Jim Valcourt

James Valcourt (Jim) is a drug discovery fellow at D. E. Shaw Research.

Jim was previously a student in the Systems Biology PhD program at Harvard University.

Jim graduated from Princeton University in 2012 with an AB in molecular biology and a certificate in quantitative and computational biology. At Princeton, he received the Pyne Prize, the highest general distinction given to an undergraduate. He spent his college years researching quiescence, post-transcriptional regulation, human population genetics, and the best ways to belittle Yale in the pages of a college humor magazine. His thesis, with Professor Hillary Coller, explored a possible novel mechanism of cross-talk in post-transcriptional regulation between RNA-binding proteins and microRNA.

After college, Jim decided to temporarily postpone the glamorous life of a graduate student to do research for two years at D.E. Shaw Research (DESRES) in New York City. At DESRES, he studied GPCR allostery and broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies using long-timescale computational molecular dynamics simulations on custom-built hardware.

In his free time, James enjoys science writing, backpacking, and preparing short summaries of his accomplishments.