(L-R) Siva Pilli, Sutyajeet Soneja and Nikitha Sambamurthy, / nationalacademies.org
Three Indian American professionals have been selected for the 2026–2028 cohort of the New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine program, an initiative of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Siva Pilli, Nikitha Sambamurthy, and Sutyajeet Soneja are among 20 mid-career STEM professionals joining the program that seeks to broaden the range of expertise informing the National Academies’ work while preparing future leaders to address complex national and global challenges.
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During their service, New Voices members may participate in National Academies’ consensus studies and convenings, pursue interdisciplinary projects, and engage with a national and international network of STEM leaders.
Announcing the cohort, Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said, “Now more than ever, we need to nurture the next generation of talented American researchers, who are the future leaders of the U.S. science and innovation enterprise. I am pleased to welcome the 2026 New Voices members and excited to see all that they will accomplish.”
Pilli, based in Richland, Washington, is director of strategic planning at Dassault Systèmes, where he supports long-range planning across advanced manufacturing, life sciences and healthcare, and infrastructure and cities. His career spans global industry, national laboratories, and professional engineering organizations.
Before joining Dassault Systèmes, he worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he led U.S. Department of Energy-funded programs linking government, industry, academia, and small businesses to advance emerging technologies from research to deployment.
He has also held leadership roles in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the National Society of Professional Engineers and has represented the United States at international engineering forums.
Sambamurthy, founder of Building Better Learning in Avon, Ohio, works at the intersection of engineering education, learning science, and digital learning. Her work focuses on evidence-based design and evaluation of educational technologies, including AI-powered tools.
Over the past decade, she has helped develop digital learning products used by more than one million STEM students, with an emphasis on assessment design and measuring student reasoning and critical thinking at scale. She holds a doctorate in engineering education from Purdue University and has been recognized with the university’s “38 by 38” award for outstanding alumni.
Soneja is an associate scientist at the Center for Outbreak Response and Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is based in Ellicott City, Maryland. He has more than 15 years of experience in global environmental health, exposure science, and science policy.
His previous roles include work at MITRE on nationwide COVID-19 testing efforts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and contributions to health security initiatives, including the launch of ARPA-H.
He has also served as a senior epidemiologist with Resolve to Save Lives, advised local COVID-19 response efforts in North Carolina, and worked as a science diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Italy. His research has focused on air pollution, climate change, and maternal and child health, particularly in South Asia.
With the addition of the 2026–2028 cohort, the New Voices network now includes 80 members across four cohorts. Alumni have served on more than 40 National Academies committees and participated in over 100 major domestic and international engagements.
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