David Sun Kong, Ph.D. is a synthetic biologist, bio designer, community organizer, musician, and photographer based in Lexington, MA. He is the Director of the MIT Media Lab's Community Biotechnology Initiative. His research explores the multidisciplinary domains of synthetic biology, biological design and art, collective intelligence and movement building, and STEAM learning.Dr. Kong is a technical leader in synthetic biology, having pioneered the development of novel “lab-on-a-chip” and “organ-on-a-chip” technologies. He conducted his graduate studies at MIT’s Media Lab, receiving a Master's degree for developing technology for printing nanostructures with energetic beams and a Ph.D. for demonstrating the first gene synthesis in a microfluidic (“lab-on-a-chip”) system. As a postdoctoral associate he developed ‘nose-on-a-chip’ technology using microfluidic-based synthesis of olfactory receptors, and later, while Technical Staff in the Bioengineering Systems & Technologies group at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, was Principal Investigator for a multi-institute program fabricating ‘Artificial Guts’ for prototyping microbial communities. He is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Metafluidics, an open repository for fluidic systems.Dr. Kong is a leader in the grassroots Community Biology movement and is the founder of the Bio Summit, a gathering that convenes the global network of independent, community-led biology labs, that has included thousands of participants from over a hundred countries. He is also co-founder and Director of "How To Grow (Almost) Anything” (HTGAA), an international course on synthetic biology and biodesign based at MIT and Harvard. In recent years HTGAA has accepted thousands of students with 15 global "nodes," a waiting list of more than 40+ sites, and an Industry Council of more than 25 Life Sciences and Biotechnology companies.He is also a co-creator of the ‘Supermind Design Methodology’ with Professor Thomas Malone, Director of the MIT Center of Collective Intelligence, and instructs the “Ancient Future Technology” course at MIT. He was recognized as an emerging leader in synthetic biology as a "LEAP" fellow and has served as a guest faculty member at the Marine Biology Lab in Woods Hole, MA.He is also the founder and Board President of EMW Community Space, an art, technology and community center in Cambridge MA and is a long-time organizer in the Asian American arts community. David’s work has been covered via outlets such as the Science, Showtime, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, NPR Boston, Gizmodo, STAT News, Chronicle, and WBZ News. He has delivered keynote addresses for the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, NASA, and Google.