Todd Huffman

Todd Huffman is an American technology entrepreneur and prolific photographer. He was a co-founder of the biomedical imaging company 3Scan, a member of the disaster aid group Synergy Strike Force, a researcher for DARPA, and a co-founder of the unconference BIL Conference.

He obtained a B.S. in Neuroscience in 2003, and an M.S. in Computational Biosciences at Arizona State University in 2006.

3Scan
In 2011, Huffman co-founded 3Scan, a firm that develops new techniques for biomedical imaging. Biz Journals called 3Scan's main technology, the Knife-edge scanning microscope, a "robotic microscope." The microscope rapidly sections and scans samples, building 3d models of microscopic structures. Singularity Hub magazine quoted Huffman's description of their goal: “We’re trying to move from a world where humans are hunting and pecking through tissue looking for answers to a world where we generate large and reproducible data sets where we can use analytics to drive insights and real cures.”

In January 2015, Forbes magazine interviewed Huffman, asking him to explain the approach to technology his firm was taking. In July 2016, Biz Journals reported that venture capital firms had invested an additional $11 million in 3Scan, reporting the total as $21 million.

3Scan was acquired by the laboratory automation firm Strateos in 2019.

Disaster Response
Huffman has worked with a variety of organizations on technologies for use in response to disasters or in conflict. He was a member of the disaster aid group Synergy Strike Force, a volunteer for the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and a researcher for DARPA.

Huffman was a regular visitor to Jalalabad, in Afghanistan, where he worked with other technology workers affiliated with an informal group known as the Synergy Strike Force, using technology to help improve the quality of life for Afghan civilians and training them in the use of peaceful technologies such as computers and wireless internet, including the FabFi network. The group assisted in the FabLab project in Afghanistan.

Huffman helped coordinate improvements to the OpenStreetMap efforts in Afghanistan and Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. He coordinated large scale data imports of aerial imagery provided by the US State Department and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, coordinated licensing updates to existing road databases, and led on-the-ground training sessions for local users to update OpenStreetMap.

Sharon Weinberger, author of a book about DARPA entitled The Imagineers of War, described Huffman influencing DARPA decision-makers on the use of technology in conflict.

BIL Conference
Huffman is a co-founder of the BIL Conference, an unconference organized and observed by the participants as an unaffiliated counterpart to TED’s structured, ‘invite-only’ paid conference.

Personal life
Huffman is signed up for cryopreservation with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, since 2002.