Professor of bioengineering, genetics, medicine and computer science at Stanford University, Russ Altman's primary research interests are in the application of computing and informatics technologies to problems relevant to medicine. He is particularly interested in methods for understanding drug actions at molecular, cellular, organism and population levels, including how genetic variation impacts drug response.

Altman received the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and Stanford Medical School's graduate teaching award. He has chaired the Science Board advising the FDA Commissioner and currently serves on the NIH Director’s Advisory Committee. He is a clinically active internist, the founder of the PharmGKB knowledge base, and advisor to pharmacogenomics companies.