Dr. Indika Kahanda is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at University of North Florida, where he directs the BioMedInfo (bioinformatics and biomedical informatics) lab. Prior to that Dr. Kahanda worked as an Assistant Professor in the Gianforte School of Computing at Montana State University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Colorado State University in 2016 in the area of Bioinformatics, a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2010, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2007.

Dr. Kahanda's research interests lie in the areas of Bioinformatics and Biomedical Informatics. He focuses on the application of machine learning and natural language processing techniques to solve problems involving large-scale biological, molecular, and biomedical data. In particular, he investigates approaches to (1) develop computational methods for functional genomics, and (2) develop natural language processing and text mining tools for biomedical literature. Current projects include developing computational tools for Pangenomics, and automated contradiction detection in biomedical literature.