Grace Chung named grand winner in Women in AI awards

Women in AI has announced the winners of its 2026 awards for women working in artificial intelligence across the Asia-Pacific region, with Grace Chung named Grand Winner.

Chung, Engineering Director and Head of Google Research APAC, also won the Foundational AI category. Associate Professor Dr Sharifah Sakinah Syed Ahmad was named First Runner-up, and Rita Arrigo, Founder of AI Native Futures, was named Second Runner-up.

Now in their sixth year, the awards recognise women working across artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, robotics, research and social impact in the public, private, non-government and university sectors. More than 1,000 nominations were submitted this year, with 50 finalists selected.

Chung has helped build Google's AI research presence in the region. Her work includes founding Google's first AI research lab in Australia, established as part of the company's AUD $1 billion Digital Future Initiative. She now leads Google Research across APAC.

Her career has spanned speech recognition, natural language processing and machine learning, as well as engineering leadership across products including ChromeOS, Chrome and Search. She is also a Fulbright Scholar and holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT.

Category winners

The winners spanned a broad range of sectors and disciplines. In agribusiness, Su-Ann Porter, Head of Advanced Analytics - Data, Insights and AI at GrainCorp, won the AI in Agribusiness/Smart Farm and Rural Development category.

In cyber security, Christina Wiremu-Brook, Founder and CEO of Kuria AI, won AI in Cyber Security (Risk Management). Associate Professor Dr Sharifah Sakinah Syed Ahmad of Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka won AI in Data, including data mining and predictive analytics.

Dr Phyo Phyo San, Lead Research Scientist (AI/ML) at Defence Science and Technology Group in the Australian Government, won AI in Defence and Intelligence. Alexandra Thornton, AI Experience Lead at Westpac, won AI in Finance/FinTech.

In health, Chantal Velasque, Head of Data and Analytics at Uniting NSW/ACT, won AI in Health/Biotech/MedTech. Louise Anderson, Senior Director, AI Product at Optus, was recognised in infrastructure, while Professor Mimi Zou of UNSW and Tenth Floor Chambers won in law.

Other winners included Tori Starkey, Director at Kudosity, in marketing technology and creative industries; Aayushma Pant, Data Engineer at Earth AI, in mining; and Farina Riaz, Program Coordinator at MIT AIIHE and CSIRO Visiting Scientist, in space and quantum.

Rita Arrigo won the Communicating in AI category, while Nella Luan, Head of Data Science at National Australia Bank, won for GenAI, agentic AI and entrepreneurship. Dr Mihoko Otake-Matsuua, Team Director at the RIKEN Centre for Advanced Intelligence Project and Director of Fonobono Research Institute, won AI for Social Good.

Dr Ruey Yuan Lee, President of Hylove Business, won AI for Innovation. Dr Mandana Ghanavati, Senior Research Fellow at UNSW Sydney, won in climate and environment, and Dr Sidra Alam, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, won in education.

Shannon Harty, AI Product Manager at Lendi Group, won Emerging Leadership in AI. Dr Zijue Chen, CERC Research Fellow at CSIRO, won in manufacturing, while Bobbie MacDougall, Lead Product Manager at Lendi Group, won in property technology.

Leadership awards

The program also recognised individuals and organisations in executive and leadership categories. Dan Jermyn, Chief AI Officer at Westpac, received the Warratah AI Luminaries award, while EBOS Group was named Golden Wattle Top Supportive Organisation.

Wendy Simpson, Chair of Wengeo Group, won the Banksia Leader Advocate award. Shenaz Waples, Group Executive, People and Culture at Colonial First State, won the People, Talent and AI Leadership Award.

Rowena Westphalen, Technical Success Lead ANZ at OpenAI, won the AI Inspiration and Technology Leadership Award. Belinda White, AI Adoption and Engagement Lead at CBA, was recognised in AI Adoption and Engagement Leadership, and Loren Sinclair, Enterprise Sales Director at Databricks, won for AI Go to Market and DEI Leadership.

Renata Borovica-Gajic, Associate Professor in Data Analytics at the University of Melbourne, won AI Academic Excellence and DEI Leadership. The Australian Institute for Machine Learning at Adelaide University received the Responsible AI Research Leadership Award, and Natalie Piucco, Field CTO, Applied AI at Google Cloud, won AI Engineering and Cloud Leadership.

Dr Liming Zhu, Research Director at CSIRO, was named Male National Champion.

The event in Sydney drew more than 250 attendees from across the AI sector. Women in AI said its Australia and APAC chapter was established in 2017 by Angela Kim and is part of a wider network that has grown to more than 19,000 members across 150 countries.

Angela Kim, President of Women in AI Australia, outlined the group's aims alongside the awards results.

"At Women in AI Australia and APAC, we empower women and minorities to become AI and data experts, innovators and leaders," Kim said. "This awards platform elevates innovation, builds visibility, creates connections and strengthens the future of responsible AI. We're delighted to celebrate the vision, resilience, excellence and inspiration which each of this year's award winner trailblazers, visionaries and individuals represents for the next generation of AI leaders."