Robert is an Associate Professor in Computer Science and the PI of the Bio-Ontology Research Group (BORG). Prior to joining KAUST, Robert held research positions at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the European Bioinformatics Institute, University of Cambridge, and Aberystwyth University. He earned his PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Leipzig. Robert's research focuses on the development and application of knowledge-based algorithms in biology and biomedicine. In bioinformatics, Robert focuses on bio-ontologies and integration of massive datasets, protein function prediction, metagenomics, pathogen informatics, systems biology, and investigating genotype-phenotype relations. In computer science, his interests lie in Semantic Web technologies and neuro-symbolic methods that combine formal logic and machine learning. Robert has published over 150 papers in journals and international conferences. Robert is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Biomedical Semantics and Associate Editor of BMC Bioinformatics, Applied Ontology, and PLoS ONE, and regularly organizes and co-organizes workshops and conferences in the area of bioinformatics, data integration, and bio-ontologies.