Anurag Agarwal

Director, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology

Dr Anurag Agrawal is Director of the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. After completing graduate medical education at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi (1994), he further trained in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA (2003), followed by a PhD in Physiology from Delhi University. His primary research is in respiratory biology and broader interests are in smart deployment of emerging technologies towards healthcare, where he serves on national thinktanks, co-chairs the Lancet and Financial Times commission on Governing Health Futures, and serves on related expert groups at the World Health Organisation and Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence. He received the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize, the highest govt scientific award of India, in 2014, and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Profile: https://www.igib.res.in/?q=AnuragAgrawal

Sandeep Verma

Secretary, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)

With a doctoral degree from the University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, and postdoctoral stints at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, USA and Max-Planck-Institute for Experimentelle Medizin, Germany; Mr. Sandeep Verma joined the Department of Chemistry at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1997.

His work has been noted by the J C Bose Fellowship, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2010), DAE-SRC Outstanding Investigator Award (2010), Swarnajayanti Fellowship (2005), and B.M. Birla Science Prize (2004). He also serves as a member of the Indian National Science Academy and as the Associate Editor of Chemical Communications. His research interests include programmable soft matter for neuronal regeneration, peptide nanofibers, and small molecule-stem cell modulation.

Professor Sandeep Verma, is the current Secretary of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a post he has been serving since 2019.

Profile: http://serb.gov.in/secretary.php

R. Ramanan

Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, Government of India

Mr. Ramanan is the Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) - a flagship national Innovation initiative of the Government of India under the NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India).As the Mission Director of AIM, Ramanan has been instrumental to date in the launch and execution of several nationwide innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives resulting in 10000 Atal Tinkering Labs being established in schools nationwide with 7100+ operational in 650+ districts and over 3 million students having access to innovative tools and technologies like 3d printers, IOT devices, robotics, miniaturised electronics do it yourself kits; 100+ Atal Incubation / Innovation Centers being established in Univ / industry fostering over 1900 Startups including 575 women led Startups ; 40 Atal New India / ARISE Challenges to stimulate deep tech driven product, process and service innovations along with Ministries of India in MSME and Startups industry; and, one of the largest mentorship networks with over 10000 registrations nationwide AIM iNNONET to mentor budding innovators.

An Electrical engineer from the Indian Institute of Bombay, Mr. Ramanan joined Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in 1981. Having played an instrumental role in the company's growth, Mr. Ramanan was made the Managing Director and CEO of CMC Ltd. (a subsidiary of TCS), propelling it to become a global IT private sector organization. Ramanan is an Advanced Management programme Harvard Business School Alum, accredited in Sustainability Leadership by Cambridge University and conferred an Hon Doctorate by Gujarat Law Society for Business and Innovation Leadership.

Padmanabhan Anandan

CEO, Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence

As the CEO of Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Mr. Padmanabhan Anandan's focus has been on developing artificial intelligence-based applications for social good.

Dr. Anandan pursued electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and computer science from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and later, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

He is the founder and former Managing Director of Microsoft Research, and the former Vice President for research at Adobe Systems. He has also served as faculty at Yale University as a Computer Science professor.

Dr. Anandan's research has resulted in over 60 published papers, several awards & honors, and over 17,000 citations. His work has inspired various real-world applications in entertainment, defense, and civilian security.

Profile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._Anandan

Dr. Srivari Chandrasekhar

Honorary Co-Chair 
Secretary, Department of Science and Technology,
Govt. of India

Dr. Srivari Chandrasekhar, the former Director of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) is a renowned synthetic organic chemist and has made significant contributions in diverse areas of organic chemistry with special emphasis on chiral chemistry, total synthesis of biologically active natural products and pharmaceutical products. He introduced polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a novel, environmentally benign solvent medium. He has developed technologies for the synthesis of latest anti-tuberculosis drug, bedaquiline; anti-tumor and abortive drug, misoprostol; anti-platelet molecule, beraprost; antidepressive compound, sertralin and drug for treatment of schizophrenia, asenapine.

His passion and commitment to topical health-related problems is evident in his provisioning for better and affordable access to important drugs. His research efforts, with an impressive degree of innovation and enterprise, have led to the synthesis of complex and scarcely available natural products and new molecular entities for affordable healthcare. His endeavors have provided cost-effective technologies to the chemical industry through the identification of new reagents / solvents for specific transformations.

Born in 1964 Dr Chandrasekhar completed his primary and higher education in Hyderabad and Joined CSIR, IICT for a Ph. D Programme. After completing his Ph. D (1991) with the then director Dr. A. V. Rama Rao, he moved to USA for a post-doctoral position with Prof. J. R. Falck (1991-94). He joined CSIR-IICT as Scientist C in 1994 and grew upto the level of director in 2015. He is a fellow of all the three Indian Science academies, i.e., National Academy of Sciences, Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Science academy. He is also an Alexander von Humboldt fellow.

He has more than 285 publications with 7600 citations. More than 80 students have been already awarded Ph. D. degree under his able guidance and 20 post-doctoral associates have worked in his group.

He has received several accolades including Eminent Scientist Award for contributions in the field of Chemistry from Telangana State Government in 2017, CNR Rao National Prize for Chemical Research 2012, CSIR Technology award 2014 and Infosys prize in Chemical sciences 2014 for his contributions in synthetic organic chemistry with special focus on the synthesis of complex molecules from natural sources and innovative, practical approaches to pharmaceuticals of current interest to industry.

Mr. Reece Smyth

U.S. Co-Chair,
Director Office of Science and Technology Cooperation U.S. Department of State Co-Chair, Director Office of Science and Technology Cooperation U.S. Department of State

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mr. Smyth served as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the US Embassy in Dublin from January 2017 to July 2019, where he advanced US bilateral relations with Ireland on trade, investment, and cyber security. Previous assignments include as the political counsellor at the US Embassy in Beirut and the deputy director of the State Department’s Office of UN Political Affairs. Reece also served at the US Mission to NATO as the action officer in the NATO-Russia Council, as senior economic officer in the State Department’s Office of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, and as a watch officer in the Operations Center. Other overseas tours include Skopje, Sarajevo, and Islamabad.

Mr. Smyth is a graduate of Baylor University and holds master’s degrees from Princeton University and the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he worked in the private sector as a senior trade consultant in Houston, London, and New York.

Aseem Z. Ansari

Chair, Chemical Biology and Therapeutics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis

Professor Aseem Ansari is the Chair of the Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He also holds the Robert J. Urich Endowed Chair in Chemical Biology and Therapeutics. In his role at St. Jude's, Prof. Ansari is responsible for growing the department’s independent and collaborative research programs and expanding their education activities. He also co-founded the prestigious Khorana Program in 2007, S. N. Bose Program and Winstep Forward (WSF) in 2013, and Sci-ROI in 2015.

Prof. Ansari finished his undergraduate education in India and received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He later pursued postdoctoral training at Harvard. He served as a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and as an executive member of the Genome Center of Wisconsin before joining St. Jude.

His research interests cover Synthetic gene regulators (SynGRs) as precision-tailored therapeutics for personalized medicine; Artificial transcription factors (ATFs) to regulate cell fate programs and enable regenerative medicine; Specificity and Energy landscapes for SynGR/ATF design, genome annotation, and precision medicine.

Profile: https://www.winstepforward.org/board_member/aseem-z-ansari/

Elizabeth Urbanas

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Americas, U.S. Department of Energy

Beth Urbanas is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Americas at the Office of International Affairs in the U.S. Department of Energy. Ms. Urbanas is responsible for managing DOE’s bilateral and multilateral engagement with Asian and American countries. She is also responsible for DOE's work in several multilateral fora including the North American Leaders' Summit, the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, and APEC. Prior to her current position, she was the Director for European and Eurasian Affairs at the Office of International Affairs in the U.S. Department of Energy. In this role she was also responsible for DOE's work in the G20 and G7.

Prior to working at DOE, Ms. Urbanas spent 14 years at the U.S. Treasury Department where she created and directed the Office of Environment and Energy. She was also instrumental in the design of the Climate Investment Funds and the Green Climate Fund, where she represented the United States on the boards. She also represented the United States on the boards of several other international organizations including the Global Environment Facility, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the World Bank. Ms. Urbanas represented the United States in the UNFCCC Climate Negotiations from 2007 to 2013 in the finance channel. She started her career in investment management on Wall Street and has also held a staff position at the World Bank. Ms. Urbanas has a B.A. from the College of William and Mary, an M.A. from the State University of New York at Albany, and an M.B.A from George Mason University.

Profile: https://www.energy.gov/ia/contributors/elizabeth-urbanas

Jim Kurose

Distinguished University Professor, College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Having received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the distinguished Columbia University, Jim Kurose began his professorship at the College of Information and Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a scientist, his visitations include Sorbonne University, the University of Paris, INRIA, and IBM Research. His research is focused on computer network architecture and protocols, network measurement, sensor networks, and multimedia communication.

He has received several awards for his research and teaching, including the IEEE Infocom Award, the ACM SIGCOMM Lifetime Achievement Award, the ACM Sigcomm Test of Time Award, and the IEEE Computer Society Taylor Booth Education Medal. He has also co-authored Computer Networking: a Top Down Approach.

Between 2015 till 2019, Jim Kurose served as the Assistant Director for the US National Science Foundation and the co-chair of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Subcommittee (NITRD) of the National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology.

Most recently, in 2018, Jim served as the Assistant Director for Artificial Intelligence in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

Profile: https://www-net.cs.umass.edu/personnel/kurose.html

Jitendra Malik

Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley

Jitendra Malik received his B.tech degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. He is currently a professor at the University of California at Berkeley in 1986, where he teaches at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He is also a faculty member at the Department of Bio-engineering and the Cognitive Science and Vision Science groups.

Prof. Malik's research group has worked on many topics such as computer vision, computational modeling of human vision, computer graphics, and the analysis of biological images. He has mentored over 60 Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows.

He has received several awards and best paper awards as the Diane S. McEntyre Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2000 and twice the Longuet-Higgins Prize for papers published at CVPR. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Profile :http://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~malik/

Raghu Dharmaraju

President, ARTPARK @ IISc

Tavpritesh Sethi

Assistant Professor, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi

Abhiroop Gandhi

Trust and Compliance Officer Verily Life Sciences, CA

Anurag Mairal

Director, Global Outreach Programs, Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, Stanford University

Salman Avestimehr

Director, USC-Amazon Center on Trusted AI,

Kush R Varshney

Distinguished Research Staff Member and Manager,

Mayank Vatsa

Professor and Swarnajayanti Fellow,

Amit Deshpande

Researcher