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C T I N N O V A T O R S , 2 0 2 2 2 5 ROTHBERG 'Gene Machine' Jonathan Rothberg is CT's most prolific innovator; here's why Jonathan Rothberg Scientist and entrepreneur Education: Bachelor's degree in engineering, Carnegie Mellon; Ph.D. in biology, Yale Age: 59 >> BY HARRIET JONES Jonathan Rothberg admits he wasn't always the best student. In elementary school he spent a bit of time in the principal's office. But when he was in seventh grade, his brother bought him a computer. "Until then I had difficulty focusing," he remembers. "Computer programming taught me how to organize things. Everything I've done since has been around that kind of structure." Rothberg's love of structure has led to a storied career as one of the nation's most prolific inventors and commercializers of bioscience technology. His first company CuraGen, begun while he was a graduate student at Yale, worked to develop drugs that targeted specific genes. He went on to invent a method for high-speed DNA sequencing, bringing it to market with his second venture, 454 Life Sciences. And now, several companies later, his Guilford-based accelerator, 4Catalyzer, is launching multiple startups at the intersections of medicine, engineering and machine learning. Rothberg was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama in 2016. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and has been awarded the Connecticut Medal of Technology. He's been named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum four times, among a host of other recognitions. Father's footsteps All of this started at the family home in New Haven. His parents co-founded Laticrete International, a company that specializes in innovative ceramic tile adhesives, and Rothberg credits his dad, chemical engineer Henry Rothberg, with being his earliest scientific mentor. "I never took a car ride with my dad without having to do estimations," he says. "We would drive by a water tank and he'd ask me how much water was in that tank." e family basement was also equipped with a laboratory, where the young Rothberg enjoyed creating pyrotechnics. "Always thinking about the physical world, how to estimate, how things worked," he says. "We didn't use repair people. So if something was broken — from a radio to the plumbing — you fixed it." Academically, things started to come together for him at Amity High School where he warmly remembers some of his science teachers. Going on to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he dived into the rigorous world of chemical engineering. But he wasn't following in his father's footsteps. "I had no interest in pursuing a career in chemical engineering, I just wanted the engineering discipline so I could bring it to biology," he says. Continued on next page AN PHOTOS | STEVE LASCHEVER