Blog Article
With expertise in venture capital, private equity, innovation policy, and entrepreneurial management, Josh Lerner’s work bridges the worlds of business and science.
Published May 4, 2026
By Nick Fetty
Scientific breakthroughs are increasingly reliant on private capital to transition from the lab to the market. Harvard Business School’s Josh Lerner, PhD, has just the expertise to make this transition possible.
The New York Academy of Sciences honored Prof. Lerner with its inaugural Constellation Award during the 2026 Spring Soirée. The Soirée was hosted on April 21st at the University Club in New York City.
“We believe that forging stronger relations between knowledge and capital has the potential to accelerate scientific breakthroughs, even as it provides absolutely critical funding for scientific research, especially at a time like this when federal support for science is so uncertain,” said Academy President and CEO Nicholas Dirks. “For recognizing exemplary leadership and synergy in driving transformative science for the benefit of society in collaboration with the Academy we are conferring on you tonight the Constellation Award. Josh, our hearty congratulations.”
Prof. Lerner then took the stage to accept his award and provide remarks.
“Clearly we’re at a time today where even though we here all collectively agree that science is a good thing and must be supported, there are more questions than ever about it,” said Prof. Lerner. “While we can talk about how ill-founded and problematic many of the critiques are, at the same time it’s worth acknowledging that the way in which the impact of science is both communicated, as well as the mechanisms by which it gets translated, could use some improvement.”
Driving Transformative Science for the Benefit of Society
Prof. Lerner has been instrumental in the “Private Capital and Discovery: Strategic Investing in Scientific Innovation” series, which concluded earlier this year. This four-part series, a collaboration between the Academy and the Private Capital Research Institute (PCRI), was launched in fall 2025. The series, sponsored by Ropes & Gray, focuses on fostering a broader understanding of the recent scientific and technological trends and their implications for private capital investors. The inaugural series covered four areas:
Due to the impact and response from the inaugural series, Prof. Lerner expressed interest in extending the partnership with the Academy to continue to advance research and public understanding of this field.
A Pioneering Researcher in Venture Capital and Private Equity
Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor at Harvard Business School and director of PCRI. Founded by Prof. Lerner in 2011, PCRI is a Massachusetts-based non-profit that seeks to further the understanding of private capital and its impact through independent academic studies.
His research focuses on venture capital, private equity organizations, and innovation policy. During the 1993-94 academic year he developed an elective course for second-year MBA students titled “Venture Capital and Private Equity.” The course, which “has consistently been one of the largest elective courses at Harvard Business School and whose teaching materials are used in business schools around the world,” has led to the publication of Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook (now in its fifth edition) and the textbook Venture Capital, Private Equity, and the Financing of Entrepreneurship.
After completing his undergraduate studies at Yale University, Prof. Lerner worked in technological innovation and public policy, including at the Brookings Institution, before earning his PhD in economics from Harvard. He has authored more than a dozen books, including Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Why Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have Failed—and What to Do about It, as well as hundreds of journal articles, working papers, book chapters, and other reports.
“The work that [PCRI does] with the Academy, trying to bring together both some of the most thoughtful financiers and scientists, hopefully will be a very rich theme that we can continue to mine in the years to come,” concluded Prof. Lerner.
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Author
Nick Fetty
Digital Content Manager
Nick is the digital content manager for The New York Academy of Sciences. He has a BA and MA in journalism from the University of Iowa as well as more than a decade of experience in STEM communications. Nick is also an adjunct instructor in mass media at Kirkwood Community College.
