Michael Hunkapiller

Biography

Michael Hunkapiller became President & CEO of Pacific Biosciences in 2012. He is Chairman of PacBio’s Board of Directors, and has served on the Board since 2005. Dr. Hunkapiller spent over 30 years of his career helping build Applied Biosystems (“ABI,” now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.) into a market leader in the life sciences industry. From 1995 to 2004, he served as ABI’s President and General Manager. In 2004, he joined Alloy Ventures as a General Partner, and in 2005 led Alloy’s investment in PacBio. Dr. Hunkapiller continues to represent Alloy Ventures as a Director of NuGEN and RainDance Technologies. During his term at ABI, Dr. Hunkapiller developed the R&D strategies and alliances that elevated ABI to be the foremost supplier of molecular-biology reagents and instrumentation in academic and industrial laboratories. He was also a founder of ABI’s sister company, Celera Genomics, and Senior Vice President of Applera Corporation (Celera’s parent company). Prior to joining ABI, Dr. Hunkapiller was a senior research fellow in the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology.

Research Interest

He received a B.S. in Chemistry from Oklahoma Baptist University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Caltech. He has authored more than 100 scientific publications, is an inventor on more than two-dozen patents, and has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals. He has received several awards for his contributions to life science research.