Judging panel
Meet our judges — visionaries and revered luminaries shaping the future of technology.
Magdalena Skipper
Editor in Chief, Nature
Panel chairperson Magdalena Skipper is Editor in Chief of Nature and Chief Editorial Advisor to the Nature Portfolio. She is a fellow of the International Science Council and is a member of the NASEM The Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust and the Scientific Advisory Council for the UK Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. She holds a PhD in genetics from the University of Cambridge. She is a champion of women in research, collaboration, positive research culture and transparent science.
Ellen Roche
Professor, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, MIT
Ellen Roche is a Professor at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she directs the Therapeutic Technology Design and Development Lab. She completed her PhD at Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on applying innovative technologies to the development of implantable and wearable medical devices and building robotic and computational simulators for enhanced testing of device/tissue interaction. Dr. Roche was employed in the medical device industry as a research and development engineer and is the recipient of multiple awards including the Fulbright International Science and Technology Award, the Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Science, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an NIH Trailblazer Award, a Charles H. Hood Award for Excellence in Child Health Research, the Harold E. Edgerton Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement and the 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Geetha Manjunath
CEO & CTO, Niramai
Geetha Manjunath is an Indian entrepreneur and computer scientist. She is the founder and CEO of NIRAMAI Health Analytix, a Bengaluru based start-up that provides non-invasive, radiation free breast cancer screening through AI.
NIRAMAI, which stands for “Non-Invasive Risk Assessment with Machine Intelligence,” uses portable technology to detect breast cancer and is working on detecting the presence of the parasitic worm that causes river blindness. The company is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr Manjunath holds 16 US patents for her work and in 2020, she was named on one of the Forbes List Top 20 Self-Made Women India.
Hiroaki Kitano
Chief Technology Fellow, Sony Group Corporation
Hiroaki Kitano is Chief Technology Fellow at Sony Group Corporation. Kitano served as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Executive Vice President of the company from April 2022 to March 2024 and as Chief Technology Officer and Executive Deputy President of the company from April 2024 to March 2025. He joined Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Sony CSL) in 1993, serving as President and CEO of the company since 2011. As a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, Kitano built large-scale data-driven AI systems on massively parallel computers, for which he received the Computers and Thought Award from IJCAI. At Sony CSL and California Institute of Technology, he pioneered the field of systems biology. Outside Sony, Kitano is a member of the OECD Expert Group on AI Futures, Japan’s AI Strategy Council and AI Safety Institute. Within academia, he serves as a professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). He is the Founding President of RoboCup Federation. In 2021, Kitano established the Nobel Turing Challenge, a grand challenge to develop a new engine for scientific discovery.
Joy Buolamwini
Founder and President, Algorithmic Justice League, Bestselling Author UNMASKING AI
Joy Buolamwini is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL.org) and the author of the national bestseller "Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines." She is also the protagonist of the Emmy-nominated documentary Coded Bias. Her landmark MIT research "Gender Shades" is ranked among the most influential AI bias studies ever published. That research compelled three tech giants to halt sales of facial recognition technologies to law enforcement, was cited by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as motivation for its ongoing testing of facial recognition algorithms for demographic bias, and sparked worldwide discourse on ethical AI implementation. Dr. Buolamwini's research has transformed the field of AI accountability and the ways governments and institutions evaluate emerging technologies. From the Vatican to Geneva, she advises world leaders on preventing AI harm and served on the EU Global Tech Panel. Fortune has named her "the conscience of the AI revolution."
Larissa Suzuki
Technical Director (Office of the CTO), Google
Larissa Suzuki is a Technical Director in the Office of the CTO at Google, a Visiting Scientist at Nasa/JPL and an Honorary Associate Professor of University College London.
As a trailblazer in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, she has engineered solutions that span across realms — from space science, healthcare, and finance to smart cities, federated computations, Internet of Everything, and robotics. She is Google AI Principles Ethics Fellow and Pioneer, contributing to ethical AI practices.
Makiko Kan
Distinguished Engineer of Sony Group Corporation
Makiko Kan has been actively engaged in the research and development of channel coding, specifically focusing on probabilistic codes such as Turbo and LDPC codes, since joining Sony in 2000. The codes and associated technologies she developed have been widely adopted for digital broadcasting systems worldwide, becoming an integral part of television sets globally. She has been serving as a Corporate Distinguished Engineer at Sony since 2020 and holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics. As a Distinguished Engineer, she actively promotes diversity initiatives throughout the engineering community at Sony.
Olga Bubnova
Chief Editor of Nature Sensors
Olga Bubnova received her master's degree in mechanical engineering from SSAU, Russia. After graduation, she spent three years working as a system engineer in the automotive industry. In 2008, she began her studies on organic thermoelectrics at Linköping University in Sweden, where she went on to obtain her PhD in 2013. She worked at the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on organic PV. Olga joined Nature Research in October 2015 and worked at Nature Nanotechnology before becoming Chief Editor at Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering in 2023. In 2025, she was appointed as Chief Editor at Nature Sensors.
Rachel Pei Chin Won
Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering
Rachel Pei Chin Won joined Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering as a Chief Editor in Jul 2025. She embarked on her editorial career in June 2006 as a founding editor of Nature Photonics, after working as a Medici Fellow for Aston University's Business Partnership Unit in Birmingham, UK, commercializing research output of the university. She obtained her PhD in optical fibre sensing, microwave photonics and nonlinear optics as a member of Aston University's Photonics Research Group. Prior to that, she worked as an Optics Engineer in the Optical Storage R&D Department of Philips Electronics Singapore. She received her Master Degree in Mechanical and Production Engineering from Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and her Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science from the National University of Malaysia. Rachel is also a Fellow of OPTICA and the International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE). She is based in London.
Ueli Gallizzi
Senior Vice President, Gaming, Developer & Future Technology, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Ueli Gallizzi is Senior Vice President of Gaming, Developer & Future Technology at Sony Interactive Entertainment, where he leads innovation across gaming and platform technologies, cloud infrastructure, and creator services. An entrepreneur from an early age, Ueli launched his first startup while attending university before going on to lead complex technology integration programs at Liberty Global, Europe’s largest cable operator. He was also part of the founding team at Gaikai, where he helped invent and develop the first cloud gaming platform. Following Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai in 2012, Ueli played a key role in advancing Sony’s cloud gaming capabilities and broader technology innovation strategy. With more than 30 years of experience, Ueli has built and led global engineering and R&D organizations focused on scaling transformative technologies for hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
Victoria Alonsoperez
Inventor / entrepreneur, Chipsafer + IEETech
Victoria Alonsoperez is a Uruguayan inventor and Founder & CEO of Chipsafer, based in Singapore. She is an Electronics & Telecommunications Engineer and her patented inventions pioneered the satellite-enabled livestock tracking industry. She is a UN Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals, an International Chamber of Commerce Small Business Champion, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She has a passion for space and for neurodiversity advocacy, with expertise in satellite technology, the internet of things and sustainability.
Xiwen Gong
Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan
Xiwen Gong is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, she joined Michigan. She earned her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto (2018) and her B.S. in Materials Physics from Fudan University (2014). Her research develops next-generation solution-processed semiconductors, including perovskites and quantum dots, for stable, adaptive, and multifunctional optoelectronic and bioelectronic devices in energy harvesting and personalized healthcare. She received honors, including the NSF CAREER Award (2024), the ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award (2023), the Amazon Physical Science Fellowship (2022), the Schmidt Science Fellowship (2018), and the Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature (2026). She delivered the Gilbreth Lecture for the National Academy of Engineering (2026) and the Suzanne C. and Duncan A. Mellichamp Distinguished Lecture at Georgia Tech (2026). She serves as an Associate Editor for ACS Photonics.
Zhen Xu
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Radiology and Neurosurgery, University of Michigan
Zhen Xu is the Li Ka Shing Endowed Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Radiology and Neurosurgery at the University of Michigan. She is the co-inventor of histotripsy and co-founder of HistoSonics. Histotripsy uses external ultrasound to perform non-invasive surgery. Her work has led to the FDA approval of non-invasive histotripsy treatment of liver tumors in 2023 using the HistoSonics Edison system. By 2026, over 4000 patients have been treated worldwide. Dr. Xu is named by TIME as the 100 Most Influential Leaders in global health in 2026. She was elected as a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors in 2024 and received the Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature in 2026. HistoSonics is named by TIME as the 10 Most Influential Companies in Health & Life Sciences for 2026.
Stay connected
Receive the latest updates on this award and future initiatives.
Your support is key as we forge ahead.
Organized by
Sony Group Corporation is a creative entertainment company with a solid foundation of technology. Sony's Purpose is to fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology.
in partnership with
Nature is dedicated to publishing outstanding advances across all areas of research and engineering. Nature is committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in research communication and publishing, and recognizes the pressing need to recognize and reward women for their contributions.