Vikram “Vik” Bajaj has been appointed co-chief govt of Project Prometheus alongside Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos
Vik Bajaj will lead Project Prometheus with Jeff Bezos
Bajaj, a veteran of Verily, Google X, GRAIL, and Foresite Labs, steps into the function with a protracted monitor document of constructing science-driven corporations.
Who is Vik Bajaj?
Vikram “Vik” Bajaj is a scientist, physicist, and chemist whose profession spans academia, biotechnology and synthetic intelligence.
He lately up to date his LinkedIn profile – it now places him down as co-founder and co-chief govt of Project Prometheus, a brand new AI enterprise that has reportedly raised billions in funding and is backed partly by Jeff Bezos. Bezos will function co-CEO of the startup alongside Bajaj, in accordance with a New York Times report.
Bajaj co-founded Xaira Therapeutics in January 2023, and he continues to function Director and Interim President, in accordance with his LinkedIn profile.
He has been a Managing Director at Foresite Capital since October 2017, serving to form investments throughout expertise, information science, precision well being, and biotechnology.
(Also learn: Elon Musk reacts as Jeff Bezos enters AI race with $6.2 billion startup: ‘Copycat’)
He is the co-founder and CEO of Foresite Labs, a task he took up in October 2018.
Prior to becoming a member of Foresite, Vik was the Chief Scientific Officer of GRAIL, a life sciences and healthcare firm working to detect most cancers early when it may be cured.
Time at Google and training
Vik Bajaj additionally co-founded Verily (Google Life Sciences) and served as its Chief Scientific Officer from March 2013 to October 2016.
The NY Times reported that he labored intently with Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin at Google’s X, a analysis initiative usually known as “The Moonshot Factory.”
He has been an Adjunct Associate Professor on the Stanford University School of Medicine since September 2014 and in addition served as an Advisory Board Member for the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry from February 2015 to August 2021.
Bajaj earned his Ph.D. in bodily chemistry from the celebrated Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the place he performed superior analysis within the bodily sciences.
Before that, he accomplished a mixed Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science diploma in biochemistry on the University of Pennsylvania.
His scientific awards embrace the Anatole Abragam Prize (2012), two R&D 100 Awards (2011 and 2013), and the DOE LBL Innovation Grant (2013), as per his profile on the Xaira Therapeutics web site.
