Dr. Claire Isabel Webb directs the Berggruen Institute’s Future Humans program. She earned her Ph.D. from MIT’s History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) program in 2020. An internship at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in 2008 sparked the topic of Webb’s dissertation: Technologies of Perception: Searches for Life Beyond Earth. Informed by her ongoing work with the SETI group Breakthrough Listen at U.C. Berkeley, Webb’s book project historically and ethnographically tracks how scientists have investigated extraterrestrial life forms—both microbes and beings—since the Space Age.

Dr. Nina Miolane is an Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara and Director of the Geometric Intelligence Lab, where she works at the intersection of mathematics, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience. Drawing on her background in math, physics, and statistics from École Polytechnique, Imperial College London, and Stanford, she develops the framework of geometric intelligence: the mathematical rules that unify intelligence in brains and machines. Dr. Miolane utilizes these mathematical principles to build "digital twins" of the brain, providing new insights into how intelligence explores the world, stores memories, and masters new skills. Her research also produces next-generation AI architectures that outperform traditional models in accuracy and speed. Dr Miolane is the recipient of several awards including the L’Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science, NSF Career Award and the Hellman Fellowship.