John Jumper

John Jumper is Director of DeepMind Technologies. He completed a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and an MPhil in theoretical condensed matter physics at the University of Cambridge before receiving his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, applying machine-learning techniques to the study of protein dynamics.  In October 2017, ten months after earning his PhD, John joined DeepMind.  

In 2020, John Jumper and Demis Hassabis presented an AI model called AlphaFold2. With its help, they have been able to predict the structure of virtually all known proteins.  AlphaFold2 has been widely used in many areas, including research into pharmaceuticals and environmental technology.

In 2021, John was named in Nature’s 10, an annual list of people who made significant impacts in science.  In 2022, he won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine, and the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences. In 2023, he received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Canada Gairdner International Award, and the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, all shared with his colleague Demis Hassabis.  In 2024, John was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with David Baker and Demis Hassabis for developing an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures.