Megan J Palmer, PhD

Dr. Megan J. Palmer is an expert and leader in strategies to shape the responsible development of critical and emerging technologies with a focus on biotechnology. Most recently she served as the inaugural Lead for Responsible Innovation at the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) where she led initiatives ensure the agency’s investments in breakthrough health innovations aligned with public interests, and coordinated input to interagency policy development.

Previously Dr. Palmer served as Senior Director of Public Impact at Ginkgo Bioworks where she led translation of the company’s commitment to care how their platform for synthetic biology and biosecurity was used into an operational strategy. She concurrently served as the staff designee to the chair of the U.S. National Security Committee for Emerging Biotechnology where she helped develop recommendations for advancing U.S. leadership in biotechnology. Dr. Palmer also held multiple roles at Stanford University, including founder and director of the Bio Policy & Leadership in Society (Bio.Polis) Initiative. She also led biosecurity initiatives at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford, where she was a Senior Research Scholar and William J. Perry Fellow in International Security. In these roles, and as an adjunct professor in Department of Bioengineering, she led interdisciplinary research on the conception and management of security as technologies become accessible, and led programs on guiding innovation to serve public interests.  

Dr. Palmer has led and advised many other organizations across public and private sectors. Among these roles, she co-chaired the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Synthetic Biology and now serves on the Global Future Council for Generative Biology. For a decade she led social responsibility programs for the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition and she served on the iGEM Foundation’s board of directors. She also served as Deputy Director of Policy and Practices for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (Synberc), and served on the board of directors of Revive & Restore.

Dr. Palmer received her Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from M.I.T. and a B.Sc.E. in Engineering Chemistry from Queen’s University, Canada.

Past Positions (also on linkedin)

• Lead for Responsible Innovation, U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

• Senior Director of Public Impact, Ginkgo Bioworks

• Staff Designee to the Chair, US National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology

• Adjunct Professor, Department of BioEngineering (BioE), Stanford University

• Co-chair, Global Future Council on Synthetic Biology, World Economic Forum

• Executive Director, Bio Policy & Leadership Initiatives, Stanford University

• Research Affiliate, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Stanford University

• Faculty Affiliate, Research Collaboratory, Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)

• Special Advisor to the Executive, iGEM Insights Committee Chair, Safety & Security Executive Committee Member, international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation

• Executive Director, Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program (LEAP)

• Member of the Board of Directors (Pro Bono), Revive & Restore

• Executive Director of Bio Policy & Leadership Initiatives, Stanford University

• Council Member, Engineering Biology Research Consortium

• Director of Human Practices (Pro Bono Advisory Director), international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition

• Senior Research Scholar, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University

• Visiting Scholar, Center for the Study of Existential Risks (CSER), Cambridge University

• Fellow, Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI)

• Lecturer, Public Policy Program, Stanford University

• Lecturer, Institute of Design (the d.school), Stanford University

• Faculty, How to Grow (Almost) Anything, the Academany

• Advisory Board Member (Pro Bono), Center for Cellular Construction

• Consultant, Building with Biology: Multi-Site Public Engagement with Science Project

• Synthetic Biology Advisory Group Member, Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genomics Institute (JGI)

• William J. Perry Fellow in International Security, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University

• Deputy Director of Policy & Practices, National Science Foundation (NSF) Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (Synberc), University of California Berkeley

• Research Scientist, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), University of California Berkeley

• Affiliate Researcher, Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Endy Lab, Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University

• Graduate Research Fellow, Lauffenburger Lab, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

• Steering Committee Member, MIT Technology and Culture Forum

• Executive Member, MIT Science Policy Initiative

• Undergraduate Student, Engineering Chemistry, Queen's University Canada