David A. Markowitz is a scientist and engineer with a decade of experience leading applied research in biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

David is Chief Scientist at STR, an advanced technology R&D services company. He founded and leads a business unit that bridges biology with information science to accelerate discovery and deliver new capabilities. Since launching this effort in 2023, he has raised $30M in public and private capital from customers including government (ARPA-H, DARPA, and other DoD/IC elements) and philanthropy (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and he has forged partnerships with a broad range of industry partners working in the health, agriculture, manufacturing, and national security domains.

Previously, as an IARPA Program Manager, David Led “moonshot” applied research programs the bridged biology, engineering, and computing. He managed a $200M+ portfolio and contracted work by 500+ staff at 30+ organizations. Through this work, David delivered breakthrough technologies and capabilities for national security, and made key contributions to several emerging science and technology domains, including synthetic biology, connectomics, bioelectronics, and robotics. David also led the U.S. government’s development of computational and experimental tools for detecting engineered biological systems. In January 2020, he coordinated the U.S. national security community’s initial analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

After concluding his public service in December 2022, David has served in advisory roles to funding elements of the United States Government (Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation), Government of Canada, and Government of United Kingdom; as well as Simons Foundation, Convergent Research, and Center for a New American Security (CNAS).