Emerging Tech Radar

Hermann is the co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners and has founded companies in a wide range of technology sectors, including Acorn Computers, Active Book Company, Virata, Net Products, NetChannel and Cambridge Network. Hermann holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2001, he was awarded an Honorary CBE for ‘innovative service to the UK enterprise sector’. In 2004, he was made a member of the Government’s Council for Science & Technology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his contribution to the translation of science into business, as well as an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) for services to engineering and industry. 

Eline grew up in Curaçao, the Dutch Caribbean and has been working in online video content for the last 10 years in Los Angeles, Amsterdam and London. Having studied Physics at Imperial College London, with a Master project on Nuclear Fusion, she taught maths and physics to kids while gaining parts in several Dutch national TV series from 2009: The Throne (De Troon), Overspel & Beatrix. Previous to that she trained in Drama & Musical Theatre at the Arts Educational School Tring, Hertfordshire. Eline has written, directed and produced shows for BBC iPlayer, Endemol, Makers Channel, BBC Three and BBC Teach, and won Best Online Comedy twice at the Lovie Awards. Eline runs her own production company, Particle 6 Productions, and still dreams about saving the world with plasma fusion.

Ezinne determines civil and commercial space policy priorities for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Her portfolio includes Orbital Debris, In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM), Earth Observations, Space Weather, Aeronautics, and Planetary Protection. In 17 years at NASA, she contributed to over 60 missions and programs  which represent $9.2B in total program value. She holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; masters degrees in Systems Engineering, Space Robotics, and Science & Technology Policy, from Johns Hopkins University, MIT, and Harvard University, respectively; and a PhD in Space Systems from MIT, on the robotic assembly of satellites. She founded Terraformers to grow affordable food through productive and networked backyard gardens, as a precursor to growing food in space. Her immigration story is profiled in President George W. Bush’s book, 'Out of Many, One'.

A computer scientist and investment banker, Ferdinando holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Cambridge, and is the author of one of the most cited papers in the area of computer face recognition. After working on image processing and multimedia applications at the Olivetti Research Laboratory in the mid-90s, he moved to Credit Suisse. He was later hired by Unicredit as one of the founders of the Italian bank's investment banking arm where he covered senior global roles in trading and risk management with a particular focus on complex derivatives. Ferdinando has numerous publications on artificial intelligence and risk management. His current areas of interest include blockchain, machine learning and smart software applications for the financial industry.

Nicholas is the co-founder and CEO of First Light Fusion. Nick’s research into fusion began in 2007 as part of his master’s thesis, where he worked at the University of Oxford with Yiannis Ventikos. This work continued into a DPhil, where he performed hydrodynamic simulations of shock-driven cavity collapse. These simulations showed that cavity collapse leads to inertial confinement of the gas inside the cavity and revealed that extreme states of matter could be reached, possibly entering the regime for fusion. To explore the concept of energy generation via this process, Nick and Yiannis co-founded First Light Fusion Ltd in 2011. Nick also spent three years tutoring at Lady Margaret Hall during his studies. After finishing his DPhil in 2012, Nick joined First Light Fusion as CEO and CTO, and continues to oversee the technical vision of the company.

Michael is a qualified accountant, securities professional, computer specialist, and management consultant. Educated at Harvard University and Trinity College, Dublin, he holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, where he was also a Visiting Professor of Innovation & IT.  Originally a research scientist in aerospace and computing, after directing the Geodat & Mundocart in Switzerland, he became a senior partner with accountants BDO Binder Hamlyn directing global consulting, and Corporate Development Director for Europe’s largest R&D firm, then the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Evaluation & Research Agency. He is the co-founder of Z/Yen, the City of London’s leading think-tank, promoting societal advancement through better finance and technology. He has been awarded Consigliere del Senato Accademico of L’Accademia Tiberina, British Computer Society Director of the Year, UK Foresight Challenge & Smart Awards for projects. His third book, written with Ian Harris, The Price of Fish: A New Approach To Wicked Economics And Better Decisions, won the Independent Publisher Book Awards Finance, Investment & Economics Gold Prize. Michael has the honour of being Sheriff of the City of London 2019-2021.

Naomi leads the quantum architecture team at PsiQuantum, a Palo Alto-based start-up building a fault-tolerant, silicon-photonic quantum computer. After earning her PhD in the theory of quantum error correction between Imperial College London and Oxford University, she worked as a software engineer in San Francisco before joining PsiQuantum to design quantum error correction for photonic quantum computing.

Before joining the Royal Society in 2016 as Head of Policy, Resilience and Emerging Technologies, Elizabeth was the Deputy Director for Science at the Government Office for Science. Her responsibilities ranged across the entire Government policy portfolio from bee health to nuclear power. She and her team worked with Government Departments ensuring that science had been well used in any one area, resolving disagreements between Departments and leading on the investigation of issues of scientific merit and producing reports for use in policy development. Prior to this she worked in the Cabinet Office and the Better Regulation Executive where she led a Bill on better regulation, and in Defra where she worked on chemical management. The most notable element of that was negotiation of the REACH Regulation. Prior to becoming a civil servant, she worked in the chemical industry for 15 years. Her core function there was to work on chemical regulation. She is by training a biochemist and graduated from Birmingham.

Zaid is the Founder and CEO of Oxford Quantum Solutions Ltd (OQS). He was with Oxford Instruments for most of his career, roles including project engineering, collaborative R&D to strategic business development. Ziad has a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Manchester and iis the editor of two specialist books published by Woodhead – Elsevier on High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) for Energy Applications (2012) and on Electricity Transmission, Distribution and Storage systems (2013) and authored a special report on superconducting materials and applications published by the UK Materials Network and launched at the House of Lords, London, UK in June 2011. Ziad is active at national and international level and member of a variety of international and national committees and organizations and Advisory Board for different projects and initiatives on superconducting, quantum and cryogenic applications. Ziad is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a member of Institute of Physics (IOP).