Synthetic Biologist
turned VC Investor, Keynote Speaker 
​and Fiction Writer


About 


Background:

Dr. Elsa Solaris (Sotiriadis) is a Swiss early-stage venture capital investor and scientist by background, who helped build and launch over two dozen life sciences startups to transform the food, health, and tech industries. Her work as the 'Biofuturist' was featured in media across the globe such as BBC, deVolkskrant, Arab News, Daily Maverick, RedBull Media, Saudi Gazette, RT News, ICON Magazine and other outlets. 

She speaks five languages fluently, has lived in nine countries and holds a PhD in synthetic biology from Imperial College London and the University of Hong Kong, for which she won a full, merit-based scholarship (Imperial College International Office). In her spare time, she built a fast-growing keynote speaking and innovation consulting business with high-calibre clients from Europe to Middle East and China. She is an expert advisory committee member to the Word Health Organization on human genome editing and is recognized as one in 15 women in biotech to follow by Silicon Republic.
She took part in the BBC's award-winning eco-fiction show Forest 404, published speculative fiction at a London literary event and won an honorable mention at a writing competition in Hollywood, L.A. The original Amazon-bestselling novelette is currently under revision to be turned into a full-length novel. 

During the pandemic, she doubled down on previous personal investments and now has the freedom to pursue a few long-standing writing projects - and learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

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Talks & Strategic Advisory


The BioFuturist Lab helps you navigate the explosive growth and societal shifts around topics like digital biology, artificial intelligence, healthcare and blockchain.

Advisory: As an example, the a BioFuturist engagement has provided specialist advisory on digital biology innovation and investments to a globally leading Chinese tech company. This entailed a team of 3 to deliver an exclusive and bespoke technical intelligence report and a high-level keynote to senior management. Other examples were a tailored futurism study for a governmental body and a brief consultative meeting including a presentation for a well-known NGO.

Keynotes & Events: A tailored executive keynote talk can help you future-proof your organization, harness the scalable emerging technologies that apply to your business specifically and help you win over your future users & customers.  

The Approach: The Biofuturist is an experienced and sought-after global keynote speaker who bridges world-class subject matter expertise with a global business perspective. The ability to cut through the noise, deliver tailored research in an engaging way and pack in a bit of charm delivers an event experience audiences around the world love. She combines rare, interdisciplinary insights from the world of disruptive innovation with the human-centric and inspiring mindset of a speculative fiction writer (and fan); a unique approach called science fiction prototyping.

Don't miss out, contact your speaker bureau of choice.
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Please scroll down for more testimonials.


Working with The Biofuturist helped us understand the innovation potential of digital biology from an ICT perspective, both strategically and technically and find practical ways and contacts how we can deliver value to our customers in the future.
Derrick Nirmalan, Director - Research Planning
A Global Top 3 Tech/ICT Company

Selected Global Press Coverage

15 Women All Biotech Fans Need to Follow Right Now - Silicon Republic (Ireland)
Apple-cervix ears and spinach-vein hearts - will humans soon be 'biohacked'? - New Statesman (UK)
'Cyborg' scientist on creating the future - Cyprus Mail 
Brain Uploading into the cloud - Volkskrant, paywall (Netherlands)
Gather 2019 focuses on future's dreaming - Totally Stockholm
Insights and Trends from Gather - Heroes (Sweden)
SOSV: 'The future of food will be sustainable, personalized, and cellular' - AgFunder (USA)
Experts explore latest training technologies for Saudi workforce empowerment - Saudi Gazette (KAS)
AI to dominate Saudi Arabia jobs, says futurist - Arab News (KAS)
South Africa: The Human Microchips Are Here. Would You Implant One? - Daily Maverick (SA)

As seen, heard or read on

and others

Speaking Examples

Elsa is both professional and personal and I love that combo. She provided great examples and ideas on stage and was very helpful beforehand with prep calls etc. Also, I love that she attended the rest of the conference and mingled with the attendees.
-- Paulina Modlitba, Gather Festival
The Oxford University Scientific Society was delighted to host Dr. Elsa Sotiriadis as our speaker. Dr. Sotiriadis joined our elite list of speakers (which includes numerous Nobel Prize winners) as she enthralled her audience by combining her technical rigour with her sci-fi inspired visions of the future of humanity.
Dr. Sotiriadis’s engaging and eloquent style of presentation was well tailored to our general audience of academics, students and members of the public. We are delighted to count her as one of our wonderful speakers.
Avi Roy, 
​Director of University of Oxford Science Society
Dr. Elsa Sotiriadis was an absolute enrichment for our Children
of Doom Festival debut and we are very happy and proud to have found such a
top-class cast in her for our keynote speech on biotechnology. A vivid,
inspiring lecture, which at the same time inspires reflection. The entire
Children of Doom team including the visitors are absolute Elsa fans.
​-Children of Doom
Elsa is a superb speaker with an amazing ability to distil the most complex scientific ideas into easy to follow talks. Elsa kindly agreed to talk at the Imperial College London Fringe Festival where she spoke about biohacking.
The audience were gripped from start to finish and Elsa could have stayed all night to answer questions and she still wouldn’t have finished!
I have no problem at all recommending Elsa. She is a highly gifted speaker and would be an asset to any event.
James Sheppard, 
Manager at Imperial Enterprise Labs
Elsa has been incredibly receptive to our suggestions and managed to weave a red thread throughout her inspirational opening keynote, presenting a motley of exciting biological technologies and visions of future to our astounded attendees.
-- Tadeáš Peták
Communication, Program Committee Grandmaster @ Öredev AB


​            Latest Releases

BBC's flagship eco-science fiction thriller FOREST 404 starring Dr. Who's Pearl Mackie. Listen here. 
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