May 11th, 2026
JXTX + JJ Fund 2026 GCC Awardees
JXTX: The James P. Taylor Foundation for Open Science and the JJ Fund are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 Galaxy Community Conference Scholarships. Together these programs support outstanding graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career scientists to attend conferences in computational biology and data science, where they can present their work and form connections with other researchers in the field.
Five awardees from institutions across Sweden, the United States, and Ethiopia will join the Galaxy community in Clermont-Ferrand, France for GCC 2026, June 22-24.
JXTX Foundation Scholarship Recipients
Daniel Golparian
WHO Collaborating Centre for Gonorrhoea and Other STIs, Örebro
Daniel Golparian is a Scientific Officer at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Gonorrhoea and Other STIs in Örebro, Sweden, and is affiliated with Örebro University Hospital. His research focuses on microbial genomics and antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae, with an emphasis on genomic surveillance, molecular epidemiology, and the evolution and spread of resistant lineages. He has contributed to international research on sexually transmitted infections and the application of genomics in public health microbiology.
Finn Beruldsen
University of Houston
Finn Beruldsen is a Ph.D. candidate in Biochemistry at the University of Houston whose work sits at the interface of molecular dynamics, computational immunology, and software development. He builds computational tools that help researchers better understand T-cell systems and make sense of complex simulation data, with a particular focus on RMSX and Flipbook for high-resolution analysis and visualization of protein motion in time and space. His broader interests focus on building scientific software that makes complex biological data easier to interpret.
Olyad Erba Urgessa
Haramaya University
Olyad Erba Urgessa is an Assistant Professor and Senior Lecturer at Haramaya University, Ethiopia, currently pursuing a PhD in Animal Biotechnology at Adama Science and Technology University. With over 13 years of academic experience, Olyad specializes in biotechnology and sustainable animal production solutions. His current research focuses on the "omics" revolution in animal biotechnology, specifically feed enzyme production. As a JXTX Scholar, Olyad is dedicated to leveraging computational biology and Galaxy-based workflows to advance genomic research and mentorship in East Africa.
JJ Fund Travel Fellowship Recipients
Zarlish Attique
Ayass Bioscience
Zarlish Attique is a Bioinformatics Analyst at Ayass Bioscience, USA (working remotely from Pakistan), specializing in large-scale transcriptomic and functional genomics with an emphasis on reproducible, workflow-driven computational biology. Her work focuses on developing scalable pipelines for total RNA-seq, CRISPR pooled screens, and multi-omics integration using Nextflow and cloud computing. Her research spans cancer genomics -- including pancreatic and metastatic breast cancer -- where she applies integrative multi-omics and deep neural network models to identify regulatory hubs and mutation-agnostic drivers of disease progression.
Priscilla Garcia
California State University, Stanislaus
Priscilla Garcia is a Master's student in Biological Sciences at California State University, Stanislaus, conducting research under Dr. Tricia Van Laar. Her work investigates how land use and seasonal hydrology influence microbial community composition and antibiotic resistance genes in freshwater systems, combining field sampling, quantitative PCR, and sequencing. She is also a Graduate Teaching Fellow, teaching biology laboratory courses and microbiology lectures. Priscilla plans to pursue a Ph.D. in microbiology or bioinformatics with a focus on environmental systems and antibiotic resistance. Outside of research, she enjoys spending time with her Chihuahua.
About JXTX: The James P. Taylor Foundation for Open Science
"The most important job of senior faculty is to mentor junior faculty and students." These are the words that Professor James P. Taylor, the Ralph S. O'Connor Professor at the Departments of Biology and Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University said and lived by. This, he believed, was imperative to advance science, and in a way that facilitated diversity and inclusion. The mission of this foundation is to continue his legacy, through a multifaceted approach which will be unrolled across several stages.
Towards the goal of advancing mentorship, the JXTX Foundation will organize and host mentoring sessions between senior and junior faculty members at select high-profile meetings. The Foundation also aims to attract new scholars, including high school and undergrad students, to computational biology and data science, and to form connections and opportunities for members of underrepresented minority populations.
About the James Johnson (JJ) Travel Fellowships
The JJ Travel Fellowships help bring new contributors into the Galaxy ecosystem while honoring JJ's legacy as a contributor and mentor in the Galaxy and University of Minnesota communities. James Johnson, or JJ as he was better known, worked as a senior software developer at the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota and was one of the earliest software developers to start using Galaxy. JJ always had a heart for training and mentoring students and other researchers who were new to Galaxy.
According to his colleagues, James hated self-promotion. But the community would be done a grave disservice if the seeds planted by Dr. Taylor were not nourished to grow and flourish. Thank you to those who have generously contributed to both foundations.
Please consider making a donation to support James Taylor's legacy and the JJ Travel Fellowships.