David Gottfried received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry (highest distinction, highest honors) in 1984 from the University of Michigan and continued his studies in physical chemistry at Stanford University under a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1991. He then was a European Molecular Biology Organization post-doctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science/Bar-Ilan University before beginning research and teaching in biophysics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1999 he moved to the Georgia Tech Research Institute where he designed and tested optical sensors for chemical and biological agents with food safety, environmental, and homeland security applications. Gottfried joined the Microelectronics Research Center in 2007, where he was a technical liaison and biomedical domain expert for the NSF-funded National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network. Beginning in 2012 he served as a member of the Advanced Technology Team in the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN) and then was appointed Senior Assistant Director for IEN Nanotechnology Technical Programs in 2016. He is currently the IMS Associate Director of External User Programs, Director for the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor (SENIC), a member site of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), and Director for the NNCI Coordinating Office. Gottfried was selected as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2012 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018. In 2021 he was named a Regents' Researcher by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.