Gerald Joyce

Gerald Francis "Jerry" Joyce (born 1956) is an American physician who is the president and a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and was previously the director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. He is best known for his work on in vitro evolution, for the discovery of the first DNA enzyme (deoxyribozyme), for his work in discovering potential RNA world ribozymes, and more in general for his work on the origin of life. In 2026, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Biography Joyce was born in Kansas and grew up in Chicago, where he first became interested in science. His mother was a grade-school teacher, father was a business executive, and maternal grandfather was an Italian immigrant with a Ph.D. in engineering, whom Joyce credits for providing him with a "science gene." Inspired by novelist Thomas Pynchon, Joyce became curious about the natural processes that enable Darwinian Evolution and began to focus on biochemistry and molecular genetics in high school. during which time he was instrumental in founding a second campus in Jupiter, Florida. Joyce has served as the chair of the JASON advisory group, which he joined in 1996. Joyce also served as the institute director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. In 2017, Joyce returned to the Salk Institute as a professor, where he then became chief science officer in 2022 and president in 2023.

Awards NAS Award in Molecular Biology, 1994 Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, 1995 JASON (advisory group), 1996 Herbert W. Dickerman Award, 1997 Hans Sigrist Prize, 1997 National Academy of Sciences Member, 2001 International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL) H. C. Urey Award, 2005 Dannie Heineman Prize, 2009 Stanley Miller Medal, 2010 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Member, 2012 National Academy of Medicine Member, 2014 Harvard Origins Prize, Harvard University, 2016 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, 2017 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Foreign Member, 2019 Royal Irish Academy honorary member, 2024