SDSC-Connect | AI for Precision Medicine

Saurabh Bhargava, joined the SDSC as a Principal Data Scientist in the Industry Cell at the Zürich office in 2022. Saurabh previously worked in the retail sector and the advertising industry in Germany. He lead and built various data products for customers using state of the art machine learning methods and industrializing them thereby adding value for the customers. He completed his PhD from ETH Zürich in June 2017 specializing in machine learning applications on Audio data. He obtained his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from EPFL and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India in 2011 and 2009 respectively. His interests and expertise are in combining state of the art data science and data engineering tools for building scalable data products.

Alicia Montoya joined SDSC in December 2025 as Head of Industry Development in the Innovation team in Zurich.
Alicia Montoya is an impact economist, industry innovator, and sustainable solutions developer. From 2020-2025, she headed Swiss Re’s Research Commercialization unit, bringing high potential impact and resilience offerings from ideation to commercialisation. Prior, she worked on driving innovation and commercialization of solutions that address some key global challenges, from climate change and natural catastrophes to sustainable energy, food security, and resilient infrastructure and supply chains. Alicia led the development of the Insurance SDG Calculator, a tool that quantifies financial, risk, and sustainability impact and offers analytics for optimised business strategies. She also led Swiss Re's Quantum Cities initiative, layering physics-based models with financial and risk models to foster sustainable cities. Alicia started her career at Bloomberg, then worked at the European Commission before joining Swiss GPS technology start-up, u-blox, in 2005. She then worked for Alstom, driving the company's Clean Power campaign to help utilities and governments accelerate their transition to clean energy. She holds a B.A. in Economics, MSc in Social Anthropology, MSc in Multimedia Systems and a CAS in Board Management.

Carlos Vivar Ríos joined the SDSC in 2023, where he is part of the Open Research Data and Engagement Unit (ORDES). As a multidisciplinary data engineer, he brings a diverse background in biology, cognitive sciences, and bioinformatics from the University of Malaga. His multifaceted professional career spans several disciplines, including genomics at RIKEN in Yokohama, multidimensional image analysis in microscopy at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), and cellular biology modeling at INRIA in Lyon. Carlos has been involved in a variety of projects, such as analyzing astrocyte calcium dynamics, de novo sequencing Solea senegalensis, drug repurposing for Alzheimer's based on GWAS studies, conducting geospatial analysis for linguistic corpora, and assessing drought through remote sensing. He is dedicated to advancing reproducible research methods and actively supports the open science movement.

Oksana is a disruptive innovator bringing her positive energy to projects. Driven by her curiosity and can-do attitude she excels in industrial and academic contexts. Oksana earned her PhD in Life Sciences and Bioinformatics from the University of Lausanne after two MSc in Bioinformatics and in Information Systems from the University of Geneva. For more than 10 years, she has been committed to actively promoting the value of data science and advocating the best practices for reproducible and ethical research. She believes that Swiss Data Science Center is a key player in building a competitive data economy in Switzerland leveraging its innovative potential and renown commitment to quality.

Anna joined SDSC as a Data Scientist focusing on industry collaborations in July 2019. She completed her PhD in Bioinformatics at the University of Luxembourg, where she analysed large-scale heterogeneous datasets and leveraged multiple disciplines: Statistics, Network Analysis, and Machine Learning. Before joining SDSC, Anna worked as a Data Scientist at Deloitte Luxembourg, with a focus on computer vision and time-series analysis.Currently, Anna is a Principal Data Scientist based at the ETH Zurich office, where she leads biomedical collaborations with industry partners. Anna works on a range of projects: protein properties prediction, biomanufacturing optimization, statistical model evaluation and others.

Paulina Körner joined the SDSC in September 2025 as a Data Scientist in the Innovation team in Zurich.
Paulina holds an MSc in Environmental Science from ETH Zürich and completed an MPhil in Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. She has worked as a data science intern in Alpine Remote Sensing and as a research assistant at ETH Zürich, where she focused on automating chemical risk evaluations. She also gained consulting experience at South Pole, supporting clients in designing decarbonization roadmaps. Paulina is particularly interested in interpretable machine learning and in applying AI to address real-world challenges in environmental science, industry, and the public sector.

Oliver Poole joined the SDSC in December 2025 as Data Scientist for the Innovation team, based in Zurich.

Prior, Oliver completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from ETH Zurich, with research on custom 3D-printed metallic springs for (non-)linear stiffness customization and reinforcement learning applications in control systems. He developed anomaly detection systems for X-ray images of mechanical parts, milk foam quality assessment using computer vision and sensor data, and data-driven flow control strategies and extraction consistency for coffee machines. His work bridges physical engineering intuition with machine learning, focusing on robust models that connect sensor data directly to measurable outcomes in industrial systems.

Marisol has a degree in Law and more than 15 years of experience working as a notary officer in Madrid. After relocating to Switzerland with her family, she obtained a certification to teach Spanish as a foreign language, dedicating four years to teaching Spanish online to students of all ages and backgrounds. Marisol has returned to her professional roots as an administrative assistant, joining the SDSC team in June 2023.

Roberto holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Particle Physics from the University of Torino, Italy. He has worked for several years in fundamental research as a senior fellow and data scientist at the CERN Experimental Physics division and on a research project supported by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS). In 2018 he moved to EPFL to work on data mining and Machine Learning techniques for the built environment and renewable energies. He has started and led multiple collaborations with academic and industry partners in the energy domain. Roberto joined the SDSC in September 2021 as a Principal Data Scientist with the mission of accompanying industries, NGOs and international organizations through their data science journey.

Valerio started his career working for 7 years as a particle-physics researcher at CERN. In 2016, he moved to consulting, applying data science in several industries. First, he joined the Quant team of Ernst & Young in Geneva. Later, he created his own company, SamurAI sàrl, providing consulting services for his clients. He also has a passion for teaching very complex subjects in simple terms. That is why he particularly enjoys offering training programs to private companies and universities. Valerio joined the SDSC in May 2022 as a Principal Data Scientist with the mission of accompanying industrial partners and other institutions through their data science journey.

After earning a MSc in Theoretical Physics at University of Padua, Giulio graduated in Quantitative Finance from Bocconi University. Before joining the SDSC industry cell in June 2021, he spent a few years working in the financial sector, where he mainly dealt with the application of machine learning to financial risk management. When not coding, Giulio spends his free time playing bass guitar, hiking and cooking.

Valérie Meillaud joined the SDSC in February 2026 as an Administrative and Events Specialist, based in Lausanne.

She will work closely with Cindy and will support office management, event logistics, and stakeholder coordination. Valérie is an experienced administrative specialist with strong coordination, operational management, and event organisation skills, developed at EPFL, WWF International, and in primary education. Valérie holds a Master’s degree in Management from HEC Lausanne and speaks French, English, and German.

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Uta joined SDSC in May 2024 as Head of Communications & Events. Prior to that, she held various business communication management roles in technology-driven companies in material and life sciences, information and telecommunications as well as automotive industries. Her specialty is to transform complex messages into simple stories to help organizations reach key audiences with relevant and compelling contents, leveraging media and digital channels.Uta holds a Master of Arts from Humboldt University of Berlin, a Master of Business Administration from La Salle University, Philadelphia, and a graduate certificate in Sustainability Leadership from Cambridge University. In her free time she enjoys sports and traveling with her husband and two sons.

Nora earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science/Bioinformatics from the University of Tübingen, where she focused on the in silico design of peptide-based vaccines using combinatorial optimization and machine learning. During her postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and later as a staff scientist at the New York Genome Center, she worked on metagenomics, infectious diseases, and cancer. In 2015, Nora joined NEXUS Personalized Health Technologies at ETH Zurich where her focus shifted towards the management of clinical and biomedical research data. In May 2024, she joined the Swiss Data Science Center as Head of Biomedical Data Science.

Federico holds a M.Sc. in Engineering and a Ph.D. in Sustainable Development and Innovation Engineering. After a three-year Postdoc in Environmental Data Mining at the University of Lausanne, in 2021 he joined the Swiss Data Science Centre, where he now works as Principal Data Scientist supporting the acceleration of the digital transformation within industries, NGOs and public bodies. Over the years he worked on the development of methodological tools to mine and model big spatiotemporal datasets. He has deep competencies in applied statistics, machine learning, geocomputation, spatial statistics, remote sensing.

Johanna joined SDSC in August 2025 as Site & Program Lead.
She is responsible for leading SDSC’s strategic programme with the State of Vaud, supporting innovation-driven projects that unite academic excellence, SMEs, and public sector actors. Johanna also oversees SDSC’s flagship space located at the Biopôle campus in Lausanne, where she is based. Prior to joining SDSC, Johanna gained over 15 years of experience in operations and project management across service and not-for-profit organizations. Since 2020, she has been deeply engaged in the tech ecosystem of the region. She contributed to the growth of Unit8 SA, a Swiss AI & Data Science consulting firm, during its transition from start-up to scale-up, and later served as Project Manager at the unlimitrust campus by SICPA, where she built strategic collaborations within the Swiss and international innovation landscape. Johanna holds degrees from EHL Hospitality Business School and HEC Lausanne.

Saurabh Bhargava, joined the SDSC as a Principal Data Scientist in the Industry Cell at the Zürich office in 2022. Saurabh previously worked in the retail sector and the advertising industry in Germany. He lead and built various data products for customers using state of the art machine learning methods and industrializing them thereby adding value for the customers. He completed his PhD from ETH Zürich in June 2017 specializing in machine learning applications on Audio data. He obtained his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from EPFL and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India in 2011 and 2009 respectively. His interests and expertise are in combining state of the art data science and data engineering tools for building scalable data products.

Anna joined SDSC as a Data Scientist focusing on industry collaborations in July 2019. She completed her PhD in Bioinformatics at the University of Luxembourg, where she analysed large-scale heterogeneous datasets and leveraged multiple disciplines: Statistics, Network Analysis, and Machine Learning. Before joining SDSC, Anna worked as a Data Scientist at Deloitte Luxembourg, with a focus on computer vision and time-series analysis.Currently, Anna is a Principal Data Scientist based at the ETH Zurich office, where she leads biomedical collaborations with industry partners. Anna works on a range of projects: protein properties prediction, biomanufacturing optimization, statistical model evaluation and others.

Nora earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science/Bioinformatics from the University of Tübingen, where she focused on the in silico design of peptide-based vaccines using combinatorial optimization and machine learning. During her postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and later as a staff scientist at the New York Genome Center, she worked on metagenomics, infectious diseases, and cancer. In 2015, Nora joined NEXUS Personalized Health Technologies at ETH Zurich where her focus shifted towards the management of clinical and biomedical research data. In May 2024, she joined the Swiss Data Science Center as Head of Biomedical Data Science.

Marisol has a degree in Law and more than 15 years of experience working as a notary officer in Madrid. After relocating to Switzerland with her family, she obtained a certification to teach Spanish as a foreign language, dedicating four years to teaching Spanish online to students of all ages and backgrounds. Marisol has returned to her professional roots as an administrative assistant, joining the SDSC team in June 2023.

Luis is originally from Spain, where he completed his bachelor's studies in Electrical engineering, and the Ms.C. on signal theory and communications, both at the University of Seville. During his Ph.D. he started focusing on machine learning methods, more specifically message passing techniques for channel coding, and Bayesian methods for channel equalization. He carried it out between the University of Seville and the University Carlos III in Madrid, also spending some time at the EPFL, Switzerland, and Bell Labs, USA, where he worked on advanced techniques for optical channel coding. When he completed his Ph.D. in 2013, he moved to the Luxembourg Center on Systems Biomedicine, where he switched his interest to neuroscience, neuroimaging, life sciences, etc., and the application of machine learning techniques to these fields. During his 4 and a half years there as a Postdoc, he worked on many different problems as a data scientist, encompassing topics such as microscopy image analysis, neuroimaging, single-cell gene expression analysis, etc. He joined the SDSC in April 2018.  As Lead Data Scientist, Luis coordinates projects in various domains. Several projects focus on the application of natural language processing and knowledge graphs to the study of different phenomena in social and political sciences. In the domains of architecture and engineering, Luis is responsible for projects centered on the application of novel generative methods to parametric modeling. Finally, Luis also coordinates different projects in robotics, ranging from collaborative robotic construction to deformable object manipulation.