Alumnus Jacob Becraft among College of LAS 2023 alumni award honorees

3/6/2023

Trish Barker

Paul Kenis, Jacob Becraft, and Christopher Rao — Professors Paul Kenis (left) and Christopher Rao (right) with Jacob Becraft (center) at the department's 2021 Alumni Awards ceremony.

Nine alumni from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will receive the college’s 2023 annual alumni awards at a celebration in April. They are researchers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and public servants who have had an impressive impact on their fields and communities.

Jacob Becraft (BS, ‘13) was among two recipient to receive the LAS Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Becraft is a synthetic biologist and the co-founder and CEO of the biopharmaceutical company Strand Therapeutics. Together with colleagues at MIT’s Synthetic Biology Center, he developed the world’s first synthetic biology programming language for mRNA. He received the department's Young Achievement Alumni Award in 2021.