Hemai Parthasarathy is CSO and Partner in Breakout Ventures, an early stage fund that backs deep-technology companies at the intersections of technology, biology, materials, and energy. She is also Scientific Director of Breakout Labs, a philanthropic program to support bold scientist-entrepreneurs as they bring groundbreaking science out of the laboratory and into the market. She is a Board Director for Phylagen and a Board Observer for several Breakout portfolio companies. She is a longstanding member of the Cyclotron Road Leadership Council, the Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge jury and the VolkswagenStiftung’s Experiment Initiative jury.

Previously, Hemai specialized in scientific publishing and communications, first for Nature, where she oversaw theWashington, DC bureau and evaluated research articles for publication. Later, as a founding editor of PLOS and Managing Editor of PLOS Biology, Hemai led an international team that published outstanding research articles and magazine content across the biological sciences.  Hemai has also consulted for a range of academic institutions and biotechnology companies, to identify and communicate the strengths of their innovative research and development programs.

Hemai holds a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Biophysics and Russian from The Johns Hopkins University.