Physical & Life Sciences

Scholars dedicating their careers to the study of living organisms and non-living systems

Julia Grosse

Julia Grosse

Dr. Julia Grosse is the founder of The Cyclical CEO™, where she helps high-performing women and business teams achieve sustainable growth by syncing strategy with biology. With a background in biology and years of field research—including leadership experience during the largest polar science mission of our time, the MOSAiC Arctic Expedition—Julia bridges performance science, female leadership, and business systems.

Her career began as a scientist, but burnout and firsthand leadership experience in extreme environments revealed a missing piece: productivity and decision-making don’t operate on a 24-hour schedule, especially for women. This insight led her to pioneer rhythm-based business frameworks that combine hormonal intelligence, cognitive science, and modern productivity models.

Through her signature programs—like the Business Rhythm Blueprint and the S.C.A.L.E. Method—Julia has equipped leaders, entrepreneurs, and HR professionals across Europe to harness their natural cycles for better focus, communication, and wellbeing. Her work has been featured in New Me Event Series, Leaders Perception Magazine, and the Womanship “Behind the Bio” podcast.

Julia’s practical, evidence-based approach activates audiences: her sessions don’t just inform—they inspire action and lasting results. Whether you’re scaling a business, building resilient teams, or seeking new models for sustainable performance, Julia brings a fresh science-backed perspective that redefines leadership for the future of work.

Dr. Julia Grosse is the founder of The Cyclical CEO™, where she helps high-performing women and business teams achieve sustainable growth by syncing strategy with biology. With a background in biology and years of field research—including leadership ... Show more

Salma Mayorquin

Salma Mayorquin

I'm Salma Mayorquin, co-founder and CEO of Remyx AI, where we're building decision intelligence for AI engineering teams. Before Remyx, I worked with startups and Fortune 500 customers as a Solutions Architect at Databricks, helping them put ML into production. I write about ML infrastructure and experimentation on smellslike.ml, and our open-source work at Remyx (VQASynth, SpaceLLaVA) is cited by Google DeepMind on their official SpatialVLM page and used as benchmark baselines in ICLR 2026 papers. UC Berkeley math grad. Outside work, I swim laps and play guitar at jam sessions.

I'm Salma Mayorquin, co-founder and CEO of Remyx AI, where we're building decision intelligence for AI engineering teams. Before Remyx, I worked with startups and Fortune 500 customers as a Solutions Architect at Databricks, helping them put ML into ... Show more

Ankush Agarwal

Ankush Agarwal

Ankush Agarwal is a Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI, specializing in building and scaling cutting-edge AI systems. With over a decade of experience across top-tier tech organizations, he has consistently designed infrastructure at the intersection of emerging technologies and massive scale. Prior to OpenAI, Ankush was a Co-Founder and Chief Architect at Co:Create, where he led engineering teams in architecting secure, scalable Web3 and blockchain infrastructure. He also served as a Staff Software Engineer and Tech Lead at Facebook for the Libra Blockchain Project, driving core performance framework metrics to 1000 TPS, and was an early core maintainer of the Kubeflow open-source project at Google, focusing on distributed machine learning platforms on Kubernetes. An alumnus of IIT Bombay and Stanford University, Ankush is passionate about AI, distributed systems, and open-source infrastructure.

Ankush Agarwal is a Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI, specializing in building and scaling cutting-edge AI systems. With over a decade of experience across top-tier tech organizations, he has consistently designed infrastructure at the intersectio... Show more

Romi Kuntsman

Romi Kuntsman

Experienced data engineer, building reliable scalable data pipelines for enabling scientific research.

Experienced data engineer, building reliable scalable data pipelines for enabling scientific research. Show more

Emanuele DelBono

Emanuele DelBono

I am a software engineer focused on backend development and distributed systems. I enjoy designing scalable architectures and exploring domain-driven design to model complex business problems.
I have worked with different languages and technologies, and I’m particularly interested in building reliable systems, from APIs to event-driven and distributed applications. I also enjoy exploring low-level systems and experimenting with unconventional projects.

I am a software engineer focused on backend development and distributed systems. I enjoy designing scalable architectures and exploring domain-driven design to model complex business problems. I have worked with different languages and technologies,... Show more

Shana Dacres-Lawrence

Shana Dacres-Lawrence

Shana is an accomplished Senior Architect with over 13 years of experience and a strong foundation in Cyber Security and Software development. She has successfully led and delivered complex, high-quality consulting and architecture projects, including systems of critical national importance. Shana has also played a pivotal role in architecting one of the largest cloud transformations and migrations in Europe and designed an award-winning CIAM solution for a major electricity system operator.

A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in technology, Shana has been instrumental in establishing and driving internal communities within the organisations she has worked for. She is dedicated to attracting, retaining, and promoting women in tech. Shana is also the founder of ArchitectHer, a community platform devoted to supporting, inspiring, and elevating women in technology architecture.

Shana is an accomplished Senior Architect with over 13 years of experience and a strong foundation in Cyber Security and Software development. She has successfully led and delivered complex, high-quality consulting and architecture projects, includin... Show more

Zhao Snow

Zhao Snow

Snow has decades of Silicon Valley experience building and scaling technology organizations at Facebook, Block (Cash App), and Groupon. She is currently building at AIgentic, an applied AI company designing robust, trustworthy AI systems for professional industries. She leads global teams that delivered secure, high-performance systems used by billions, from product infrastructure behind Messenger’s rewrite and end-to-end encryption, to architecting enterprise AI platforms that bridge traditional sectors with digital transformation. Her work has spanned mobile, security, open-source, federated architecture, AI-powered automation, cross-platform software ecosystems, and more — always guided by the principle that engineering excellence is a human discipline as much as a technical one.

Snow has decades of Silicon Valley experience building and scaling technology organizations at Facebook, Block (Cash App), and Groupon. She is currently building at AIgentic, an applied AI company designing robust, trustworthy AI systems for professi... Show more

Priya Namasivayam

Priya Namasivayam

Priya Namasivayam is a Staff Platform Engineer at EarnIn, where she builds and operates cloud-native platform infrastructure at scale. She specializes in Kubernetes, service meshes, and GitOps-driven delivery, and led EarnIn's migration from AWS App Mesh to Linkerd—improving security, reliability, and developer experience.

She focuses on treating platform infrastructure like application code: modeling infrastructure tests as Kubernetes resources and gating Flux-driven changes with in-cluster validation using Testkube. Priya is passionate about simplifying complex systems and sharing practical patterns teams can adopt in production.

Priya Namasivayam is a Staff Platform Engineer at EarnIn, where she builds and operates cloud-native platform infrastructure at scale. She specializes in Kubernetes, service meshes, and GitOps-driven delivery, and led EarnIn's migration from AWS App ... Show more

Paul Ardeleanu

Paul Ardeleanu

Paul is a Principal Architect at Vonage, working at the intersection of architecture, AI, and developer tooling, helping transform how developers interact with CPaaS and Network APIs. Having transitioned from managing Developer Relations teams to the central Architecture Team, he brings a unique perspective: understanding both the strategic vision required for enterprise architecture and the practical realities developers face daily.

His path in technology began with Fortran and a PhD in Computational Physics from the University of Lancashire, UK. Decades of hands-on programming experience since then have shaped his approach to architecting systems that serve developer needs. Paul remains active in the developer community through speaking engagements and writing, with a particular focus on JavaScript, Ruby, Swift and Rust.

Paul is a Principal Architect at Vonage, working at the intersection of architecture, AI, and developer tooling, helping transform how developers interact with CPaaS and Network APIs. Having transitioned from managing Developer Relations teams to the... Show more

Benjamin Elfen

Benjamin Elfen

Benjamin is a developer at a large international pharmaceutical company, where he engineers solutions for a healthier world. He's passionate about engineering in all its forms - whether that's software architecture, 3D printing, smart-home automations, or wrenching on cars and motorcycles. An open-source enthusiast and relentless problem-solver by nature, he's happiest when tinkering with something new. Off the clock, he plays the drums, makes music, and most recently joined the local volunteer fire brigade.

Benjamin is a developer at a large international pharmaceutical company, where he engineers solutions for a healthier world. He's passionate about engineering in all its forms - whether that's software architecture, 3D printing, smart-home automation... Show more

Denise Bronner

Denise Bronner

Denise N Bronner, Ph.D. has roughly 15 years of organizational thought leadership experience within the global healthcare space and has held various roles in academia, consulting, pharma, and venture capital. During her career, she has specialized in health equity, data-driven global therapy program strategy development, pitch and storytelling refinement, and identifying business opportunities within pharma. Beyond her professional endeavors, she's passionate about enhancing diversity in STEM fields, serving on advisory boards, participating as a judge in pitch/business competitions, and mentoring young professionals. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Wayne State University, a Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, and certification from the Venture Capital Executive Program from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She is the founder of Empactful Ventures which currently consults healthcare-focused startups and venture funds, she is a member of the Clinical Leader editorial board, a Board Director for healthtech startup Naviday Health, and a Board Director for the patient advocacy group We Are ILL.

Denise N Bronner, Ph.D. has roughly 15 years of organizational thought leadership experience within the global healthcare space and has held various roles in academia, consulting, pharma, and venture capital. During her career, she has specialized in... Show more

Jelena Ruzic

Jelena Ruzic

Jelena Ruzic is M.Eng(IT) and Software Engineer, with focus on FrontEnd technologies. She is regional speaker and MVP - Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Developer Technologies category. CO-leader of BLbit user group in Banja Luka and CO-organizer of IT conference INIT.

Jelena Ruzic is M.Eng(IT) and Software Engineer, with focus on FrontEnd technologies. She is regional speaker and MVP - Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Developer Technologies category. CO-leader of BLbit user group in Banja Luka and CO-organi... Show more

Annalisa Arcella

Annalisa Arcella

Senior Manager of ML Engineering, AI thought leader with 10+ years working worldwide from biomedical research, IoT, to financial service and digital media. She is a cloud enthusiastic, public speaker and active tech advocate among the Google Developers Community as Women TechMakers Ambassador.

Senior Manager of ML Engineering, AI thought leader with 10+ years working worldwide from biomedical research, IoT, to financial service and digital media. She is a cloud enthusiastic, public speaker and active tech advocate among the Google Develope... Show more

Erica Burgess

Erica Burgess

Erica is an AI cybersecurity architect and consultant, and was a software engineer and cybersecurity hobbyist for several years before becoming an application security red-teamer in 2018. Since then, she has been earning bug bounties, releasing new CVEs and original exploit techniques, training penetration testers and conducting R&D projects as a cybersecurity technical lead. Erica organizes 2600, a local offensive cybersecurity meetup, and has spoken about hacking, bot writing, and various hacking topics at many conferences and meetups, including Black Hat Europe, SkyTalks, CactusCon, Live360!, SnowTalks and DEFCON, the world's largest hacker conference. She has also volunteered at Red Team Village at DEFCON in Vegas. Erica holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Southern Maine.

Erica is an AI cybersecurity architect and consultant, and was a software engineer and cybersecurity hobbyist for several years before becoming an application security red-teamer in 2018. Since then, she has been earning bug bounties, releasing new C... Show more

Jimmy Song

Jimmy Song

Jimmy Song is a VP of Open Source Ecosystem at Dynamia.ai, CNCF Ambassador, and founder of the Cloud Native Community (China). He focuses on AI-native infrastructure, GPU scheduling and utilization, and agentic runtime at the intersection of cloud-native and AI systems. A longtime cloud-native practitioner and open-source community builder, he is also a book author and frequent speaker and writer.

Jimmy Song is a VP of Open Source Ecosystem at Dynamia.ai, CNCF Ambassador, and founder of the Cloud Native Community (China). He focuses on AI-native infrastructure, GPU scheduling and utilization, and agentic runtime at the intersection of cloud-na... Show more

Awadhesh Srivastava

Awadhesh Srivastava

Visionary AI Leader & Solution Architect: 18+ years of technical excellence with an IIT Delhi pedigree, specializing in bridging cutting-edge research with enterprise-scale deployment. Proven expertise in Strategic Budgeting, Vendor Management (RFP), and Data Governance through high-stakes collaborations with Google Deepmind and the Ministry of Health (MoHFW). Expert in architecting Agentic Ecosystems, leveraging A2A orchestration and Model Context Protocol (MCP)—alongside GenAI, Agentic RAG, and MLOps pipelines impacting millions of users.

Visionary AI Leader & Solution Architect: 18+ years of technical excellence with an IIT Delhi pedigree, specializing in bridging cutting-edge research with enterprise-scale deployment. Proven expertise in Strategic Budgeting, Vendor Management (RFP),... Show more

Barbara Stolarczyk

Barbara Stolarczyk

Barbara Stolarczyk is a Process and CQV Engineer with 13 years of experience in process engineering and utilities design.

Barbara is a Fluor CQV and GMP Subject Matter Expert. Her experience includes developing Validation Master Plans, performing impact assessments and quality risk assessments, conducting GMP compliance reviews, she is adept at ensuring regulatory compliance and seamlessly integrating CQV strategies with design and project execution.
She is representing ISPE Poland Affiliate (including C&Q CoP).

Professional experience covers projects for Clients as Novonordisk, Fujifilm, Lilly.

Education:
Bachelor's Degree, Chemical and Process Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Master’s Degree, Chemical and Process Engineering, Polymer Chemical Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland

Barbara Stolarczyk is a Process and CQV Engineer with 13 years of experience in process engineering and utilities design. Barbara is a Fluor CQV and GMP Subject Matter Expert. Her experience includes developing Validation Master Plans, performing ... Show more

Oliver Szimmetat

Oliver Szimmetat

Oliver is the Chief Privacy Office and Director of Security and Compliance at TAXbit, where he manages all aspects of security and compliance, including Incident Management/Response, Corporate Security Engineering, Cloud Security, Security Guidance, Product Security, Physical Security, and Compliance audits.

Before joining TAXbit in 2023, he was Head of Cloud Security at Uber Engineering in Seattle. There, he built a team working on secure-by-default architecture, best practices, engineering standards, automated compliance (SOC II, SOX, PCI, HIPPA, GDPR, ISO 27001), monitoring tools, data security, and threat detection/response solutions for all of Uber’s cloud assets and engineering efforts.

Prior to that, Oliver spent over 18 years at Microsoft, where he worked in various engineering and engineering management roles contributing to Windows client security (developing, testing, and releasing security updates), anti-piracy, cloud security standards, security testing (Windows, Office, and Azure), and continuous integration/delivery for all the company’s commercial online services.

In his spare time, he also volunteers to deliver (security) engineering training to schools and start-up companies in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Oliver is the Chief Privacy Office and Director of Security and Compliance at TAXbit, where he manages all aspects of security and compliance, including Incident Management/Response, Corporate Security Engineering, Cloud Security, Security Guidance, ... Show more

Dr. Gururaj HL

Dr. Gururaj HL

DR. GURURAJ H L (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree in computer science and engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University India in 2019. He has published more than 200 research articles in peer-reviewed and reputed international journals. He has authored 15 Edited books in Springer, IET, IGI Global and Taylor & Francis. He has presented more than 100 papers at various international conferences. He is a Senior Member of ACM. He received a Young Scientist International Travel Support ITS-SERB, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, in December 2016. He was a recipient of best paper awards at various national and international conferences. He was appointed as an ACM Distinguish Speaker (2018–2021) by the ACM U.S. Council. He has honoured as Keynote Speaker, Session chair, TPC member, Advisory committee member at International Seminars, Workshops and Conferences across Globe. Prof. Gururaj’s research interests are Applications in Machine and federated Learning, data mining, Blockchain and cyber security.

DR. GURURAJ H L (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree in computer science and engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University India in 2019. He has published more than 200 research articles in peer-reviewed and reputed international ... Show more

Rebecka Isaksson

Rebecka Isaksson

Rebecka Isaksson is the Founder of KnowFlow Value and a Content AI & M365 Knowledge Strategist, helping organizations turn Content Chaos into Copilot Ready. A Microsoft MVP and former Director of Knowledge Management at Microsoft HQ, she brings 15+ years of expertise in collaboration, content governance, and AI-powered knowledge strategies.

She’s the creator and host of the Knowledge Fika podcast, where Swedish fika meets smart conversations on AI and knowledge management. Beyond the stage, Rebecka mentors and coaches emerging KM professionals and AI transformation leaders, fuelling the next wave of talent in this space.

A sought-after keynote speaker and panellist at global events, Rebecka delivers practical insights on how AI accelerates knowledge strategies - and vice versa - and why culture change is the real game-changer. Recognized as a Microsoft MVP in 2024, she continues to champion ethical, human-centric approaches to AI adoption.

Rebecka Isaksson is the Founder of KnowFlow Value and a Content AI & M365 Knowledge Strategist, helping organizations turn Content Chaos into Copilot Ready. A Microsoft MVP and former Director of Knowledge Management at Microsoft HQ, she brings 15+ y... Show more

Gourav Sharma

Gourav Sharma

"With over 8 years navigating the dynamic landscapes of Linux, DevOps, and Cloud, Gourav is a technologist who believes that great architecture is timeless. Currently a Customer Success Engineer at HashiCorp, and previously a Technical Account Manager at AWS, he possesses a rare dual-expertise in both the platform (AWS) and the tooling (Terraform/Sentinel) required to build enterprise-scale infrastructure.

Just as the architects of old solved impossible challenges with discipline and vision, Gourav is dedicated to guiding modern enterprises through their own complex cloud migrations. Passionate about transforming technical friction into success stories, he joins us to demonstrate how ancient wisdom and modern code can come together to achieve victory in the cloud."

"With over 8 years navigating the dynamic landscapes of Linux, DevOps, and Cloud, Gourav is a technologist who believes that great architecture is timeless. Currently a Customer Success Engineer at HashiCorp, and previously a Technical Account Manage... Show more

Manuela Raidl

Manuela Raidl

Manuela Raidl is a Change and Communication Manager who helps organizations navigate complexity and transformation with clarity, empathy, and purpose.

Her journey into change work began through agile. What started with becoming a Scrum Master evolved into a broader focus on how teams and organizations adapt, learn, and grow. Today, Manuela sees agility not just as a framework, but as a mindset that underpins successful change.

Over the past year, she has spoken at several conferences across Europe, sharing practical insights on topics such as cultural challenges and team development. Whether working with engineers or executives, Manuela builds bridges between strategy and people – turning change initiatives into real, lived progress.

Manuela Raidl is a Change and Communication Manager who helps organizations navigate complexity and transformation with clarity, empathy, and purpose. Her journey into change work began through agile. What started with becoming a Scrum Master evol... Show more

Oliver Hebnes

Oliver Hebnes

Oliver Hebnes is a seasoned Data & AI tech lead. He specializes in ensuring machine learning models are not only accurate and efficient but also maintainable and scalable. A physicist by training, Oliver completed his MSc in computational physics at the University of Oslo (UiO), where he studied new quantum material platforms using machine learning methods. Transitioning from computational physics to the practical realms of technology, Oliver's professional journey has spanned multiple industries, including energy, educational technology, and finance.

Oliver Hebnes is a seasoned Data & AI tech lead. He specializes in ensuring machine learning models are not only accurate and efficient but also maintainable and scalable. A physicist by training, Oliver completed his MSc in computational physics at ... Show more

Marianne Engman

Marianne Engman

Marianne is a Change Management Specialist with extensive experience in helping both organizations and end users with way of working in the modern, digital workplace. She has a broad expertise in the productivity applications in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Marianne has an ability to see the big picture from an end-user perspective in the digital work environment. Marianne can explain complicated things in a simple way, which makes her a highly appreciated speaker and trainer, fluent in English, Swedish and Finnish.

Marianne is a Change Management Specialist with extensive experience in helping both organizations and end users with way of working in the modern, digital workplace. She has a broad expertise in the productivity applications in Microsoft 365 and Mic... Show more

Manish Panchmatia

Manish Panchmatia

• Well versed with upcoming technologies GenAI, MCP, AI/ML, DevOps, 5G, SDN/NFV etc.
• BE+MBA and having 26 years of experience with unique blend of working at startups and leading MNCs, leadership role and individual contributor; solution architect and hands-on coding; embedded systems and network side solution; cloud native platform and application; enterprise solutions and hobby projects.
• Domain experience: platform, Kubernetes, service mesh, telecom/datacom, Lawful Interception, 5G Core Network, Self-Organizing Network, RF network design etc.

• Well versed with upcoming technologies GenAI, MCP, AI/ML, DevOps, 5G, SDN/NFV etc. • BE+MBA and having 26 years of experience with unique blend of working at startups and leading MNCs, leadership role and individual contributor; solution architect... Show more

Sebastian Hochreiter

Sebastian Hochreiter

Chairman of AIM Austria, Expert for Medical Informatics, Clinical Decision Support Systems and Ambient AI application

Chairman of AIM Austria, Expert for Medical Informatics, Clinical Decision Support Systems and Ambient AI application Show more

Saswati Panda

Saswati Panda

I build AI products with hands-on implementation across design, product, and engineering. Lately, I am focused on AI-driven drug discovery products using LLMs and graph neural networks to translate research pain points into automated discovery pipelines. Previously, I worked across fintech and retail, with a foundation in product analytics, business intelligence, and software engineering.

I build AI products with hands-on implementation across design, product, and engineering. Lately, I am focused on AI-driven drug discovery products using LLMs and graph neural networks to translate research pain points into automated discovery pipeli... Show more

Jan Boonen

Jan Boonen

Jan is an experienced solution architect with over 15 years of experience as Kotlin/Java developer. He loves to combine architecture and coding as this is the sweet spot to invent clever, solutions that have an impact in society.

With a MSc. in Geophysics he has a natural interest in geospatial technology, climate change and maps. He has mainly leveraged these for the public interest in assignments for Dutch government agencies.

In his spare time he practices photography with a focus on street and documentary photography. Living in a university town, he is engaged in a project that supports students and young professionals in the area of well-being and meaning.

Jan is an experienced solution architect with over 15 years of experience as Kotlin/Java developer. He loves to combine architecture and coding as this is the sweet spot to invent clever, solutions that have an impact in society. With a MSc. in Ge... Show more

Emily Hemingway

Emily Hemingway

Emily Hemingway is the Founding Executive Director of TechSTL and the Wedge Innovation Center. A 20-year veteran in building innovation ecosystems around the country, Emily is driving economic growth across the St. Louis metro by catalyzing tech jobs, tech startups, and tech innovation. She is the lead organizer for STL TechWeek.

Emily Hemingway is the Founding Executive Director of TechSTL and the Wedge Innovation Center. A 20-year veteran in building innovation ecosystems around the country, Emily is driving economic growth across the St. Louis metro by catalyzing tech jobs... Show more

Rei Aguilera

Rei Aguilera

Engineer working at @kairos_ds
GDG Madrid Organizer

I ♥ #JS. The opinions stated here are my own, not necessarily those of my company

Engineer working at @kairos_ds GDG Madrid Organizer I ♥ #JS. The opinions stated here are my own, not necessarily those of my company Show more

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