2026 Data Science Talent Awards
Congratulations to our 2026 Young Data Scientist of the Year, Shruti Kaushal from AbbVie for winning this prestigious industry award which nurtures rising stars under 30 years of age. Congratulations also to Raul Rodriguez-Esteban and his team from Roche for winning our 2026 Data Science Team of the Year – a new award which recognizes the power of collaboration in delivering innovative and impactful solutions in life sciences R&D.
Competition was fierce. All of our finalists presented their outstanding projects at our London conference at the Royal Society of Medicine, 13-14 April 2026, and were selected from an impressive shortlist by our panel of industry experts who gave their time generously to judging these awards. Our 2026 winners were chosen following an exciting live audience vote, receiving industry recognition, prize money and access to the Pistoia Alliance’s dedicated training resources.
Our Finalists

2026 Young Data Scientist of the Year
- Shruti Kaushal, AbbVie – Winner
Anomaly Detection in Clinical Trials
- Zach Hatzenbeller, GlaxoSmithKline – Finalist
Model Predictive Control for Biopharm Manufacturing (presented by Toma Ramonaite)
- Patrik Hegel, Sanofi – Finalist
Elevate NBI

2026 Data Scientist of the Year (Team leader and company)
- Raul Rodriguez-Esteban, Roche – Winner
Pan-cancer Digital Twins for Clinical Prediction
- Sophie Bailes, AstraZeneca – Finalist
CMC Data Hub
- Annika Kreuchwig, Bayer AG – Finalist (presented by Carlos Viera e Viera)
PRINCE: Synthezing a Universe of Preclinical Data with Multi-Agent AI
Our Judges
Lars Greiffenberg
Derrek Marren
Bryn Williams-Jones
Anastasia Christianson
Sergio Rotstein
Becky Upton
Christian Baber
2027 Data Science Talent Awards
Watch this space for news on our 2027 award program. We will be opening entries later this year.