May Cheh received a B.A. degree in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. In California, she taught chemistry, mathematics and English as a second language, and worked in biochemistry and medical research laboratories. She then pursued graduate training at the University of Minnesota and at The American University in Washington D.C., where she received a M.S. degree in computer science. She has worked on medical informatics research at the Lister Hill Center since 1980. Her current work in the expert systems group includes knowledge engineering, software development and evaluation of expert systems. She also helps with the NIH Medical Informatics Elective.