Michael Lawrence

Michael Lawrence is an experienced leader in the field of engineering and data platforms, most notably serving as Director of Engineering for Data Platforms at Genentech from January 2014 to February 2021. In this role, Michael led a multidisciplinary team that developed enterprise-scale data platforms and tools for computational biology, managing strategic initiatives for cloud infrastructure and AI/ML applications to support over 500 scientists. Prior to this, Michael held positions as Senior Principal Scientist and Principal Scientist, where significant contributions included creating a modular genomic analysis platform and enhancing R's memory management for bioinformatics applications. Michael's earlier experience includes a postdoctoral research role at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and as a Graduate Research Assistant at Iowa State University. Michael holds a PhD in Biomathematics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology from Iowa State University and a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia.