About

I'm currently an enterprise software executive with tremendous passion for the life sciences.

Prior to my startup career, I was an academic scientist, completing my career as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology working for George Whitesides.

I reside in Boston, MA.

In science and business, the one thing that nobody ever tells you is that the more you learn, the more you realize how little you actually know about the world.

I found a passion for entrepreneurship in 2010 when I helped launch PreScouter, an open innovation platforms for Fortune 500 companies. Today, PreScouter has scaled to 400+ customers across the globe with employees on 3 continents. My second technology startup was TetraScience, a data platform for the life sciences. I was the founding CEO and ran the business for 4+ years and raised $10M+ in venture capital. While at TetraScience, I nucleated the eponymous podcast called Digital Biotech, a community of innovators at the intersection of science and data.

 

Much of my youth was spent studying science/engineering and developing new knowledge (research).  I grew up in upstate New York and was fortunate to start doing laboratory research at age 16 at the (now) College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering.

At Harvard, my research interests are broad: composites, molecular self-assembly, and robotics, to name a few.  I am fortunate to work with a group of diverse and intellectually curious people from all over the world.  Additionally, I have enjoyed working for George since, I believe, his framework for doing science is both pragmatic and unique.  Needless to say, he is both respected (#1 living chemist in the world by H-index) and notorious ("you don't have to be particularly smart to do good science") within the field of chemistry and materials science.

Prior to Harvard, I was a JSPS Fellow at the  University of Tokyo  in the laboratory of Prof. Takuzo Aida where I studied batteries based on graphene.  I completed my PhD in Materials Science & Engineering at Northwestern University where I was a NERC Fellow and ISEN Fellow under the advisement of Professor Samuel Stupp.  My doctoral research was in molecular self-assembly; I developed functional hydrogen bonded networks for organic electronics, optics, and biomaterials.

For more information about my research, please click here

I spent my formative years as an undergraduate in quaint Ithaca, NY at Cornell University where I received my bachelors in Materials Science & Engineering (2006).  My advisor at Cornell was George Malliaras.

Beyond the laboratory, I have been intrigued by entrepreneurship.  More than the financial reward starting companies represents one of the most demanding, all encompassing challenges one can pursue.  Building an organization is tough: moving from constructive chaos to a repetitive rhythm of generating revenue isn't easy.

Outside of work, I enjoy playing hockey, travel, and reading about economics and politics.


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In science and business, the one thing that nobody ever tells you is that the more you learn, the more you realize how little you actually know about the world.
— Alok tayi