Dr. Vivian Chan is a British-Australian serial

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and businesswoman. She is the co-founder and former CEO of Sparrow (formerly

Sparrho Sparrho combines human and artificial intelligence to help research professionals and layman users stay up-to-date with new scientific publications and patents. Sparrho's recommendation engine provides personalized scientific news-feeds by using p ...

), a London-based startup making science accessible by blending AI and expert human curation to democratise science. Currently, she is the founder of Deeptech Insider, a platform providing exclusive insights, strategies, and access in the Deeptech sector (AI, Biotech/Healthtech, Aerospace, etc). Dr Chan also sits on the board fo
Create London
a charity that helps artists connect more closely with communities.

Early life

Born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, Chan's family moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

at a young age. She grew up going back and forth between Hong Kong and Australia, eventually settling in Australia's Gold Coast. Her parents worked in education and her grandparents in publishing.

Education

Chan attended Trinity Lutheran College and went on to study biotechnology at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

(UQ), achieving a BBiotech (First-Class Honours) in Drug Design and Development. After spending time at UQ as an Investment Process Manager in life sciences for the venture fund Uniseed, she received a Cambridge Commonwealth scholarship to study for a PhD in protein crystallography at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Whilst at Cambridge, she was voted into the role of president of the Cambridge University Technology & Enterprise Club (CUTEC) from 2010-2011. Chan was still in this role when she was approached by

Alice Bentinck Alice Yvonne Bentinck (born 23 July 1986) is a British entrepreneur. Along with Matt Clifford she is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs First (EF), a London-based company builder and startup accelerator founded in 2011. EF finds exceptional tale ...

and Matthew Clifford of

Entrepreneur First Entrepreneurs First (formerly Entrepreneur First, commonly shortened to EF) is an international talent investor, which supports individuals in building technology companies. Founded in 2011 by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck, the company ha ...

, who were seeking to recruit 30 graduates with entrepreneurship ambition. Chan had recently completed her PhD and was a member of the EF student advisory board, so decided to apply "at the last minute" and was selected to take part in EF's first cohort in 2012-13. She was one of three PhDs in her cohort, one of three females, and the only female PhD. Here, she met Nilu Satharasinghe, an experienced startup founder with a background in

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

and a MSc in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Sparrow (formerly Sparrho)

Chan and Satharasinghe founded

in 2013 as a solution to issues in staying up to date with scientific literature encountered over the course of Chan's biochemistry PhD. Inspiration for Sparrow came from Steve, a postdoctoral researcher in Chan's research lab who would read several key journals and bring paper recommendations to Chan's research group every morning. When Chan described this problem to Satharasinghe, he suggested 'digitising Steve'. This idea grew into the creation of Sparrow, Sparrho is also a digital subscription platform that makes science accessible to the 97% of the world who can't understand it. Powered by PhD scientists and AI, Sparrho translates critical issues like mental health and climate change into bite-sized summaries. The subscription-based service offers unlimited access to evidence-based summaries and a network of experts, delivered directly to your inbox or streamed online. Sparrow´s machine learning platform searches amongst over 60 million scientific works, the equivalent of over 80% of all current scientific literature.

Honours and awards

In 2019,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

named Chan as one of "Ten people under 35 who are changing the world for the better". In November 2018, Chan was named to the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

' list of the 'Top 100 minority ethnic leaders in technology.' In 2017, Chan was selected by

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

as one of its 35 Innovators Under 35. Executive director of HAG Consulting & Ventures and Startup Grind and jury member for Innovators Under 35 Europe 2017, Rodrigo de Alvarenga, commented that Chan's project "focuses on broadening and levelling out the access to scientific research to anyone interested and, in so doing, democratizing science and innovation through availability." In 2016, she was named one of the Top 5 Women within the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech. In 2015, she was named one of

Management Today Haymarket Media Group is a private media company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has publications in the consumer, business and customer sectors, both print and online. It operates exhibitions allied to its own publications, and pr ...

's 35 Women Under 35. In 2014, she was selected as a semifinalist for The Duke of York (UK) New Entrepreneur of the Year. Vivian has twice been invited to address EU ministers about the importance of open data for innovation, in 2015 and 2016. She has been invited to No. 10 Downing Street multiple times, and sits on the

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for culture and sport, and some aspects of the media throughout the UK, such as broadcasting. I ...

's Digital Economy Advisory Group alongside

Matt Hancock Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 20 ...

, Minister of State for Digital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Vivian British women chief executives Australian women chief executives 1984 births Living people Hong Kong emigrants to Australia University of Queensland alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Date of birth missing (living people)