Harris Wang is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University jointly appointed in the Department of Systems Biology and the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology. Dr. Wang received his B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Physics from MIT and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University. His research group develops platform genomic technologies to characterize and engineer microbial communities that colonize various environments such as the mammalian gut, towards synthetic biology applications to deliver and actuate novel functions in complex ecosystems in situ. Dr. Wang is an Investigator of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the recipient of numerous awards, including the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, NSF CAREER, Sloan Research Fellowship, ONR Young Investigator and was named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Science. Dr. Wang is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which is “the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.”