Photo of David R. Walt

David R. Walt

  • National Medal of Technology and Innovation
  • Biological Sciences

For setting a new gold standard in genetic analysis that is transforming medical research, care, and well-being. David Walt pioneered the use of microwell arrays to analyze thousands of genes at once and detect single molecules, making DNA sequencing exponentially more accurate and affordable, and promising simple biomarker blood tests that may revolutionize our approach to cancer and other conditions—giving people renewed hope.

David R. Walt is the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Associate Member at the Broad Institute, and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. His lab’s research focuses on creating and using novel technologies to solve unmet clinical diagnostics problems. Walt is the Scientific Founder of Illumina Inc., Quanterix Corp., and has co-founded multiple other life sciences startups including Ultivue, Inc., Arbor Biotechnologies, Sherlock Biosciences, Vizgen, Inc., and Protillion Biosciences. He has received numerous national and international awards and honors for his fundamental and applied work in the field of optical microwell arrays and single molecules including the 2023 National Academy of Engineering’s Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize and the 2021 Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, a Member of the American Philosophical Society, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and is inducted in the US National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Arati Prabhakar, Ph.D., Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), awards David R. Walt the Medal of Technology and Innovation during an awards ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, January 3, 2025. Photo by Ryan K. Morris