Raymond McCauley

Raymond McCauley is a scientist, engineer, inventor, investor, and entrepreneur working at the forefront of biotechnology. Raymond explores how bio-technologies like cheap DNA sequencing and CRISPR are revolutionizing biology, genetics, medicine, agriculture, and manufacturing. materials, energy, and even space. He uses storytelling and down-to-earth examples to show how quickly these changes are happening, right now, where it may head tomorrow, and what opportunities these lead to for both companies and private individuals. His work and profile have been featured in international media including Wired,Time, CNBC, The Financial Times, El Pais, Science, Nature, and Forbes. The latter once described him as a “DNA Tsunami.”

Raymond explores how biotechnologies like cheap DNA sequencing and CRISPR are revolutionizing biology, genetics, medicine, agriculture, and manufacturing. He uses storytelling and down-to-earth examples to show how quickly these changes are happening, right now, where it may head tomorrow and what opportunities they lead to for both companies and private individuals.

Raymond is:

Principal of Exponential Biosciences, a private consultancy;

A theme advisor to ARK Invest, home of good thinking about investing in disruptive innovation;

Resident Mad Scientist at Big Four professional services firm EY;

Chair of Digital Biology at Singularity University, a Silicon Valley think tank devoted to training leaders about exponential technologies;

Co-founder and Chief Architect for BioCurious, the world’s first hackerspace for biotech, a not-for-profit where professional scientists, DIYbio hobbyists, and entrepreneurs come together to design the next big thing to come out of a Silicon Valley garage;

Board Member at Conservation X Labs, a passionate and unconventional not-for-profit whose mission is to prevent the sixth mass extinction;

Part of the team that developed next generation DNA sequencing at Illumina, where he worked in bioinformatics, cancer sequencing, and personal genomics.

Raymond's postgraduate work includes studies at Texas A&M University, Stanford, and UC Berkeley in electrical engineering, computer science, biophysics, molecular biology, bioinformatics, nanotechnology, and cancer biology. He previously worked with Genomera, Illumina, Ingenuity Systems, TANSTAAFL Media, QIAGEN, Viatel, NASA, and other state and federal agencies. Raymond develops and advises a variety of companies and organizations.

He is a staunch advocate of and volunteer for better STEM education who believes that “kindergarteners should hack biology the way they do Tinkertoys” and that someone “needs to do for science communication what Disney did for cartoons.” Raymond's favorite project is raising his twins to be superheroes.

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