David Schaffer is the Hubbard Howe Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as the Director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center. He received a B.S. from Stanford University in 1993 and a Ph.D. from MIT in 1998. He then conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies before joining the Berkeley in 1999. There, he applies engineering principles to enhance stem cell and gene therapies, work that includes novel approaches for molecular engineering and evolution of new viral vectors as well as new technologies to investigate and control stem cell fate decisions. He has published >200 papers, is an inventor on >50 patents, and has received recognitions including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Award, the American Chemical Society Marvin Johnson Award, the ACS BIOT Division Young Investigator Award, and the Biomedical Engineering Society Rita Shaffer Young Investigator Award.