MIT’s picks its top 35 innovators

Aug. 19, 2008

Technology Review today announced the 2008 TR35, its annual list of 35 outstanding men and women under the age of 35 who exemplify the spirit of innovation in business and technology.

This list covers young innovators doing ground-breaking work in energy, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and computing, these inspiring young individuals are transforming the way we use computers, fight disease, spot terrorists, conserve and produce energy, and more.

MIT’s technology magazine also announced the selection of Aimée Rose of ICx Technologies as the Humanitarian of the Year and JB Straubel of Tesla Motors as Innovator of the Year (see related press release). The 2008 TR35 includes individuals from such well-known organizations and institutions as A123 Systems, Caltech, Cisco Systems, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Microsoft, Stanford University, and Twitter.

“Discovering the amazing young men and women who make up the TR35 is one of the highlights of the year for us,” says Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review. “The innovators on our 2008 list have made truly remarkable and valuable contributions.”

The 2008 TR35 were selected from more than 300 submissions by the editors of Technology Review in collaboration with a prestigious panel of judges from leading organizations such as BP, Digg, Del.icio.us, IBM Watson Research Center, MIT, Princeton University, Texas A&M, Xerox, and Yale University.

The Technology Review has provided descriptions of winners in the fields of science, listed belew:

Aimee Rose: Humanitarian of the Year (one of two top awards). Aimee is recognized for her contributions to developing ultra-sensitive chemical “sniffers” used to detect trace amounts of explosives in the air (anti-terrorism, land minds, etc…). This ability to effectively detect explosives makes the world a safer places. She is based in Cambridge, working for ICx Technologies, MIT Ph.D.

Ted Betley: Ted is recognized for recreating an artificial photosynthesis process that closes mirror the natural photosynthesis process; potentially leveraging this process for hydrogen fuel cells. He’s an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard.

Martin Burke: Martin is recognized for figuring out how to simply and quickly generate diverse arrays of small molecules by repeatedly using a single reaction to join different organic components. He’s an assistant professor of chemistry at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/burke/

Chris Chang: Chris is an assistant professor of chemistry at Berkeley, and is recognized for developing a new way of tagging cells to improve cellular imaging. http://chem.berkeley.edu/faculty/chang_c/index.html

Michelle Chang: Michelle is a professor of chemistry at Berkeley; she is recognized for her research into developing microbes for use in biofuels and drugs. http://chem.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/chang_m/index.html

Nicholas Fang: Nicholas is recognized for developing an optical “superlense” that is capable of turning a biologists microscope into a nanoscope. He is an assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. http://www.mechse.uiuc.edu/research/fang/

Julia Greer: Julia is recognized for revolutionizing the field of nanomechanics by developing a new technique for measuring material strength and other properties. She is an assistant professor of materials science at Caltech. http://www.jrgreer.caltech.edu/

Hossam Haick: Hossam is recognized for developing an “electronic nose” that can sniff out cancer in a matter of minutes by analyzing a patient’s breath. He is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. http://LNBD.technion.ac.il

Donhee Ham: Donhee is recognized for developing very sensitive, portable and low cost nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system. He is an associate professor of natural sciences at Harvard http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~donhee/

Konrad Hochedlinger: Konrad is recognized for developing a new technique for turning adult cells into stem cells. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Jeffrey Karp: Jeffrey is recognized for developing next-gen surgical tape from a biodegradable elastic polymer that can be adapt to suit different types of application.  He is currently an Instructor of Medicine with the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. http://www.karplab.net/

Kostya Novoselov: Kostya is recognized for discovering a new molecule called graphene and using it to make fast, low-power transistors. He is a fellow at the University of Manchester. http://onnes.ph.man.ac.uk/nano/People/KostyaNovoselov/KostyaNovoselov.html

Milica Radisic: Milica is recognized for her work using embryonic stem cells to create a patch to help heal damaged hearts. She is a professor at the University of Toronto in the department of engineering and chemistry’s Laboratory for Functional Tissue Engineering. http://chem-eng.utoronto.ca/~milica/

Bilal Shafi: Bilal is recognized for developing a biopolymer coating technology that can help prevent congestive heart failure. He developed the technology as a fellow in Stanford’s Biodesign Innovation program founded a company called COR Innovations to further develop the technology. He is also completing his surgical residency at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joo Chuan Tong: Joo Chaun is recognized for using computer algorithms to develop personalized vaccines. He based at the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research-Institute for Infocomm Research.

Ronggui Yang: Ronggui is recognized for developing nanocomposites that can efficiently generate electricity from heat. He is an assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado at Boulder. http://spot.colorado.edu/~yangr/

To learn more, and to get a complete list of winners, go to MIT Technology Review, www.technologyreview.com/tr35/.

SOURCE: MIT