Adam Abate graduated from Harvard College in 2002 with an A. B. in Physics. He then received a masters in physics from UCLA in 2004, before moving to the University of Pennsylvania where, in 2006, he received his Ph.D. in Physics studying the physics of soft materials with Douglas Durian. He returned to Harvard for a postdoc in Physics and Engineering in the lab of David Weitz, working on a variety of projects in soft matter physics, chemical and microparticle synthesis, and biological applications of microfluidics. While a postdoc, he developed a droplet-based microfluidic sequencer that became the foundation for the sequencing company GnuBIO. He is now a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences (BTS) in the Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy. He is in QB3 and part of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering, PSPG, and iPQB. His research interests are in high-throughput biology with microfluidics, protein engineering through directed evolution, and biophysics.