Alekhya Govindaraju is a microbiologist whose research sits at the intersection of fundamental biology and biotechnology, driven by two questions: what can we learn about biological phenomena, and how can we harness these processes to address pressing challenges like climate change?

Govindaraju recently completed her role as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley (UC, Berkeley), where she characterized novel lanthanide-binding proteins in methylotrophic bacteria with applications in rare earth element recovery and recycling. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology from UC, Berkeley, where she investigated the metabolic processes that enable bacteria to transform complex lignin-derived compounds into valuable products. With a combined 10 years of research experience, she has integrated genomic, genetic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic approaches to understand bacterial metabolism with applications in sustainable biotechnology.

Beyond the bench, Govindaraju has actively sought to understand how scientific discoveries translate into real-world impact. She completed a Nucleate Venture Capital Fellowship in climate biotechnology, analyzing the trajectories of university startups to identify critical inflection points for success or failure. As an intern at RareTerra, a rare earth element biomining startup, she conducted market analyses and regulatory assessments while developing business strategies. She also participated in the Bay Area Regional NSF I-Corps program, conducting stakeholder interviews with mining industry experts to explore business opportunities for novel technologies in microbial rare earth element recovery platforms. These experiences revealed that scientific breakthroughs alone are insufficient to bring innovations to market-supportive regulatory frameworks, market understanding, and cross-sector collaboration are equally essential.

Through her fellowship at the National Academies, Govindaraju aims to contribute to science-informed policies that accelerate climate biotechnology solutions and bridge the gap between breakthrough discoveries and their practical implementation.

Alicia Johnson is a trained scientist and educator who uses her technical background to study the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of emerging biotechnologies enabled by synthetic biology. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow with the Science and Technology Policy Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas. Johnson’s current research focuses on the regulatory and social implications of engineered bacteria in environmental monitoring and bioremediation. In addition to her ELSI work, she is interested in community engagement surrounding synthetic biology and building capacity for researchers to engage in communities, policy, and become more effective communicators.

Before joining Rice as a Rita Allen Civic Science Fellow, Johnson earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she focused on metabolism in drug-resistant epilepsy using a paper-based blood collection device and mass spectrometry techniques. This use and application of a device in the clinic inspired Johnson to pursue other paths to advance equity in healthcare and biotechnology.

Broadly, Johnson is interested in bridging the gaps between society, science, and policy. She brings to the Biotechnology Regulatory Fellowship previous experience in technology transfer, mentoring undergraduate students, teaching and curriculum development for science writing, science policy, and research methods courses. As someone who transitioned from lab research to ELSI research, Johnson hopes to leverage this unique perspective to better align science with societal needs. Her overall goal is to help build biotechnology futures that are grounded in trust, justice, and community needs. As fellow, Johnson is excited to learn about the day-to-day realities of synthesizing and communicating scientific evidence to develop actionable and thoughtful regulatory policies for biotechnology. In her free time, she enjoys discovering new music, reading, cooking, and boxing classes.

Ashley Kim is a scientist and emerging technology policy researcher whose work integrates biology, artificial intelligence (AI), and public policy. She recently completed a Ph.D. in biological sciences at the University of California, San Diego with support from a NIH T32 Fellowship. Her doctoral research investigated how environmental stressors shape honeybee circadian rhythms and communication through novel techniques using machine learning models and robotics.

Kim’s passion for science policy grew from her work in research translation, community engagement, and federal leadership. She has contributed to policy-relevant analyses on biotechnology governance, dual-use risk mitigation, and model oversight with companies such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind. In these roles, she worked on projects supporting the development and evaluation of large language models, contributing biology domain expertise that helped accelerate model iteration and deployment. In addition, she has held leadership roles across federal initiatives, including serving as a principal investigator with the National Park Service at Cabrillo National Monument. She designed and led a federally supported research program, managed project execution and reporting, and coordinated with National Park Service staff and external stakeholders to support conservation and science-informed management priorities. Her contributions have been awarded Special Congressional Recognition by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kim is committed to supporting evidence-based regulatory frameworks that promote innovation while safeguarding public trust and biosecurity. She is particularly interested in strengthening governance approaches that ensure responsible development and deployment of future AI x Bio applications and is excited to join the National Academies as a Biotechnology Regulatory Fellow and to contribute to advancing emerging technology policy.

Hayley McCausland is a microbiologist and automation engineer who combines her areas of expertise to advance agricultural biotechnology in an industry setting. Most recently, McCausland was an automation scientist at Pivot Bio, an agricultural biotech company that produces a fertilizer replacement for large-scale corn farms, composed of gene-edited nitrogen-fixing microbes, to reduce reliance on synthetic nitrogen. At Pivot, she developed and automated high throughput assays to accelerate discovery and improve data quality. This work involved a combination of benchwork, programming of liquid handling robots, and management of cross-team projects.

Prior to working at Pivot, McCausland earned a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley (UC, Berkeley), where she focused on microbial genetics. Specifically, she studied magnetotactic bacteria, which are a diverse group of microbes that form crystals of magnetite inside organelles and respond to Earth’s magnetic fields. In her dissertation research, she developed new genetic screening methods for magnetotactic bacteria and discovered new roles for genes involved in the formation of bacterial organelles. Her work can be found in multiple publications.

During her time at Berkeley, McCausland was a writer and editor for a student run science magazine, the Berkeley Science Review, which aims to communicate scientific research at UC, Berkeley in a diverse range of fields to the public. She served as the Editor in Chief in 2020.

Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., McCausland earned her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Emory University, where she did research on the molecular causes of Fragile X Syndrome. After graduating, she spent a year as a National Institutes of Health Postbaccalaureate Research Fellow studying the behavioral impacts of adult neurogenesis at the National Institute of Mental Health.

McCausland is passionate about advancing biotechnology in the food and agriculture space and is excited to work on that goal from the regulatory perspective.

Ruby Miller is a scientist and policy-focused researcher committed to advancing early-stage biotechnologies for real-world impact. Miller integrates scientific innovation, regulatory strategy, and public benefit, and focuses on how emerging technologies transition from discovery to application.

Recently, Miller served as an innovation fellow at the University of Michigan’s Biointerfaces Institute (BI), advising researchers developing biotech and medtech innovations. As a fellow, she performed due diligence assessments of technologies, their markets, and relevant regulatory policies. She then led customer discovery initiatives to evaluate product–market fit and identify adoption barriers, while also supporting multiple Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) submissions. Miller also coordinated communication strategies to promote the BI technology portfolio and advance external engagement, aligning university stakeholders and strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations.

Miller earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Michigan, where she developed next-generation genetic reporter systems to study G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling in opioid addiction pathways. Her doctoral research earned an National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein F31 Predoctoral Fellowship, and she co-authored a peer-reviewed publication describing a high-throughput screening method for detecting GPCR activation.

Miller has applied systems-level thinking to regulatory projects, such as analyzing biosimilar and generic approval pathways while consulting for a task force on global access strategies. Her work is backed by formal training from the Ford School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy certificate program. As President of the graduate student group Engaging Scientists in Policy and Advocacy (ESPA), Miller organized and led science policy programs. Additionally, she has honed her policy writing as both a Science Communication Fellow and an author for the MIT Science Policy Review.

Throughout her career, Miller has earned a reputation for interdisciplinary collaboration, strategic thinking, and leadership. Driven by a commitment to health equity, she is dedicated to strengthening regulatory science so that innovative, safe, and effective technologies reach those who need them most.

Nicholas “Cole” Mueth is a plant molecular biologist and educator. His career goal is to bring about the sustainable intensification of agriculture. He recently completed postdoctoral training in the Genome Sciences Department at the University of Washington in Seattle. He earned a Ph.D. from Washington State University, where he studied the two-way genetic interaction between wheat plants and the wheat stripe rust fungus, a devastating disease of cereal crops worldwide. Mueth’s research focus is gene regulation: how genes turn on and off during development and under environmental stress. He works at the interface of genetics, synthetic biology, and machine learning. Understanding how plant genes work together is the key to growing better-yielding, more resilient crops for improved global food security. His work has been featured in the journals Nature Communications, The Plant Cell, Genomics, and Nature Plants.

Mueth has collaborated with various agricultural biotechnology organizations including Bayer Crop Sciences, Corteva Agriscience, and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. He received policy training at the Purdue Center for Global Food Security. An internship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service brought him to the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, where he reported on emerging biotech legislation. Mueth also teaches and mentors graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students. When not at the lab bench or in the classroom, he enjoys backpacking and meditation. He is a native of St. Louis, Missouri.

Sammy Mustafa is a clinical researcher focused on uncovering and addressing the underlying drivers of inequities in healthcare. As part of the 7-year B.A./M.D. Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University, he studied biological sciences and conducted aging and longevity research, proposing a molecular approach that reduced the negative health impacts of aging.

After deferring medical school matriculation, Mustafa pursued a master’s degree in biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School. He completed his capstone at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he developed an early detection method for Major Depressive Disorder using blood biomarkers. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he examined how pain subjectivity introduces bias in pain documentation and influences pain management strategies and developed machine learning models to better understand pain at the individual level.

Mustafa is currently the co-founder of Bond Health, an AI-powered platform designed to improve the efficiency and diversity of clinical trial recruitment. He is developing HIPAA-compliant, proprietary large language model-based tools to help community clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers without research infrastructure get involved in clinical research. Having raised over $250,000 for this venture, Mustafa is working to improve the diversity of clinical studies and support clinical research as a care option for all.

As an incoming student at the Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Mustafa plans to continue clinical research while expanding into the regulatory and policy frameworks that govern biomedical innovation and its translation into care. He aims to become a physician who pairs scientific innovation with civic engagement to advance health justice at the federal level.

Shatha Salameh received a Ph.D. from The George Washington University’s Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program, with a concentration in pharmacology and physiology. She conducted her dissertation research at Children’s National Hospital in the Institute of Surgical Innovation, evaluating the cardiovascular effects of medications approved for adults but not yet formally studied in pediatric populations. The research addressed a critical clinical gap for children with congenital heart disease and generated preclinical evidence to inform safer therapeutic use and future clinical trials.

Salameh was awarded predoctoral fellowships by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association for her research. She has contributed to multiple high-impact manuscripts, publications, and oral presentations at national and international conferences. Salameh earned a Master of Science in Pharmacology from Georgetown University, where she developed a strong foundation in pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and drug safety assessment. Her elective coursework on U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory processes supported her career interest in evaluating how scientific evidence is applied in regulatory settings. During her graduate training, Salameh examined strategies to enhance evidence-based prescribing and increase awareness of pharmaceutical industry marketing strategies through Georgetown University Medical Center’s PharmedOut project.

Kaitlyn “Katie” Schroeder-Spain previously served as a technical advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science's (DOE SC) Deputy Director for Science Programs and as lead Program Manager (2020-25) for four prestigious, interdisciplinary career awards: the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the E.O. Lawrence Secretarial Award, and DOE SC's Distinguished Scientist Fellows Program. In her role at DOE, she facilitated over 35 merit review panels, established DOE SC’s Distinguished Scientist Fellows Guest Lecture Series, and managed DOE-hosted award ceremonies on behalf of the White House and Secretary of Energy. Schroeder-Spain also served as an AAAS S&T Policy Fellow (2018–20) in DOE SC, where she facilitated international agreements for science cooperation, supported DOE SC international science priorities, and contributed to policies advancing workforce and award management best practices. Prior to DOE, as a Texas Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellow (2015–16) at the National Science Foundation, Schroeder-Spain supported interagency efforts developing federal science program guidelines under the National Ocean Policy and led internal portfolio evaluations for the Division of Ocean Sciences.

Schroeder-Spain's academic career includes teaching and mentoring students at the University of Miami (2017–18) and Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi (2012–17). She has researched and published work on physiological adaptations in marine fishes and the effects of toxicants in coastal ecosystems. As a student, she served as a Ronald E. McNair Scholar (2008–10) and Graduate Research Fellow (2016-17).

Schroeder-Spain's contributions have been recognized through awards for teaching excellence, invitations to advise government officials on ecological topics, and public speaking engagements. She holds a Ph.D. in Coastal and Marine System Sciences from Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi and a B.S. in Biology (summa cum laude), with a minor in chemistry, from the University of North Texas.

Nolan Speicher earned his B.S. in Biology from the University of Iowa before spending four years as a science communication specialist at Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation. At IDT, he researched trends in biotechnology and supported the launch of new innovations in custom nucleic acid synthesis through strategic content development and marketing analytics. Speicher’s industry experience led him to pursue graduate studies at North Carolina State University (NC State), where he spent the past six years as a collaborative researcher and instructor of science communication. After completing his M.S. in communication in 2021, Speicher spent two years in a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NSF-NRT) focused on the science, policy, and public engagement dimensions of emerging agricultural biotechnologies (AgBioFEWS). Working closely with NC State’s Genetic Engineering and Society Center, Speicher designed seminars and workshops on emerging biotechnologies and published research on federal biotechnology policy alongside a multidisciplinary team of Ph.D. students. Most recently, as a Research Scholar with NC State’s Hub for Food Systems Communication and Engagement, Speicher co-developed surveys, focus groups, and workshops to improve agri-food innovation through early engagement of public and stakeholder perspectives. These experiences across industry and academia shaped his dissertation, which reviews past and present National Academies’ reports to examine the challenges of science communication at the science-policy interface. Speicher will graduate from NC State with a Ph.D. in communication, rhetoric, and digital media in May of 2026.