David Asai is Senior Director for Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. David’s team creates and leads grants and fellowships programs aimed at the development of students in science. Key initiatives: (i) Inclusive Excellence challenges colleges and universities to significantly and sustainably increase their capacity for inclusion of all students, especially students who belong to groups underrepresented among persons who are successful in science; (ii) Gilliam graduate program provides awards to adviser-student pairs who are committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in science, and which requires the dissertation adviser to engage in a year-long mentor training program; (iii) HHMI Professors provides grants to highly accomplished scientists at research universities who apply the rigorous curiosity that makes them successful in research to important challenges in science education; and (iv) Science Education Alliance assists faculty to develop effective course-based research experiences for beginning undergraduates. David’s bachelor’s degree is in chemistry from Stanford University, and his PhD is in biology from Caltech. He was: a postdoc at Caltech and the University of California, Santa Barbara; a faculty member at Purdue University for 18.5 years where he was Head of Biological Sciences; and Stuart Mudd Professor and Chair of Biology at Harvey Mudd College for 5 years. His research focused on the structural and functional diversity of dyneins. David came to HHMI in 2008.http://www.hhmi.org/developing-scientists.