Since its founding in 2015, the Penn Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI) has established itself as a trusted leader and partner in developing, advancing, and supporting interdisciplinary education, research, and infrastructure in the core sub disciplines of biomedical informatics. We are delighted to announce that its excellence and forward-looking leadership will continue under the strategic and thoughtful direction of Qi Long, PhD. Effective September 1, he will serve as the new Director of the IBI, where he has been an integral part of the institute’s success, having served as its Associate Director since 2020.

Dr. Long is a Professor and Vice Chair of Faculty Professional Development in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (DBEI) at the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) with secondary appointments at the Wharton School and Penn Engineering, underscoring his deeply collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach. He was recruited to Penn as a Professor and Director of the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core in the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) in 2016, where, in 2025, he was named the inaugural Associate Director for Quantitative Data Science. In the last decade, he has established strong collaborations and partnerships in artificial intelligence (AI), informatics, and data science across Penn Medicine, Penn Engineering, Wharton, Penn Vet, Annenberg School of Communication, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and industry in the research-clinical continuum.

A renowned scientist, Dr. Long’s lab bridges fundamental AI research and translational AI research for biomedicine with particular interests in multimodal AI, trustworthy AI, and agentic AI. His methods research has appeared in leading journals in biomedical informatics, top AI/machine learning (ML) conferences, and theoretical journals in data science and AI/ML. The impact of his work is evident by his various funding, including from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. In addition, Dr. Long has collaborated extensively across biomedical research continuum and (co-)led coordinating centers for large-scale research networks.

A deeply dedicated mentor, Dr. Long has trained over 40 doctoral students and postdocs, many of whom have become faculty members in leading national and international research institutions and AI/ML scientists in technology companies. In recognition of his accomplishments and leadership, Dr. Long has been elected a Fellow to a number of prestigious associations, including American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Medical Informatics Association, and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.