Roy Faiman

Ph.D. life-sciences scientist and project leader with 20+ years across biotechnology, NIH, academia, international research, and commercial product development. Leads complex project-based work from problem definition through analysis, stakeholder alignment, and delivery; synthesizes heterogeneous evidence into clear recommendations for scientific, operational, and commercial decisions. At Vectech, led cross-functional scientific and product workstreams spanning AI/computer vision, data quality, validation, adjacent-application strategy, customer pilots, and external partnerships.

Experienced scoping projects, setting milestones, coordinating multidisciplinary teams, developing proposals and budgets, mentoring colleagues, and communicating with senior stakeholders. Published in Nature, Nature Ecology & Evolution, PNAS, and other peer-reviewed journals.

Part-Time Scientific & Commercial Consultant at Vectech, Inc. (2026-07 – Present)

• Support customer and partner engagements for IDX, an AI-enabled life-sciences identification platform, including discovery, demonstrations, proposals, pilot design, implementation planning, and follow-up with public-health, academic, government, museum, and international organizations.
• Translate client workflows, evidence requirements, and implementation constraints into scoped validation plans, adoption recommendations, and product or partnership opportunities; coordinate scientific and commercial input to support delivery.
• Continue selected grant development, strategic partnership, and scientific advisory activities following the transition from full-time R&D leadership.

Senior Scientist / Chief Entomologist at Vectech, Inc. (2022-01 – 2026-07)

• Led cross-functional scientific, product, and validation workstreams for commercial computer-vision products, taking initiatives from problem definition through study design, analysis, stakeholder review, and operational recommendation.
• Converted ambiguous biological and customer questions into structured workplans, performance metrics, validation criteria, data priorities, milestones, and decision-ready recommendations for machine-learning, engineering, product, data, and customer-facing teams.
• Guided analysis and quality strategy for a global image dataset exceeding 177,000 images across 164 mosquito and 76 tick species; synthesized performance, data gaps, error patterns, generalization risk, and operational implications to inform product and R&D priorities.
• Directed and prioritized R&D initiatives spanning adult and larval identification, age grading, Culex pipiens-complex discrimination, Culicoides, ticks, automated trapping, and other adjacent biological-imaging applications; assessed feasibility, user value, data requirements, and development risk.
• Managed collaborations and pilots with universities, public-health agencies, mosquito-control programs, federal and military laboratories, and international research institutes; served as a senior scientific point of contact for study planning, data/specimen workflows, training, field validation, and results interpretation.
• Developed scopes of work, proposals, budgets, milestones, technical narratives, and partner roles for NIH, USDA-NIFA, NSF, CDC, DoD, DARPA, SBIR, and commercial opportunities.

Research Fellow / Visiting Fellow at Laboratory of Malaria & Vector Research, NIAID/NIH (2014-01 – 2022-01)

• Designed and led multi-year, multi-site research workstreams on mosquito migration, survival, population persistence, and disease-relevant movement, integrating field surveillance with meteorology, atmospheric trajectories, stable isotopes, molecular methods, serology, and ecological data.
• Used R and quantitative analysis to test competing hypotheses, synthesize heterogeneous evidence, visualize patterns, assess uncertainty, identify data gaps, and translate incomplete field evidence into defensible scientific conclusions and follow-on decisions.
• Co-led research demonstrating high-altitude, windborne mosquito migration and pathogen movement in the Sahel; contributed to publications in Nature, Nature Ecology & Evolution, and PNAS.
• Coordinated international collaborators, protocols, logistics, specimen tracking, quality assurance, training, data interpretation, and scientific reporting across complex field programs.
• Developed and evaluated novel research and surveillance methods including stable-isotope marking, fluorescence/DNA marking, and proof-of-concept mosquito blood-meal serosurveillance.

Postdoctoral Research Associate at Cornell University (2013-01 – 2014-01)

• Conducted experimental and quantitative research on mosquito sensory and behavioral ecology using laboratory, olfactometer, and wind-tunnel systems; contributed to experimental design, analysis, scientific interpretation, cross-disciplinary planning, and mentoring.

Doctoral & Graduate Researcher at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2005-01 – 2013-01)

• Conducted DoD-supported field and laboratory research in vector biology, infectious-disease ecology, and control; integrated experimental design, biological sampling, molecular methods, spatial interpretation, quantitative analysis, and operational field testing.

Ph.D. in Microbiology - Medical Entomology & Parasitology Research – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2009-01 – 2013-01)

M.Sc. in Microbiology - Parasitology & Vector-Borne Disease Research – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007-01 – 2009-01)

B.Sc. in Biology & Environmental Studies – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2002-01 – 2005-01)