Dave is an exceptional leader with over 20 years of experience in commercially producing bio-based fuels and chemicals. Demonstrated talent for developing skilled employees and assembling highly productive research teams. Experienced communicator adept at describing complex concepts to diverse audiences.

Deep knowledge of microbial strain development, including bacterial and fungal physiology, metabolic engineering, and the use of these methods to facilitate industrial strain and process improvement.  Experienced in all aspects of fermentation and downstream processing.  Expert in biotechnology intellectual property protection in the United States, India, Southeast Asia, and China. Skilled in technology transfer between R&D and production facilities.

Dave was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and graduated with a Ph.D in Microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and post-doctoral research at Stanford University.  After leaving Stanford, Dave spent 6 years in academia as an Assistant Professor at Loyola University Chicago before leaving for more applied research in the area of synthetic biology.  Dave worked at Dupont-Genencor in California on engineering the production of isoprene and then moved to a Scientist position at the Department of Energy funded Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center working on the conversion of lignocellulose (biomass) to biofuels.  After 5 years, Dave left that position for a Senior Scientist job at Coskata, which ahs since transitioned to Synata Bio.