Imogen Wright

Imogen Wright (they/them) is a South African software engineer and bioinformatician who has spent the last two decades trying to make complex systems behave—in theoretical physics, HIV drug resistance and COVID genomics, healthcare communications, cloud technologies and even ad tech. They studied computer science and physics at Rhodes University, completed a masters in theoretical physics at the Perimeter Institute (where Stephen Hawking was guest of honour at their graduation), and earned a PhD in bioinformatics from the University of the Western Cape. Imogen co-founded Hyrax Biosciences, whose Exatype software helps track HIV drug resistance across Africa and assembled the first Omicron variant SARS-CoV-2 genomes. Their work has been recognised by the Innovation Prize for Africa, various publications, two patents, and a long list of disasters that now fuel their favourite stories.