Dr. David Soloveichik is an Associate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Soloveichik’s research recreates some of the complex behaviors of living molecules using molecular components that were rationally designed from scratch rather than evolved. His work combines wet-lab experiments with the development of new mathematical abstractions that help guide programming of molecular function. Mathematical abstractions like Boolean algebra have been invaluable in creating the complexity of digital electronic computers, but new models and abstractions are needed for the molecular domain. Dr. Soloveichik has been instrumental in developing the technology of DNA-only logic circuits and dynamical systems, including the first DNA chemical oscillator. His broader interests are highly interdisciplinary, ranging from neural networks, to analog computation, to quantum computing and psychology. Visit the Soloveichik Lab website for more information on their work. 

Planned Polymaths Work: Computation constitutes a substantial and ever-growing portion of the world’s energy consumption. Dr. Soloveichik plans to develop computation that dissipates the lowest amount of energy allowed by thermodynamics—as well as to reveal the fundamental mathematical connections between low-energy computation and quantum computing.