8 dynamic women to watch in the deep-tech space

These eight women are creating new and exciting opportunities for innovation in the deep-tech sector.

At SiliconRepublic.com, the month of November pays particular attention to all things deep-tech, covering a range of topics, from useful skills and exciting careers, to new technology and significant breakthroughs.  

Last year as part of our 2024 deep-tech week we created a list of nine women in the evolving deep-tech space whose careers you should definitely be following and what better way to close out the last week of this year’s coverage than with eight more innovative women to keep an eye on as the deep-tech industry evolves?

Elle Sander

Galway-based Elle Sander is the co-founder and CEO of innovative medical device company Lifelet Medical. The deep-tech platform and Elle’s work is centered around the development of a polymeric heart valve, free from animal tissue, that does not require blood thinners or open-heart surgery. It effectively gives patients in need of a heart valve replacement greater options and reduces long-term impact on both the person and the environment. 

Elle has featured in the Business Post’s Ireland’s Top 100 Women in Tech list, has spoken on a number of panels offering her expertise on the growth of the technology space and empowering women in the industry and she holds a bachelor of science degree in bioengineering, as well as a masters in regenerative medicine. 

Riona Ní Ghriallais 

A Biomedical engineer and the co-founder and CTO of deep-tech medtech ProVerum, Riona Ní Ghriallais’ organisation is in the process of developing a minimally invasive technology to treat symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). This is a non-cancerous increase in the size of the prostate gland. 

Ríona specialises in medical device innovation, design development, preclinical and clinical analysis, has a BE and PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Galway and prior to founding ProVerum worked at Medtronic and Veryan Endovascular specialising in peripheral vascular stent design.

Anita Finnegan

The founder and CEO of healthcare cybersecurity company Nova Leah, Anita Finnegan is a global expert in cybersecurity for medical devices and has authored two internationally regulated industry standards for medical equipment. She has been the recipient of a number of awards recognising her contributions to the security and technology sectors and was named in Crunchbase’s 50 Female Entrepreneurs Everyone Should Know list. She is considered a leader in the evolving cybersecurity space and as a result often acts as an advisor for government bodies. 

Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes

The founder and CEO of the Institute for Science, Entrepreneurship and Investments, Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes is heavily involved in the deep-tech sector. Her work is primarily in the areas of quantum computing, AI governance and policy. She is also a deep-tech and diplomacy ambassador for the Diplomatic World Institute and a World Peace Ambassador to UNPAF, which is the United Nations Peace Ambassadors Foundation. 

Vasiliu-Felte’s career has largely focused on creating safe, responsible, inclusive and sustainable deep-tech ecosystems and ensuring better alignment with the core values of groups such as the United Nations, G20, G7, WEF, EU and UNESCO. She is a key figure in driving a quantum-proof, ethics-first, resilient future and definitely one to follow if you aspire to a career in deep-tech related decision-making. 

Nora Khaldi

A mathematician with a PhD in molecular evolution and bioinformatics, Nora Khaldi is the founder and CSO of AI-precision technology company Nuritas. Her main focus and area of research is on protein evolution and comparative genomics. She believes in positive disruption and regularly speaks at industry events on the topics of new ways of thinking, big data and new algorithms. 

A key milestone in her career, Nora made a ground-breaking discovery and was able to show gene transfer between multi-cellular species, putting into question the currently used phylogenetic methods. She has also led several international research teams and her software has been used by research institutes and companies in more than 70 countries.  

Chelsea Williams

The co-founder and CTO of deep-tech thermoelectric materials start-up Mater-AI, Chelsea Williams’ deep-tech organisation is in the process of developing a physics-informed, AI-accelerated materials discovery engine focused on thermoelectric materials. The goal is to find a cheaper, more sustainable way to use thermoelectric materials and convert waste heat into clean energy. Chelsea is making a name for herself in the deep-tech space and has an educational background in quantum computing, AI physics and quantum analytics. 

Maria Jensen

The founder and CEO of Dublin-based biotechnology company Antler Bio, Maria Jensen’s organisation uses advanced technologies and deep-tech methods in areas such as gene expression and data to improve performance, efficiency and sustainability in the agriculture sector. Primarily in relation to livestock. For those interested in improving animal well-being and growing deep-tech innovation in the agriculture sector, Maria is one to follow as she is deeply committed to reducing emissions via novel ways of genomic and transcriptomic testing and big-data analysis.

Bárbara Oliveira

Bárbara Oliveira is the co-founder and chief clinical officer at Irish medtech Luminate Medical, which is a deep-tech company that creates novel medical devices to target some of the symptoms brought on by treatment for cancer, such as hair loss. She has a PhD in electrical and electronic engineering, her thesis focused on the development of an automated breast cancer diagnosis system based on machine learning and microwave technology and she has been the recipient of several national and international awards, recognising her contribution to the deep-tech and medical fields. 

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.