---
title: Stephen Turner
description: "Stephen Turner is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Research at the University of Virginia School of Data Science, working on genomics, biosecurity, AI safety in biotech, and infectious disease modeling."
image: files/headshot.jpg
home: true
links:
  - label: Newsletter
    url: "https://blog.stephenturner.us/"
  - label: Publications
    url: "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-wkHYzMAAAAJ&hl=en"
  - label: LinkedIn
    url: "https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnersd/"
  - label: GitHub
    url: "https://github.com/stephenturner"
  - label: Bluesky
    url: "https://bsky.app/profile/stephenturner.us"
  - label: Email
    url: "/email"
---

I'm an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Research at the [University of Virginia School of Data Science](https://datascience.virginia.edu/) and advisor to several biotech startups. 

My research interests include genomics and biosecurity, AI safety in biotech, infectious disease modeling and forecasting in public health, and the polygenic architecture of human disease. 

Formerly: principal scientist at Colossal Biosciences (strategy, genome engineering, synthetic biology); science & technology advisor at Signature Science LLC (consultant to US Government in biosecurity, public health, defense, and national security); assistant professor at the UVA School of Medicine (public health, bioinformatics core director, teaching). 

Subscribe to my newsletter, [Paired Ends](https://blog.stephenturner.us/) for updates and commentary on what's new and interesting at the intersection of biology, data science, and AI.

Books: _Biological Data Science with R_ ([free online](https://bdsr.stephenturner.us/), [Amazon](https://amzn.to/44p4sPz)); _Data Science Team Training_ ([free online](https://dstt.stephenturner.us/), [Amazon](https://amzn.to/4pg5KWE));