Dimitri Kusnezov
Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov [Kooz-NETS-off] was confirmed as the Under Secretary for the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) on September 8, 2022. As the science advisor to the Homeland Security Secretary, Dr. Kusnezov heads the research, development, innovation and testing and evaluation activities in support of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) operational Components and first responders across the nation. S&T is responsible for identifying operational gaps, conceptualizing art-of-the-possible solutions, and delivering operational results that improve the security and resilience of the nation.
Prior to DHS, Dr. Kusnezov was a theoretical physicist working at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) focusing on emerging technologies. He served in numerous positions, including the Deputy Under Secretary for Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Technology where he led efforts to drive AI innovation and bring it into DOE missions, business and operations, including through the creation of a new AI Office.
Dr. Kusnezov has served in scientific and national security positions, including Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy, Chief Scientist for the National Nuclear Security Administration, Director of Advanced Simulation and Computing and the Director of the multi-billion-dollar National Security Science, Technology and Engineering programs. He created numerous programs, including for Minority Serving Institutions, international partners, private sector and philanthropic entities. He has worked across agencies to deliver major milestones such as DOE’s 10-year grand challenge for a 100 Teraflop supercomputer, and first of their kind and world’s fastest supercomputers.
Prior to DOE and his pursuit of public service, Dr. Kusnezov had a long career in academia where he published more than 100 articles and edited two books. He joined Yale University faculty where he was a professor for more than a decade in Theoretical Physics and served as a visiting professor at numerous universities around the world. Before this post, Dr. Kusnezov did a brief postdoc and was an instructor at Michigan State University, following a year of research at the Institut fur Kernphysik, KFA-Julich, in Germany. He earned his MS in Physics and Ph.D. in Theoretical Nuclear Physics at Princeton University and received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Physics and in Pure Mathematics with highest honors from UC Berkeley.
Dheevatsa Mudigere
Dheevatsa Mudigere is Principal Research Scientist at the AI System Co-design team at Meta. His research is mostly around on HW/SW co-design, parallel algorithms and high-performance computing. Over the past few years Dheevatsa and his team have been focusing on large scale AI, specifically deep learning recommendation models – designing and deploying efficient HW + SW solutions at FB-scale.
Øistein Jensen
Maria Thestrup
Kathryn Higgs
Sabina Ausfelt
Amalie Korning Wedege
Dr Svenja Steinbrink
Elli Papageorgiou
Elli is a privacy and data protection professional working in the technology and payments industry, with a strong academic background. She has been advising on various privacy topics including biometric authentication, digital identity, data analytics and anonymization. Currently working with Mastercard's Data and Services business unit providing privacy by design advice on innovative data solutions. Admitted to practice law in New York and Athens, Greece.