Dr. Maria Artunduaga is a Colombian-born physician-scientist and inventor with 50+ prizes, publications in Nature, NEJM, PNAS, Genetics in Medicine, and 7 issued patents. She decided to leave a surgical career to found Samay (to “breathe deeply” in Quechua) after losing her grandmother to a COPD crisis. She’s raised $4M in non-dilutive grants and investors to build a chest wearable + AI-powered platform for respiratory health and management. Before Samay, Maria completed postdoctoral studies in Human Genetics at Harvard Medical School, started a plastic surgery residency at The University of Chicago, and completed two master’s degrees, one in Global Public Health at the University of Washington and another in Translational Medicine at the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco. She lives in Mountain View, CA with her husband, one-year-old daughter, and three pets. In her free time, she enjoys flamenco dancing and singing, traveling the world, and fostering diversity in and outside the workplace.