ARCS MWC welcomes new member Ming Ward! Ming joined in January and is sponsored by Chi Pham.

Ming earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. She began her career as an engineer at GTE in Stamford, CT, developing a system to transmit high-resolution images over satellites. She relocated to Northern Virginia when the project was transferred to GTE Spacenet in McLean. When GTE Spacenet was sold, Ming opted to stay in the area and transitioned into computer systems consulting.

Planning to start a family and reduce travel, Ming chose a local consulting position at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at NIH. For over 25 years now, she has worked on the team that built the widely used human genetic variation database, dbSNP, or the Human Genome Project. Virtually all genetic researchers rely on dbSNP for the unique human variation Reference SNP(RS#) dbSNP’s computational system assigned. This involves genetic sequence matching to determine if two genetic variations are the same or different. If you’ve used services like 23andMe or Ancestry.com, you may have noticed the RS#. Currently, Ming is the Product Owner for the FHIR (Fast Health Interoperability Resource) delivery of NIH’s database of genotype and phenotype (dbGaP), another widely-used biomedical resource. Ming is deeply passionate about promoting genomic data sharing while protecting patient privacy, with the goal of enabling scientific discoveries.

Ming and Chi first met when their children were at Churchill Road Elementary school. Ming has volunteered much time to her two sons’ schools. She has coached Science Olympiad teams, supported the Langley Crew team as part of the booster club, and helped organize chess and flag football teams.

Ming enjoys running, hiking, sailing, skiing, and recently, weight training. While training for marathons, she listens to audiobooks and podcasts, especially enjoying biographies of scientists and podcasts on health/medical topics.

Ming attended the ARCS Friends Mixology/Cooking class in November 2023, where she first met some of our members. She attended the ARCS Eagle Award Ceremony in April 2024, and more recently, attended a small informal tea in December 2024 with our co-Presidents and other members. Please give Ming a warm 'hello' when you meet her!