I worked closely with Dr. Brooks for several years and across about five scientific and/or software projects, including the sourmash open source software project (https://github.com/dib-lab/sourmash/) as well as the NIH Data Commons. Phil is a pleasure to work with, combines amazing creativity and intelligence with a broad knowledge of biology and microbiology, deep expertise in computational science, and wonderful organizational skills. He is an incredible team member.

I think that Phil stands out to me in particular for his integrative perspective – he is really good at understanding the broader landscape from many different perspectives, and then tying that together into a balanced set of plans with clear priorities. This is a really unusual skill especially when combined with deep subject matter expertise in so many different areas (software, molecular biology, training, and more).

In sum: highly recommended!