Our team
Our team is built to think differently. We’ve come to ARIA from start-ups, non-profits, venture capital, and the public sector, united by a shared belief in the power of science to transform society.
Join our third cohort of Programme Directors
Applications for our third cohort of Programme Directors will open in August 2026 for a May 2027 start date. Learn more about what we're looking for and register your interest so you can be the first to hear updates on the application process.
Programme Directors
We recruited two cohorts of Programme Directors in October 2023 and April 2025. They are exceptional scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, with experience spanning academia, industry, startups and venture creation. Together, they’ve funded hundreds of research teams across the UK and beyond.
Alex Obadia
Alex is an entrepreneur and investor in early-stage frontier technologies, with a keen interest for quantum cryptography. Previously, he co-founded Flashbots, a software unicorn dedicated to safeguarding the decentralisation and permissionlessness of the Ethereum blockchain. Flashbots’ products have helped generate nearly £2bn so far and its R&D sparked the 'MEV' industry.
Angie Burnett
Angie is a plant biologist and has spent the last decade focusing on understanding the power of plants to solve some of our most pressing challenges such as food insecurity, climate change and environmental degradation. Previously, Angie was a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge.
Brian Wang
Brian co-founded the non-profit Panoplia Laboratories to pre-develop medicine for the next pandemic. Brian has a PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, conducted postdoctorate research in synthetic biology at MIT, and was Head of R&D at vaccine development start-up Alvea.
Claire Donoghue
Claire joined ARIA from her role as Senior Director in Data Science and AI at AstraZeneca. With two decades' experience in machine learning, she has delivered solutions across healthcare, manufacturing, and occupational safety. Claire is an inventor on 19 patents and holds a PhD in machine learning from Imperial College London.
David 'davidad' Dalrymple
davidad is a software engineer with a multidisciplinary background. He’s spent five years formulating a vision for how mathematical approaches could guarantee reliable and trustworthy AI. davidad co-invented the top-40 cryptocurrency Filecoin.
Gemma Bale
Gemma is a biomedical physicist. Currently an Assistant Professor of Medical Therapeutics + 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.
Ivan Jayapurna
Ivan joined ARIA from the University of California, Berkeley, with a PhD in materials science and engineering. While studying, Ivan co-led several tech spinout efforts, was twice funded by the National Science Foundation I-Corps, and co-founded a technical consultancy for biotech startups.
Jacques Carolan
Jacques is an applied physicist and neuroscientist. He spent a decade building quantum computing technologies before pivoting into systems neuroscience where he developed optical technologies to understand living brains. Before ARIA, Jacques was a BBSRC Discovery Fellow at University College London.
Jenny Read
Jenny is a visual neuroscientist, previously trained in theoretical astrophysics. Her work focuses on how we can build smarter bodies for robots through new modes of sensing, transmission of sensory information, and actuation through hardware advances.
Mark Symes
Mark is an electrochemist, with a 15-year career developing sustainable fuels in the drive towards net zero. He joined ARIA from the University of Glasgow, where he is Professor of Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Technology.
Nicole Wheeler
Nicole joined ARIA from the University of Birmingham, where she researched the potential of genomics and AI to detect and track new infectious diseases. She developed the UK's first software for screening synthetic DNA for potential biohazards. Nicole is also a technical expert for the AIxBio Global Forum and contributed to the world’s first International AI Safety Report.
Rico Chandra
Rico is a repeat founder who cut his teeth at the frontier of defence technologies. He has advised governments, investors, and high-growth companies on emerging tech and their strategic impact. He founded Arktis Radiation Detectors, whose systems are now deployed worldwide. Rico holds a PhD in dark matter detection from CERN and an MSc from ETH Zurich.
Ryan Olf
Ryan is a Caltech and Berkeley-trained physicist with a varied and voracious technical appetite. His previous adventures include creating the world’s lowest-entropy quantum gas, designing nanotube-based GLP-1 implants, automating gene therapy manufacturing, and developing software for his family’s village shop.
Sarah Bohndiek
Sarah is a biomedical physicist – currently a Professor of Biomedical Physics at the University of Cambridge, she is jointly appointed in the Department of Physics and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute.
Suraj Bramhavar
Suraj is an electrical engineer. His work focuses on how we can redefine the way computers process information to build dramatically more efficient computers. Suraj joined ARIA from Sync Computing, where he was co-founder and CTO, which optimises the use of modern cloud computing resources.
Yannick Wurm
Yannick joined ARIA from Queen Mary University of London, where he is Professor of Evolutionary Genomics & Bioinformatics. Yannick pioneered the use of molecular tools to assess pollinator health, has built startups to commercialise genome analysis software, and created a real-time network for pollinator monitoring.
Opportunity spaces
From thermodynamic computing to programmable plants, so far our Programme Directors have defined fourteen opportunity spaces.
How we work
We seek out exceptional scientists and engineers and empower them to turn their ideas into reality.
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