Prachi is the President and Co-Founder of WISER, where she leads efforts to expand access to frontier science and technology. She is currently a Strategic Advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation, helping establish ARPA-I, a new federal agency modelled after DARPA and ARPA-E to drive high-risk, high-reward innovations in infrastructure and transportation. She chairs global standards committees at SAE International and the National Academies of Sciences Transportation Research Board, shaping research and frameworks that guide the future of mobility and infrastructure. Prachi’s career extends to technology, entrepreneurship and investment. She has scaled technology companies, including several acquired by Daimler AG and helped establish the e-mobility unit at AES Next, the venture arm of energy giant AES. She currently serves as an Advisor to German venture fund, Mobility Fund, and Dutch investment bank IMPROVED. Prachi has co-founded WOMANIUM that brought advanced scientific exposure and training to students and researchers through partners such as NASA, NIH, and ARPA-E, and has awarded hundreds of scholarships to open pathways into research, startups and industry.

Vardaan leads the Quantum Solutions Launchpad at WISER, where he accelerates enterprise quantum adoption by building strategies, driving joint R&D, and connecting global technology communities. His work bridges theoretical physics, applied research, and industry deployment, with a focus on turning emerging science into measurable impact. Vardaan’s journey began in theoretical atomic physics, evolving into a career that has delivered more than 17 industry pilots with Fortune 500 companies, national labs, and government agencies. He has incubated three startups, built an ecosystem of over 85 partners, and guided organizations in navigating the path from experimentation to real-world quantum advantage. Recognized internationally as a Young Pioneer in Quantum Technology Under 30 (2024), he has spoken at leading forums including Q2B, IEEE, Quantum.Tech, and the Indo-German Quantum Policy Dialogue. His contributions have earned him the Global Community Choice Award from IBM (2021) for advancing quantum circuit efficiency and exploring early business use cases in the NISQ era. In addition to his role at WISER, Vardaan is a member of the Open Quantum Institute, a Qiskit Advocate at IBM, and an active contributor to the global quantum ecosystem. He has previously held research and teaching roles at MIT, IIT Delhi, NSUT, and the University of Delhi.

Katy leads programs and communications at WISER, bringing two decades of experience at the intersection of science, startups, and deep-tech innovation. She has built strategies and teams for research organizations, fast-growing startups, and global scientific publishers helping transform complex ideas into clear narratives and scalable impact. Katy has held leadership roles with Oxford Quantum Circuits, Digital Science, and Nature Publishing Group, and advises deep-tech ventures in quantum, AI, and biotech. She is also the founder of The Remarkablz, a creative STEM initiative that has reached thousands of children worldwide with games and comics reimagining scientists as superheroes. At WISER, Katy brings her expertise in program design, brand, and ecosystem building to connect talent, technology, and storytelling ensuring frontier science is both accessible and impactful.

Abeynaya leads the technical program design for WISER’s Summer Program, bringing a strong background in computational mathematics, engineering, and applied research. She earned her PhD in Computational and Mathematical Engineering from Stanford University, where her work focused on advanced algorithms and high-performance computing. Abeynaya currently works at SRI International, and has held roles at Raytheon Technologies, and NVIDIA, with expertise spanning partial differential equations, applied math, and CUDA-based computational frameworks. She began her academic journey at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, earning her B.Tech in Chemical Engineering before pursuing graduate studies at Stanford. At WISER, she combines her technical depth with a passion for education shaping programs that connect students and researchers worldwide to the latest developments in quantum.

Isabella is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the physics department at Duke. She studies quantum networking of trapped ion quantum computers in Christopher Monroe’s lab. Along with her research, Isabella values science communication and increasing diversity and equity within the physics and the broader STEM communities. Outside of physics, she enjoys powerlifting and spending time with friends and her dog, Dakota.

Alex is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, where he works on the development of superconducting devices for axion search experiments. He earned his PhD in Physics from the Università degli Studi di Salerno, where he specialized in advanced numerical simulation and scientific computing. His technical expertise includes Qiskit Metal, Ansys HFSS, and QuTiP, tools that support his work in modeling, designing, and optimizing superconducting systems.