# convergent research: people

> marblestone, gamick, rodriques, kalil, the board, the mission-control staff, and the fro founders — who they are and what they wrote.

## the people

- adam marblestone (ceo): cofounder and ceo. a schmidt futures innovation fellow who proposed the incubator; before that an fas fellow, a research scientist at google deepmind, chief strategy officer at kernel (bci), and a research scientist in ed boyden's synthetic neurobiology group at mit — where the fro idea was jointly conceived with the boyden-lab circle. harvard biophysics phd with george church; yale theoretical physics with devoret; helped start biobright; advised open philanthropy; consulting research director for longevity at astera. boards: norn group, new science, and (per his personal site) speculative technologies. hertz fellowship interviewer; tr35 (2018), hertz (2010), goldwater (2008). cats: lyra, neo. (sources: [ceo bio (deepmind, kernel, mit, church lab, boards, awards)](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/adam-marblestone), [personal site](https://adammarblestone.org/), [bio incl](https://events.foresight.org/summary/adam-marblestone-design-tools/), [mit origin story](https://news.mit.edu/2025/former-mit-researchers-advance-new-model-innovation-0606), [publications/talks incl](https://adammarblestone.org/docs/ADAM_MARBLESTONE_CV.PDF))
- anastasia gamick (co-founder): cofounder and president — 'helped pioneer the fro model.' prior roles at neuralink, creator, segovia, and curative — frontier-tech and global-health operations before the incubator. sits on the boards of forest neurotech, eve bio, cultivarium, dragonfly, [c]worthy, and the unitary fund — the governance half of 'mission control.' gave the day-3 opening keynote at metascience 2025; her signature elicitation question: 'what would you do with $50 million to fundamentally change your field?' (sources: [president bio (neuralink, creator, segovia, curative](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/anastasia-gamick), [gamick metascience 2025 keynote](https://www.essentialtechnology.blog/p/forging-new-institutions-and-alliances), [fall 2025 retrospective](https://issues.org/focused-research-organizations-fro-marblestone-gamick-wang-fridman/))
- sam rodriques (team): the co-inventor, not staff. mit physics phd (boyden and gore, 2019) — his thesis's final chapter is the first written fro proposal; co-authored the day one memo and the nature comment. now a crick group leader and a futurehouse co-founder — building his own version of the private lab outside the convergent line. (sources: [mit physics phd](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/123401), [three fros funded oct 2021 by schmidt futures and astera](https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/focused-research-organizations), [correa interviews marblestone & rodriques](https://fas.org/publication/nsf-supercharge-independent-tech-labs/), [mit origin story](https://news.mit.edu/2025/former-mit-researchers-advance-new-model-innovation-0606))
- tom kalil (team): board chair. ceo of renaissance philanthropy; formerly schmidt futures' chief innovation officer, where he 'supported the launch of convergent research.' a clinton- and obama-era ostp veteran — the national nanotechnology initiative, the brain initiative, incentive-prize authority — and a future house board member. mit news credits him alongside the co-founders in convergent's launch. (sources: [board chair](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/tom-kalil), [mit origin story](https://news.mit.edu/2025/former-mit-researchers-advance-new-model-innovation-0606), [kalil launches renaissance](https://www.renaissancephilanthropy.org/former-clinton-and-obama-science-staffer-launches-new-philanthropic-organization), [kalil on fro origin (rodriques + marblestone)](https://tytonpartners.com/how-schmidt-futures-is-innovating-philanthropic-funding-for-scientific-advancement-part-2/))
- the board (team): megan blewett (iris medicine cofounder; ex-venrock; scripps phd in the cravatt lab), morgan levine (altos labs founding pi; ex-yale; aging biology), cheryl martin (harwich partners; ex-arpa-e acting director; kleiner perkins eir; nature-comment coauthor), richard murray (caltech everhart professor; ebrc cofounder), and kalil as chair. (sources: [board bio](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/megan-blewett), [board bio](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/morgan-levine), [board bio (ex–arpa-e)](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/cheryl-martin), [board bio (caltech, ebrc)](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/richard-murray), [board chair](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/tom-kalil), [nature 601:188–190 comment, six authors](https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00018-5))
- the mission-control staff (team): about twenty-five people on the current team page: mary wang (head of strategic initiatives, joined 2024; ex-scripps/calibr chief of staff), sabrina singh (chief of staff), kait picco (people & ops), mir masud-elias (general counsel), david lansky (legal, fros), danna luo (finance), lisa girard (communications), scott benton (philanthropic advisor), avery holland (portfolio success). joseph fridman joined in 2025 as head of communications but is absent from the current page — likely departed; milan cvitkovic, the early strategy lead and nature/tbi coauthor, departed by ~2026. (sources: [staff + board list](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team), [head of strategic initiatives bio](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/mary-wang), [fall 2025 retrospective](https://issues.org/focused-research-organizations-fro-marblestone-gamick-wang-fridman/), [melody fro public launch](https://anandmuthusamy.substack.com/p/melody-fros-roadmap-for-open-bioelectronics))
- the fro founders (team): the people who actually run the subsidiaries: henry lee and nili ostrov (cultivarium); andrew payne, todd huffman, and coo jun axup (e11 bio — payne is e11's cofounder, not convergent's; boyden and church sit on its sab); nikolai slavov and harrison specht (pti); fred houskeeper, joshua busa, and colleagues (eve bio); sumner norman and taylor aflalo (forest); matt long and alicia karspeck ([c]worthy); leonardo de moura and sebastian ullrich (lean); beck brachman and nicholas greiff (imprint); vikash mansinghka and josh tenenbaum (chi-fro); roberto abraham and pieter van dokkum (dragonfly); kathleen fisek (meridial); wasik, blank, and tindall (echo labs); anand muthusamy (melody). (sources: [current 12-fro roster](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/e11-bio), [e11 ceo bio](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/andrew-payne), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/cultivarium), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/pti), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/eve-bio), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/forest), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/cworthy), [formed jul 2023](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/lean), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/imprint), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/chi-fro), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/dragonfly), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/meridial), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/echo-labs), [melody fro public launch](https://anandmuthusamy.substack.com/p/melody-fros-roadmap-for-open-bioelectronics))

## writings

- 2019-05-17 — mapping cell types, dynamics, and connections in neural circuits (document, rodriques, mit dspace): the mit physics phd whose final chapter is the first written fro proposal — the connectomics work inside it became e11 bio, 'the original inspiration for the focused research organization model.' [source](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/123401)
  > "a structure for basic science research, complementary to the academic structure, based on the systematic establishment of well-funded, highly focused research projects with clear goals, an incentive to rapidly disseminate information, and limited lifetimes"
- 2020-09-24 — focused research organizations to accelerate science, technology, and medicine (document, marblestone, day one project / fas): the rodriques-and-marblestone white paper through the day one project at fas — asking the next administration for sixteen fros, four a year, overseen by ostp. [source](https://fas.org/publication/focused-research-organizations-to-accelerate-science-technology-and-medicine/)
  > "stand-alone 'moonshot organizations' insulated from both academic and commercial incentive structures... organized like startups, but they would pursue well-defined r&d goals in the public interest and would be accountable to their funding organizations rather than to shareholders"
- 2021-10-12 — these 'focused research organizations' are taking on gaps in scientific discovery (interview, marblestone, fast company): the launch interview — marblestone's academia-versus-industry framing of the gap fros fill, with schmidt futures ceo eric braverman alongside. [source](https://www.fastcompany.com/90684882/these-focused-research-organizations-are-taking-on-gaps-in-scientific-discovery)
  > "your job is to publish scientific papers... if you can't yet tweak them... that's a pretty long path"
- 2021-10-18 — selected mentions of the focused research organization (fro) concept online (post, marblestone, longitudinal science): marblestone's self-compiled index of launch-week fro mentions — the link-log as institutional memory, updated into 2025. [source](https://longitudinal.blog/2021/10/18/selected-mentions-of-the-focused-research-organization-fro-concept-online/)
- 2021-10-19 — fro & parpa: innovating in scientific innovation (talk, marblestone, foresight institute): the launch-week joint session with ben reinhardt — the fro and the parpa presented as the two templates of the same scene. [source](https://foresight.org/resource/adam-marblestone-ben-reinhardt-fro-parpa-innovating-in-scientific-innovation/)
- 2021 — adam marblestone on idea machines (podcast, marblestone, idea machines): the idea machines podcast episodes — the fro thesis told in the metascience scene's own venue, twice. [source](https://ideamachinespodcast.com/adam-marblestone-ii)
- 2022-01-11 — unblock research bottlenecks with non-profit start-ups (essay, marblestone, nature): the six-author nature world view — marblestone, gamick, kalil, martin, cvitkovic, rodriques — the canonical fro manifesto in mainstream science press. [source](https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00018-5)
  > "'focused research organizations' can take on mid-scale projects that don't get tackled by academia, venture capitalists or government labs"
- 2022 — how schmidt futures is innovating philanthropic funding for scientific advancement (interview, kalil, tyton partners): kalil's account of the fro origin — rodriques plus marblestone — from inside schmidt futures' philanthropy-innovation seat. [source](https://tytonpartners.com/how-schmidt-futures-is-innovating-philanthropic-funding-for-scientific-advancement-part-2/)
- 2022-08-04 — a new model for science (document, staff, tony blair institute): 'a new model for science' — co-published by the tony blair institute, the entrepreneurs network, and convergent (cvitkovic, marblestone, gamick among the authors). 'seal teams for science'; the document that seeded uk adoption. [source](https://www.tenentrepreneurs.org/research/a-new-model-for-science)
- 2023-06-14 — three learnings about focused research organizations (essay, rodriques, sam-rodriques.com): the insider self-critique — the 5–7-year sunset 'generated more concern than i had expected,' fros should be free to grow if they succeed, and the real win is professional research careers outside the academy. [source](https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/three-learnings-about-focused-research-organizations)
  > "the fros as a concept or as a 'metascience experiment' will always be less important than the science they enable"
- 2023-07-15 — optical microscopy provides a path to a $10m mouse brain connectome (post, rodriques, sam-rodriques.com): the optical-connectomics post — the $10m mouse brain connectome path and the admission that e11 was the model's original inspiration. [source](https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/optical-microscopy-provides-a-path-to-a-10m-mouse-brain-connectome-if-it-eliminates-proofreading)
- 2025-02-07 — how to build essential technology (essay, marblestone, essential technology): the essential technology launch manifesto — 'bridge-scale' science between grants and megaprojects, a claimed ~100 fro-shaped projects in the backlog, and the trillion-dollar societal-value arithmetic (self-reported estimates). [source](https://www.essentialtechnology.blog/p/how-to-build-essential-technology)
- 2025-04-15 — introducing the convergent research gap map (post, staff, essential technology): introducing the gap map — the public v1.0 database of 'fundamental development' bottlenecks, the thesis turned into an enumerable list. [source](https://www.essentialtechnology.blog/p/introducing-the-convergent-research)
- 2025-09-16 — inside the uk fro founder residency (post, staff, essential technology): inside the uk fro founder residency — roughly ninety to a hundred applications distilled to five teams for a six-month program with aria. [source](https://www.essentialtechnology.blog/p/inside-the-uk-fro-founder-residency)
- 2025-10-02 — forging new institutions and alliances (talk, gamick, metascience 2025): 'forging new institutions and alliances' — gamick's metascience 2025 day-3 opening keynote: the e11 prism reveal, the metascience alliance launch, and the aria fro plan. [source](https://www.essentialtechnology.blog/p/forging-new-institutions-and-alliances)
  > "what would you do with $50 million to fundamentally change your field?"
- 2025-10-13 — field notes on moving focused research organizations forward (essay, gamick, issues in science and technology): the four-year retrospective in issues in science and technology — marblestone, gamick, wang, and fridman on what broke: rigid milestones, scientist-founder management gaps, midstream fundraising, and dissemination. the most important primary self-assessment. [source](https://issues.org/focused-research-organizations-fro-marblestone-gamick-wang-fridman/)
  > "an fro's path to success must involve a kind of product development"
- 2025-12-12 — nsf plans to supercharge fro-style independent labs (interview, rodriques, fas): correa interviews marblestone and rodriques the day nsf announces tech labs — 'more than 30 philanthropic organizations... and several government organizations, have put funding into fros.' [source](https://fas.org/publication/nsf-supercharge-independent-tech-labs/)
  > "fros are now a commonly discussed concept"
- 2025-12 — our responses to the nsf tech labs rfi (document, staff, essential technology): convergent's published rfi responses to nsf tech labs — program design and translational bottlenecks, plus the offer to serve as implementation partner. [source](https://www.essentialtechnology.blog/p/our-responses-to-the-nsf-tech-labs)
- 2026 — building science's missing infrastructure (podcast, marblestone, frameshifts): the frameshifts interview — 'building science's missing infrastructure': the gap map, 'intellectual dark matter,' and the late-2025 nsf announcement in the rear view. [source](https://frameshifts.bio/p/building-sciences-missing-infrastructure)
- 2025 — adam marblestone | solving science's biggest gaps (podcast, marblestone, existential hope): the existential hope episode — 'solving science's biggest gaps' for the foresight audience. [source](https://www.existentialhope.com/podcasts/adam-marblestone)
- pre-2021 — the tools-first essays (essay, marblestone, neuron / chronicle review): the pre-convergent essays — 'architecting discovery' (neuron), 'how to study the brain' (chronicle review), 'designing tools for assumption-proof brain mapping' (neuron): tools-first neuroscience and the third path between basic and translational, written before the org existed to fund it. [source](https://adammarblestone.org/)
- 2025-10-01 — we shall finally map the brain (podcast, fro-founders, core memory): ashlee vance interviews e11's andrew payne at the prism launch — 'we shall finally map the brain.' [source](https://www.corememory.com/p/we-shall-finally-map-the-brain-e11bio-andrew-payne-prism)

## controversies

- 2021– — the miscount risk: who founded what is easy to get wrong: the research brief's claim that andrew payne co-founded convergent is a misattribution — marblestone and gamick founded the incubator; payne co-founded its first fro, e11 bio. the october 2021 'three fros' count includes astera's rejuvenome, not a third convergent subsidiary, and e11's establishment year is self-reported inconsistently (2021 on convergent's page, 'launched in 2022' on e11's own). reaction: the dossier keeps the corrected attribution: convergent's co-founders are marblestone and gamick, with kalil credited by mit news for the launch; the fro founders get their own entry. (sources: [fall 2025 retrospective](https://issues.org/focused-research-organizations-fro-marblestone-gamick-wang-fridman/), [mit origin story](https://news.mit.edu/2025/former-mit-researchers-advance-new-model-innovation-0606), [e11 ceo bio](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team/andrew-payne), [convergentresearch.org](https://www.convergentresearch.org/ecosystem/e11-bio), [launched in 2022 (self-reported variance)](https://www.e11.bio/fro), [$70m astera×buck rejuvenome](https://www.buckinstitute.org/news/astera-institute-and-buck-institute-announce-70-million-collaboration-to-redefine-the-field-of-research-on-aging/), [three fros funded oct 2021 by schmidt futures and astera](https://www.sam-rodriques.com/post/focused-research-organizations))
- 2025–2026 — the quiet departures: staff churn at the mission control is visible only in silhouette: joseph fridman joined in 2025 as head of communications — his byline is on the issues field notes — but is absent from the current team page (likely departed; lisa girard now holds comms), and early strategy lead milan cvitkovic is described as 'then strategy lead' by the melody launch post, departed by ~2026. reaction: neither departure is announced anywhere public; the org chart is reconstructed from bios and bylines, and the uncertainty stays flagged. (sources: [fall 2025 retrospective](https://issues.org/focused-research-organizations-fro-marblestone-gamick-wang-fridman/), [staff + board list](https://www.convergentresearch.org/team), [melody fro public launch](https://anandmuthusamy.substack.com/p/melody-fros-roadmap-for-open-bioelectronics), [nature 601:188–190 comment, six authors](https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00018-5))

AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

Canonical page: https://hraness.com/convergent-research/people


Published by @ben in profile revision 1.
Original document: https://hraness.com/convergent-research/people
Original credited author: Hraness
AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

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