Dr. Herbert Boyer

Herbert Wayne Boyer is a researcher and entrepreneur in biotechnology. Along with Stanley N. Cohen and Paul Berg he discovered a method to coax bacteria into producing foreign proteins, thereby jump-starting the field of genetic engineering. By 1969, he performed studies on a couple of restriction enzymes of the E.coli bacterium with, especially useful properties. He is the recipient of the 1990 National Medal of Science, co-recipient of the 1996 Lemelson–MIT Prize, and a co-founder of Genentech.

Boyer co-founded Genetech, the first dedicated biotechnology company, in 1976 with Robert A. Swanson, a venture capitalist. He also was a vice president of the company from 1976 to 1990. A biochemist and genetic engineer, Boyer first demonstrated the usefulness of recombinant DNA technology to produce commercial medicines, which laid the groundwork for Genentech's development.

In addition to his role at Genentech, Herb was a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. When Genentech was formed, he was teaching microbiology and working as a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF, as well as the director of the graduate program in genetics.

In 1993, he was awarded the prestigious Swiss Helmut Horten Research Award, along with Dr. Stanley Cohen of Stanford University, for their pioneering use of research in the use of gene technology in medicine. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and in 1985 he was elected to the California Inventor's Hall of Fame. Boyer received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in 1981 and the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1980. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the Industrial Research Institute Achievement Award in 1982. Boyer serves on the editorial boards of several scientific publications and has written or co-written more than 100 scientific articles.