Speakers

Dr. Eric Klavins

Eric Klavins is a Professor and the Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Washington in Seattle. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science and engineering in 1999 and 2001 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. From 2001 to 2003 he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Control and Dynamical Systems Department at the California Institute of Technology. He holds adjunct appointments in Computer Science and Engineering and in Bioengineering and is a founder of the UW Center for Synthetic Biology.

The Klavins lab develops synthetic living systems, re-engineered organisms, and engineered parts for existing organisms. The emphasis is on designing gene circuits and cell-cell communication systems that enable novel multicellular behaviors in bacteria, yeast, and plants. Klavins is interested in the full stack from modeling and design to fabrication and testing of new living systems. His current projects include synthetic multicellular systems, machine-learning enabled protein engineering, and laboratory automation.