George Yancopoulos

George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D. (born 1959) is an American biomedical scientist who serves as chief scientific officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. His work has included study of how nerves regenerate and how muscles connect to nerves. He also developed "the most valuable mouse ever made," bred to have immune systems that respond just as a human's would, so that it can be used for testing how the human body might react to various pharmaceuticals and other substances.

He was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. According to a study by the Institute for Scientific Information, he was the eleventh most highly cited scientist in the world during the 1990s, and the only scientist from the biotechnology industry on the list.

According to Forbes magazine, Yancopoulos' financial stake in Regeneron has made him a billionaire. He is the first research and development chief in the pharmaceutical industry to become a billionaire.

He spent his early childhood in Woodside, New York. After graduating as valedictorian of both the Bronx High School of Science and Columbia University, Yancopoulos received his MD and PhD degrees in 1987 from Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons. Following work in the field of molecular immunology at Columbia University with Dr. Fred Alt, for which he received the Lucille P. Markey Scholar Award, he left academia in 1989 as a founding scientist for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals with Leonard Schleifer. Yancopoulos has been awarded Columbia University's Stevens Triennial Prize for Research and its University Medal of Excellence for Distinguished Achievement. He currently resides in Yorktown Heights

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