Niles A. Pierce

Niles Pierce is Professor of Applied & Computational Mathematics and Bioengineering and Executive Officer for Biology & Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. His research group has developed mechanisms, principles, and algorithms that enable the rational design and construction of dynamic molecular devices in vitro, in situ, and in vivo. He is a co-founder of the field of dynamic nucleic acid nanotechnology and a co-inventor of HCR. Pierce graduated as valedictorian from Princeton University with a BSE in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, then received a DPhil in Applied Mathematics as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. Pierce has received the Fox Prize in Numerical Analysis, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Rozenberg Tulip Award, the Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and has been named a Guggenheim Fellow, a Christensen Fellow at the University of Oxford, and the 74th Eastman Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford.