Geraldine is an Associate at The Engine, an independent venture fund in Cambridge MA, launched by MIT in 2016, where she invests in and mentors early-stage Tough Tech companies in the Boston area. She brings over a decade of academic experience, with a strong focus on translational and cross-disciplinary research in chemical engineering and biology. She earned a PhD with Dr. Michael Strano at MIT for her work on photovoltaics, nano-electronics, and biosensors using graphene and carbon nanotubes. As a postdoctoral researcher, she worked in the lab of Dr. Ramnik Xavier at MGH and The Broad Institute, applying CRISPR technology to autophagy and immunology, towards the development of therapeutics. Geraldine has interned at the Partners Innovation Fund and consulted for an early stage Flagship Pioneering-backed company. She holds BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from the KU Leuven (Belgium) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT. 

Giacomo joined Elsevier in February 2017 as a Customer Consultant in the Northeast MidAtlantic supporting ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Mendeley. He received his PhD in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology from New York University and has extensive research experience having held positions as a Scientist and Research Associate at Johnson & Johnson and Mt. Sinai Innovative Partners. While passionate about analytics and bibliometrics, you may also find him reading the sports section of fivethirtyeight.com or tracking MLB player statistics on baseballreference.com. Go Mets!

After doing a degree and doctorate in biology at the University of Oxford, studying with Prof Richard Dawkins, Alex embarked on a career in science communication. She spent 17 years at the BBC, working on series such as Walking with Beasts, Life in the Undergrowth, Bang Goes the Theory, Climate Change by Numbers and, most recently, was the series producer of Trust Me, I’m a Doctor. Her work has won a number of awards, from a BAFTA to a AAAS Kavli gold award for science journalism. In addition to developing and making television series, Alex has worked with associated content across a whole range of other media – designing websites, games, formal learning resources and social media content – to bring science to the widest possible audience. Now back in academia, she leads the Winton Centre for Risk & Evidence Communication, an inter-disciplinary team working on research and translation in practice. Alex has a particular interest in helping professionals such as doctors, journalists or legal professionals communicate numbers and uncertainty better, and is an advocate of Open Research practices. Outside of her work at the Winton Centre she has developed the concept of Octopus, a new platform designed to replace the current scientific publishing system of papers and journals and encourage good research practices.