Safi R. Bahcall (born 1968) is an American physicist, technologist, business executive, and author.

Early life and academic research

Safi Bahcall was raised in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, the son of the physicist

John Bahcall John Norris Bahcall (December 30, 1934 – August 17, 2005) was an American astrophysicist, best known for his contributions to the solar neutrino problem, the development of the Hubble Space Telescope and for his leadership and development of th ...

and astrophysicist

Neta Bahcall Neta Bahcall ( he, נטע אסף בקל; born 1942) is an Israeli astrophysicist and cosmologist specializing in dark matter, the structure of the universe, quasars, and the formation of galaxies. Bahcall is the Eugene Higgins Professor of A ...

. From age 13 through 16 he enrolled in physics and mathematics classes at Princeton University. Bahcall received his B.A. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1988 in theoretical physics, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He received a Ph.D. in physics from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1995, where he worked with physicist

Leonard Susskind Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birthday was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an American physicis ...

and Nobel laureate

Robert B. Laughlin Robert Betts Laughlin (born November 1, 1950) is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. Along with Horst L. Störmer of Columbia University and Daniel C. Tsui of Princeton Universit ...

. He was supported by academic awards including a

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

Fellowship, a John Harvard Scholarship, and a National Merit Scholarship. In 1995, he was awarded a Miller Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at U.C. Berkeley to continue his research in condensed matter theory. His published work focused on

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

random matrix theory In probability theory and mathematical physics, a random matrix is a matrix-valued random variable—that is, a matrix in which some or all elements are random variables. Many important properties of physical systems can be represented mathemat ...

, the

quantum hall effect The quantum Hall effect (or integer quantum Hall effect) is a quantized version of the Hall effect which is observed in two-dimensional electron systems subjected to low temperatures and strong magnetic fields, in which the Hall resistance exh ...

, and particle astrophysics.

Business executive

In 1998, Bahcall joined

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

, where he advised investment banks and pharmaceutical companies on strategy, technology, and operations. In 2001, he left McKinsey & Company and co-founded, with Dr. Lan Bo Chen of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Boston-based biotech company Synta Pharmaceuticals, which specialized in new drugs to treat cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases. Bahcall led its 2007 IPO on Nasdaq and served as Synta's President & CEO for 13 years. In 2016, Synta Pharmaceuticals merged with Madrigal Pharmaceuticals. In 2008, Bahcall was named

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

New England Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical Entrepreneur of the Year, In 2010, he and his work were featured in a

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published seven books: '' The Tipping Point: How Little T ...

profile in

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

magazine. He was interviewed by Malcolm Gladwell for the 2012 New Yorker festival, discussing the role of serendipity in science. In 2011, he worked with President Obama's council of science advisors (PCAST) on the future of US science and technology research. Bahcall has presented at academic institutions and research laboratories including

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

, Rockefeller University, the National Institutes of Health, and the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

in Israel, as well as companies and national security organizations including Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Spotify, Viacom, the US Air Force, the US Navy, and the CIA.

Author

Bahcall's book ''Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries'' was released by St. Martin's Press in the Spring of 2019. It was listed on Washington Post's 10 Leadership Books to Watch For in 2019, Inc's 10 Books You Need to Read in 2019, Business Insider's 14 Books Everyone Will Be Reading in 2019, and Adam Grant's New Leadership Books to Look For in 2019. It debuted at #3 on the ''Wall Street Journal'' bestseller list; was an Amazon, ''Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Management Today, Medium, Strategy + Business, Tech Crunch, Thrive Global, and Washington Post'' best business book of 2019; and was listed for the Thinkers50 and McKinsey-Financial Times Book of the Year awards. ''Loonshots'' was selected by Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, Susan Cain, and Adam Grant for their Next Big Idea Book Club in the spring of 2019, and by Bill Gates as one of three standout titles in the fall of 2019. In December 2019, ''Bloomberg'' announced ''Loonshots'' was the most recommended book of the year in its annual survey of CEOs and entrepreneurs. A paperback edition of ''Loonshots'' will be published by St. Martin's Griffin on September 1, 2020. ''Loonshots'' has been translated into 18 languages. In February 2019, Bahcall published a ''Wall Street Journal'' op-ed in response to congressional hearings on the role of federal research in scientific innovation. In February 2020, Bahcall argued in a ''War on the Rocks'' article that the United States should establish a new unified Future Warfare Command. In March and May 2020, Bahcall published additional ''Wall Street Journal'' op-eds on the role of industry and government in developing new drugs for addressing the coronavirus pandemic. Bahcall has also written for the ''Harvard Business Review, Scientific American'', and ''The Scientist''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahcall, Safi 1968 births Harvard College alumni Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences alumni American technology chief executives Living people American business writers