Our team

Angie is a plant biologist, focused on investigating the responses of crop plants to environmental stresses, such as drought and extreme temperature. Angie worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory and a Consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, before becoming a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge.

Antonia joined ARIA from the fusion energy sector, where she served as CFO of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Prior to that, she was CFO/COO at the Satellite Applications Catapult and in various private sector organisations. Her background is in corporate finance and she has held a number of Non-Executive Director roles in early stage and leveraged businesses.

Dan previously served as COO at the UK healthtech startup Accurx, which supported the care of over 50 million NHS patients. Prior to this, Dan worked in strategy consulting with a focus on sustainability.

Davidad was most recently a Research Fellow in technical AI safety at Oxford. Davidad co-invented the top-40 cryptocurrency Filecoin, led an international neuroscience collaboration, and was a senior software engineer at Twitter and multiple startups.

Gemma is an Assistant Professor of Medical Therapeutics and Head of the Neuro Optics Lab at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on developing non-invasive brain monitoring in real-world environments where traditional brain monitoring isn’t usually possible.

Ilan Gur is our founding CEO. He previously founded Activate.org, a US-based organisation that empowers scientists and engineers to bring ground-breaking research to market. Prior to this, Ilan established two science-based start-ups and served in the first generation of Programme Directors at ARPA-E.

Jacques is an applied physicist and neuroscientist and is a BBSRC Discovery Fellow at the UCL. Jacques’ work involves applying the principles of physics and engineering to create next-generation, scalable tools that aim to radically change our understanding of the brain and ultimately be used to repair it.

Jazz started his career and qualified as an accountant in audit and spent several years in corporate finance, largely with SMEs. Following this he joined Satellite Applications Catapult.

Jenny trained in theoretical astrophysics before moving into visual neuroscience. After ten years at Oxford University and four at the US National Eye Institute, Jenny joined Newcastle University as Professor of Vision Science. At Newcastle, Jenny focused on insect stereoscopic depth perception, developing a new stereoscopic vision test for children, and using optical coherence tomography retinal scans to detect early signs of neurological disease.

Mark is the Professor of Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Technology at the School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow. His academic research interests focus on energy conversion and the production of green fuels. He is also a co-founder of a spin-out in the green hydrogen space.

Pippy was previously the founder and CEO of a women’s health start-up. She also served as Global Product Manager at Entrepreneur First, which supports the creation of technology companies internationally.

Sarah is a Professor of Biomedical Physics at the University of Cambridge, jointly appointed in the Department of Physics and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. Sarah leads an interdisciplinary team that uses optical imaging technology to monitor in situ tumour evolution and support earlier cancer detection. 

Suraj was co-founder and CTO of Sync Computing, a VC-backed startup optimising the use of modern cloud computing resources. The company was spun-out from his research at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Prior to that, Suraj worked at Intel Corp, helping transition silicon photonics technology from an R&D effort into a now >$1BN business.

Tammy’s career spans the private and public sector. She joined ARIA having previously worked at two unicorn software startups, including Rebellion Defense, where she established and led the UK procurement and contracts team.