Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, Ph.D. (he/him), is a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center and an affiliate assistant professor in the department of Computer Science at the University of Washington, Bothell. He earned his PhD in computer science from the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on artificial intelligence, algorithmic nudging (using algorithms to change human behavior), and personality emulation (software that can act like humans). He thinks extensively about the social, cultural, and ethical impact of AI and machine learning. After his father passed away, Muhammad created an artificial intelligence (AI) simulation he called “Grandpa Bot” that could act like his father and interact with his children.

Anton Arkhipov, Ph.D., is an Investigator leading the Allen Institute's efforts to carry out biophysically detailed simulations of individual neurons as well as large-scale neuronal circuits from the mouse visual system. Before joining the Allen Institute he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at D. E. Shaw Research in New York City, where he used a specialized supercomputing architecture to perform computational studies of structure-function relationships in proteins, with the emphasis on cancer-associated cell-surface receptors. Arkhipov received his B.S. and M.S. in Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author under the pen name A. Brain of The Age of Cindy, a science fiction novel about an era where bionic enhancements change human bodies and minds beyond recognition.

J.P. Kang, Ph.D. (he/him), received his M.Div. and Th.M. (Bible) at Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in Bible from Union Presbyterian Seminary (Richmond, VA) with a dissertation entitled “A Dictionary of Epigraphic Hebrew.” His dissertation contains the vocabulary found in Iron Age Hebrew inscriptions from about 40 Near Eastern sites that were roughly contemporary with the period of the composition of the Hebrew Bible and is a research tool. Rev. Dr. Kang teaches at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. His full-time vocation is as Pastor of the Japanese Presbyterian Church of Seattle (established 1907), where he gets to care for a wonderfully diverse ohana!