Dr. Merrick L. Furst runs commercialization and new venture creation and directs undergraduate programs and faculty development in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He recently founded the anti-botnet startup, Damballa, Inc. Before working at GT; he was a professor at UC-Berkeley, president of the International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley, and CEO of Essential Surfing Gear, Inc., which grew to 53 employees before being sold in 2000. Furst also helped establish a new high school in San Francisco. Earlier in his career, Furst was professor and associate dean in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. He is known for seminal research in algorithms, complexity theory, and artificial intelligence (AI). Additionally, Furst co-invented probabilistic circuit analysis and planning graphs, considered among the most influential breakthroughs in AI planning.