Meet our team
You've met our co-founders, now meet our team!
Following on from our previous post introducing our cofounders (Miranda Smith and Wasim Sajjad), which you can find here, we are excited to introduce the amazing team of volunteers at Biosecurity Forecasting Group!
Advisor
Sofya is a PhD researcher based in Oxford and is currently a technical consultant at ARIA working on genetic and immunological predictors of Hepatitis C. She has co-founded organisations such as: ARMoR developing evidence-based policies to support access to life-saving antimicrobials, the Oxford Biosecurity Group (OBG), and the Biosecurity Forecasting Group (BFG). She has also worked at Stanford, UC Berkeley, LBNL.
Advisor
Allegra is an infectious disease epidemiologist based in the USA. Her background is in outbreak investigations, disease surveillance, and data analysis. Currently, she works in the biosecurity field, tracking and conducting risk assessments for emerging infectious disease threats, with a focus on pandemic preparedness.
Advisor
Michelle holds a PhD in Genetics and has previously worked in academia on bioinformatics. A big part of her career has been working on biosurveillance with the US Federal Government. She has worked at DARPA in the Biological Technologies Office for 5 years, and on mRNA-based vaccine approaches.
She was also a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow before and during the COVID response, and has worked with the DHHS and Intelligence Community on vaccine development.
Since then, she has worked at Google on life science technologies and as Vice President of Biorisk at Airfinity.
Advisor
Sochi is based in France, but originally from the USA. She began her career as a Public Health Microbiologist with the CDC - working in vaccine-preventable diseases. She later switched to a laboratory biosafety inspector role, which ignited her biosecurity interest.
After serving as an Embassy Science Fellow, she transitioned to an international career, collaborating in science diplomacy and defence.
Advisor
Tom is a consultant based in the UK with a focus on biosecurity, emerging technology and governance. He holds a PhD within the Centre for War & Technology studies at the University of Bath and is now a Postdoc at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge, and works on biotech horizon scanning projects.
Fundraising lead
Dana is based in Canada, and is originally from Mexico. She has a BSc. in Biotechnology Engineering, with specialization in molecular biology and a MEng. in Operations Management.
With experience in project and program management at Orion Startups - VC focused on science and tech startups, she has since been part of iGEM Startups Committee helping Synthetic Biology developments. She is excited to shift into biosecurity and DURC fields in her career.
Grants
Dr. Elicana Nduhuura is an Infectious Disease Scientist at Makerere University Lung institute where he supports the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Epidemic Research on Viral Outbreaks. He is an affiliate at PHA4GE and Bioprevail and locally on the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) advisory platform for Uganda. He also offers editorial services for Africa CDC's Journal of Public Health under Global health security (Pandemic Preparedness and Response).
Operations
Aishwarya (Aisha) is a facilitator, forecaster, and all-around ops wizard currently juggling life and a master’s degree at the University of Bath. When she’s not deep in spreadsheets or strategic plans, you’ll find her in the water, living her best underwater explorer life with a trusty snorkel. She also shares her days with two chaotic bundles of joy - her puppies Duggu and Don.
Grants
Sriram (Sri) is a virology postdoc and a Medical Scientist in-training at the Institute of Virology, Münster, Germany. He works on the zoonotic determinants of H5Nx influenza viruses, and studies their immune signatures in patient-derived human lung models. Beyond lab work, he’s also active in policy discussions in the context of DURC, ePPPs and all things viruses.
Marketing
Olivia is a 5th-year PhD candidate in the Institute of Bioinformatics at the University of Georgia. She is interested in biosecurity and science policy and hopes to work in policy and diplomacy after her PhD.
Grants and Marketing
Jo is completing her PhD in Virology, and has a specific interest in pandemic preparedness and prevention. Her work focused on emerging infectious mosquito-borne diseases and vaccine development. She also worked briefly at Alvea (a biotech start-up) improving manufacturing for broad spectrum vaccine development.
Technical Specialist
Andrea joins us from Italy and Finland. He first learned some basics of biosecurity through Bluedot Impact's Pandemics course and various pieces of media, and forecasted during the trial phase of the Biosecurity Forecasting Group. He is excited to collaborate on where BFG goes in the future.
Technical Specialist
Samuel is a modelling enthusiast and friendly maths/stats nerd. Following two MSc degrees in Mathematics from Stockholm University and Engineering Physics from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, he is currently working towards a PhD in probability theory at the University of Bergen in Norway, working on stochastic processes and epidemic modelling. Beyond mathematics, he has also worked on projects for Oxford Biosecurity Group and Bluedot Impact’s Pandemics course.
Technical Specialist
Ivet is an immunologist, currently working in a high-containment research lab. Her focus includes human and wildlife immune responses to pathogens like Ebola, Marburg and Lassa virus. Outside the lab she’s really interested in how our highly-technical understanding of pathogens is often lost in translation between scientists, policymakers and the general public - a loss often laced with biosecurity implications. These days, she often talks about viruses and biosecurity on Substack.
Administration
Sofiia, our youngest member, is starting university for Biomedical Science in September. She loves all things PHEM and biosecurity, especially infectious disease and new technologies research. She brings a lot of enthusiasm to the group and in her free time she spends it with her puppy, rabbit and listening to musicals.
