Noubar Afeyan

Ph.D., Co-founder and Chairman, Moderna; CEO, Flagship Pioneering

Dr. Noubar Afeyan, is co-founder and chairman of Moderna and the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a company that creates bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability. An entrepreneur and biochemical engineer, Noubar holds more than 100 patents and has co-founded more than 70 life science and technology startups during his 36-year career. 


Noubar entered biotechnology during its emergence as an academic field and industry, completing his doctoral work in biochemical engineering at MIT in 1987. He was a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management from 2000 to 2016, a lecturer at Harvard Business School until 2020, and he currently serves as a member of the MIT Corporation. He teaches and speaks around the world on topics ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development to biological engineering, new medicines, and renewable energy. In 2022, Noubar was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.


Noubar has received multiple awards for his passionate advocacy of the contributions of immigrants to economic and scientific progress. He is the co-founder of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity and a number of other philanthropic projects.