Flagship Pioneering Founder and CEO Noubar Afeyan Elected to National Academy of Engineering

Cambridge, Mass., February 9, 2022 –Flagship Pioneering, the bioplatform innovation company, today announced that founder and CEO Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), broadly recognized as one of the highest acknowledgments of achievement in the field of engineering.

"We are thrilled that the National Academy of Engineering has elected Noubar and recognized his contributions to engineering and his leadership in biotechnology, in particular mRNA therapeutics and chromatography,” said Doug Cole, M.D., Managing Partner at Flagship. “Noubar’s singular commitment to engineering, science, and innovation to create new paradigms and pioneer novel technologies that result in previously unimagined impact is unparalleled. His belief that innovation can be taught and replicated is the foundation of Flagship Pioneering. It is core to our approach to exploration that has resulted in the development of transformative technologies and products to advance human health and protect our planet.”

“I’ve known Noubar for more than 30 years, initially serving on his Ph.D. thesis committee and later working with him on various companies, including Moderna where we are co-founders and fellow Board members, and Noubar is our Chairman,” added Robert Langer, Sc.D., Institute Professor at MIT. “What Noubar has done is remarkable. His incredible vision, leadership, and overall brilliance are evident in all he does. Noubar has changed the world, and he is extremely deserving of this wonderful honor.”

About Noubar Afeyan

Noubar entered biotechnology during its emergence as an academic field and industry, completing his doctoral work in biochemical engineering at MIT. He holds more than 100 patents and has co-founded and helped build more than 60 life science and technology startups during his 35-year career, including Moderna, the pioneering messenger RNA vaccine company.

At Flagship Pioneering, which he founded in 2000, Noubar has created an enterprise where entrepreneurially minded scientists invent seemingly unreasonable solutions to challenges facing human health and sustainability. Flagship has fostered the development of more than 100 scientific ventures resulting in over $140 billion in aggregate value, thousands of patents and patent applications, and more than 50 drugs in clinical development.

Prior to founding Flagship Pioneering, Noubar was the founder and CEO of PerSeptive Biosystems, a leader in bio-instrumentation that grew to $100 million in annual revenues. After PerSeptive’s acquisition by Perkin Elmer/Applera Corporation in 1998, he became senior vice president and chief business officer of Applera, where he initiated and oversaw the creation of Celera Genomics.

About the National Academy of Engineering

The latest NAE peer elections bring the Academy's total U.S. membership to 2,388, plus 310 international members. The NAE's mission is "to advance the well-being of the nation by promoting a vibrant engineering profession and by marshalling the expertise and insights of eminent engineers to provide independent advice to the federal government on matters involving engineering and technology."

For more information about the NAE, please visit their website at https://www.nae.edu/.