Douglas Blackiston is a Senior Scientist in the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, and a visiting scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard, where his research program examines the relationship between developmental events and organism level behaviors. His work encompasses many diverse questions and models, from the ability of memory to survive metamorphosis in moths and butterflies, to the capacity of transplanted eyes to restore vision in blind vertebrates. As part of the team that created computer-designed organisms, he envisioned and developed the biological components of the work, including the techniques, protocols, and methods to bring the simulated designs to life. He is a Cozzarelli prize recipient, and his research has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, BBC World News, the Guardian, and as exhibits in the Design Museum of London, the CCCB, and the Copernicus Science Centre.
