Sara Beery

An assistant professor in MIT’s Faculty of AI and Decision Making and a principal investigator at CSAIL, Sara Beery builds AI systems that hold up in the real world. Her work focuses on using computer vision to monitor ecosystems and biodiversity at a global scale, helping scientists, governments, and organisations better understand how our planet is changing in real time.

Before MIT, Beery was a visiting researcher at Google, where she worked on Auto Arborist, and she continues to collaborate closely with industry, NGOs, and public agencies to turn research into deployed tools used “in the wild.” Her methods are now shaping how wildlife populations are tracked, how environmental risks are identified earlier, and how scarce conservation resources are allocated more intelligently. Beery’s research addresses challenges like domain shift, imperfect data quality, and fine-grained distinctions—issues that mirror those faced in global operations, risk management, and AI deployment across industries.

Sara Beery is also a founder and community builder, known for breaking down silos between disciplines. She founded the AI for Conservation community, now over 2,500 members strong worldwide, and plays leadership roles in major international initiatives at the intersection of AI, biodiversity, and climate change. She regularly advises industry and government on how to responsibly deploy AI for real-world impact, and her work has been supported by organisations including NSF, NASA, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and the US Air Force.

Beery’s path to AI was anything but conventional. Her first career was as a professional ballerina. It shaped her discipline, resilience, and appreciation for unconventional perspectives. That journey also informs her leadership today. She is a passionate advocate for access, mentorship, and interdisciplinary thinking, believing that the strongest solutions emerge when diverse ways of seeing the world are brought together.

Sara Beery speaks frequently on AI and conservation, scientific discovery, and movement ecology, addressing audiences from the United Nations, US federal agencies to global research and industry forums.