Scientists not the Science: Entrepreneur – David Walt

This podcast episode was produced for the Scientists not Science series. Physicist and active researcher Dr. Stuart Higgins speaks with David Walt about his background, from growing up on the outskirts of Detroit, through his academic career, to the key seminar he gave that got him noticed by a venture capitalist. Throughout David’s career he has been an entrepreneur, taking technologies developed in his lab and working with investors and business partners to turn them into successful companies. The most successful is Illumina, which manufactures the technology used behind the majority gene-sequencing systems in the world, and has reduced the cost of sequencing exponentially over the past few years. At the time of broadcast, the company has a market capitalization of greater than US $40 billion.