Andrew Hessel is a Canadian genomic scientist that views DNA as software for biochemical processors. He has facilitated the understanding, adoption, and use of advanced DNA technologies for over 15 years in the US, Canada, and Europe. Since 2003, he has focused on introducing synthetic biology -- a new technology that makes it easy to write DNA programs -- to researchers, students, and companies. Andrew is an ardent supporter of open source DNA programming, seeing it as a necessary counterbalancing force to proprietary biotechnology. He is preparing to launch an open source biotechnology venture focused on human therapeutics in spring of 2008.