Podcast/Video Interviews by Stephen Ibaraki
A Chat with Dr. Janet Brinz: Munich-based dentist, researcher, healthcare innovator, AI ecosystem builder, and growth and partnerships leader working at the intersection of clinical science, emerging technology, entrepreneurship, and community building; an OpenAI Codex Ambassador for Munich, and a member of the ITU Young AI Leaders Munich Hub, as well as the ITU WHO WIPO AI for Health Topic Group Oral Health
This week, Stephen Ibaraki has an exclusive interview with Dr. Janet Brinz.
Dr. Janet Brinz is a Munich-based dentist, researcher, healthcare innovator, AI ecosystem builder, and growth and partnerships leader working at the intersection of clinical science, emerging technology, entrepreneurship, and community building. She is Head of Growth & Partnerships at Hack Nation, an OpenAI Codex Ambassador for Munich, and a member of the ITU Young AI Leaders Munich Hub, as well as the ITU WHO WIPO AI for Health TopicGroup Oral Health. Across these roles, she connects founders, engineers, researchers, healthcare professionals, students, companies, and institutions, creating opportunities for people to learn, collaborate, and translate ideas in artificial intelligence into meaningful real-world impact.
Janet began her career in dentistry. She completed her studies in Dental Medicine at the University of Regensburg in and earned her doctorate in dentistry, magna cum laude. Her doctoral research was recognized with the 2024 Prof. Dieter Schlegel Wissenschaftspreis. She subsequently worked as a dentist, researcher, and lecturer at LMU University Hospital Munich, developing a combination of clinical judgment, scientific rigor, education, and human-centered communication that continues to shape her work in technology and innovation.
For the past five years, Janet has also been involved in the AI for Health community connected with the International Telecommunication Union, the World Health Organization, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Her work in this field has included organizing international symposia, leading and contributing to research activities in AI in dentistry, and supporting international, interdisciplinary exchange. She has led several research projects in these areas and continues to lead research initiatives exploring how artificial intelligence can be developed and applied responsibly within healthcare and dentistry.
Her transition into AI and entrepreneurship was not a move away from healthcare, but an expansion of the same underlying mission: understanding complex problems, translating evidence into action, and improving outcomes through better tools, research, and collaboration. At Hack Nation, she focuses on growth and partnerships, building relationships that help promising ideas progress from early experimentation toward sustainable real-world applications. Her entrepreneurial work has been recognised through multiple national and international hackathon wins, participation in the Hack Nation Venture Track, and a win in the 2025 Transatlantic AI Pitch Competition.
AI community building is another central part of Janet's work. As an OpenAI Codex Ambassador for Munich, she organises initiatives that bring together multidisciplinary talent for practical learning, open exchange, experimentation, and new collaborations. Through the Young AI Leaders Munich Hub, she contributes to projects that give young people a meaningful voice in the development and use of AI, while creating opportunities for them to participate in projects, build skills, share their perspectives, and help shape the future of the technology. Across both communities, she works to make AI more accessible and to encourage participation from people with diverse professional, academic, and personal backgrounds.
Janet is particularly interested in AI in healthcare, health technology, responsible innovation, AI entrepreneurship, global innovation ecosystems, and the communities that enable people from different disciplines to build together. She advocates for AI that augments human expertise rather than replacing it, reduces barriers to innovation, and remains grounded in evidence, responsibility, and genuine user needs. Her career reflects a central belief: the most valuable breakthroughs often emerge when domain expertise, technology, research, and trusted human relationships come together.