10/29/2026
Tandy Warnow, CS professor and associate director at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, was celebrated for her recent induction into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences on October 14 at a ceremony on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. Warnow was elected for her excellence and continued accomplishments in the fields of discrete mathematics, probability theory, computer science and data.
Tandy Warnow was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an extensive process involving nominations, preliminary evaluations, voting by more than 200 Academy members and final approval by the Academy Board of Directors. To even be considered, it is necessary to achieve “excellence in the field and a record of continued accomplishment.” Warnow has exceeded that requirement at every step of her career.
“When one speaks of Tandy, three things come to mind: she is a scholar, a deep thinker and a compassionate person. ”
Rashid Bashir, Dean, The Grainger College of Engineering
On October 14, an Academy induction celebration honoring Warnow and her fellow Illinois inductees was held at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
In his introduction of Warnow, Rashid Bashir, Dean of The Grainger College of Engineering, spoke of Warnow’s many accomplishments with the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science and Grainger Engineering, as well as across campus and beyond.
“Her work sits at the crossroads of computer science, statistics and mathematics,” Bashir said. “It helps us understand evolutionary history at a scale that would otherwise be impossible. Tandy brings evolutionary biology, computer science, data science, machine learning and AI together.”
Bashir recalled trying to get Warnow to come to Illinois from the University of Texas at Austin. At the time, Bashir was the head of the Department of Bioengineering at Grainger Engineering, and he proposed that Warnow become a Bioengineering Founder Professor at Illinois. Given her already impressive track record, he knew that she wouldn’t rest in bioengineering alone.
Bashir was right. Warnow is currently an associate director for the Siebel School and holds affiliate faculty appointments with Bioengineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Entomology, Plant Biology, Evolution, and Ecology and Behavior. She is affiliated with the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Coordinated Sciences Laboratory (CSL) and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory.
“She is a bridge across campus,” Bashir said. “When one speaks of Tandy, three things come to mind: she is a scholar, a deep thinker and a compassionate person.”
Nancy Amato, Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and director of the Siebel School, shared Bashir’s praise.
“We all strive to build those bridges,” Amato said. “Tandy takes it to a whole new level.”
Amato’s introduction added another title to Warnow’s extensive body of work: mentor.
“Tandy has one of the largest assignments of any faculty member as a mentor,” Amato said. She added that Warnow also led an overhaul of the Siebel School faculty mentoring program, held workshops to help junior faculty write their first NSF CAREER proposals and created the Faculty Leadership Program within the Siebel School.
“The impact she has had on our school, on campus and beyond is incredible. I’ve never met anyone with her passion and talent for mentoring,” Amato said.
"Luck is really important," Warnow said, nodding to the role it played in her academic trajectory. “Luck is a big part of who I am now.” It was also the people she met along the way that made an impact.
Warnow’s path began as a mathematician. “I loved math all my life,” she said. “What is a mathematician but someone who loves beauty?” During her graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, she met Dan Gusfield, currently Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at UC Davis, who had attended Illinois’ own University High School. Gusfield introduced Warnow to the perfect phylogeny problem which posed the question, “Is there a tree on which all the characteristics evolve so rarely that there is no back mutation and there is no parallel evolution?” Warnow learned that this classical problem in evolutionary biology turned out to be a graph problem. This started Warnow in her research of studying evolutionary biology and trying to estimate the tree of life.
“Which, by the way, isn’t a tree,” Warnow said.
Warnow was hooked on evolutionary biology because of graph theory. Her Ph.D. in Mathematics from UC Berkeley was supervised by Eugene Lawler, and the committee members of her dissertation included computer scientists Lawler, Richard Karp, Manual Blum and David Gale, mathematician and economist.
“Karp is god for theoretical computer science,” Warnow said, “and Blum is almost god.”
Warnow went on to complete her postdoctoral work at the University of Southern California, under the supervision of Michael Waterman and Simon Tavaré. Waterman, another founding figure in computational biology, would ground Warnow in the scientific aspects of the work.
“He taught me that it’s not how beautiful the math is or how hard the proof is, but whether it is relevant to the science you are working on,” Warnow said.
She would go on to hold a faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania and collaborate with Professor Donald Ringe, whom Warnow called “one of the best Indo-Europeanists in the world.” She then recruited Ken Rice as a postdoctoral fellow, who brought his wife, Lisa Vawter, both of whom Warnow said are outstanding researchers. Ken taught her about simulations and simulated data, while Lisa taught her evolutionary biology. This was also a critical exposure to data for Warnow.
“My work now combines discrete mathematics, probability theory, computer science and data and data and data,” Warnow said. “Data is incredibly important.”
Warnow stands by her assessment on the importance of luck, but she admits that it was the interactions and time spent with mentors and peers throughout her career that have shaped who is she is today.
“It almost always comes down to people,” she said.
Being elected to the Academy will continue Warnow’s passion for people, problem solving and, as Bashir pointed out, her compassion.
Nancy Amato, Director, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science
“It will give me an opportunity to work with other members on problems of great societal importance, such as the current focus on democracy and justice, which aims to strengthen American democracy,” Warnow said.
As far as advice she would give her younger self, Warnow says learning is paramount.
“Keep learning, even taking courses,” Warnow said. “My inspiration is Dan Gusfield. Throughout his academic career, he took courses to learn about new fields such as population genetics. Even after retiring, he is learning about new fields and writing more books on them! This is one of the many reasons I admire Dan.”
As for her faculty mentees, she advises determination.
“One basic thing I try to communicate is that they are not alone,” Warnow said. “We’ve all had difficulties and gotten discouraged, yet we can make it through and have satisfying and even ‘successful’ careers.” Warnow said the key to supporting those she mentors is sharing her own challenges and how she handled them.
“Do less but pick what you will do carefully, and then do it well—or well enough,” Warnow said. “And definitely learn how to say ‘no’!”
As Warnow celebrated her induction, she noted a commonality among elected Academy members, “What characterizes us is often ordinary abilities but extraordinary perseverance.”
Grainger Engineering affiliations:
Tandy Warnow is an Illinois Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, professor of computer science, and associate director at the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. She holds affiliations with the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She is also affiliated with Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB), the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Coordinated Science Lab (CSL) and the Unit for Criticism and Theory.
Nancy Amato is the director of the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, an Illinois Grainger Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and professor of computer science. She is affiliated with Beckman Institute, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB), Coordinated Science Lab (CSL), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Rashid Bashir is the Dean of the Illinois Grainger College of Engineering, Vice Chancellor Chicago Strategic Partnerships, an Illinois Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and professor in the Department of Bioengineering. He holds the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and is affiliated with Beckman Institute, Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CIMED), College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (LAS), Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Department of Mechanical Science & Engineering, IGB, Materials Research Laboratory (MRL), and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).