Email: LS299@cam.ac.uk
Dr Lalitha Sundaram
Lalitha Sundaram researches a range of issues to do with the societal impact of emerging biotechnologies.
Academic interests
Lalitha Sundaram’s academic interests include:
- Global catastrophic biological risk
- Governance and society aspects of biotechnology
- Cyberbiosecurity.
Degrees obtained
- BA, Cantab.
- MA, Cantab.
- PhD, Cantab.
Biography
Lalitha Sundaram is a scholar in Existential Risk, where she explores biological risk. Her work looks at the governance of emerging biotechnologies, with a particular focus on regulation and biosafety. Her most recent ongoing project explores the overlap between cybersecurity and biosecurity.
Lalitha grew up in Geneva, Switzerland after which she read Natural Sciences (Genetics) at Cambridge. Her PhD, also in Cambridge, researched the infectious pathogen Toxoplasma gondii. Following this, she became interested in Synthetic Biology’s impact on global health, both with the Cambridge/Edinburgh Arsenic Biosensor Collaboration with a focus on Nepal and Bangladesh and through a fellowship at King's College London.
Other interests
Piano, cooking, reading.
Department link
Publications, links and resources
Dr Sundaram's publications and articles include:
- Tzachor, A, Whittlestone, J, Sundaram, L & Ó hÉigeartaigh, S 2020, ‘Artificial Intelligence in a crisis needs ethics with urgency’, Nature Machine Intelligence, vol. 2, pp. 365-366
- Sundaram, L, 2016, ‘Synthetic Biology in a Global Context: Regulation, Standards, and Best Practice’, Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Program Strategic Action Plans.
- ‘Will humans survive the century?’, 2019, Analysis, BBC Radio 4.
- ‘Can we survive another pandemic?’
- ‘Artificial diseases will pose a threat to humans, but not in the way you’re thinking’, 2019, The Future of Everything, Metro.co.uk.
