Short Professional Bio
Douglas Densmore received his Bachelors of Science in Engineering (Computer Engineering) from the University of Michigan in April 2001. He received his Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering in May 2004 and his PhD in Electrical Engineering in May 2007 (both from UC Berkeley). After receiving his PhD he was a UC Chancellor’s post doctoral researcher both at UC Berkeley and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). He was the team leader of UC Berkeley’s award winning software tools team for MIT’s International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) in 2008 and 2009.
His industry experience includes four+ summers with Intel Corporation and summer research positions at Cypress Semiconductor and Xilinx Research Labs. He is currently a member of the Gigascale Systems Research Center (GSRC), the Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems (CHESS), and an affiliated investigator in the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC).
He is now the Richard and Minda Reidy Family Career Development Assistant Professor at Boston University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is the leader of the Cross-disciplinary Integration of Design Automation Research (CIDAR) group and a member of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology (CAB). His background and interests are in Computer Architecture, Embedded Systems, Logic Synthesis, Digital Logic Design, System Level Design, and Synthetic Biology.
Long Professional Bio
Douglas Densmore received his Bachelors of Science in Engineering (Computer Engineering) from the University of Michigan in 2001. He received his Masters of Science and his PhD both in Electrical Engineering in 2004 and 2007 from UC Berkeley. He was a UC Chancellor's postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley with Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli (in EECS) and J. Christopher Anderson (in Bioengineering) from 2007 to 2009. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) in 2010. He currently is the Richard and Minda Reidy Family Career Development Assistant Professor at Boston University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
His current research centers on extracting design techniques from electronic design automation (EDA) and applying them to the design of synthetic biological systems. Specifically he examines how to raise the level of abstraction in synthetic biology by employing standardized biological part based designs which leverage domain specific languages, constraint based device composition, visual editing environments, and automated assembly. These research agendas find a home in the “Clotho” unified toolset. Clotho is a two time winner of the “best software tool” at MIT's International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) and the first tool of its kind to employ EDA approaches to synthetic biology. He is also the co-founder of the International Workshop on Bio-Design Automation (IWBDA) which is co-located at the Design Automation Conference (DAC). He is a member of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology (CAB) and the leader of the Cross-disciplinary Integration of Design Automation Research (CIDAR) group.
He currently is an affiliiated member of the Biomedical Engineering Department and the Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry (MCBB) programs at Boston University.
Dr. Densmore is an affiliated investigator of the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC), and member of the Gigascale Systems Research Center (GSRC), and the Center for Hybrid Embedded Software Systems (CHESS). He has industry experience working for Intel Corporation, Cypress Semiconductor, and Xilinx Research Labs. His other research interests include system level design, computer architecture, embedded systems, and logic synthesis.
Personal Biography
I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and grew up in the small community of Richland, Michigan. I attended Gull Lake High School and the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center. I went to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where I received a degree in Computer Engineering in April 2001. I received my masters in Electrical Engineering in May 2004 and my PhD in May 2007 both at the University of California, Berkeley. I was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley in Electrical and Bio-Engineering from 2007 to 2010. I am a recipient of the UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. I was in Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli’s group in CAD for VLSI. I also worked at the Joint BioEnergy Institute and the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC) during my time as a post doc. I am a member of the Gigascale Systems Research Center (GSRC) and the Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems. Currently I am an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. My interests are in embedded system level design, computer architecture, digital logic design, design-for-test, and synthetic biology.
I have two brothers and two sisters (Matt, Luke, Diana, and Kate). My mother and father both live in Michigan. I lived in Michigan essentially until I started grad school in Sept. 2001. However, I had done four internships at Intel during undergrad. Three of these were in Folsom, California and one in Hillsboro, Oregon. My father (pictured) has since retired from his job as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Kalamazoo County. My mother works currently at AM Todd after working at Pfizer (formally Pharmacia and Upjohn). My sister Diana graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with degrees in Film and Video Studies and Creative Writing. She is currently a grad student at UCLA in the screenwriting program. My half-sister Kate graduated from the University of Western Michigan. My step-brother Matt lives in Arizona with his wife Alyson and my two nephews Zach and Josh (pictured). Finally, my half-brother Luke (pictured) lives in Kalamazoo and is working on his associates degree from KVCC.
I married Erika Parra (pictured; also a graduate student at UC Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering) on June 20th 2008. She and I met in December 2004. She was born in Bogota, Colombia and, as a result, she has re-sparked my interest in Latin American culture and the Spanish language. In order to complete learning Spanish (or at least become fairly fluent), I spent the summer of 2006 living in Cusco, Peru. Peru and the Peruvian people are beautiful. I was impressed particularly by the Quechua speaking campesinos. The American people can learn much from their kind spirit and communal energies. It was one of the best experience of my life. Erika and I will be visiting South America for the rest of our lives. Erika is currently a post doc at Harvard University in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.
When I am not doing research I enjoying camping/hiking, playing video games, sailing, reading, playing basketball, traveling, watching movies, and listening to hip hop music.
Here is a link to a .pdf file from the Empowering Leadership Alliance with an interview I did with them in 2008.
Trips
Paris/Barcelona - June 2010
In late May/early June I went to Paris to present at the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS). It was my first trip back to France since 2004. I was not particularly excited since I am very busy getting ready to move to Boston and the conference was located outside of the city. However, I made the best of it and ended up having a really good time. The highlight of my trip was a visit to the Chateau de Chantilly. I got a chance to visit with a friend of mine I have not seen in six years along with her family and her young son. They live in Chantilly which gave me a chance to really get out of the city center and relax with “real people”. After my time in France I went to Barcelona just to relax and visit Spain. My plan was to visit a friend of mine that works at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG). However, he had to leave town so we could not get together. However, he left me his apartment and his friends:) I had a great time and got to see all the typically tourist sites. I had great weather and really enjoyed my time there.
London, England - March 2010
My trip to London was to present at “Advances in Synthetic Biology“. I presented work on Eugene. It was a nice, small conference and I got a quick chance to stop by the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, the Soho area, as well as walk along the Thames. Too short a trip but I am sure I will be back again in my travels.
Taipei, Taiwan - May 2009
I went to Taipei to present a paper at ISCAS 2009. I was only there for a couple of days but I was able to go up Taipei 101. It was pretty impressive but for some reason it did not feel as impressive to me as the Sears Tower or the Petronas Towers. Another interesting excursion was a trip to a night market to get something to eat. In particular I tried fresh snake. Interesting to say the least.
Colombia - December/January 2009
During Winter Break 2008, Erika and I went to Colombia for our belated honeymoon. We visited Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, and Santa Marta (along with various other locations around these large cities). We had a great time and got to connect with a lot of Erika’s family connections. We visited sites related to Erika’s youth (old house, school, etc), numerous museums, beaches, historic sites, small towns, and met a ton of really interesting and generous folks. There is way too much to post here. Pictures of the trip will make their way to this site in the coming months.
Hong Kong, China - October 2008
I went to Hong Kong to attend Synthetic Biology 4.0. In addition to attending, I also chaired a session on computer aided design and ran a roundtable discussion. It was a great chance for me to put some faces with names in the synthetic biology community. Mainly I saw Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) which has a beautiful campus. I was fairly busy and did not really have time to see much of Hong Kong itself. I am sure I will be back someday.
Seoul, South Korea - January 2008
I went to Seoul to attend ASPDAC. I presented a tutorial at the conference on System Level Design methodologies. I did not have much time to visit Seoul but I did see Gyeonghuigung as well as the Yongsan electronics market.
Mexico City - September 2007
My friend Fabian and I went to visit his family in Mexico City. It was a lot of fun to spend time with his family and get an “authentic” experience in the city. We did a little site seeing in places like Castillo de Chapultepec and Teotihuacán. It was a great chance to practice my Spanish and I hope to go back again soon.
Drummond Island, MI - Summer 2007
My dad, brother Luke, and I went to a cottage on Drummond Island to relax for a couple days. Drummond Island is off the eastern tip of the upper peninsula of Michigan. We went fishing, picnicking, and just plain relaxed. It was a good time for some old fashioned “male bonding”. It was a LONG overdue trip.
Japan - Summer 2007
My mother, Erika, and I went to Omihachiman Japan (in Shiga Prefecture) to visit my sister Diana who is teaching English through the JET Program. We had a great time and visited lots of sites such as Hikone Castle, Miyajima, and Kyoto.
Peru - Summer 2006
Baja California, Mexico - Spring Break 2006
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand - Summer 2005
France - February 2004