Professor Deeph Chana

Imperial College London

Prof. Deeph Chana, Imperial Business School, Imperial College London A physicist by training, Deeph Chana is Professor of Practice at Imperial College London Business School with more than twenty-five years’ experience spanning science, security, government and venture formation. He was the founding Managing Director of NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and the principal architect of both it and the €1 billion NATO Innovation Fund; the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund. Both grew out of his work as inaugural chair of NATO's advisory group to the Secretary General on emerging and disruptive technologies. He previously served as a senior science and technology official in the UK government, overseeing major R&D portfolios, shaping national security policy, and advising ministers. At Imperial, he founded the Security Innovation Cluster and a national institute focused on industrial control systems security, and led the Institute for Security Science and Technology. His research focuses on machine learning for cybersecurity and the reliability of cyber-physical systems; he co-leads the EPSRC SPRITE+ network on security, privacy, identity, and trust, and contributes to the UKRI RITICS institute. Much of his work has concerned using science and innovation to reduce global risk — treating security and resilience alongside challenges such as health and climate. He is also an Advisor to Hiro Capital, supporting investment strategy across frontier technologies including AI, space-adjacent systems, and next-generation infrastructure.