Shankar Sundaram serves as Deputy Principal Associate Director for Mission in Engineering and as the Director of the Bioreslience Incubator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He recently returned to LLNL after concluding a tenure as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council during the Biden Administration. In this role, he served as a senior advisor to the President and other senior officials in the administration on policy matters relating to combating global health threats and infectious disease outbreaks, countering biological weapons, promoting and protecting emerging biotechnology and enhancing biosafety & biosecurity.

Previously at LLNL, as part of senior leadership, he guided initiatives transforming national biosecurity through innovative scientific and technological approaches. As Director of the Center for Bioengineering, he spearheaded interdisciplinary research integrating engineering, computing, and biological sciences to address critical challenges in biodefense and public health.

His earlier career included significant contributions to bioengineering innovation at Draper Laboratory and in the private sector, with expertise in microfluidics, microfabrication, and computational multiphysics methodologies. Shankar holds a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor's degree in the same field from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.