Eli Lilly appoints Thomas J Fuchs as Chief AI officer

In this role, Fuchs will provide vision, strategic direction and overall leadership of AI initiatives across Lilly, including drug discovery, clinical trials, manufacturing, commercial activities and internal functions. He will also identify, build and manage AI and machine learning solutions to help Lilly provide medicines to patients around the world.

Before joining Lilly, Fuchs was the dean and inaugural department chair for AI and Human Health at Mount Sinai, director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai, and the endowed Barbara T. Murphy professor for AI and computational pathology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Prior, Fuchs held positions at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, and founded three companies, including Paige AI. Fuchs holds a doctoral degree in machine learning from ETH Zurich and a master’s in technical mathematics from Graz Technical University in Austria.

“In this new era of technology, the potential for artificial intelligence and machine learning to revolutionize health care is immense,” said Diogo Rau, Lilly executive vice president and chief information and digital officer. “Dr. Fuchs will contribute to Lilly’s breakthroughs in AI, aiding in the discovery and development of new medicines while enhancing patient outcomes. We are committed to leveraging these cutting-edge technologies to drive innovation and make a meaningful impact on lives around the world.”

“Lilly is at the forefront of health care innovation, and I’m tremendously excited to join this talented team at such a pivotal time in technological advancement,” said Fuchs. “Throughout my career, I have focused on leveraging technology to help patients and enhance human health. Joining Lilly will allow me to expand this mission worldwide on an amazing scale. Building AI to benefit millions of patients is profoundly humbling.”