Zeena Nisar is a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. She is a molecular biologist turned policy researcher, focused on the impact of emerging biotechnologies on the US-China technology competition. Nisar is currently a policy advisor for the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, where she leads policy research and strategy on economic security, technology protection, and China.

Nisar was previously a technology policy fellow with the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she supported export controls, international security, and China-related policymaking across the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the Department of Commerce. From 2021 to 2022, she was a Schwarzman China fellow with the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.

Nisar holds a BA in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of Colorado and an MS in global affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing. She was a Fulbright fellow in Kyrgyzstan (2019 to 2020), a Schwarzman scholar in China (2020 to 2021), an SCSP international strategy fellow (2024), and an emerging leader in biosecurity fellow (2024).

The views and positions expressed are solely those of the fellow and do not necessarily represent the view or positions of any organization with which the fellow is affiliated.