Dr. Graham West is an assistant professor of computer and data science in the School of Applied Computational Sciences at Meharry Medical College, where he also serves as founding director of the Laboratory of Applied Interdisciplinary AI Research (LAIR). He joined Meharry in July 2024 and has played a significant role in building interdisciplinary initiatives that connect AI/ML with digital humanities research.

Dr. West’s doctoral dissertation, “On fitting the morphology of simulations of interacting galaxies to synthetic data”, focused on optimization methods for modeling interacting galaxies. Following his graduate work, he joined the Ancient Lives project, where he developed deep learning pipelines for handwritten text recognition (HTR) and the paleographical dating of ancient Greek papyrus fragments. This research has since expanded to include creating AI methods for historical document analysis, including uncertainty quantification for LLM-based HTR and interactive human-in-the-loop tools for scholarly research. These projects are pursued in collaboration with a network of U.S. and European partners, including colleagues in Berlin, Florence, and Naples.

As an educator, Dr. West teaches courses in mathematics and machine learning and leads a bootcamp for incoming students. He also directs a multi-institutional team of graduate students, fostering collaboration and professional growth across partner universities.

Dr. West is active in institutional service and development, as well. He serves on multiple committees, including Curriculum, Cyberinfrastructure, Ph.D. Candidacy, SACSCOC Reaffirmation, and ABET Assessment. His recent contributions include leading course evaluation reform, shaping efforts to integrate AI and data literacy across the curriculum, and advancing policies that strengthen program quality and continuous improvement.

Outside academia, Dr. West is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, a film enthusiast, and a lifelong student of philosophy, religion, and their intersections with science.

Teaching interests: