Maintaining a competitive edge in technology is key to startup success. The chief technology or science officer keeps that edge sharp by conceiving and developing new innovations, often managing a team of scientists and engineers. So what's it like to have that responsibility? Join us on September 19 to find out. We'll hear from Zach Serber, CSO at Zymergen, which was recently profiled by Science for its application of robotics and machine learning to the refinement of industrial microbes.
Where and When
Room 160, Helen Diller Bldg., UCSF Mission Bay (1450 Third St., San Francisco)
12:00-1:00 pm, Tuesday, September 19
About the Speaker
Dr. Zach Serber is a scientist and entrepreneur devoted to using bioengineering to drive the next industrial revolution. In 2013, Dr. Serber co-founded Zymergen, a technology company unlocking the power of biology by combining biology with technology such as robotics and machine learning. Today, he is the company’s Chief Science Officer and Vice President of Development overseeing scientific direction, new products, and development teams.
Dr. Serber was previously the Director of Biology at Amyris where he worked on manufacturing bio-derived transportation fuels, on lowering the cost of the antimalarial drug, Artemisinin, and on developing advanced tools for engineering biology. He has been PI on multiple DARPA contracts including an $8M contract devoted to improving the genome engineering cycle and, currently, a $31M contract to develop 360 microbes, each producing a novel molecule with the potential to generate innovative polymers and materials.
Dr. Serber has 17 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Cell and Science, multiple patents, and has worked as a research fellow at Stanford University Medical School. He has a PhD in Biophysics from University of California San Francisco, a MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA from Columbia University.
Zach lives with his wife, two children, and dog on a sailboat in Sausalito, CA.