World’s Top 50 Innovators 2022

Information

Codex is proud to host the World’s Top 50 Innovators 2022.

The pace of change is accelerating and what was once science fiction is becoming reality. Come and join us to learn what’s on the horizon, understand the bigger picture, and celebrate world-firsts and sensational achievements in the high-tech sectors.

A distinguished line up of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and visionaries who are moving the world forward with the power of their technologies and ideas will convene to share their excitement with you.

The format will be a series of Codex Talks, each of which is a concise presentation, lasting 15 minutes (or less), in which the speaker addresses a challenging question faced by their technology or industry today, and ends with a bold prediction for the future.

Official Timekeeper: Blancpain

Don’t miss one of the most prestigious events in the technology calendar. Secure your place now. This event will sell out.

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Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, United Kingdom

26 September 2022 - 28 September 2022

8:00 am - 6:00 pm

Schedule

8:15 am 8:55 am Registration

8:55 am 9:00 am Welcome

9:00 am 10:30 am Robotics

Chris Lusty, Design Engineer, Engineered Arts
Why invest $100M in humanoid robots? – The real reason the world wants androids.
Rich Walker, CEO, Shadow Robot
What makes the human hand special, and why is it worth replicating in mechanical form?
Brian Miller, Chief Digital Officer, Intuitive
How does data improve surgical outcomes?
Dr. Mark Slack, Chief Medical Officer, CMR Surgical
The robot is just a tool: Responsible use requires good research, education and training

Q&A

10:30 am 11:00 am Morning Coffee

11:00 am 12:15 pm Robotics

Rui Andres, CEO, Fieldwork Robotics; Martin Stoelen, Founder, Fieldwork Robotics
How can robots help raspberry growers remain competitive?
Simon Aspinall, CEO, Ecorobotix
How do we still feed the world while reducing chemical use and CO2
Prof. Mirko Kovac, Director, Aerial Robotics Lab, Imperial College London
How can Robotics and AI support sustainable development?
Liane Thompson, CEO, Aquaai; Simeon Pieterkosky, CVO, Aquaai
Can a robot fish save the seas?

Q&A

12:15 pm 1:15 pm LUNCH

1:15 pm 2:45 pm Artificial Intelligence

Caroline Gorski, CEO, R²Factory at Rolls-Royce
How can system-wide collaboration fix system-wide problems?
Alex Zhavoronkov, CEO, Insilico Medicine
How is AI transforming drug discovery?
Daniel Nathrath, CEO, Ada Health
How can technology help solve some of healthcare’s biggest problems?
Marc Warner, CEO, Faculty
Data driven decision making will fail. Here’s why

Q&A

2:45 pm 3:15 pm Afternoon Tea

3:15 pm 5:15 pm Future of Mobility

Dr. Han Park, Deputy CTO, Supernal
Which will come first: Autonomous Cars or Autonomous Aircraft?
Doron Myersdorf, CEO, StoreDot
How can Extreme Fast Charging technology accelerate the adoption rate of electric vehicles?
Michael O’Kronley, CEO, Ascend Elements
What will it take to ensure electric vehicle batteries are recycled?
Dr. Haibo E, Director of Product, Wayve
What does the future of autonomous vehicles look like?

Q&A

5:15 pm 5:30 pm Closing Remarks

Speakers

Dr. John Mather
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Nobel Prize Physics 2006

Technology

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed primarily to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high infrared resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too early, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This is expected to enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars and the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, and arrived at the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point in January 2022. The first image from JWST was released to the public via a press conference on 11 July 2022. The telescope is the successor of the Hubble as NASA’s flagship mission in astrophysics.

Biography

Dr. Mather is the Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Launched on December 25^th, 2021, JWST will extend the discoveries of the great Hubble Space Telescope, reaching farther back in time and farther out into space to show us how the expanding universe led to galaxies, stars, planets, and the possibility for life on our tiny Earth.

As a 28-year-old postdoc, he led the effort to propose the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE), and then served as its Project Scientist, leading the COBE team to success and to the Nobel Prize in Physics (2006).

The COBE measurements started the era of precision cosmology, confirming the expanding universe theory to extraordinary accuracy. Dr. Mather speaks widely on the history of the universe and the astonishing possibilities of our shared future.

He received his bachelor’s degree in physics at Swarthmore College and his PhD in physics at the University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Albert Bourla
Chairman and CEO, Pfizer

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Albert Bourla leads Pfizer in its purpose: Breakthroughs that change patients’ lives, with a focus on driving the scientific and commercial innovation needed to have a transformational impact on human health.

During his more than 25 years at Pfizer, Albert has built a diverse and successful career, holding a number of senior global positions across a range of markets and disciplines. Prior to taking the reins as CEO in January 2019, Albert served as the Pfizer’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) beginning in January 2018, responsible for overseeing the Company’s commercial strategy, manufacturing, and global product development functions.

Previously, from February 2016 to December 2017, Albert served as Group President of
Pfizer Innovative Health, which comprised the Consumer Healthcare, Inflammation & Immunology, Internal Medicine, Oncology, Rare Disease and Vaccines business groups. In addition, he created the Patient and Health Impact Group, dedicated to developing solutions for increasing patient access, demonstrating the value of Pfizer’s medicines, and ensuring broader business model innovation.

From January 2014 to January 2016, Albert served as Group President of Pfizer’s Global Vaccines, Oncology, and Consumer Healthcare business, where he was instrumental in building a strong and competitive position in Oncology and expanding the Company’s leadership in Vaccines.

Albert was President and General Manager of Pfizer’s Established Products business from 2010- 2013, leading the development and implementation of strategies and tactics related to Pfizer’s off- patent portfolio, (including legacy brands and generics.

He began his Pfizer career in 1993 in the Animal Health Division as Technical Director of Greece. He held positions of increasing responsibility within Animal Health across Europe, before moving to Pfizer’s New York Global Headquarters in 2001. From there, Albert went on to assume a succession of leadership roles within the Animal Health Division, including US Group Marketing Director (2001- 2004), Vice President of Business Development and New Products Marketing (2004-2006), and Area President of Animal Health Europe, Africa and the Middle East (2006-2009). In 2009, he assumed additional responsibilities for the Asia and Pacific regions.

Albert is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and holds a Ph.D. in the Biotechnology of Reproduction from the Veterinary School of Aristotle University. In 2020, he was ranked as America’s top CEO in the Pharmaceuticals sector by Institutional Investor magazine. He is on the executive committee of The Partnership for New York City, a vice president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations, a director on multiple boards – Pfizer, Inc., The Pfizer Foundation, PhRMA, and Catalyst – and a Trustee of the United States Council for International Business. In addition, Albert is a member of the Business Roundtable and the Business Council.
Caroline Gorski
CEO, R2 Factory at Rolls-Royce

Biography

Caroline has worked at the transformational edge of emerging digital technologies for more than 25 years, leading businesses’ strategic response to technology and executing on organisational changes, new market developments and new business model launches.

Following senior roles at Telefonica, Sodexo, O2 and the Digital Catapult, Caroline led Rolls-Royce’s R² Data Labs for five years, delivering £400m of value back into the Group. During the pandemic, she pioneered the Emergent Alliance, which convened over 50 corporates, individuals, NGOs and governments for the first time to leverage expertise, data and resources to aid societal recovery.

Now leading the R² Factory founding team, Caroline drives the company’s strategic vision to create ‘a safe space to do hard things’ by blending unique experience, cutting-edge capability, thought-leadership and new ways of working to create new opportunities and business models.

Voted one of the most influential people in UK technology (Computer Weekly UKTech50, 2022), Caroline holds a Masters degree from Oxford and has an unfinished PhD in modern gothic literature and how we all use scary monsters to help contain social anxiety.
Dr. Mark Slack
Chief Medical Officer, CMR Surgical

Biography

Mark is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of CMR Surgical, a start up building the next generation surgical robot. It had a record-breaking Series D funding round of $660 million in 2021 and has now performed more than 5000 clinical cases across a wide spectrum of therapeutic areas.

Mark was previously Head of Gynaecology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and a member of the academic staff at the University of Cambridge. He is highly published which was recognised with an award from the NIHR and an honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He is also a recipient of the Sims Black Professorship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Brian Miller
Chief Digital Officer, Intuitive

Technology

Intuitive is a global leader in minimally invasive care and the pioneer of robotic surgery. Our groundbreaking technologies include the da Vinci surgical system and the Ion endoluminal system. Digital intelligence allows us to unite our advanced systems, progressive learning, and value-enhancing services to help physicians and their teams optimize care delivery to support the best outcomes possible. At Intuitive, we envision a future of care that is less invasive and profoundly better, where diseases are identified early and treated quickly, so patients can get back to what matters most.

Intuitive’s advanced systems include robotic platforms and innovative instruments designed to help physicians and their teams deliver minimally invasive care. Our products include the da Vinci surgical systems, comprising four generations of integrated, intelligent platforms for robotic-assisted surgery, and the Ion endoluminal system, a robotic platform that provides access deep into the peripheral lung, the site of many tumors.

Biography

Brian Miller, Ph.D., is chief digital officer at Intuitive. Dr. Miller oversees all aspects of the company’s digital business—strategy, solutions, operations, product management, infrastructure, privacy, security, and network operations. He brings more than 20 years of robotics and digital technology experience, with a clear focus on creating technical, clinical, and operational value for customers and new business value for the company.

Miller began his career in the field of robotic surgery at Computer Motion, where he developed software for two of the earliest robotic surgical systems—AESOP and ZEUS. Miller joined Intuitive when the two companies merged in 2003. Starting as a control systems analyst, he quickly rose through the ranks at Intuitive, earning key engineering roles with increasing responsibility: director of engineering, simulation & networking; director of advanced development—the group responsible for next-generation technology—and vice president, system engineering, a role he held until 2015. Most recently, Miller served as senior vice president and general manager of Systems, Imaging, and Digital, a role where he honed and expanded the company’s digital strategy and offerings.

During his tenure at Intuitive, Miller has contributed to key innovations in robotic surgical systems and surgeon simulation capabilities, earning patents for 3-D telestration, adaptive video streaming, video content searching, and virtual reality simulation for surgeon training.

Miller earned a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Iowa State University. At Northwestern University, he earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with a focus on haptic interfaces and robotics. He also participated in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Kylie Lucas
Corporate Strategy Lead, Blue Origin

Technology

Blue Origin was founded with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Blue Origin envisions a time when people can tap into the limitless resources of space and enable the movement of damaging industries into space to preserve Earth, humanity’s blue origin. Blue Origin is working today to create that future by developing reusable launch vehicles and in-space systems that are safe, low cost, and serve the needs of all civil, commercial, and defense customers.

Blue Origin’s efforts include flying astronauts to space on New Shepard, producing reusable liquid rocket engines, developing an orbital launch vehicle with New Glenn, building next-generation space habitats, and returning to the surface of the Moon. These endeavors will add new chapters to the history of spaceflight and move all of humanity closer to that founding vision.

Biography

Kylie Lucas leads the Strategy team at Blue Origin, which former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos founded to enable a future in which millions of people are living in space for the benefit Earth. Kylie joined Blue Origin within the Strategy & Corporate Development group initially focused on supporting programs in the company’s Advanced Development Programs business unit. Prior to Blue Origin, Kylie was a consultant at Accenture in the Communications, Media, and Technology group. Kylie holds a B.E. in Materials Science from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She currently lives in Washington, D.C.
Rich Walker
CEO, Shadow Robot

Technology

Shadow Robot leads the world in developing “dexterous hands” for robots – giving them the ability to handle objects as capably as humans can. This technology will allow robots to substitute for humans in difficult, dangerous or distant locations, as well as protecting delicate clean environments from dirty humans!

Shadow Robot has provided hands for several of the ANA Avatar X Prize finalists, and works with technology developers globally to deliver advanced dexterity into their work.

Biography

Rich Walker is the Managing Director at Shadow Robot, and a Director of European Robotics and AI associations. He strives to build technology for good, and to make it possible for robots to help people in their working lives. In his copious spare time, he runs a hyper-local NGO and can usually tell you where the nearest good beer bar is, and what three business books you need to read next.
Liane Thompson
CEO, Aquaai

Technology

Aquaai provides affordable, quality underwater data, easily accessed on a web dashboard using bio-inspired, autonomous fishlike drones. FaaS – Fish as a Service® Businesses, governments and scientists increasingly need reliable environmental data to adapt to accelerating devastation brought on by the climate crisis, yet it’s extremely costly to harness information from waterways, which covers 71% of the planet. Aquaai’s end-to-end solution is the affordable tool they seek.

Numerous accolades include: 2022 Top Tier Impact Award finalist – winner TBD, 2022 GreenBiz, Atlantic Council, Verizon Climate Resilience Prize (finalist), 2021 OceanPitch Fest (finalist), 2021 Hardware Cup CleanTech (finalist), 2020 Awarded Innovation Norway grant, 20 Women Driving the Future of ClimateTech, Ten to Watch: Pioneers of the Blue Economy (Climate & Capital), 2020 European Commission’s Seal of Excellence for Impact, Quality and Efficiency, 2019 Winner Top Aquaculture Innovation Award at Fish2.0 Stanford Global Forum

Biography

Liane Thompson is the CEO of Aquaai. Prior to starting her Blue Economy company, Liane was a global reporter and New York Times executive producer creating innovative content with global audience appeal including the premier television series A Cook’s Tour, of the late Anthony Bourdain. Liane met Simeon doing a story on his many innovations. Liane has spearheaded technical and programming firsts in the media industry earning her three time PrimeTime Emmy nominations. Her journey as an entrepreneur includes setting up new businesses in Hungary, Israel, the United States and most recently Norway. Liane is a TEDx speaker and ocean advocate passionate about providing her children a healthier planet.

Simeon Pieterkosky,
CVO, Aquaai

Technology

Aquaai provides affordable, quality underwater data, easily accessed on a web dashboard using bio-inspired, autonomous fishlike drones. FaaS – Fish as a Service® Businesses, governments and scientists increasingly need reliable environmental data to adapt to accelerating devastation brought on by the climate crisis, yet it’s extremely costly to harness information from waterways, which covers 71% of the planet. Aquaai’s end-to-end solution is the affordable tool they seek.

Numerous accolades include: 2022 Top Tier Impact Award finalist – winner TBD, 2022 GreenBiz, Atlantic Council, Verizon Climate Resilience Prize (finalist), 2021 OceanPitch Fest (finalist), 2021 Hardware Cup CleanTech (finalist), 2020 Awarded Innovation Norway grant, 20 Women Driving the Future of ClimateTech, Ten to Watch: Pioneers of the Blue Economy (Climate & Capital), 2020 European Commission’s Seal of Excellence for Impact, Quality and Efficiency, 2019 Winner Top Aquaculture Innovation Award at Fish2.0 Stanford Global Forum

Biography

Aquaai Chief Visionary Officer Simeon Pieterkosky drives the product and vision of Aquaai designing robots that help address many of the world’s most pressing climate problems. Simeon has a multi-faceted background in water filtration, zoology, animatronics and robotics. He has more than 20 years of practical experience in mechanical design, successfully merging advertising, robotics and special effects platforms. Simeon has single-handedly created 10 life-size humanoid robots to study human robotic interaction (HRI). A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Simeon has been inventing gadgets since childhood and is on a mission to improve global life quality. Simeon founded Aquaai after his young daughter asked him to stop making land robots and make one to “Save the Seas”.
Prof. Mirko Kovac
Director, Aerial Robotics Lab, Imperial College London

Technology

Environmental sciences rely heavily on accurate, timely and complete data sets which are often collected manually at significant risks and costs. Robotics and mobile sensor networks can collect data more effectively and with higher spatial-temporal resolution compared to manual methods while benefiting from expanded operational envelopes and added data collection capabilities. In future, robotics and AI will be an indispensable tool for data collection in complex environments, enabling the digitalisation of forests, lakes, off-shore energy systems, cities and the polar environment. However, such future robot solutions will need to operate more flexibly, robustly and efficiently than they do today.

This talk will present how animal-inspired robot design methods can integrate adaptive morphologies, functional materials and energy-efficient locomotion principles to enable this new class of environmental robotics. The talk will also include application examples, such as flying robots that can place sensors in forests, aerial-aquatic drones for autonomous water sampling, drones for aerial construction and repair, and impact-resilient drones for safe operations in underground and tunnel systems.

Biography

Prof. Mirko Kovac is director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory, full professor at Imperial College London and Royal Society Wolfson Fellow. He is also heading the Materials and Technology Centre of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) in Zürich. His research group focusses on the development of novel mobile robots for distributed sensing and autonomous manufacturing in complex natural environments. Prof. Kovac’s particular specialisation is in robot design, hardware development and multi-modal sensor mobility.

Before his appointment in London, he was post-doctoral researcher at Harvard University and he obtained his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in 2005.

Since 2006, he has presented his work in 78 peer reviewed publications in leading conferences and journals, has won several best paper awards and has delivered 95 keynote and invited lectures. He also regularly acts as advisor to government, investment funds and industry on robotics opportunities.
Chris Lusty
Design Engineer, Engineered Arts

Technology

Engineered Arts Ltd build robotic hardware and software for human interaction applications. With a focus on expression and communication capabilities for humanoid robots. Their state of the art production facility in Falmouth UK is the birth place of Ameca, a humanoid that captured the worlds imagination when it was launched at CES in 2022.

The company has created a complete cloud based robotic operating system, now in its 5th generation, which leverages the most advanced AI technologies to bring robots to life. EA’s patented novel hardware designs bring a level of fluid movement and energy efficiency that to their products that’s also finding applications within industrial collaborative robots.

Biography

Chris Lusty is a mechanical designer of humanoid robots at Engineered Arts. Chris works across both the detailed mechanical design of some of the world’s most (un)believably realistic humanoid robots, as well as spearheading research and development projects aimed at progressing the field with ever more advanced human-like capabilities.

Chris was previously in the Research and Technology group of a global aerospace manufacturer, where his work focussed on systems and designs relating to the construction of next-generation civil airliners. Chris holds a PhD for his work in the Machine Systems research group at the University of Bath, where he worked on various projects including magnetic levitation in turbomachinery and precision motion control in compliant mechanisms.
Martin Stoelen
Founder, Fieldwork Robotics

Technology

Fieldwork Robotics develops selective, adaptive and modular robots for horticulture. The company has developed a selective raspberry harvesting robot, which is currently undergoing commercial trials in Odemira, Portugal. In spring 2022 their robots sold the first raspberries for fresh consumption picked autonomously. The company has its main office in Cambridge, UK, and operations in Portugal and Norway.

Biography

Dr Martin F. Stoelen is the Founder and Chief Science Officer of Fieldwork Robotics Ltd. The company was setup in 2016 based on his research on robust and selective robotic systems for harvesting in horticulture at the University of Plymouth, UK. He is also an Associate Professor with the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, which collaborates closely with the company. He has extensive experience in RD&I from the US, Spain, UK and Norway, and has won and led projects worth more than £3 million. He has a PhD and three Master´s degrees across aerospace, electronics and robotics, and lectures at Bachelor, Master and PhD level robotics engineering.

He is a former Fulbright Scholarship recipient, and a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow, and has authored more than 40 papers in journals and conference proceedings across soft, adaptive and human-friendly robots for applications in space, healthcare and agriculture.

Simon Aspinall
CEO, Ecorobotix

Technology

Ecorobotix ultra-high precision agriculture uses AI/ML to identify individual plants (crops & weeds) in real-time and deliver crop treatment (herbicides/pesticides/fertilizers/insecticides) with ultra-high precision – treating only weeds without touching the surrounding crop or soil. Ecorobotix reduces agricultural chemical use by ~80-95%, boosts crop yields by ~5%, improves biodiversity and reduces agricultural CO2 footprint by ~0.22 tons/ha.

Biography

Simon has extensive high-tech experience from both corporates and start-ups in the US and Europe. Simon has over a decade of experience as an executive at Cisco, EMC and Dell having held multiple sales, business development and marketing leadership roles. Simon has also held senior roles at multiple start-ups including: SVP Software & CMO at Virtustream, where he helped grow the business into one of the leading enterprise cloud providers (acquired for $1.2bn by Dell/EMC); CRO/CMO for SWIM.AI – an edge data analytics software provider and CRO/CMO for SLAMcore – a robotics vision software provider.

Simon holds a master’s degree in Engineering & Computing Science from Oxford University and an MBA from Insead in France.
David Hertz
President, Skysource

Technology and Biography

David Hertz, FAIA LEED. AP Architect / Founder S.E.A.- Studio of Environmental Architecture and skysource.org which was the Grand Prize Winner of the Water Abundance XPRIZE. David’s invention the WeDew resulting from the XPRIZE is a portable energy and water generator, recently was selected as one of the TIME MAGAZINE Best Inventions of 2020.

Architect David Hertz is the founder and president of David Hertz FAIA Architects, inc. and S.E.A., the Studio of Environmental Architecture, which he established as Syndesis in 1984 and skysource.org in 2016 David graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) in 1983. In 2006 David was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from Sci-Arc. In 2008 David was elected to the prestigious American Institute of Architects College of Fellows as one of it’s youngest member in it’s over 160 year history.

In 2018 David lead his team Skysource to become the Grand Prize winner in the Water Abundance XPRIZE out of a field of 98 teams from 27 countries to make 2,000 liters of water from air in 24 hours using 100% renewable energy at a cost of less than 2 cents / liter. In 2018 Skysource’s WeDew was awarded as the winner of a World Technology Award for Social Entrepreneurship and in 2019 a General Excellence award for Developing World Technology in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards which drew over 2,000 applicants.

David Hertz’ award winning work has been widely published and exhibited internationally some highlights include exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA),The Smithsonian Museums of Natural History and the National Building Museum, the Cooper Hewitt Museum as well as inclusion the Venice and Istanbul Architectural biennale’s, having won the American Architecture Award in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

The work of S.E.A has been included in over a hundred books and periodicals world wide. Key highlights include two covers of Dwell, included in Met Home’s Design 100 was featured in a profile in Vanity Fair Magazine. Hertz’ 747 Wing House won a 2012 Record Houses award and the 2016 Architizer A+ Award and has been widely published and documented world wide including the 2017 feature on Worlds most Extraordinary Homes on Netflix. In 2016 A monograph, The Restorative Home, Ecological Houses of David Hertz was published by Oro Press. In 2020 David’s work was featured in the series launch Apple’s new Apple Plus TV network entitled HOME which was nominated for an Emmy Award.

David is a founding member of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) as well as the USGBÇ and was involved in the first LEED Platinum Commercial and Residential Projects in the U.S. Since 1990 David has been on the Academic Advisory Committee and the faculty of the UCLA Arc- ID Program teaching sustainable design courses. David has also taught and lectured recently at the Yale school of Forestry and ecology, USC School of Architecture, SCI-ARC and Art Center College of Design. David has been serving on the Task Force of the Environment for the City of Santa Monica for over 20 years co authoring the cities Green Building Ordinance, David serves on the board of directors of Heal The Bay and is involved in numerous social and environmental non- profits including founding the GO Water Initiative with the Go Campaign where he is bringing atmospheric water generators through skysource.org to address water scarcity and water quality worldwide.
Laura Doss-Herz
Co-founder, Skysource
Daniel Nathrath
CEO, Ada Health

Technology

Ada is a global health company founded by doctors, scientists and industry pioneers to create new possibilities for personal health, and transform knowledge into better outcomes. Its core system connects medical knowledge with intelligent technology to help all people actively manage their health and health systems to deliver effective care. The company works with leading health providers, organizations and governments to carry out this vision. Used by millions of people around the world, Ada is setting new standards for AI in healthcare.

Biography

Daniel has nearly 20 years’ experience leading the charge to bring transformational technology to new industries. During his career, he has founded and led several internet startups based in Denmark, Germany, the US, and the UK. After studying law as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Houston, Daniel earned his MBA at the University of Chicago, then shifted his focus to consulting at Boston Consulting Group before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey.

Doron Myersdorf
CEO, StoreDot

Technology

StoreDot is a pioneer and leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption – range and charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, making it possible to charge an EV in just five minutes – the same time it takes to refuel a conventional combustion engine vehicle.

Biography

Doron Myersdorf co-founded StoreDot in 2012 with the mission to develop extreme fast charging (XFC) battery technology utilizing nano-scale metalloids and proprietary compounds to overcome a major barrier to electric vehicle adoption – range and charging anxiety. Prior to founding StoreDot, he served as Senior Director of SanDisk SSD Business Unit establishing and managing the division in Israel, building product strategy, marketing and business development, resulting in sales to leading laptop makers amounting to over $100M in revenue in under three years. Previously, he was VP Flash and Operations of msystems, a flash memory global leader, where he managed strategic sourcing of $1B annually, resulting in annual revenue of over $1.5B.

Myersdorf’s diverse record also includes being the Founder and CEO of InnerPresence, a Silicon Valley security software company, and Co-founder and VP Business Development of Siftology, a pioneer in interactive media search. Earlier, as a Partner at Tefen – Semiconductor Operations Management, he managed West Coast US Operations, in charge of the design and setup of over 40 semiconductor, pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing facilities worldwide. Doron holds a PhD in R&D Management (1994), a MSc in Information Systems (cum laude, 1991) and a BSc in Industrial Engineering Management (cum laude, 1989), all from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Michael O'Kronley
CEO, Ascend Elements

Technology

Based in Westborough, Mass., Ascend Elements is revolutionizing the production of lithium-ion battery materials by establishing a clean and sustainable supply chain using recycled feedstock. Its patented Hydro-to-Cathode™ technology directly synthesizes new cathode active materials from spent lithium-ion cells more efficiently than traditional methods, resulting in reduced cost, improved performance, and lowered GHG emissions. With fewer batteries going to landfill and a cleaner manufacturing process, Ascend Elements is taking the lithium-ion battery industry to a higher level with a truly sustainable, closed-loop battery economy.

Biography

Michael O’Kronley was named CEO of Ascend Elements in March 2020 and has served on the company’s board since 2017. Before Ascend Elements, he was Head of Corporate Strategy at A123 Systems. He has worked in the automotive and EV battery industries for over 25 years with previous business development, operations and engineering roles at Metaldyne Corp. and Robert Bosch. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Haibo E
Director of Product, Wayve

Technology

Wayve is on a mission to reimagine autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence. We are the first to deploy autonomous vehicles on public roads using deep learning. We are pioneering the AI software, lean hardware, and fleet learning platform for AV2.0: a next-generation autonomous driving system that can quickly and safely adapt to new driving domains anywhere in the world.

Biography

Haibo is the Director of Product at Wayve, a company pioneering AI technology to enable autonomous vehicles to drive in complex urban environments. Haibo is also an advisor to other startups that apply machine learning to real world problems.

Previously at Google DeepMind, she led product ideation and policy and regulation to enable societally beneficial applications of machine learning. Former Launch Director of Partnership on AI, and strategist with McKinsey, Haibo holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and a degree from Cambridge University in Computer Science and Physics.
Franky Zapata
CEO, Zapata

Laurence Pearce
CEO, Lifelight

Technology

Lifelight is game changing technology that allows a smartphone or tablet device to measure blood pressure, pulse and breathing rate, simply by looking into the device’s built-in camera for up to 40 seconds. Completely contactless, with no additional hardware needed, it saves healthcare staff time while improving the patient experience, avoiding the need for healthcare staff to make physical contact with patients and avoid cross-contamination of devices from one patient to another.

Lifelight delivers benefits across a wide range of use cases whether stand-alone or at scale. With its transformative ability to measure vital signs simply using the patient’s own smartphone, Lifelight removes the cost and complexity of hardware blood pressure cuffs and pulse oximeters. It is able to be embedded into existing healthcare platforms and pathways, allowing them to be more efficient, more effective and more scalable.

Biography

Laurence has led the development of Lifelight over the past 5 years. With over 20 years’ experience of NHS informatics, Laurence has led numerous ICT strategy and risk reviews, business case developments and major IT procurements. Laurence has a knowledge of primary care systems, acute EHRs and population health records (having helped to specify the Great North Care Record and the Wessex LHCRE), and also has extensive experience of NHS IG.

Laurence is passionate about the human application of technology in terms of user experience, computer vision, machine learning and connected digital health.

An experienced entrepreneur, management consultant and strategic thinker, Laurence holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and is a computer scientist, active mentor and investor.
Mark Kotter
CEO, Bit Bio

Technology

opti-ox is the foundational precision cellular reprogramming technology of bit.bio, the company that Mark founded and is CEO of. bit.bio is developing a platform to manufacture human cells consistently at commercial scale for research, drug discovery and cell therapy. He is also co-founder of Meatable, which is using the same opti-ox technology in animal cells to create cultured meat products.

Biography

Mark Kotter is a doctor, scientist, and serial entrepreneur. As a neurosurgeon, he treats patients with spinal cord injury. Mark is best known for discovering the importance of macrophages for brain regeneration, which led to the first regenerative medicine trial for degenerative cervical myelopathy, and for developing opti-ox, a gene targeting approach that enables faithful execution of genetic information in cells.
Anat Binur
CEO, Ukko

Technology

Ukko is on a mission to eradicate food allergies and sensitivities. Ukko’s tech platform uses AI, immunology, and protein engineering to design measurably better and safer proteins for use in food and therapeutics. Ukko does this by designing and controlling the molecular interactions between allergen proteins and the immune system. Ukko designs proteins such that they maintain or improve the protein’s beneficial properties (taste, nutritional value, therapeutic components) but will not trigger an immune response. Ukko’s initial product pipeline includes gluten proteins designed for people with celiac and a new immunotherapy for food allergies, starting with peanut allergies.

Biography

Anat is the co-founder and CEO of Ukko Inc., a biotechnology company on a mission to eradicate food allergies and sensitivities. Previously, Anat was an Investment Partner at Innovation Endeavors, a venture firm backed by Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt. Anat is also the co-founder of MEET, an education nonprofit that in partnership with MIT, Google, Facebook and others is developing a network of Palestinian and Israeli young leaders. Anat received her PhD from MIT, an MPA from Columbia University and a law degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Adina Gillespie
Director Europe, GHGSat

Technology

GHGSat provides actionable greenhouse gas emissions data and insights to businesses, governments, financial markets, and regulators worldwide. The firm is the first to combine its own satellite and aircraft sensors, offering greater data accuracy and facilitate timely strategic decision-making insights at a fraction of the cost of other technologies. With proprietary remote-sensing capabilities and patented technology, GHGSat can monitor emissions from individual facilities.

Biography

Adina is responsible for GHGSat business development and expansion in Europe, including GHGSat’s contributions to the European Space Agency fleet of satellites. She has more than 15 years’ experience delivering programs and strategic advice in the application of small satellite technology, including for governments and commercial users. Adina has headed the UK’s operational contribution to the International Disasters Charter and coordinated UK Civil Contingencies Secretariat access to the Charter. She serves on the advisory board of the World Geospatial Industry Council and various advisory boards to the UK Space Agency.

Esteban Ordano
Founder, Decentraland

Technology

Decentraland is the first fully decentralized, Ethereum-based Web3 metaverse that is built, governed, and owned by its users. It is governed by its community DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).

Decentraland Foundation was established to handle Decentraland’s IP rights and marketing. Moreover, the DAO has delegated to the Decentraland Foundation the execution of partnerships and certain aspects of the development of the platform (along with other development teams) working along with the community contributing to the decentralized development of the platform.

Decentraland’s virtual world is the first use-case of a native web3 ecosystem with its own cryptocurrency (MANA), NFT marketplace, system of property (LAND), and DAO.

In this 3D virtual world visited by hundreds of thousands of avatars every month, new creations, such as games, puzzles, artwork, and even whole environments, are added on a daily basis by members of the community, individuals and brands alike. Users are free to explore and discover what Decentraland has to offer as digital avatars and attend live concerts, conferences, exhibitions, dance parties, and many other events that happen every day of the year.

Biography

Esteban Ordano is the Co-Founder of Decentraland, the first-ever virtual world owned and run by its users. Esteban is an Argentinian software engineer with nearly a decade of experience working in blockchain technology. His research and contributions have been crucial to the development of the ecosystem. Prior to Decentraland, he worked as a software engineer at Google and in BitPay, where he worked on open source infrastructure for Bitcoin. Esteban also served as an advisor for Polygon’s Matic Network and The Graph Protocol. He holds a degree in Software Engineering and Information Technology from the Buenos Aires Institute of Technology.
Yaniv Erlich
CEO, Eleven Therapeutics

Technology

Eleven Therapeutics ushers in the next generation of RNAi therapeutics by combining artificial intelligence (AI), massively parallel functional assays, and combinatorial chemistry. Its flagship invention features a new modality, dubbed SCSI-RNA™ (smart-combinatorial, small interfering RNA), a fully programmable molecule, rationally designed to address the delivery, durability, and efficacy challenges of any disease and biological target of interest. Founded in 2020 by a group of globally-leading, interdisciplinary scientists,

Eleven Therapeutics brings new RNAi therapeutics for patients in need by capitalising on some of the world’s best pools of talent through its three collaborative hubs—in Cambridge, UK; Boston, U.S.; and Tel Aviv, Israel. Eleven is currently focusing its development pipeline on siRNA treatments for a range of respiratory diseases.

Biography

Dr. Yaniv Erlich is the co-founder and CEO of Eleven Therapeutics. Prior to this position, he was the CSO of MyHeritage, a consumer genomics company (acquired by Francisco Partners), an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and a Principal Investigator at the Whitehead Institute, MIT.

Dr. Erlich received his bachelor’s degree from Tel-Aviv University, Israel (2006) and a PhD from the Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (2010). Dr. Erlich’s research interests are computational human genetics. Dr. Erlich is a TEDMED speaker (2018), the recipient of DARPA’s Young Faculty Award (2017), the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award (2013), Harold M. Weintraub award (2010), the IEEE/ACM-CS HPC award (2008), and he was selected as one of 2010 Tomorrow’s PIs team of Genome Technology.
Martin Stephan
Deputy CEO, Carbios

Technology

Carbios is the first and only company in the world developing biological processes for the end-of-life of plastics and synthetic fibers with the potential to engage the entire industry in a truly circular economy. The company is now moving to industrialization with two disruptive innovations, of which a process to infinitely recycle PET without any quality loss, opening the possibility to create a virtuous circular economy scheme.

Biography

Martin joined Carbios in February 2017. He is now Deputy CEO of the Company. Martin has made his entire career in the chemical industry. Prior to joining Carbios, he held several senior international positions at Du Pont de Nemours, Chemours, and at the chemical branch of the French Oil & Gaz major, Total. He worked in France, Germany, Italy and in Switzerland, where he is currently resident.

Martin Stephan holds a Master in Business Economics from HEC in Paris and a BA in Economics from Paris II University.
Ilana Wisby
CEO, Oxford Quantum Circuits

Technology

Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) is Europe’s leading quantum computing company. OQC is bringing the power of quantum to its customers’ fingertips to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems: from life-changing drug discoveries to unbreakable cryptography, from portfolio optimisations to modelling solutions to feeding a rapidly growing population.

OQC delivered Europe’s first Quantum Computing-as-a-Service (QCaaS) platform, built entirely using its proprietary technology – the Coaxmon. OQC’s latest system Lucy is now available on AWS – the first regional expansion of Amazon Braket to Europe, opening a world of opportunities for innovation in Europe.

Biography

Dr Ilana Wisby is the CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), Europe’s leading quantum computing company. Ilana is a deep tech entrepreneur; a champion for women in technology and leadership, and advisor to the WEF’s Global Future Council on Quantum Computing.

OQC develops technology that harnesses the power of quantum to do things previously deemed impossible, using state-of-the-art, innovative superconducting quantum hardware spun out of the University of Oxford.

Ilana’s vision is a brighter future that includes everyone. She and her team believe that the key to solving our most pressing challenges is to put their quantum computers in the hands of humanity and at the fingertips of our most brilliant minds. From enabling life-changing drug discoveries to unbreakable cryptography. From unleashing the full potential of AI to unlocking nature’s best-kept design secrets. OQC uses the power of quantum to develop technology that will change the world.

Adam Rauwerdink
Senior Vice President, Boston Metal

Technology

Boston Metal is commercializing breakthrough technology to electrify the steel industry with the potential to eliminate 10% of global carbon emissions. The company’s patented molten oxide electrolysis (MOE) platform replaces fossil fuels with renewable electricity to convert all iron ore grades into high-purity liquid metal through a cost-efficient, one-step process.

There are zero carbon emissions or harmful byproducts released during the process, only oxygen. With a highly modular and scalable solution, Boston Metal is enabling steel producers to meet growing global demand for low-cost, green steel while creating more economic opportunities across the steel value chain. Backed by leading investors and led by a world class team of scientists and metals industry veterans, Boston Metal is the only company with a direct, scalable approach to green the most important engineering material in the world.

Investors include Bill Gates.

Biography

Adam Rauwerdink leads business development at Boston Metal, the company commercializing a revolutionary steel decarbonization technology that uses clean electricity instead of fossil fuels to produce steel, tackling 10% of the world’s carbon emissions. Adam joined Boston Metal as one of the earliest employees, in 2017. Previously, he led global development for several utility-scale energy storage technology companies. Adam holds a BS in Engineering from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in Engineering and Innovation from Dartmouth.
Dr. Kat Bruce
Founder Director, NatureMetrics

Technology

At NatureMetrics we identify species and communities using the tiny traces of DNA that organisms leave behind in the environment, particularly in water and soils. This allows us to generate data across the tree of life, which we combine with ecological statistics and machine learning to describe ecosystems and show change in natural communities across space and time. We aim to summarize the complexity of nature in simple but meaningful metrics that can be integrated into board-level sustainability KPIs.

Biography

Kat is a biologist with a PhD in molecular ecology and is a leading expert in the use of environmental DNA for biodiversity assessment. Kat founded NatureMetrics in 2014 to put these powerful new tools into the hands of those who are tasked with measuring, monitoring and mitigating impacts on nature. NatureMetrics now works with clients and partners all around the world, providing biodiversity data at unprecedented scales to inform decision-making, drive effective conservation, and enable a new era of transparency and accountability when it comes to our impact on the natural world. Kat is also an adventurer and has just returned from an expedition rowing around the coast of Great Britain while collecting environmental data to better understand the health of our oceans.
Alex Zhavoronkov
CEO, Insilico Medicine

Technology

Insilico Medicine, a clinical stage end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, is connecting biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques to discover novel targets and to design novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is delivering breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system (CNS) diseases and aging-related diseases.

Biography

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine (insilico.com), a leader in next-generation artificial intelligence technologies for drug discovery, biomarker development. He is also the founder and CEO of Deep Longevity, Inc, a global company developing a broad range of artificial intelligence-based biomarkers of aging and longevity. Since 2015 he invented critical technologies in the field of generative adversarial networks (GANs) and reinforcement learning (RL) for generation of the novel molecular structures with the desired properties and generation of synthetic biological and patient data. He also pioneered the applications of deep learning technologies for prediction of human biological age using multiple data types, transfer learning from aging into disease, target identification, and signaling pathway modeling.

Under his leadership Insilico raised over $50 million in multiple rounds from expert investors, opened R&D centers in 6 countries and regions, and partnered with multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic institutions. Prior to founding Insilico, he worked in senior roles at ATI Technologies (acquired by AMD in 2006), NeuroG Neuroinformatics, Biogerontology Research Foundation. Since 2012 he published over 130 peer-reviewed research papers, and 2 books including “The Ageless Generation: How Biomedical Advances Will Transform the Global Economy” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). He serves on the editorial boards of Aging Research Reviews, Aging, Trends in Molecular Medicine, Frontiers in Genetics, and founded and co-chairs the Annual Aging Research, Drug Discovery and AI Forum (8th annual in 2021) the world’s largest event on aging in the pharmaceutical industry. He is the adjunct professor of artificial intelligence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.
Marc Warner
CEO, Faculty

Biography

Marc Warner is the co-founder and CEO of Faculty. He founded Faculty in the belief that the benefits of AI should extend to everyone. He has shaped the company so that it can support organisations of all shapes and sizes to take advantage of rapid advances in this field.

Marc has overseen the growth of Faculty to one of London’s premier AI companies. Faculty helps other organisations develop and deploy artificial intelligence in the real world, through a combination of technology, expertise and education.

Geoffrey von Maltzahn
Chairman and Co-founder, Tessera Therapeutics

Technology

Tessera Therapeutics is pioneering GENE WRITING technology, which consists of multiple technology platforms designed to offer scientists and clinicians the ability to write therapeutic messages into the human genome, thereby curing diseases at their source.

The GENE WRITING platforms allow the correction of single nucleotides, the deletion or insertion of short sequences of DNA, and the writing of entire genes into the genome, offering the potential for a new category of genetic medicines with broad applications both in vivo and ex vivo.

Biography

Geoffrey von Maltzahn is an inventor, entrepreneur, and co-founder of more than ten first-in-category life science companies. A general partner at Flagship Pioneering, Geoff builds companies that integrate biology and data science to transform human health and environmental sustainability.

Geoff has deep expertise in genome engineering, bioengineering, the microbiome, and nanotechnology. He is listed as an inventor on over 200 patent applications and patents, and has co-authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles. Since joining Flagship in 2009, Geoff has co-founded companies that have, in aggregate, achieved over $10 billion in public and private market capitalization including: Tessera Therapeutics, Generate Biomedicines, Indigo Agriculture, Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MCRB), and Axcella Health (NASDAQ:AXLA).

Geoff co-founded Tessera in 2018 to pioneer GENE WRITING, a new category of genome engineering technology that aims to write curative therapeutic messages into the human genome. By breaking the rules that have governed genetic medicine to date, GENE WRITING holds the potential to correct genetic defects at the root of thousands of diseases. Geoff served as Tessera’s founding CEO for four years and today serves as board chair and director.

Geoff has received numerous awards and honors, including Bloomberg 50’s Ones to Watch; Business Insider’s 30 Biotech Leaders Under 40; and the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, awarded to the most innovative students at MIT. Geoff earned his PhD in biomedical engineering and medical physics from MIT under the mentorship of Sangeeta N. Bhatia, MD, PhD; an MS in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego; and an SB in chemical engineering from MIT.
Dr. Han Park
Deputy CTO, Supernal

Technology and Biography

Han Park is the Deputy CTO of Supernal, an advanced air mobility division of Hyundai Motor Group, is building a safe Urban Air Mobility (UAM) transportation system that democratize air travel through environmentally friendly electric propulsion system and affordable operating cost. As part of the Deputy CTO role, he is responsible for delivering the autonomous control system for the UAM aircraft as well conducting the long-term research for the organization.

Prior to joining Supernal, Han was a vice president of engineering at Samsung Electronics. He led the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC) engineering effort to develop a software platform, simulation and testing, for autonomous driving and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. He also started the autonomous driving project at the Digital Media & Communications (DMC) R&D Center at Samsung Electronics. At Northrop Grumman, Han was a senior technical manager in the Navigation Systems Division and a lead systems engineer at the Unmanned Systems Division. He led many DARPA, NASA, US Air Force, US Navy, and US Army projects ranging from visual SLAM, collaborative navigation and mapping, stellar-inertial systems, to autonomous control of unmanned aircraft / ground vehicles. Han was also a senior researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he led research projects on automated reasoners and system health monitoring of spacecraft systems.

Han holds a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering with a minor in Electrical Engineering from the Caltech, a MS in mechanical engineering from MIT, and a BS in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley. He holds 3 patents, 1 NASA Space Act Award, 10 NASA Technical Innovation Awards and has authored over 30 journals and conference proceedings. Han has an interest in autonomous systems where ever they operate – in space, in air, or on the ground.
Greg Kushnir
CEO, Emrod

Technology

Emrod’s technology is a wireless power transfer system capable of sending large amounts of power over long distances safely and efficiently. Emrod’s system uses a rectifying antenna to convert power into electromagnetic energy, which is shaped into a collimated beam and sent across long distances to a receiving antenna, where it is converted back to electricity for use. This beam itself is highly efficient, is not influenced by weather conditions and has inherent safety features due to frequency it operates at and built-in safety mechanisms. This makes it possible to use Emrod’s technology to wirelessly transmit power across the earth and to and from orbit which will transform our ability to generate and use sustainable energy.

Biography

Greg Kushnir is an experienced early stage business founder and investor, with more than 20 years’ experience leading and advising technology-led companies in New Zealand and Israel. He completed an MBA at NYU Polytechnic University, and a BSc, Computer Science, at The Academic College of Tel-Aviv, Yaffo. Greg is passionate about businesses that bring innovation to established industries, and has expertise in deep tech, personal financial services and blockchain. Currently Greg is CEO of Emrod, a business he founded in 2019 to commercialise long-range wireless power transmission and radically improve energy distribution.
Dr. Elias Knubben
Vice-President, Research and Innovation, Festo

Technology

Algae are small climate savers. Even in their natural state they are extremely efficient photosynthesizers and absorb ten times more carbon dioxide (CO₂) than land plants. In bioreactors equipped with appropriate sensors, control technology and automation, the efficiency of algae can be increased to a hundred times that of land plants. This shows that they have a significant potential for a climate-neutral circular economy. With the PhotoBionicCell research project we are demonstrating a potential approach for industrial biologisation in the future.

Efficient photosynthesis in the high-tech bioreactor

The combination of tried-and-tested open- and closed-loop control systems with state-of-the-art automation components provide the best possible conditions for the microorganisms. An integrated gassing concept ensures that the carbon dioxide from the air is evenly distributed into the circulating biofluid.

A major challenge for bioreactors is how to precisely determine the volume of biomass. Our developers are using a quantum technology sensor supplied by the start-up Q.ANT to do this. It returns accurate information on the growth of the organisms in real time. Using microfluidics, the algae are automatically and continuously pumped past the sensor from Festo. The quantum sensor isable to optically detect individual cells so that the amount of biomasscan be determined exactly. In addition, it examines the cells for their vitality. Only then is it possible to react to process events in advance and to regulate them.

Biography

Dr. Elias Knubben is Vice President and Head of Corporate Research and Innovation. This area includes research and advanced development for automation solutions in the field of factory and process automation.

This also includes the Future Concepts, which deal with levitation under the brand SupraMotion, as well as the biology inspired projects of Festo’s Bionic Learning Network.

Since the founding of the Bionic Learning Network in 2006, he has been commissioned as an industrial designer to design and develop prototypes and, since 2012, as Head of Corporate Bionic Projects responsible for conception and project management.

In the Bionic Learning Network, an association of Festo with renowned universities, institutes and development companies, natural principles provide new impulses for technical applications and industrial practice.

Numerous projects that have emerged from this have been awarded innovation and/or design prizes, such as IF Gold Awards, and have been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, among others.

After his apprenticeship as a metalworker with the steel sculptor Prof. Erich Hauser, he studied industrial design at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and received his doctorate from

Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) at the University of Stuttgart under Prof. Werner Sobek.

Robert Norton
CEO, Verisart

Technology

Verisart is a one-stop web3 platform where creators sell, mint, create and connect. Since 2015, we’ve worked with over 25,000 creators, helping them take control of their careers, reach more collectors and grow their community. Verisart believes in treasuring creativity and empowering creators to establish successful careers in the web3 creator economy. Discover more at www.verisart.com

Biography

Robert Norton is the CEO and co-founder of Verisart, an award-winning and patented NFT minting and certification platform helping artists do business. He has worked at the intersection of art and technology since 2009. As CEO of Saatchi Online, Norton was responsible for restructuring and relaunching the service, giving unrepresented artists a platform to sell their work directly to an international audience. Norton was also CEO and co-founder of Sedition Art, a ground breaking online platform for collecting digital art. Previously he worked on the executive management team at King and AOL. Norton holds a Masters in Modern History from Oxford University.
Jeremy O'Brien
CEO, PsiQuantum

Technology

Quantum computing is widely recognized as the most profoundly world-changing technology uncovered by humans to date. Large corporations around the world are already building quantum computing teams and beginning to learn the ropes of quantum computing.

But what is quantum computing going to do for these organizations, how is it going to change industries, and how can users prepare now? Jeremy will speak to this exciting topic from his experience of more than 25 years in quantum computing and will give a bold prediction for a specific application area with huge potential and importance.

PsiQuantum is building the first fault-tolerant, utility-scale quantum computer to solve some of the world’s most important challenges. PsiQuantum’s approach is based on single-photon qubits, using components manufacturable within a conventional semiconductor environment. Using a world-leading semiconductor fab to build its modular fault-tolerant architecture, and with both photonic chips and conventional control electronics already in production, PsiQuantum is uniquely positioned to bring quantum computing advances in climate, healthcare, energy, and beyond.

Biography

Dr. Jeremy O’Brien is co-founder and CEO of PsiQuantum, a quantum computing company on a mission to build the world’s first commercially useful quantum computer and deploy it to tackle some of the greatest challenges we face — across climate, healthcare, life sciences, energy and beyond. Dr. O’Brien has dedicated 25 years to this mission, having identified quantum computing as the most profoundly world-changing technology, due to its potential to unlock solutions to otherwise impossible problems.

PsiQuantum is building a utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer with a silicon photonics-based architecture that enables manufacturing in a conventional silicon chip foundry. Photonic qubits have significant advantages at the scale required to deliver a fault-tolerant quantum computer and PsiQuantum partnered with semiconductor company GlobalFoundries to achieve this objective. With core quantum components already in volume production, this is an unprecedented economic signal of maturity for a technology that is often viewed as being at the early research phase.

Prior to founding PsiQuantum, Dr. O’Brien was Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at Stanford and Bristol Universities, and Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales, holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Emerging Technologies, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics.
Kathleen Breitman
Co-founder, Tezos

Technology

Tezos is an open-source platform for assets and applications that can evolve by upgrading itself. Stakeholders govern upgrades to the core protocol, including upgrades to the amendment process itself. The Tezos protocol is a liquid proof-of-stake blockchain designed to self-upgrade, eliminate the need for contentious hard forks, allow for on-chain governance, and allow users to bake blocks, create NFTs and write smart contracts.

Biography

Kathleen Breitman is the co-founder of blockchain network Tezos, which today has a market cap of $3.6 billion. Kathleen was one of the early architects of Tezos, which leverages a proof of stake mechanism to provide high security and low energy usage compared to popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Since the Tezos mainnet launch in September 2018, the blockchain has achieved significant progress. In the past year alone, Tezos has been selected by The Gap to launch its first NFTs, Cambridge University as the technology to build their decentralized carbon credit marketplace, Societe Generale – Forge for its Central Banking Digital Currency (CBDC) experiments, chosen by gaming giant UbiSoft for new types of in-game experiences, selected by Red Bull Racing using for esport NFTs, and tapped by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a related organization of the United Nations, to anonymously collect worker information to improve conditions in the garment manufacturing sector in Thailand.

In addition to building Tezos, Kathleen is the founder of Coase, a company building blockchain powered collectible card games. Kathleen has been named to Fortune’s Ledger 40 Under 40, has spoken at SXSW, Fortune Brainstorm Finance, Coindesk’s Consensus, MIT Tech Review’s Business of Blockchain, among others, and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies.

She has also worked at Accenture, Bridgewater Associates, and the Wall Street Journal. She holds a degree from Cornell University.
Cristina Mata Yandiola
Head of Europe, Powerledger

Technology

As we transition towards a decarbonized energy system, and the electricity grid changes from a centralised to a distributed one, we need to help support the new power system configuration with a highly agile energy market.

Powerledger develops software that allows consumers and producers to track, trace and trade every kilowatt of energy in a smart and secure manner, leveraging the benefits of blockchain technology. ‍We are developing systems that make energy affordable and accessible to everyone, while bringing resilience and flexibility to electricity grids.

Biography

Cristina leads the European market expansion of Powerledger’s blockchain platform for decentralized energy, grid flexibility, and renewable energy certificates. With extensive experience in distributed energy systems, grid integration of renewables, and electricity markets, Cristina drives Powerledger’s impact on decentralized, decarbonized, resilient power systems.

Over the past decade, Cristina has worked on optimizing and managing renewables and their grid integration at Iberdrola, Fraunhofer Institute, and Selco Foundation. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in energy engineering from Madrid Technical University and a Master’s degree in Sustainable Energy Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) and Technical University of Berlin (Germany), specializing in power system transformation and grid flexibility.

Cristina has been featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 list as one of the top energy leaders in Europe.

Matt Johnson
CEO, Laiier.io

Technology

LAIIER’s vision is to use a limited set of printed sensors and hardware in a modular fashion to enable the surface to capture different data points from the surrounding environment. LAIIER’s customers refer to this technology as ‘smart stickers and tape.’ We refer to this multifunctional technology stack as “Dynamically Functional Surfaces™️.”

Our primary technical goal is to create a system whereupon surfaces have a technical function which is definable in software dynamically. LAIIER’s technology is focused on an initial set of use cases in liquid leak and level detection. But there is a significant opportunity beyond these initial use cases as the company and technology matures.

Biography

Matt Johnson is passionate about the potential for smart materials, smart surfaces, and IoT to transform the built environment. Matt is the CEO of LAIIER, which has developed a suite of ultra-thin printed sensors which connect the surfaces of the smart building to the cloud. Seamlessly creating a smart skin to prevent and mitigate the most common causes of property damage.

Before founding LAIIER, Matt co-founded Bare Conductive, where he drove the creation of the largest printed electronics prototyping community on the planet, driving to the top of the $3BN industry as a technology enabler to engineers and designers and thought-leader to blue-chip companies.