Ivet Bahar

Ivet Bahar is a distinguished computational biologist in Biology at the University of Pittsburgh, serving as adjunct faculty in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology and holding the John K. Vries Chair since 2005. She earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Boğaziçi University in 1980, M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the same institution in 1983, and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Istanbul Technical University in 1986. Recruited to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in March 2001, she founded the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, directing it from 2001 to 2004 while serving as Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry. In October 2004, she became Founding Chair of the Department of Computational Biology, which evolved into the Department of Computational and Systems Biology in 2009, a position she held until transitioning roles. Appointed Distinguished Professor of Computational and Systems Biology in 2013, she served until January 2023. Bahar co-founded the joint Ph.D. Program in Computational Biology with Carnegie Mellon University from 2005 to 2009, directed the NIGMS-funded MMBioS Multiscale Modeling and Biomolecular Simulation Biomedical Technology Research Center from 2012 to 2021, and was Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute from 2010 to 2023.

Bahar's research focuses on developing theoretical and computational methods to explore biomolecular structure, dynamics, and function at multiple scales, pioneering elastic network models such as the Gaussian Network Model and Anisotropic Network Model to study protein fluctuations, allostery, signaling, and drug-target interactions. Notable publications include 'Anisotropy of fluctuation dynamics of proteins with an elastic network model' (Biophysical Journal, 2001), 'Global dynamics of proteins: bridging between structure and function' (Annual Review of Biophysics, 2010), and tools like ProDy for protein dynamics analysis. Her impact is evidenced by election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020, Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award from the University of Pittsburgh in 2014, Vehbi Koc Science Prize in 2022, Kadir Has Outstanding Achievement Award in 2019, Biophysical Society Fellowship in 2024, and roles on the Biophysical Society Executive Board, editorial boards of Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics and Structure, and numerous NIH study sections.

Professional Email: bahar@pitt.edu