Executives of the Year: Diogo Rau
—Courtesy of Eli Lilly and Company
Lilly's chief information and digital officer, Diogo Rau, is being hailed as one of the executives of the year. Rau's innovative approach to computing power has revolutionized the pharmaceutical giant's drug-making process. Under his guidance, Lilly built LillyPod, a powerful Nvidia supercomputer with over 1,000 Blackwell GPUs, in just four months. This supercomputer is now being used to model biological processes and screen potential molecules, significantly speeding up the drug development process.
Rau's technological advancements extend beyond Lilly's digital frontiers. He has deployed AI-assisted technology in the company's manufacturing approach, creating a digital twin of a production bottleneck. This virtual testing of temperature and pressure variables has shaved off minutes from a critical process and led to a substantial increase in units produced, potentially impacting Lilly's earnings.
Rau's vision is even more ambitious - he believes that drug-making itself is becoming computational. He predicts that within the next decade, the number of scientists working in wet labs will drastically decrease. "I don’t think anybody thinks that in 10 years we’ll have just as many scientists working in wet labs," Rau asserts.
Written by urgent.news from Time's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
