PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Raphael Townshend

Also known as Raphaël Townshend, Raphaël John Lamarre Townshend, Raphael J.L. Townshend

Raphael Townshend is a machine-learning researcher turned founder whose work applies geometric deep learning to RNA structure and drug discovery. He holds a BS in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley, completed a computer science PhD at Stanford in 2021 under Ron Dror, and held positions at DeepMind and Google. As first author of the ATOM3D benchmark suite, which received a Datasets and Benchmarks Award at NeurIPS 2021, and as a co-lead author of the August 2021 Science paper that introduced ARES, a scoring function trained on only 18 known RNA structures, he became a recognized voice in 3D molecular learning. He started Atomic AI in 2021, announced its $35 million Series A in January 2023, and was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Science list for 2023. He is founder and CEO of Atomic AI in San Francisco, which designs foundation models for RNA.

Now at
Atomic AI
Badges

Timeline

  1. 2020–2021

    The ATOM3D benchmark suite

    In December 2020, he posts ATOM3D as first author, with twelve coauthors including Russ Altman, Risi Kondor and Ron Dror: benchmark datasets spanning several key classes of biomolecules, released with an open-source atom3d Python package. The paper appears in the NeurIPS 2021 Datasets and Benchmarks Track and receives a Datasets and Benchmarks Award at NeurIPS 2021.

  2. 2021

    A Stanford PhD under Ron Dror

    He completes a PhD in computer science at Stanford in 2021, advised by Ron Dror in the Stanford AI Lab, with a thesis titled "Geometric learning of biomolecular structure". He earns a BS in electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley, and during the PhD he holds positions at DeepMind and Google.

  3. August 2021

    The ARES paper in Science

    In August 2021, Science publishes "Geometric deep learning of RNA structure", on which he is a co-lead author with Stephan Eismann and Andrew Watkins, in collaboration with Rhiju Das's laboratory at Stanford. Its scoring function ARES, trained on only 18 known RNA structures, outperforms previous methods in community-wide blind RNA structure prediction challenges.

  4. 2021–2023

    Founding Atomic AI

    He chooses in 2021 to start a company, Atomic AI, and it raises a $7 million seed round in 2022. In January 2023, the company announces a $35 million Series A led by Playground Global. Its PARSE platform, short for Platform for AI-driven RNA Structure Exploration, extends the models from the Science paper with data the company generates in its own wet labs.

  5. 2023

    Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science

    Forbes names him to its 2023 30 Under 30 Science list, describing a founder who combines the RNA revolution behind therapies such as the Covid-19 vaccines with the revolution in predictive protein folding using machine learning.

  6. December 2023

    A model built on chemical mapping

    In December 2023, Atomic AI announces a large language model built with chemical mapping data to optimize RNA therapeutic development. In an August 2024 interview on the Eye on AI podcast, he describes the company's core model, ATOM-1, as designed to predict RNA shapes and so enable drugs that target RNA.

  7. As of October 2026

    Founder and CEO of Atomic AI

    He is founder and CEO of Atomic AI in San Francisco, a company focused on designing foundation models for RNA. Ron Dror, his Stanford PhD advisor, is one of its scientific advisors.

Career

  1. Since 2021Atomic AIFounder and CEO

Education

  1. 2021Stanford UniversityPhD
  2. University of California, BerkeleyBS

From the biography.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Raphael Townshend. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Google. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Google. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Google. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.

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 Raphael Townshend yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. [2012.04035] ATOM3D: Tasks On Molecules in Three Dimensions arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. NeurIPS 2021 Awards neurips.cc. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Geometric learning of biomolecular structure | Stanford Digital Repository purl.stanford.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Raphael Townshend, PhD - Biocom biocom.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Raphael Townshend - BIO International Convention | BIO bio.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Raphael Townshend | Stanford NIH Biotechnology Training Program btp.stanford.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. An algorithm predicts biological structures more accurately than ever | Stanford University School of Engineering engineering.stanford.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. RNA Structures Predicted with Uncanny Accuracy by Unbiased AI genengnews.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Atomic AI: Unlocking RNA notboring.co. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. With new funding, Atomic AI envisions RNA as the next frontier in drug discovery | TechCrunch techcrunch.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. Raphael Townshend - Forbes forbes.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  12. News – Atomic AI atomic.ai. Checked 22 October 2026.
  13. Eye On A.I.: #202 Raphael Townshend: How AI and RNA Tech is Transforming Drug Discovery (Inside Atomic AI) aneyeonai.libsyn.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  14. About Us – Atomic AI atomic.ai. Checked 22 October 2026.
  15. Raphael Townshend · Deep Tech Week deep-tech-week.com. Checked 22 October 2026.