Larry Bock is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur par excellence. He has founded, co-founded, or provided the early stage financing for more than four dozen companies. In 2001, Bock founded Nanosys, Inc. to pursue the promise of nanotechnology. Among the applications the company is developing are lightweight solar cells, flexible electronics, high performance fuel cells and advanced surface coatings for medical devices. He recently stepped down from his role as Executive Chairman to spend some time traveling and studying.
Bock was one of a dozen individuals invited to the signing of the $3.7 billion 21st Century Nanotechnology Act by President George W. Bush in the Oval Office. In addition, he is involved in a number of government agencies and is a member of the business advisory board and environmental, health and safety advisory board of the NanoBusiness Alliance; a member of the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration (PECSEA); and a member of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Nanotechnology formed by Congressman Mike Honda and California State Controller Steven Westly.
Bock earned his B.A. in biochemistry (summa cum laude) from Bowdoin College in Maine and his M.B.A. from the Anderson School at UCLA. He was a researcher in the early days of Genentech Inc. in the field of infectious diseases, and he was on the team that received the American Academy for the Advancement of Science's Newcomb Cleveland Prize for demonstrating the first recombinant DNA vaccine.
He started his career in the venture capital field as an associate with Fairfield Ventures (now Oxford Bioventures), and he is now a partner in Lux Capital, a research-driven investment firm specializing in founding and building new nanotechnology companies.
With his wife, Diane, a business graduate of USC, Bock is also active in community causes. Together they co-founded Community Cousins, a non-profit organization designed to help break down racial barriers. Selected by former Vice President Al Gore as one of the ten outstanding grass roots efforts nationally, the organization, based in Olivenhain, California, enables and encourages people of different races to become genuinely acquainted and develop a personal stake in one another's lives.
Bock's honors include the Einstein Award for lifetime contributions in the field of life sciences; Venture Capital Journal's one of the Ten Most Influential Venture Capitalists; the Forbes-Wolfe NanoReport's Number One Powerbroker in Nanotechnology; finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year; Red Herring's Top Ten Innovators; and SmallTimes' Innovator of the Year.
Bock became familiar with UC Berkeley through the involvement of a number of campus faculty and alumni in the various companies with which he has been associated. He was the keynote speaker at the groundbreaking for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Molecular Foundry, and he currently serves on the College of Chemistry's Advisory Board. He and Diane have endowed a chair for the college in nanoscience, currently held by Professor Paul Alivisatos.
Along with their two daughters, Tasha and Quincy, the Bocks have just returned from a year spent in England, where they kayaked historical rivers and ventured to other European and Northern African locations.