George Church

George’s 1984 Harvard PhD led to the first genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in 1994. His innovations have contributed to nearly all ‘next generation’ DNA sequencing methods and companies. His lab's work on chip-DNA-synthesis, gene editing and stem cell engineering resulted in founding additional application-based companies spanning fields of medical diagnostics and synthetic biology / therapeutics.

He has also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, ELSI, environmental and biosecurity policies. He is director of an IARPA BRAIN Project and NIH Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. His honors include election to NAS and NAE - and the Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has co-authored 537 papers, 156 patent publications and one book.

He is Director of the Personal Genome Project, which provides the world's only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental and Trait data (GET).