Marco Schmidt

Marco Schmidt had an exceptional academic career. He won the best PhD of the year award in Chemistry in his home country Germany and then went on to do a Post-Doc at the University of Cambridge. During his time at Cambridge, Marco received a Marie-Curie fellowship, as well as a stipend from the Gates Foundation to do his own research. Marco worked with excellent people like Chris Abell (who would later become vice chancellor) and Tom Blundell, the founders of Astex, a fragment-based drug discovery company that was acquired for $866 Million. His work with Chris and Tom opened his eyes to the possibilities of launching his own company, as well as to the limitations.