Karin Strauss

I am a Principal Research Manager at Microsoft. I am also an Affiliate Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Washington.

My research lies at the intersection of computer architecture, systems, and biology. As traditional semiconductor scaling has started to slow down, I investigate alternative approaches to continue the improvement we have been seeing in computer systems over the last few decades. Approaches I have been studying include hardware accelerators for machine learning, emerging memory technologies, and the use of biotechnology to the benefit of the IT industry. I also work on system software for these new architectures.

Lately, my focus has been on creating an end-to-end system that stores digital data in DNA, for which I was named one of the 2016 “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company. I have the privilege to work with a team of brilliant researchers and we have been making quite a lot of progress. Check out one of our announcements. The DNA data storage project has been chosen as “Best of What’s New” by Popular Science in 2016, featured in the World Economic Forum in the list of “Top 10 Emerging Technologies” in 2019, and highlighted by influential publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MIT Technology Review, and Scientific American.

I received my PhD in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. During my studies, I’ve collaborated very closely with top-notch researchers at IBM Research, where I also worked on the Blue Gene project. After graduating, I worked for almost 2 years at AMD Research, where I also had amazing colleagues.

For a complete list of publications, please click the tab “Publications” above.

If you are interested in DNA storage, click here.