PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Joshua Meier

Joshua Meier is a researcher whose work applies machine learning to protein science and antibody design. As a high-school student, he researched in a stem cell lab; after studying computer science and chemistry at Harvard, he joined OpenAI in 2018 and coauthored a paper on clinical reinforcement learning. At Meta, he co-led ESM1, the first transformer protein-language model, and coauthored an atomic-scale protein model and the MSA Transformer. He became Absci’s senior vice president and chief AI officer, then co-founded Chai Discovery in 2024. In 2025, Chai-2 reported a 16% hit rate across 52 antibody targets; as of October 2026, Meier is Chai’s CEO and co-founder.

Now at
Absci
Badges

Timeline

  1. By 2018

    Harvard, OpenAI and clinical RL

    During high school, he researches in a stem cell lab. After graduating from Harvard with a double major in computer science and chemistry, he joins OpenAI in 2018. In 2018, he coauthors a paper on evaluating reinforcement-learning algorithms in observational health settings.

  2. 2020

    An atomic-scale protein model

    In 2020, he coauthors an energy-based model of protein conformations with Yilun Du, Jerry Ma, Rob Fergus and Alexander Rives. It operates at atomic scale, trains only on crystallized protein data, and approaches Rosetta’s performance on rotamer recovery.

  3. By 2023

    ESM1 at Meta

    Before joining Absci, he works in Meta’s generative biology group and co-leads ESM1, the first transformer protein-language model. In 2021, he coauthors a PNAS study of a transformer language model trained on 250 million protein sequences; its representations encode information about biological properties.

  4. 2021

    The MSA Transformer

    In 2021, he coauthors MSA Transformer, a protein language model that takes multiple sequence alignments as input. Its interleaved row and column attention learns patterns of structure and function across protein families.

  5. May 2023

    Chief AI officer at Absci

    In May 2023, he is Absci’s senior vice president and chief AI officer. He oversees the company’s AI efforts for its generative antibody platform.

  6. 2024

    Co-founding Chai Discovery

    In 2024, he co-founds Chai Discovery with Matthew McPartlon, Jacques Boitreaud and Jack Dent. Chai releases Chai-1 in 2024, an open-source foundation model for molecular structure prediction.

  7. June 2025–December 2025

    Chai-2 antibody design

    By December 2025, he is Chai Discovery’s co-founder and CEO. Chai unveils Chai-2 in June 2025; its preprint reports a 16% hit rate across 52 targets. By December 2025, Chai-2 designs full-length, drug-like monoclonal antibodies, and more than 86% of tested designs show developability profiles on par with therapeutic antibodies.

  8. As of October 2026

    CEO of Chai Discovery

    In June 2026, he speaks as Chai Discovery’s co-founder at BIO International Convention’s session on AI in biopharma. By July 2026, he is a Chai co-founder, and the company’s models predict and reprogram molecular interactions for drug discovery. As of October 2026, he is the company’s co-founder and CEO.

Career

  1. Until 2023MetaCo-lead, ESM1
  2. From 2023AbsciSenior Vice President and Chief AI Officer
  3. From 2018OpenAI
  4. Chai DiscoveryCo-founder, CEO

Education

  1. Harvard UniversityDouble major in computer science and chemistry

From the biography.

Videos

YouTube videos in which Joshua Meier speaks or appears, newest first. A model chose them from YouTube search results. List updated 20 October 2026.

  1. No Priors Ep. 121 | With Chai Discovery Co-Founders Jack Dent and Joshua MeierNo Priors: AI, Machine Learning, Tech, & Startups · 3 July 2025 · 49 min

Video data from YouTube API Services. By watching you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. How we use YouTube data.

  1. Google alumni have founded or led 133 other organizations, more than any other AI labIncludes Joshua Meier. We estimate that alumni of 17 major AI labs went on to found or lead 350 other organizations, including 226 they founded, and we trace 472 career moves directly between 23 labs since 2010.
  2. Among employers with 30+ full-time cases, OpenAI leads primary technical role H-1B pay at $310,000, and Amazon, Google and Microsoft file 57% of all casesIncludes OpenAI. Across 440,669 certified US H-1B filings from 44 employers (FY2020–FY2026), OpenAI leads primary technical role base pay at $310,000 and xAI leads overall base pay at $290,000.
  3. 22 of 133 people shaping AI with a former OpenAI role now work at AnthropicIncludes OpenAI. Our estimates of where OpenAI recruits came from and where 133 people with former OpenAI roles work now, including the companies and labs they founded.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes OpenAI. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Joshua Meier yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Transforming Biology From Science To Engineering: Our Investment in Chai Discovery indexventures.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Evaluating Reinforcement Learning Algorithms in Observational Health Settings arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Energy-based models for atomic-resolution protein conformations arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Biological structure and function emerge from scaling unsupervised learning to 250 million protein sequences ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Chai’s the Limit for AI Antibody Designer After $130M Series B Funding genengnews.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. MSA Transformer proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Absci Eyes IND for Platform’s First de novo Antibody within Two Years genengnews.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Chai Discovery Announces Collaboration with GSK Following Successful Wet-Lab Evaluation chaidiscovery.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Joshua Meier - BIO International Convention 2026 convention.bio.org. Checked 21 October 2026.