Walt Gall, PhD’02, exemplifies how a foundation in basic sciences can launch a dynamic and impactful career. After earning his degree in molecular biology from Vanderbilt in 2002, Gall has carved out a path at the intersection of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, deep tech innovation, and space exploration. He now serves as an entrepreneur in residence at the Exploration Institute, a think tank that develops the most advanced space-related AI hardware/software systems and applications for U.S. governmental agencies such as NASA and the U.S. Space Force. At the EI, Gall works to develop next-generation technologies with far-reaching applications with Fortune 500 companies.
In an interview with the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, Gall reflected on how his time at Vanderbilt shaped his systems-thinking approach, mentoring mindset, and interdisciplinary drive that continue to fuel his success today.
Graduate program: Molecular biology (Biological Sciences)
Current role: Entrepreneur in residence at the Exploration Institute
How did Vanderbilt help with your career path?
I had a couple of key experiences that had a lasting positive impact. First, I was residential advisor and head resident in Vandy’s married and family student housing. That was a great opportunity to give back to the school and be an active leader in building the close-knit community that I was a part of for several years. Still to this day, it reminds me to strive to be an active participant in building lasting relationships and a cohesive ecosystem.
Second, as a teaching assistant in an undergrad genetics lab, I learned the importance of mentoring beyond teaching and grading. Whether it is in graduate school or as a postdoc or in your professional career, I believe you will always find it meaningful and rewarding to share with others some of the key lessons you’ve learned along the way and maintain an active mentoring relationship with those close in your network.
How has the interdisciplinary nature of biomedical research training played a role in your ability to collaborate with professionals from different fields in your career?
The exposure I got from the various department professors and their unique perspective and tools from their field were always insightful in illuminating different ways to address a question and hypothesis. This ends up reinforcing the grit one invariably needs when evaluating different approaches and weighing the trade-offs to be successful in whatever state-of-the-art science and technology space you find yourself in, whether it is an important research problem you are solving or a complex product or application you are building that disrupts and benefits the marketplace and community.
How did the networking opportunities at Vanderbilt contribute to your professional connections and career advancement?
In our first year (1998–99), I was part of the founding of the earlier Biomedical Research Education and Training student groups, and we published a playbook called The Sextant as a guide for fellow and future grad students. This project was a great bonding experience with some of my classmates. Plus, we organized some exciting extracurricular programs and held outside speaker events.
Can you share a pivotal moment or decision in your career that was influenced by your experiences at Vanderbilt or with BRET?
When I figured out that I could do cell biology, biochemistry, genetics, electron microscopy, structural biology, etc., all with one model organism—brewer’s yeast—I was sold on that space being where I needed to train. I used brewer’s yeast to learn how to cultivate a systems-oriented way of thinking for selecting the different experimental approaches for the fundamental questions and molecular pathways I wanted to elucidate.
I had a similar epiphany when I learned the power of software during my postdoc; that is, how to track chromosomes during live cell imaging experiments using the programming language R to solve fundamental cell division regulatory mechanisms related to cell growth, polarity, and cancer. Subsequently, with one of the first biotech companies I worked for, I had yet another realization and pivot when my multi-omics team and I delved into the next chapter of software by leveraging machine learning algorithmic approaches in 2007 to discover and validate novel inflammation biomarkers predictive of cardiometabolic disease progression.
All in all, surround yourself with interdisciplinary teams that will help you cultivate your systems design thinking, and be an early adopter with advanced tools.
Were there any specific mentors or professors who played a crucial role in shaping your career aspirations?
Yes, Dave Piston. He was a professor of molecular physiology and biophysics and part of the recruiting team when I was looking at various biomed graduate programs. He conveyed something to me over a pint and, eventually, in the classroom that stuck with me: He stressed the importance of always pushing yourself to take advantage of the diverse resources you have across interdisciplinary teams when tasked with hard problems. Following this viewpoint will undoubtedly push you into uncomfortable areas where you won’t have expertise, but more times than not, you will be better off stretching yourself into those unfamiliar domains and building a new muscle that creates complementary collaborations that may end up contributing to a breakthrough. I’ve taken on this philosophy throughout my career, which led me from biotech systems biology platforms to deep-tech, next-gen computing teams and technologies.
Were there any unexpected twists or turns in your career journey?
When working with one of the first cognitive AI graph reasoning software companies, Saffron Technology invested by Intel, I initially found myself partnering on projects far afield from the original medical device and precision medicine applications I wanted to leverage this platform technology for when joining the company. However, I benefited immensely from working with deep tech, aerospace, and financial services early-adopter customers who were using the same technology to solve hard problems related to those fields, such as predictive maintenance and fraud. These use cases ended up delivering a lot of value to our company and partners, which led to our acquisition and yielded insights on how to apply similar, theoretic AI approaches for the health applications I would work on downstream, but now inside Intel. This led to other AI business and product leadership roles at Meta, Amazon, and other AI startup opportunities.
In what ways did your involvement in additional projects or internships during your time at Vanderbilt contribute to your current success?
I collaborated with a classmate’s structural biology project that led to a better understanding of a particular protein’s ubiquitin binding domain, and, in turn, eventually uncovered a more universal mechanism for how it carried out its various chaperone functions.
What advice would you give to a student studying basic sciences?
Embrace Vanderbilt’s new College of Connected Computing and put yourself out there to learn how you, your fellow peers, and professors can partner with its resources to expand your horizons and solve hard, rewarding problems for humanity. You’ll need to build this muscle eventually, so I recommend you do it now to better prepare you and your future teams on how to best leverage next-generation system designs with future neuromorphic and quantum computing systems.