Chair & Co-Founder

Stephen L. Mayo, Ph.D. is the Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry; Merkin Institute Professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

He has been a member of the Caltech faculty since 1992 and served as Vice Provost for Research from 2007 to 2010 and Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering from 2010 to 2020.

He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University, his Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech, and did postdoctoral work at both UC Berkeley and Stanford University School of Medicine in chemistry and biochemistry, respectively.

Dr. Mayo’s research focuses on the development and use of computational approaches to protein engineering – a field that has broad applications ranging from advanced biofuels to human therapeutics. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 for his pioneering contributions in the field of protein design. Dr. Mayo co-founded: Molecular Simulations Inc. (currently Accelrys/Biovia), a computational chemistry company; Xencor, a publicly traded bio-therapeutics company focused on developing next generation biologics for treating cancer; and, Protabit, a privately held protein engineering company focused on the use of AI and machine learning for protein engineering applications. Dr. Mayo serves on the Boards of Directors of Merck, Sarepta Therapeutics, and Allogene Therapeutics, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of Vida Ventures.

In addition to his academic and private-sector work, Dr. Mayo has held a number of scientific community support positions including serving as an elected Board Member for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010-2014) and serving as a presidential appointee on the National Science Foundation’s National Science Board (2013-2018).

David Baltimore Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering; Merkin Institute Professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, Clyde '56 and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine and Director, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University.

Former Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Vir Biotechnology.