Carol Friedman

Carol Friedman is a biomedical informatician whose work used natural language processing to structure clinical and biological text. She earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from City College CUNY in 1962, a master's degree in computer science from New York University in 1986, and a PhD there in 1989; her doctoral research focused on complex language structures. At Columbia, she developed MedLEE for clinical reports, adapted it into GENIES for pathway data, and worked on clinical document encoding and phenotype context in gene ontology. The American Medical Informatics Association gave her its Lindberg Award for biomedical informatics in 2010; the National Academy of Medicine elected her in 2016, and she received the Collen Award of Excellence in 2017. As of October 2026, she is Professor Emerita of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University.

Now at: Columbia University
Works: 208
Citations: 8,087
h-index: 53
Badges: Bridge
Loyal
Pioneer

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

1962–1989

Mathematics and computer science

Born in New York, she earns a mathematics B.S. from City College CUNY in 1962, an M.A. in computer science from New York University in 1986, and a Ph.D. there in 1989. Her doctoral research focuses on natural language processing of complex language structures.
1989–1998

Faculty posts in New York

She joins Columbia's Department of Medicine as an assistant professor in 1989 and starts a computer science appointment at Queens College CUNY in 1990. In 1995, she joins Columbia's Department of Medical Informatics as an assistant professor.
1995–2001

From MedLEE to GENIES

MedLEE, her natural language extraction and encoding system for clinical reports, operates at New York-Presbyterian Hospital from 1995. In 2001, she and her coauthors publish the GENIES paper, describing an adaptation of MedLEE that extracts biomolecular relations from journal articles for pathway research.
2004

Automated clinical encoding

In 2004, she and her coauthors publish a study on automated encoding of clinical documents with natural language processing.
2006

PhenoGO adds phenotype context

In 2006, she coauthors PhenoGO, a natural language processing system for assigning phenotypic context to Gene Ontology annotations.
2006–2011

National Library of Medicine service

She chairs the Board of Scientific Counselors at the National Library of Medicine's Lister Hill Center from 2006 to 2007 and serves on the NLM Board of Regents from 2007 to 2011. In 2010, the American Medical Informatics Association gives her the Donald A. B. Lindberg Award for Innovation in Biomedical Informatics.
2016–2017

NAM membership and Collen Award

The National Academy of Medicine elects her to its new member class in 2016. In 2017, she receives the Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence.
As of October 2026

Professor emerita at Columbia

As of October 2026, she is Professor Emerita of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University.

Career

Since 1989Columbia UniversityAssistant Professor
2006–2011National Library of MedicineChair, Board of Scientific Counselors, Member, Board of Regents
2000–2002Queens College, CUNY
1990–1998City University of New YorkComputer science faculty appointment