Nominations Are Open for the 2019 Xconomy Awards in Boston

John Maraganore, CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; Penny Heaton, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute; digital health leader Pear Therapeutics; and renowned women-in-science advocate and MIT professor emerita Nancy Hopkins. These outstanding leaders were among the winners of the 2018 Xconomy Awards, which celebrate the top people, companies, and organizations in Boston life sciences.

Who should win this year’s awards? You can help make sure we select the best by submitting your nominations here.

This year, we have a new category, called Secret Weapon. We want to celebrate those who are having a big impact, but maybe haven’t gotten as much recognition as you think they deserve. The nominee could be a member of the C-suite, another executive, a more junior employee, or anyone else in your community who you think is making a significant difference in the life sciences.

We have also reimagined the patient-focused category, renaming it Patients First. We’re looking for candidates who are doing more than just saying that they’re putting patients first. We aim to highlight people, companies, and organizations that are taking real action to ensure that patients’ needs and voices are front and center in the quest to develop new health and medical products.

Many of last year’s judges, including MIT’s Bob Langer and Daphne Zohar of PureTech Health, are back this year to help pick the winners. And we have a few new judges joining the panel: Michael Gilman, CEO of Arrakis Therapeutics and Obsidian Therapeutics; Marian Nakada, vice president of venture investments, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC; John Mendlein, executive partner, Flagship Pioneering; and Luhan Yang, chief scientific officer, eGenesis Bio.

The deadline for nominations is May 15.

Mark your calendar: We will announce the winners of the 2019 Awards at a gala on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Author: Corie Lok

Corie Lok was formerly Xconomy's Special Projects Editor. Before joining Xconomy in 2017, she was at Nature for 12 years, first as an editor with the Careers section, then as a senior editor who launched Nature Network (a blogging and social networking website), and finally as an editor and features writer on Nature’s news team. She earned a master’s degree in science journalism from Boston University and was a producer on the science and health beat for two national radio shows at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto. She then spent two years covering emerging technologies with MIT Technology Review before arriving at Nature. Corie is based in Boston and loves reading stories to her young son and playing the obscure but exciting winter sport of curling.