Marylyn D. Ritchie

Timeline

1. 1999–2004

   From Johnstown to a Vanderbilt PhD

   A first-generation college graduate who grows up in Pittsburgh, she earns a biology degree at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 1999. At Vanderbilt University, she completes an MS in applied statistics in 2002 and a PhD in statistical genetics in 2004.

2. 2001

   Multifactor-dimensionality reduction

   In 2001, she is first author, with Jason H. Moore and colleagues in Vanderbilt's Program in Human Genetics, of the paper that introduces multifactor-dimensionality reduction (MDR), a nonparametric, model-free method for finding polymorphism combinations associated with disease risk. Applied to sporadic breast cancer, MDR finds an interaction among four polymorphisms in three estrogen-metabolism genes.

3. 2004–2010

   Assistant professor at Vanderbilt

   After her 2004 PhD, she starts her independent faculty career at Vanderbilt University as an assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics. She wins a Best Paper Award at the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference in 2004, a Rising Young Investigator Award from Genome Technology in 2006 and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellowship in 2010.

4. June 2015

   Paul Berg Professor at Penn State

   Penn State names her the Paul Berg Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in June 2015, while she directs the university's Center for Systems Genomics. She leads a Penn State–Geisinger effort to connect genome data from 100,000 MyCode Community Health Initiative participants with their medical histories, and Geisinger names her founding director of its Biomedical and Translational Informatics Program.

5. 2015–2018

   From Geisinger to Penn

   She joins Geisinger Health System in 2015, where she serves as chief research informatics officer and director of its Biomedical and Translational Informatics Institute, and moves to the Penn faculty in 2017. In April 2018, the Perelman School of Medicine appoints her, an expert in big data and machine-learning methods for human health, director of the Center for Translational Bioinformatics in its Institute for Biomedical Informatics.

6. 2020–2021

   Elected to the National Academy of Medicine

   She becomes a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics in 2020. In 2021, as a professor in Penn's Department of Genetics, she is one of 100 new members elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

7. 2022–2024

   Penn's first vice dean for AI

   In January 2022, she succeeds Jason Moore as director of the Institute for Biomedical Informatics at the Perelman School of Medicine and becomes vice president for research informatics at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The school makes her its inaugural vice dean of artificial intelligence and computing in April 2024, with the task of shaping its AI strategy across research, education and healthcare delivery.

8. Since November 2025

   Chief AI officer at MUSC

   She leaves Penn Medicine in November 2025 to become chief artificial intelligence officer of the Medical University of South Carolina and associate dean for artificial intelligence in its College of Medicine, where she leads AI strategy across education, research and patient care. Her research integrates genomics, multi-omics and electronic health record data using machine learning and AI methods. As chief AI officer for the MUSC enterprise, she chairs a statewide scientific retreat on AI scheduled for September 2026.