Josef Spidlen, Ph.D., is a computational scientist, software engineering leader, and recognized contributor to the field of cytometry informatics. He currently serves as Senior Director of Informatics, DevOps & Product Security at Waters Biosciences, where he leads global teams responsible for software engineering, DevOps, product security, and informatics platforms supporting both research and clinical flow cytometry products. His organization contributes to a broad portfolio of software products and services, including FlowJo™, Infinicyt™, BD Research Cloud, BD Access Portal, FACS Workflow Manager, and other Biosciences informatics initiatives.

Josef earned both his M.Sc. in Computer Science and Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics from Charles University in Prague. He began his career as a software engineer in the mid-1990s before joining the Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where his work focused on biomedical informatics, computational methods, and data analysis.

His involvement with the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) began in 2005 when he joined the laboratory of Dr. Ryan Brinkman at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver, Canada. During his academic career, Josef became widely recognized for contributions to computational flow cytometry, cytometry data standards, reproducible scientific workflows, and data sharing infrastructures. His scientific work has been reflected in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and thousands of citations, spanning topics such as computational cytometry, bioinformatics, machine learning, and standardization of biological data.

A long-time contributor to ISAC standards efforts, Josef played a central role in the development and evolution of several foundational cytometry standards, including FCS (Flow Cytometry Standard), Gating-ML, and MIFlowCyt. He worked extensively with ISAC’s Data Standards Task Force and broader Data Committee to improve interoperability, reproducibility, and long-term accessibility of cytometry data. He also contributed to numerous open-source bioinformatics projects, including the widely used flowCore package within the Bioconductor ecosystem, GenePattern modules, and various analysis tools used throughout the cytometry community.

From 2010 through 2016, Josef led much of the software development effort behind FlowRepository, ISAC’s public repository for flow cytometry datasets, helping establish one of the field’s most important resources for data sharing and reproducible research. Throughout his career he has remained actively involved with ISAC through conference presentations, committee participation, standards activities, workshops, and educational initiatives. He has chaired scientific sessions, served on program committees, and presented at numerous CYTO conferences as well as regional meetings including GLIIFCA, FlowTex, and cytometry-focused events across North America and Europe.

In 2016, Josef transitioned from academia back into industry and relocated to the United States to join FlowJo. Following FlowJo’s acquisition by BD Biosciences in 2017 and the subsequent integration into Waters Corporation, his leadership responsibilities expanded significantly. What began as an individual contributor role evolved into leadership of a global informatics organization spanning software engineering, quality engineering, cloud platforms, DevOps, product security, and AI-driven innovation initiatives.

Today, Josef’s responsibilities extend beyond traditional software development to include leadership of enterprise-scale platforms, software delivery infrastructure, cybersecurity and secure development practices, regulatory product security initiatives, and adoption of artificial intelligence within scientific software development. He has been a strong advocate for modern software engineering practices, cloud-native architectures, developer productivity, and responsible use of AI technologies across research and product development organizations.

Josef continues to maintain close relationships with ISAC and the broader scientific community, seeking opportunities where industry, standards organizations, and researchers can work together to advance cytometry technologies and data science. His interests span computational cytometry, cloud computing, scientific software platforms, machine learning, cybersecurity for regulated medical and research products, and the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence in software development and biological data analysis.