Nithya Ramanathan

Biography

Nithya Ramanathan is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Nexleaf Analytics, a tech non-profit dedicated to preserving human life and protecting our planet. Nexleaf’s unique approach brings together sensor design, data analysis, software engineering, and field engagement to identify and address big problems. Nexleaf technology currently protects the vaccine supply for 1 in 10 babies born on Earth. Nithya and her team have achieved this outsized impact by working shoulder-to-shoulder with Ministries of Health -- rather than attempting to bypass governments -- to scale cutting-edge technologies refined through close collaboration with personnel at every level of the health system, from top-tier government officials to Last Mile health care workers.

A computer scientist specializing in sensor technologies and data analytics, Nithya is a tech-for-good pioneer and a leading thinker on global vaccine distribution. Nithya’s career started in Silicon Valley, designing chips at Intel and Hewlett-Packard, and continued as Research Faculty in sensor technologies at UCLA. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Vaccine and Nature Climate Change. Nithya is a PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, Switzer Environmental Fellow, and a Rainer Arnhold Fellow. She is the winner of the 2017 Hedy Lamarr Award for Female Tech Pioneer, the 2020 Tällberg Foundation/Eliasson Global Leadership Award and has presented widely, including at the Vatican on creating innovative technology solutions for climate change, and the 2020 Global Vaccine Summit on scaling innovation. Nexleaf’s work is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google.org, Qualcomm Wireless Reach, Gavi, and Ministries of Health and partners around the world.