Cheryl Hayashi

The Cheryl Hayashi keynotes explore the knowledge that can be attained from spiders. Hayashi believes that the world's population have much to learn about their eight-legged counterparts and that spider silk may one day serve as an alternative to everyday materials.

As an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of California, Hayashi specializes in the genetic structure of spider silk. Currently, Hayashi participates with the EEOB Graduate Program in Evolutionary Biology and Physiology, as well as with the Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology and Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics Graduate Programs. In conjunction, she also participates with San Diego State University's Evolutionary Biology Joint-Doctoral Program. In terms of her education, Hayashi received her Ph.D. from Yale University.

Her work on spider silk was featured in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules and the Journal of Molecular Biology. Due to her extensive work in the biology community, Hayashi was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellow in 2007 and was chosen to speak at the 2012 TED Conference. With a solid belief in the potential of spiders as both a source of knowledge and resource for the future, the Cheryl Hayashi keynotes examine the potential hidden in the most unlikely places.