Before BLAST, alignment programs used dynamic programming algorithms, such as the Needleman-Wunsch and Smith-Waterman algorithms, that required long processing times and the use of supercomputers ...

In the beginning, there was Needleman-Wunsch, which begat Smith-Waterman, which begat FASTA, which begat BLAST, and so on. Peel away the information technology jargon surrounding these alignment ...

He is well known for the Needleman–Wunsch algorithm, used in bioinformatics to align protein or nucleotide sequences.