Stephen Leon Mayo

Stephen Mayo is the Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry and Merkin Institute Professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He holds joint appointments in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering and the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. 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.

Mayo's research focuses on the development 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.

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. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Merck, the Sarepta Therapeutics and Allogene Therapeutics, and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Rubryc Therapeutics, Evozyne and Vida Ventures.

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