We are proud to share that Dr. Noubar Afeyan, a Founding Patron of UWC Dilijan, along with his company Moderna, have been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by the President of the United States.

Dr. Afeyan was at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. Moderna Therapeutics, a firm he co-founded, developed a vaccine in a record period of time. He is CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a firm he founded in 2000. During his over 25-year career as inventor, entrepreneur and CEO, he has co-founded and helped build over 50 life science and technology start-ups.

He has also been senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School and at Harvard Business School since 2000, teaching graduate-level courses on entrepreneurship and innovation. In addition to his achievements in biotechnology and entrepreneurship, Dr. Afeyan is a visionary philanthropist who has co-founded initiatives such as Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), and many others to support Armenia’s scientific, cultural, and humanitarian development.

UWC Dilijan is honoured to be one of the organisations Dr. Afeyan believes in - he and his wife Anna have been the school's board members and generous supporters from the very start. Click here to read more. 

In the photo: Arati Prabhakar, Ph.D., Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), awards Moderna Inc. representatives Noubar Afeyan (C) and Hamilton Bennett (R) the National Medal of Technology and Innovation during an awards ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, January 3, 2025.