Mr. Johnson has over 38 years experience managing logistics and technology programs for the U.S. Air Force and for several commercial enterprises. His expertise ranges from business start-up to managing multi-million dollar programs for the government and for large corporations. As a Government program manager he worked several leading-edge technology programs, guiding major new aerospace systems through the R&D process to operational fielding.  As a civilian program manager he has developed over 37 programs with value exceeding $500 million over a 10 year period.  Mr. Johnson is a charter member of the CME Group and has directed all aspects of company growth since 2005.  Mr. Johnson is a retired USAF pilot with a distinguished combat record and extensive systems R&D experience.

Ron Grisell (BS, MS, PhD) – Sr. Bioinformatics Researcher

Dr. Grisell has over 40 years experience with an impressive list of accomplishments in many complex technology and computer science programs. Career “firsts” include: first atherosclerotic imaging device (NASA/JPL ’76), discovery of voltage-gated potassium channels (’78), Astronaut Physical Fitness Monitoring System (NASA/JSC  ’79), first data mining tool using pattern recognition techniques (patented by SwRI  ’80), first motion-sensitive vision system for robots and missiles (Texas Instruments  ’82), and architect of first theater-level joint forces battle planner (DARPA Strategic Initiative ’84). Dr. Grisell was lead programmer for the BioDNA and Forensic BioDNA systems developed by the CME Group for the Air Force Research Laboratory. His current projects include optimizing signature generation for discrimination between pathogens and non-pathogens in genetic sample data and developing detection methods of “engineered” pathogens among naturally occurring backgrounds.  Dr. Grisell’s awards & fellowships include  the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Consortium Fellowship, N.R.C. Senior Research Associateship at NASA/JPL, N.S.F. Industrial Research Participation at SwRI, Research Associateship at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the Bausch and Lomb Science Award.

Luke Daum (BS, PhD) – Senior Scientist

Dr. Daum is acknowledged as one of the leading Molecular Biologists in the state of Texas. As a scientist for the government at Brooks AFB in San Antonio, he led the development of Air Force protocols and authored operating instructions (OI’s) and standard operating procedures (SOP’s) for the extraction, purification, detection, typing, sub-typing and sequencing of influenza field isolates.   He designed novel primers and probes for the detection of influenza from clinical isolates/original specimens using traditional and real-time RT-PCR analysis. He also trained and managed laboratory personnel and was responsible for the daily operation, management and maintenance of the laboratory.  He was primary Investigator for the DoD on a project with the CDC to evaluate vaccine effectiveness and monitor genetic trends within worldwide influenza clinical isolates from 35 worldwide DoD sentinel sites. Dr. Daum joined the CME Group in 2007 and was lead scientist for development of the BioDNA and Forensic BioDNA system developed for the Air Force Research Laboratory. Dr. Daum currently manages a research laboratory at his company in San Antonio, Longhorn Vaccine & Diagnostics, as well as continuing as lead scientific advisor for the CME Group biotechnology programs.

Dave Love (BA, MS) – Program Coordinator / Senior Test Engineer

Mr. Love has over 42 years experience as a physiologist, system test engineer, human factors engineer, program manager and test director. His test and program management experience covers a broad spectrum from laboratory testing of USAF electronic sensors and life support systems to flight testing of major joint AF/Navy weapon systems and unmanned aerial systems for the Army Night Vision Laboratory. He also assisted the Royal Australian Air Force in flight test of upgraded pilot life support systems and personally flew the initial flight tests of the first US and British pilot chemical defense ensembles in the UK. After leaving the USAF, he continued to support DoD acquisition programs as a senior test engineer and associate principal engineer for Sverdrup Technology, Inc. for 16 years.  Mr. Love is a former USAF fighter pilot with over 3000 hours in eight aircraft types and taught aerospace physiology courses for the USAF, FAA and at university undergraduate level. Mr. Love is a charter member of the CME Group and has coordinated technical and programmatic support for company programs since 2005.

Judy Brown (BS, MBA) – Contracts Administrator

Ms. Brown has extensive business experience which includes financial planning, budget administration, preparation of contract proposals and business plans, and contract negotiation. Her accomplishments include guiding a team of corporate managers responsible for overseeing $66 billion in assets for a Fortune 100 company; managing transition of $34 billion in assets during four company acquisitions; analyzing international and domestic cash flow to guarantee availability of $3 billion in annual benefit payments; forecasting and preparing department budgets in excess of $2 million annually, then tracking budget to actual income and expenditures throughout the budget cycle. She negotiated vendor contracts and associated fee schedules which included a contract rewrite to convert 27 investment managers from six different contract formats to a standard contract and favorable payment arrangement. She has taught accounting at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Ms. Brown has worked with the CME Group since 2005 and currently administers all CME Group contracts, oversees the company budget and day-to-day office functions, as well as manages personnel responsibilities.

James Chandler (BFA) – Interface Designer

After earning his degree from Sam Houston State University, Mr. Chandler began his professional career in the television industry as art director for an NBC affiliate station in Texas.  He later transitioned to Las Vegas and continued as a graphic artist and web designer for an ABC affiliate where he also began teaching graphic art and web design at Art Institute of Las Vegas. He moved to San Antonio and began work for the CME group as lead graphics designer in 2008. Mr. Chandler is currently responsible for web design and graphic art support for all CME Group publications. He continues to teach web development and 3d animation. He also has been published in an Autodesk Maya Animation book.

Bill McGaw – Project Manager

Mr. McGaw has over 20 years experience building, testing and managing a wide variety of leading edge IT systems while at the same time performing database design and administration of the systems. He provided a high-speed network infrastructure installation and developed an intranet based scheduling application for use by the USAF.  He performed application design, development, testing and deployment at the government site and then created the database design, administered database functions, and provided project management support to include complete documentation, implementation, and training. Mr. McGaw joined the CME Group in 2007 and was then selected for project manager and functioned as field lead for the BioDNA High Performance Computing Project. He currently manages hardware and software support of all CME Group projects and the CME Group facility.

Edward  Salinas (BS) – Bioinformatics Developer

Mr. Salinas joined the CME Group in 2007 while a graduate student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. To complement a strong background in math and programming, Mr. Salinas has chosen to broaden his field of graduate study to include Bioinformatics. Now a full-time CME Group employee, he has continued collaboration with Dr. Karmaker at UTSA in microarray analysis and was instrumental in developing the Phylogeny analysis module of the Forensic BioDNA System for the CME Group in 2008. With his expanded areas of expertise, Mr. Salinas is emerging as a direct assistant to both the lead system development programmer and the lead scientific advisor for molecular biology.

Shijie Yao (MS, PhD) – Database Lead Engineer

Dr. Yao studied novel DNA/RNA 3-D solution structures, and interactions with small molecules in his Ph.D program, by means of both experimental and computational techniques. During his postdoctoral training, he extended the famous AMBER molecular force field to study DNA-Platium adduct structures. Dr. Yao then worked on anti-cancer drug discovery research in the pharmaceutical industry for 12 years, taking the role of Application Scientist/Senior Application Scientist. He used a wide variety of computational techniques, ranging from high-level quantum mechanics, to massive molecular dynamics simulations, to homology modeling and ligand docking, in his drug discovery research. His 17+ years of scientific research activities have resulted in more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and many scientific conference presentations.  Dr. Yao also worked as Senior Software Engineer in commercial software companies, focused on software development on client-server architecture. Dr. Yao is currently the Database Lead Engineer for The CME Group, Inc.

Jeffrey Saxe (BS, PhD) – Sr. Bioinformatics Researcher

Dr. Saxe has over 25 years of experience in scientific software development and High Performance Computing.  He has over 21 years of experience working at pharmaceutical companies and at the National Cancer Institute.  Dr. Saxe helped to get High Performance Computing established and accepted in the biomedical field when in 1986 he was hired by Cray Research, Inc. to go to the NCI with the Cray supercomputer being purchased by the NCI, the first supercomputer to be used strictly for biomedical research.  While there he ported, optimized, and wrote a tremendous amount of software for use by the researchers at the NCI.  He later moved to Sterling Drug, Inc. where he was a Sr. Research Investigator, then moved to BioNumerik Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he was the Dept. Head of Computational Chemistry, leading a group of researchers involved in the discovery and development of anti-cancer agents.  Dr. Saxe is listed as an author on 18 publications, 2 book chapters, and 26 abstracts.  Dr. Saxe has also taught chemistry courses as an Adjunct Professor at colleges in San Antonio.  Dr. Saxe joined The CME Group, Inc. in 2009 where he is Sr. Bioinformatics Researcher.

E. Lynette Kizer (BS, MS) – Application Software Lead Developer

Ms. Kizer has over 20 years experience in the computer science field, to include software engineering, systems analysis, web development, application development, database development, and education. Ms. Kizer has extensive database design, development and interface experience to include Oracle, Sybase, MS Access, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server. Her project work includes database interface development in support of an animal research data collection tool, design and development in support of spacecraft avionics systems, web application development, design of a genetics database and testing of a Netscape GUI for a Sybase, Oracle, and MS Access database systems. Ms. Kizer was also a member of the faculty of the Computer Science Department at Iowa State University for three years as the Head Instructor for Data Structures and as the instructor for Introduction to Operating Systems. To better understand bioinformatics requirements, Ms. Kizer worked in a biochemistry lab for six months to gain bench experience in RNA and protein analysis where the E. coli ribosome 16S subunit was studied. Some techniques she used were gel filtration, electrophoresis, Western blots, and various incubation/extraction experiments. She was also certified in radiation handling for low to medium risk radioactive isotopes (P32). Ms. Kizer is currently the Application Software Lead Developer for The CME Group, Inc.

Phil Elliott – HPC Hardware Lead Engineer

Mr. Elliott has over 30 years experience as a computer systems architect-engineer, system test engineer, program manager and program director. His program management and oversight experience covers a broad spectrum from contract management of United States Air Force (USAF) programs to architecting and assembling some of the USAF's largest high performance clustered computing machine enclaves. He acted as technical advisor to the USAF Surgeon General's Office spanning 1994 to 2009 in support of a wide variety of medical-technical programs. As a senior civilian Mr. Elliott previously was in a position of government oversight to the CME molecular biology programs since 2005. Mr. Elliott is a certified public key infrastructure engineer (cryptologist) and company certified from various branded information technology providers. Mr. Elliott co-authored a publication that was issued in the New England Journal of Emergency Pediatric Radiology in 1996. The subject of the publication was the feasibility study of using the internet to read and diagnose radiographs reliably. Mr. Elliott is currently the HPC Hardware Lead Engineer for The CME Group, Inc.

Nancy M. Neira (BS) – Bioinformatics Developer

Ms. Neira recently joined The CME Group, Inc. after her move from Salt Lake City, Utah.  Her professional experience covers several years in the Medical Field (Lab Coordinator) and U.S. Army (U.S. Veteran).  In addition to military experience, Ms. Neira has been in the Medical Device software industry, with embedded programming background, Multiple Operating Systems (Real-time and Multi-threading Environment).  Experience in scientific, algorithmic development utilizing the OpenSource and Integrated Development Environments tools for General Electric Medical Systems.  Utilized Six Sigma Software Tools for Data Analysis and Statistical reports for Project Management and Project Leads.  Ms. Neira plans to pursue a formal course of study in Database Management. She is currently a Bioinformatics Developer for The CME Group, Inc.

David R. Gonzales (BS) – Bioinformatics Developer

Mr. Gonzales is a graduate of Texas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology/Computer Information Systems.  Mr. Gonzales has worked the past six years in the medical field, specifically, in emergency medicine working as an emergency room technician and as volunteer Emergency Medical Technician for a local municipal EMS service.  Prior to his medical experience Mr. Gonzales worked as a technician for a software company where he maintained databases and handled the help desk for technical support calls.  Mr. Gonzales joined The CME Group, Inc. in October of 2009 as a BioInformatics Developer.

Ray Champion (BS) – Bioinformatics Developer

Mr. Champion joined the CME team as a bioinformatics developer in 2009.  He has over ten years experience in the computer programming and information technology field.  He received his Bachelors of Computer Science from Baker College in 2007.  His primary application architecture specialty is Java Platform, Enterprise Edition.  After retiring from the military he was employed as a software test engineer where he developed test plans and coordinated the testing process for the Information Operations Technology Repository, a knowledge-sharing effort for the US Defense Department.  Prior to joining CME, he was employed as a network defense analyst, where he provided research, analysis and recommendations in support of the cyber mission at the Network Warfare Squadron at San Antonio, TX.  Mr. Champion is a retired US Navy Petty Officer who was deployed on a cruiser, a destroyer and a mine hunter.