The Serendipity of Failure: A Journey from Graduate Student to Biotech CEO

Chris Gibson pursued dual degrees in bioengineering and business during his undergraduate work at Rice University before completing his PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Utah in the lab of Dean Y. Li, MD/PhD (currently President of Merck Research Labs), as part of work towards an MD/PhD dual-degree. Recursion grew out of that work, and after licensing the technology from the University of Utah, Recursion was founded a few days after Chris defended his dissertation during a leave of absence from medical school.

This talk will highlight the serendipity of science and failure, and the role each played in the journey Chris Gibson took from an MD/PhD student to CEO of a multibillion-dollar public biotech company in seven short years. Chris will highlight points of evidence for challenging dogma and taking big risks, especially in those fields where breakthroughs can create incredible impact. He will tell the story through his substrate in this journey; the intersection of biology, chemistry, automation and machine learning to create new medicines.

October 14, 2021