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Emily is a collaborative leader with expertise in community development, organizational operations, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement. Her experience includes founding two successful nonprofits and a government agency focused on workforce housing, managing donor and stakeholder relations within the nonprofit and foundation environments, and building efficient systems and operations within organizations. With a Master’s in … Read more
I’m a leader and executive with varied interests and expertise in science, technology, business, and economic development. As a long time Livermore resident, I have a strong personal interest in building our local startup ecosystem for science-based startups in the Tri-Valley. I have learned a lot about the importance of community from building a local … Read more
Katie Marcel is CEO of Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group (ITV). She is a leader, innovator, connector and community builder who has impacted the quality of life in the Tri-Valley region for nearly 20 years as a non-profit director. She served as ITV’s Director of Brand Marketing from 2021 to 2023. Marcel was the longtime Managing … Read more
Douglas Wickert is the Commander, 412th Test Wing, Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), California. He leads a wing of nearly 8,000 personnel in the developmental test and evaluation of the B-21, B-1, B-2, F-35, F-22, F-16, T-7, C-17, C-5, KC-46, KC-135, KC-10, and other emerging technologies. Additionally, Brig Gen Wickert is the Installation Commander responsible … Read more
Arnold J. Levine, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, renowned for his groundbreaking discovery of the p53 tumor suppressor protein, a critical molecule in cancer prevention. Dr. Levine earned his Bachelor of Arts in biology from Harpur College, SUNY, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He … Read more
Joseph Prescott, Ph.D., is the Deputy Director of the Biosafety Level-4 Laboratory (BSL-4) at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany, where he leads the Comparative Immunology of Risk Group-4 Viruses Group. With over two decades of experience, Dr. Prescott is a leading expert in the study of the world’s most pathogenic viruses, including Ebola, … Read more
Dan Wattendorf is the Director of the Accelerator at the Gates Foundation and leads the Activator Unit, focused on exploring, testing, and creating new concepts and technologies and establishing private sector entities to advance these new solutions. Prior to joining the foundation in 2016, Dan was program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency … Read more
Christopher Park is a seasoned international security professional with expertise in biological and chemical weapons nonproliferation/arms control, dual-use issues, global health security, and multilateral negotiation. A career member of the Civil Service until 2025, Chris served on the staff of the National Security Council as Director for Global Health Security Governance, the Director of the … Read more
Sri Kosaraju is the former chief executive officer at Inscripta, and currently serves as audit chair and board member at 10x Genomics, supporting advancements in life science technology. He also sits on the board at Manus Bio, contributing to the acceleration of biologically produced alternatives. Previously he was a board member at Nevro until its … Read more
Michael Koeris is the Office Director, Biological Technologies Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Koeris joined DARPA as the director of the Biological Technologies Office in April 2024. His research and teaching focus on all aspects of chemistry, manufacturing, and control for microbiome medicines, as well as advanced cell and gene therapy approaches. Before … Read more
Gigi Kwik Gronvall is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is an immunologist by training. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the Center’s ongoing efforts to track the development … Read more
Erica Goldman is the Director of Day One and Policy Entrepreneurship at the Federation of American Scientists. Erica has served in various roles spanning the boundaries between science and policy throughout her career. She has a diverse background that includes science writing, science policy, and academic research and her passions lie in making connections between … Read more
Yong-Bee Lim is Associate Director on the Global Risk team at the Federation of American Scientists. He is also a Visiting Scholar in the College of Global Futures at Arizona State University. Previously, he was the Deputy Director of both the Converging Risks Lab and the Janne E. Nolan Center on Strategic Weapons at the … Read more
Harshi Mukundan is the chemical and biological technologies lead in the Office of National Homeland Security at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Harshi joined Berkeley lab to lead the chemical and biological technologies programs within the office for national and homeland security. She also is a senior scientist and chair of the biomedical sciences department, where … Read more
Norman Kahn is the President and Principal of Counter-Bio LLC, providing consulting services on national security issues with particular emphasis on weapons of mass destruction and biological weapons. His career at the Central Intelligence Agency spanned over 31 years, including multiple assignments in the Directorate of Intelligence (currently, the Directorate of Analysis) and Directorate of … Read more
Sam Weiss Evans is a Senior Policy Advisor for the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, where he leads the Commission’s work on biosecurity, biosafety, and responsible innovation. Prior to joining NSCEB, Sam was a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University, jointly with the Kennedy School of Government’s Program on Science, Technology & Society (STS), … Read more
Claire Qureshi is CEO, co-founder, and board member of Sentinel Bio, a philanthropic fund focused on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, with a near-term emphasis on preventing risks at the intersection of emerging technology and biology. Prior to founding Sentinel, Claire served as a Senior Director at Novavax, where she co-led the company’s global strategic partnerships, … Read more
Dr. Sarah R. Carter is the Principal at Science Policy Consulting LLC. For more than 15 years, she has focused on advances in the tools and capabilities for engineering biology, biosecurity screening frameworks, and international norms for biosecurity. Her recent work, including projects with the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations … Read more
Prof. Mario Juric is the P.I. of UW’s contribution to the construction of the Rubin Observatory, Senior Fellow at UW’s eScience Institute, and the director of UW’s Institute for Data-intensive Astrophysics and Cosmology (DiRAC). Once fully operational in 2026, the Rubin Observatory will deliver the largest sky survey in the history of mankind, answering questions … Read more
Andy Weber is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks. He has dedicated his professional life to countering nuclear, chemical, and biological threats and to strengthening global health security. His three decades of U.S. government service included five-and-a-half years as President Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs. … Read more
Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Cameron is a Professor of the Practice and Senior Advisor to the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. In addition to her role with the Pandemic Center, Beth is a non-resident senior advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Global Health Policy Center, a life … Read more
Katie Sullivan is the Partnerships Program Manager at the Hertz Foundation. Katie is responsible for managing programs that support the Hertz Foundation’s current and future strategic partnerships. By developing frameworks, tools, and systems, she helps to amplify the Foundation’s capacity for collaboration, creating new opportunities and programmatic offerings for its community of over 1,200 Hertz … Read more
Matthew Caren develops computational systems to understand, enable and augment human expression. With a focus on sound and natural language, his research straddles generative AI, cognitive science and digital signal processing. Caren currently researches computational models of how people use their voices to communicate sound at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and … Read more
Arav Karighattam is a mathematician passionate about algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry, and seeks to understand the mysteries underlying the structure of solutions to Diophantine equations. In his recent paper, Karighattam determined the ranks of members of a challenging family of elliptic curves using the theory of Heegner points. Karighattam presented his work at … Read more
Albert Qin is a doctoral student at Princeton University addressing questions about the behavior of neural networks — both artificial and biological — using a variety of approaches and ideas from physics and neuroscience. Drawn to the precision, beauty and spirit of physics, Qin earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute … Read more
Ananthan Sadagopan is pursuing a doctorate in biological and biomedical science at Harvard University, focusing on chemical biology and the development of new therapeutic strategies. Sadagopan earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology in three years from MIT, where he led projects characterizing somatic perturbations of X chromosome inactivation in cancer, developing machine learning … Read more
Eric Tao is interested in investigating how neural circuits within the brain give rise to complex behaviors. Starting fall of 2025, they are pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience and physiology at New York University’s Neuroscience Institute. Tao is receiving joint bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2025, with majors in … Read more
Chance Bowman aims to uncover the design principles of biological systems, both to understand how organisms develop and to create advanced cell therapies. A doctoral student in bioengineering at both UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, Bowman is inspired by the complex biochemical strategies employed during development to precisely regulate cell, tissue and organism-scale biological … Read more
Edward Chen’s research focuses on the applications of redox flow batteries for grid-scale renewable energy storage. Chen hopes to pursue his future interests in investigating the electrochemical properties of various battery electrode and separator materials using equivalent circuit modeling through impedance spectroscopy and coulombic efficiency from charge-discharge performance to develop a real-time electrochemical battery health … Read more
Lillian Kay Petersen aims to reveal the mechanisms of gene regulation by combining high-throughput microfluidic assays and synthetic biology. Petersen is currently a first-year doctoral student in genetics at Stanford University. In 2024, she graduated from Harvard University, where she studied applied mathematics and molecular biology. Petersen has written three first-author papers to date, ranging … Read more
Julie Chen seeks to uncover mechanisms of cellular decision-making and to eventually apply these insights toward engineering cells and tissues to improve human health through regenerative medicine. She plans to pursue a doctorate in cellular and developmental biology at Rockefeller University. As an undergraduate in computer science at Stanford University, Chen worked on a range … Read more
Suraj Chandran develops theoretical and computational methods to probe novel quantum regimes of chemical dynamics and to accelerate the development of efficient, sustainable energy conversion systems. Chandran received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023. During his undergraduate career, he worked with Dr. Joseph Subotnik to investigate how … Read more
Chu Xin (Cloris) Cheng is a researcher working at the intersection of machine learning and science, developing AI-driven methods to accelerate scientific discovery. Born in Hong Kong, Cheng is pursuing a bachelor’s degree at the California Institute of Technology, where she conducted research on AI for experimental design with applications in protein engineering, exoskeleton gait … Read more
Cade Gordon is completing his master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley after completing his bachelor’s degree in two and a half years. Gordon will begin his doctoral research at Stanford University in 2026. With four first-author publications, Gordon’s research at the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab focuses on improving the … Read more
Benjamin Lou is a physicist, mathematician and philosopher completing undergraduate studies at MIT. Lou is passionate about finding connections between fundamental truths of the universe. One of his research projects applies symplectic techniques to understand the nature of precision measurements using quantum states of light. Another is about geometrically unifying several theorems in quantum mechanics … Read more
April Qiu Cheng is interested in probing physics through astronomical observations spanning a wide range of scales. As an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April engaged in research on gravitational-wave inference, black hole phenomenology, and the use of fast radio bursts as a statistical probe of large-scale structure. April has been awarded the … Read more
Grace Ra Kim is a doctoral student in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory, focusing on decision-making systems under uncertainty for space traffic management and space situational awareness for satellite constellations. Kim graduated cum laude with high honors in engineering sciences from Harvard University. She also holds a master’s degree in advanced … Read more
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