Members of the Frontiers Research Foundation Board contribute their time freely to the work of the Foundation. Members of the project teams are salaried full-time as FRF staff, to enact the unique mission of the projects, so all donations received directly benefit the programs sponsored in full.

Frontiers Research Foundation Board

Henry Markram

Henry Markram, PhD

President

Henry co-founded FRF and Frontiers Media. He is a professor of neuroscience at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Henry founded the EPFL’s Brain Mind Institute, the Swiss  Blue Brain Project , and the Europe’s Human Brain Project. He has received numerous awards and honours, including the Bell Labs Claude Shannon Visionary Award and the International Hebb Award. More recently, he founded INAIT, an AI company aimed at developing a new generation AI that is based on the actual architecture and operating system of the brain.

Kamila Markram

Kamila Markram, PhD

Vice-President

Kamila co-founded FRF and Frontiers Media. She holds MScs in Psychology from the Technical University Berlin and Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany, 2003, and a PhD in Neuroscience from Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL), receiving an EPFL award for her thesis work on autism. Kamila is CEO of Frontiers, building it to become the 5th most cited academic publisher in the world. She was named a L’HEBDO Forum 100 personality, and a finalist for the 2016 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award and the 2017 EU Prize for Women Innovators.

Sabrina Cohen Dumani

Sabrina Cohen Dumani

Board Member

Sabrina is the Founder and Director of the Nomads Foundation . She brings broad expertise in building innovative projects that address modern societal challenges. Sabrina has focused her career on developing innovative projects that address the challenges of modern society. Through the Nomads Foundation, she oversees and coordinates several thematic hubs, including one dedicated to the "Future of Jobs."

Frontiers Planet Prize Project Team

Jean-Claude Burgelman

Jean-Claude Burgelman, PhD

Director

Jean-Claude is Professor of Open Science Policy at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and formerly the Head of Unit for Open Science Policy at the European Commission. With a focus on the impact of digital technologies on society, he has 40 years of experience in academia and policy-making and was the architect of the Open Science Cloud. For the Frontiers Foundation, Jean-Claude is Director of the Planet Prize operations. As Chief Editor of the Frontiers Policy Labs in Frontiers, Professor Burgelman explores novel ways how to achieve this by engaging leading voices in the policy and research space.

Laura Henderson

Laura Henderson, MPhil, MA

Head

Laura joined Frontiers in 2016 to lead their core journal programs. In late-2021, she moved to the Frontiers Research Foundation, strategically directing the science-engagement journal Frontiers for Young Minds, where her passion for science communication drove many new awards, plus talks at many international events and interviews in top-tier media. Laura holds an MA and MPhil from Cambridge University, and has built her career over 20+ years communicating top-quality research, including commissioning for Cambridge University Press. She is passionate for the Planet Prize to recognise and scale up globally impactful solutions for a healthy planetary future.

Iulia Pascu

Iulia Pascu

Head of Operations

Iulia joined Frontiers in 2017 as Event Manager in charge of corporate events. Her previous experience includes seven years’ event management at CERN, where she led conferences and outreach events. For FPP, Iulia is in charge of generating, planning and coordinating the organization of the competition as well as the point of contact for embedding the Frontiers Planet Prize Award Ceremony into the annual events of FPP’s partner, The Villars Institute.

Anne Le Henaff

Anne Le Henaff

Project Coordinator

Anne joined Frontiers in 2022 supporting virtual and in-person events for Frontiers in Science. Her previous experience includes several years as a Department Coordinator at the University of Bath where she oversaw several department committees and assistant to the Department Head. For FPP, Anne is responsible for the range of operational responsibilities that are critical to the successful implementation and management of various entities associated with the Frontiers Planet Prize.

Lily Linke

Lily Linke

Engagement Coordinator

Lily is dedicated to fostering global collaboration in science and sustainability. She engages with the FPP scientist network to support the development of assets, analyzes Champion impact through insights and reports, and helps to deliver an engaging Awards Ceremony. With a Master’s in Biology from Bristol University, Lily brings experience in sustainability consulting, and engagement for nature and health charities. She serves on the Youth Board for the London Wildlife Trust.

Frontiers for Young Minds Project Team

Robert T. Knight

Robert T. Knight, PhD

Co-Chief Editor

Robert (“Bob”) is a neurologist and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience (UC Berkeley) as well as Neurology and Neurosurgery (UC San Francisco). He holds numerous scientific awards, including the 2013 Distinguished Career Contribution Award from the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. He was the founding Editor who initially proposed the idea of Frontiers for Young Minds, and worked with Frontiers since 2013 to make it a reality. He continues to lead and support new partners for the project.

Idan Segev

Idan Segev, PhD

Co-Chief Editor

Idan is the David & Inez Myers Professor in Computational Neuroscience and former director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation (ICNC) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received his PhD in neurobiology. Idan is the Chief Editor of Frontiers in Neuroscience, the world’s most cited neuroscience journal. He joined FYM to launch the Hebrew journal and leads a small Israel-based supporting team. He initiated the flagship Nobel Collection for FYM, read by nearly 3M people.

Ayelet Vardi

Ayelet Vardi, PhD

Journal Manager

Ayelet holds an MSc in Immunology and a PhD in Neuroscience, both from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. She leads the FYM journal, develops key new partnerships with science organizations, and coordinates the team and all journal activities. She is also the in-house coordinator of FYM's Hebrew activities and publications, liaising with external staff at the Bloomfield Science Museum and with Prof. Segev as a leader of the Hebrew journal.

Federica de Quagliatti

Federica de Quagliatti

English Specialist

Federica works on the English-language publications of Frontiers for Young Minds. She holds a Master’s degree in Publishing Media from Oxford Brookes University and has built her career in children’s publishing, complemented by experience in Frontiers’ journal launch teams. She leads the recruitment of the journal’s Specialty Chief Editors, represents the journal at international events such as the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and develops collaborations with strategic partners to expand the journal’s global reach and impact.

Danning Ma

Danning Ma

China Coordinator

Danning coordinates activities in the key market of China, overseeing Chinese-language publications and working with regional partners to support outreach and collaboration. She also manages Collections in the main English journal. Trained as a professional simultaneous interpreter (MA in Translation and Interpreting), she previously worked at a leading Chinese university coordinating national-level projects, leading translation initiatives—particularly in Traditional Chinese Medicine—and managing international affairs. She also lectured on Chinese and Western cultural studies and translation.

Ahmad Ahmed

Ahmad Ahmed

Arabic Specialist

Ahmad holds an MSc in Sustainable Development, with a focus on Education, from Uppsala University. After nearly three decades in education, including roles as teacher and vice principal, he joined Frontiers for Young Minds as the in-house coordinator for Arabic publications, liaising closely with KAUST. He also contributes to the coordination, publication, and management of Collections in the main English journal.