mainly in health and biodiversity. He promoted the creation of multiple networks such as the National Network of Genomic Sequencing and Supercomputing of Costa Rica as a National Coordinator and the Central American Bioinformatics Network in 2012. At the time of his death, he was Director of the Information and Knowledge Society Program of the University of Costa Rica.

His interest in supporting the development of Costa Rica in the area of supercomputing, especially for the development of bioinformatics tools, led him to seek collaborations and partnerships with scientists and institutions in several countries. He was Co-Founder of the Iberoamerican Society for Bioinformatics (SOIBIO), and Scientific Coordinator of the National Bioinformatics Institute (INB) in Spain.

Costa Rica and we, as colleagues and friends, lament the loss of this humanistic scientist and leader dedicated to collaborating in Covid’s research during his last days. However, his contributions and teachings remain to the hundreds of Costa Rican students who were fortunate enough to receive his classes. He sought to help from his field the Costa Rican community.

Prof. Emiliano Barreto-Hernández

Colombian EMBnet node manager

See also: https://www.crhoy.com/obituarios-crhoy/fallece-destacado-investigador-en-bioinformatica-dr-allan-orozco/