Dr. Jens Nielsen is the CEO of the BioInnovation Institute in Copenhagen, one of Europe’s leading incubators for life science startups, and Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

He is a globally recognized biotech founder and pioneer in systems and industrial biology, and one of the most cited researchers in the field of metabolic engineering.

Dr. Kathrin Spendier leads the $5M XPRIZE Quantum Applications competition, a global challenge sponsored by Google Quantum AI and GESDA, to accelerate quantum solutions.

Prior to XPRIZE, she served as a Technology Evangelist at Quantinuum, and as an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

Jodi brings almost two decades of experience leading high-performing commercial organizations in the genomics market. Before becoming the CEO of Ribbon, she served as their CBO, and held executive roles at Agilent Technologies. She also held leadership roles in Product Management at Qiagen and Field Application Consulting for Roche Diagnostics’ custom OEM business. Jodi started her career as a bench scientist. She holds a degree in Molecular and Microbiology from Purdue University and conducted her master’s research in cancer biology.

Dr, Stefan Sack is a quantum algorithms researcher and co-founder of a stealth startup.

He earned his PhD from ISTA, worked on quantum machine learning at Quantinuum and interned at QuEra in Boston. In 2022, he was the only European awarded an IBM PhD Fellowship, leading to a collaboration with IBM Research Zurich.

Dr. Johann Danzl is a Professor at ISTA developing next-gen optical imaging for biology and neuroscience, focussing on high-resolution light microscopy methods.

He collaborates with Google Research to advance the computational analysis of high-resolution microscopy data.

Dr. Samira Nik is Programme Manager for Quantum Technologies and Electronics at the European Innovation Council. With a PhD in Materials Science from Chalmers University, she worked across nanoelectronics, superconducting devices, and cleanroom operations before moving into policy, becoming Project Manager – Innovation in the European Standardization Organizations. Today, she drives the EIC’s quantum vision, managing its portfolio and shaping Europe’s quantum tech ecosystem.

Jillian describes herself as “all things data”. She completed studies in Biochemistry at the University of Leeds (UK) and McGill University (Canada) before moving to Austria in 2013 to join the Vienna Biocenter (VBC) PhD Programme. In recent years, Jillian has worked across a range of industries in various engineering roles. She is currently a Team Lead for Insights at Anyline where she manages Anyline’s data platform and the Insights generated from it.

Nadine Nehme is a renowned expert in health informatics and artificial intelligence (AI). As a researcher and entrepreneur, her work focuses on leveraging AI to improve healthcare systems and patient outcomes. Nehme’s contributions include developing AI-driven solutions for medical diagnostics and personalized medicine, positioning her as a key figure in the integration of AI in healthcare.

Andela Šarić is a professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), specializing in theoretical and computational biophysics. Her research focuses on understanding the self-assembly processes of biological molecules and their implications for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Andela employs advanced computational models to explore how proteins aggregate and form complex structures. She holds a PhD in Physics.

Christiane Wendehorst is a distinguished legal scholar, professor as well as co-founder and currently scientific director of the European Law Institute. She has become a leading authority on the legal implications of artificial intelligence (AI). Wendehorst’s work focuses on integrating AI into legal frameworks, addressing issues like liability, privacy, and ethical standards.

Micah Adler is an academic-turned-entrepreneur with a focus on the theory of algorithms and their diverse applications. He served as a tenured professor at UMass Amherst, publishing 70 papers in leading Computer Science venues. He also co-founded six companies, including
CourseAdvisor, Adverplex/Cogo Labs, and Fiksu, with five of these ventures achieving notable acquisitions.

Carmen Visus, PhD, with 20 years’ postdoctoral experience in Academia and Pharma/Biotech industry in the US and Europe; she has broad expertise in Immunology, Oncology/Hematology, Biomarkers, personalized medicines, rare diseases, and critical care. She works as Senior Director R&D Operations at AOP Health, responsible for execution of R&D Strategy, pharmaceutical, medical device development, and clinical research. Carmen is AI ambassador at AOP Health for implementation of AI strategies for R&D/Medical uses.

Florian Praetorius is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), specializing in biomolecular design. His research focuses on using advanced computational methods to create novel proteins and biomolecular assemblies. Florian’s work aims at combining deep learning-based protein design with principles from DNA nanotechnolgy.

Francesco Locatello is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) since 2023. Before joining ISTA, he worked as a Senior Applied Scientist at Amazon Web Services from 2021 to 2023. He completed his PhD at ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, where he was supervised by Gunnar Rätsch and Bernhard Schölkopf.

Marco Porak is Managing Director of IBM Austria. He supports Austrian clients in implementing new agile business models and prepares them for the future with AI capabilities enabled by a hybrid cloud platform in close collaboration with an extended partner ecosystem. He is supported by a highly talented and motivated team in Austria. Marco Porak holds a master’s degree in business administration and is a patent holder from his time in software development.

Christoph Lampert earned his PhD in mathematics from the University of Bonn in 2003. He joined ISTA in 2010, became a Professor in 2015, and leads the Machine Learning and Computer Vision group. Since 2019, he heads ISTA’s ELLIS unit and serves on the board of the FWF Cluster of Excellence “Bilateral AI”. His award-winning research has received international recognition. He an Action Editor for JMLR.

Monika Henzinger is Vice President for Technology Transfer at ISTA. She is a computer scientist with former positions, amongst others, as professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and first Director of Research at Google. Her research focuses on privacy-preserving algorithms.

Before joining ISTA, Marco Mondelli was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford, a Research Fellow at the Simons Institute, and he obtained his PhD in Computer and Communication Sciences from EPFL. Marco focuses on developing information-theoretically principled methods for high-dimensional inference problems that appear in machine learning and data science. He received a Lopez-Loreta Prize, an EPFL Doctorate Award and paper awards from the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), the Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), and the Information Theory Society. 

Sandra Siegert is a professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and a co-founder of Syntropic Medical. She specializes in neuroscience, focusing on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of brain function in adulthood and in mental health disorders. Sandra uses advanced live imaging techniques in the preclinical and human iPSC models to study neuron and glial cell interactions.

Alicia Michael is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, specializing in biochemistry and structural biology. Her research works on understanding how genes are regulated, focusing on circadian rhythms, using cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-electron tomography approaches to visualize protein-DNA complexes “in action” to elucidate how they regulate precise and timely gene expression.

Noah Oder is an AI policy consultant for the OECD’s AI team. He is involved in evaluating the implementation of OECD AI principles in member countries and conducting mixed-methods analyses of national AI strategies and policies. Oder holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from McGill University. He also was a Guy Drummond Fellow at Sciences Po Paris and a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna.