Cristina Hickman PhD

Dr. Cristina Hickman is the Chief Scientific Officer at Apricity, co-founder and Science Director of Aria Fertility, a lecturer and researcher at Imperial College London, Managing Director for Embryology for TMRW (the first automated cryostorage system for IVF), and founder of IVF Professionals, a consultancy company advising clinics, IVF companies and government bodies on lean management, implementation of new technologies, clinic construction and design, troubleshooting, improving clinical outcomes and improving workflow efficiencies, and was the Scientific Representative of the British Fertility Society.

Dr. Hickman, a certified clinical embryologist with over 8 years of experience building and directing IVF laboratories, and over 18 years experience as a researcher and embryologist, has obtained her Ph.D. in embryology from Edinburgh University, designed and built a number of clinics worldwide (including Caribbean, Saudi Arabia, and the UK), designed the first clinic worldwide around the Time-Lapse technology, co-authored the first paper describing a relationship between blastocyst morphokinetics and ploidy, wrote numerous papers and book chapters and organized several hands-on workshops worldwide on vitrification, ICSI, biopsy, and embryo selection, and, together with her research partners, is achieving promising results using Artificial Intelligence and automation to enhance embryology, which has lead to her nomination by Computer Weekly in the list of the ‘Most influential women in tech in the UK. Dr. Cristina Hickman has been invited to present her research at conferences worldwide, including ESHRE, Alpha, ASRM, ASPIRE, Fertility, UEARS, and other top conferences in the IVF field.