Hemaa Selvakumar

Hemaa Selvakumar is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Berkeley Lab, part of the BRaVE Phage Foundry Biopreparedness team, specializing in the functional genomics of microbes, strain engineering, and predicting phage-host interactions in ESKAPE pathogens. Prior experience includes serving as a Scientist at Felix Biotechnology, focusing on R&D for a synthetic phage platform, GMP production, business development, and patent drafting. Hemaa also contributed as a Graduate Research Assistant at Georgia Institute of Technology, earning a Ph.D. in Physics while simultaneously holding a mini-MBA with a focus on Management of Technology. Leadership roles include Graduate Student Body Vice President, actively involved in strategic planning and recruitment efforts. Additional research experience spans multiple prestigious institutions, including work on magnetic nanoparticles at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering and various internships in particle physics and semiconductor nanotechnology. Hemaa's academic credentials include a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Biology from the Indian Institute of Science and ongoing entrepreneurship training at the University of California, Berkeley.