Michael J. Becich, MD, PhD, is a Distinguished University Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the field of Medicine. He holds joint appointments as Professor of Pathology, Bioengineering, Clinical and Translational Science, Computing and Information Sciences, Information Sciences and Telecommunications. Becich also serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for Informatics in the Health Sciences, Director of the Center for Commercial Applications of Healthcare Data, Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Associate Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He pioneered pathology informatics at the University of Pittsburgh, creating its division in 1991 after being hired by the School of Medicine. Throughout his career, he has held distinguished visiting professorships at prestigious institutions, including Quest Distinguished Visiting Professor of Pathology at Harvard University (2000), Guest Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Johns Hopkins University (1999), Visiting Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center (1999), Mayo Clinic (2001), and Emory University School of Medicine (2001).

Becich earned his BA in Biology from Northwestern University (1973-1977), MD in Medicine, and PhD in Experimental Pathology from the same institution (1977-1984). His research interests center on the interface between clinical informatics and bioinformatics, with a particular focus on translational research resources, tissue banking informatics, clinical phenotyping for genomic and personalized medicine, and data sharing across institutions. His projects have received funding from the CDC, NCATS, NCI, NHLBI, and NLM. Becich has garnered major awards, including the Association for Pathology Informatics Lifetime Achievement Award (2008), election as Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI, 2006), Distinguished University Professor (2015), Fellow of the College of American Pathologists (FACP, 1989), and NCI Cancer Biology Fellowship (1986-1989). Key publications include 'Integrative genomic and proteomic analysis of prostate cancer reveals signatures of metastatic progression' (Cancer Cell, 2005), 'Gene expression alterations in prostate cancer predicting tumor aggression and preceding development of malignancy' (Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2004), 'The National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C): rationale, design, infrastructure, and deployment' (Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2021), 'Integrative molecular characterization of malignant pleural mesothelioma' (Cancer Discovery, 2018), and 'Gene expression profiles of prostate cancer reveal involvement of multiple molecular pathways in the metastatic process' (BMC Cancer, 2007). His contributions have shaped pathology informatics, cancer bioinformatics, and large-scale clinical data collaboration, influencing precision medicine and AI applications in healthcare.

Professional Email: becich@pitt.edu