David "Piper" Horscroft — HTGAA Spring 2026
About me
Hi, I’m David – but professionally I go by Piper, because there are a thousand Davids in every team and I’m tired of namespace conflicts. I’m a career software developer with an academic history in bioinformatics who would love to take my experience and pour it back into the biosciences. I live and work in Cape Town, South Africa, and I’ve always loved the fusion of biology and computer science.
I pull literary inspiration from The Swarm, by Frank Schätzing, and the Dune series by Frank Herbert. It’s not hard to see where my early fascination with genetics came from.
In my spare time, I love swimming in cold water (coldest so far: a lake in Finland by a small town called Ranua), running semi-long distances (half marathons and not a step further), writing, dancing, fencing, and building software. I do not have very much spare time.
I’ve got strong opinions on a lot of things. I’m proudly queer, proudly leftist, and I believe that kindness and strength will help us build a better world. I’m also deeply critical of modern “AI” – I fear that there’s a lot of hype that is drowning out the real value of these models, and that we’re all going to suffer for it at some point. I can’t promise to have any biochemical answers for you, but if you need assistance with computer science or coding, please drop me an email!
Unfortunately, due to timezone and scheduling issues, I will not be able to join 2026 as a Committed Listener – but I look forward to being a Global one and perhaps joining in a more involved fashion next year!