MIT Community Members Celebrated in Forbes 30 Under 30 List for 2021
-
-
Slice of MIT
Filed Under
Recommended
The Covid-19 pandemic is surging in most of the US as we near the end of what has been a challenging 2020, but Forbes calls its 2021 30 Under 30 list “a bright spot on the horizon,” highlighting more than 600 young entrepreneurs, activists, scientists, and entertainers giving people a “reason to hope.”
From improving remote hiring during the pandemic to developing pollution-free, net fusion energy, MIT alumni, students, faculty, and researchers under 30 years of age are being recognized for their innovations among the 20 different categories.
At least 18 MIT community members were named to this year’s list, including 13 alumni. Find out who from MIT made this year’s 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list below. (All images via Forbes.)
Visit the 30 Under 30 website for the full list and to learn more about those from MIT. And to meet more young innovators from MIT, learn about the more than 100 community members who have been named to the 30 Under 30 lists in past years: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.
Forbes 2021 30 Under 30: MIT Community Members
-
Sam Bankman-Fried ’14 (Finance)
Founder, FTX
“The founder and CEO of quantitative crypto trading firm Alameda Research, managing $2.5 billion in assets…In 2019, he founded crypto-derivatives platform FTX, which recently raised $40 million at a $1.2 billion valuation.”
-
Alex Bouaziz MEng ’14 (Finance)
Cofounder, Deel
“Bouaziz cofounded Deel to make it easier for companies to hire and manage remote teams—its software creates employment contracts and manages wage payments.”
-
Amanda Chen (Science)
PhD candidate, MIT
“Chen designs and studies ‘microlivers,’ which could enable next-generation cell therapies that could help, or maybe even replace, organ transplants for end-stage diseases.”
-
Chanyeol Choi SM ’19 (Science)
PhD candidate, MIT
“Choi develops large-scale computing devices that mimic the human brain. He developed an artificial synapse, which is how neurons communicate, and one day hopes to design hardware that can be incorporated into the body.”
-
David Dellal ’17 (Energy)
Founder, Floe
“Floe is developing an automated and sustainable solution to prevent the extensive water damage caused by dangerous ice formation on roofs, known as ice dams.”
-
Pablo Rodriguez Fernández PhD ’19 (Science)
Postdoctoral associate, MIT
“Fernández works on a multimillion-dollar fusion energy plant that will eventually become a source of pollution-free, net fusion energy.”
-
Yancan “Lydia” Li MBA ’19 (Energy)
Investment professional, Generate Capital
“Lydia is working to solve the ‘valley of death’ problem experienced by clean energy companies, where financiers are unwilling to offer low cost-of-capital funding to relatively immature technology vendors or developers.”
-
Yayuan Liu (Science)
Postdoctoral associate, MIT
“Liu works at the intersection of electrochemistry and the environment. She has contributed advances to the fields of next-generation lithium batteries as well as carbon capture systems.”
-
Jelena Notaros SM ’17, PhD ’20 (Science)
Assistant professor, MIT
“Notaros is developing new silicon-photonics systems that enable solutions to problems in areas including displays, sensing, communications, quantum, and biology.”
-
Charlie Noyes ’20 (Finance)
Partner, Paradigm
“An investment partner at crypto venture fund Paradigm Capital, Noyes is currently overseeing $100 million in positions for the largest crypto fund in the world.”
-
Katia Paramonova ’13 (Energy)
Cofounder, Centrly
“With cofounder Yerzhan Karatayev, Paramonova is building Centrly, which helps organizations discover partnership opportunities and map connections using a visual database custom-fit to their industry.”
-
Madeline Salazar ’13 (Manufacturing & Industry)
Technology manager for additive and digital manufacturing, Northrop Grumman
“Previously, Salazar held a leadership role for Northrop’s smart factory portfolio initiative to develop automation, IT, and information security requirements. Her team designed and deployed real-time dashboards to improve automated machinery utilization in nine months.”
-
Katie Shade ’18 (Social Media)
Product manager, Facebook
“As Covid-19 spread around the world, Shade worked on building Facebook's Covid information center …She’s since been in charge of creating another hub around voting and the presidential election and led Facebook’s voter registration drive.”
-
Cody Siciliano, former postdoctoral associate (Science)
Assistant professor, Vanderbilt University
“Siciliano’s lab explores how the brain computes information to make decisions and how substance abuse alters these mechanisms in certain individuals to cause addiction.”
-
Eriene-Heidi Sidhom (Healthcare)
MD/PhD candidate, Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology
“Sidhom has helped demonstrate the ability to copy kidney organoids, which she describes as ‘miniature kidneys in a dish’ grown from a patient’s own cells, which could help expedite therapeutic development.”
-
Charles (Chazz) Sims ’13, MEng ’14 (Enterprise Technology)
Cofounder, Wise Systems
“Wise Systems uses machine learning to schedule delivery routes and make adjustments in real time to account for traffic, new orders, and drivers’ current location.”
-
Paris Smalls (Energy)
PhD candidate, MIT; CEO, Eden GeoTech
“Fracking for oil and gas consists of injecting high-pressure blasts of sandy water deep underground to fracture layers of oil-bearing rock. Eden GeoTech is developing a new way to fracture reservoir rock—using pulsed electric stimulation instead.”
-
Jin Stedge ’13 (Enterprise Technology)
Cofounder, TrueNorth
“Stedge cofounded True North as a carrier and software service that helps independent truckers manage all aspects of their business, from invoice tracking to fuel and insurance and compliance issues.”