Sylvia Mishra serves as the Deputy Director of Nuclear Policy, Innovation and Catastrophic Risk at the Institute for Security and Technology (IST), where she leads multi-year high-impact projects on nuclear crisis communications, risk reduction, and artificial intelligence’s integration with nuclear weapons. She specializes in nuclear strategy, nonproliferation, Southern Asian security, and emerging and disruptive technologies. She has been selected as a Schmidt Futures 2025 International Strategy Forum (ISF) Fellow for her work on nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence (AI). 

She served as a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center and as a policy advisor for the European Leadership Network focusing on emerging and disruptive technologies. Mishra’s affiliations include her role as Non-Resident Fellow at the Stimson Center’s South Asia Program and former Advisory Board member for the UNSCR 1540 Assistance Support Initiative. Recognized as a leading expert on nuclear weapons policy issues and for her contributions to the field, she was named to the CSIS-Diversity in National Security 2021 Leadership List. Her fellowship experience encompasses the Scoville Fellowship, Janne Nolan Nuclear Security program, CSIS, New America, Stanley Center for Peace and Security, Nuclear Threat Initiative, and Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Prior to these appointments, she contributed to the Observer Research Foundation, focusing on India-US defense relations. She has published extensively on national security and nuclear policy issues.

Mishra holds academic credentials from the University of Delhi, London School of Economics, and Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and is currently completing her doctoral thesis at King’s College London.