Seven of the slots on Forbes magazine’s latest “30 under 30” list of influential young people are students or recent graduates of Georgia Tech. They are:
Karan Jani, a doctoral researcher at the Center for Relativistic Physics at Georgia Tech. He was part of a global team of researchers who helped discover the existence of gravitational waves. He was a recipient of the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics awarded by Stephen Hawking. Jani, from a small town in India, says he had never seen a telescope until his first year of college, and now he has been part of one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the past century.
Korin Reid, who earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech and is a senior data scientist at McKesson. Reid scales predictive modeling and machine learning on billions of medical records reaching 160 million people, in an effort to improve the quality and efficiency of health care delivery. In her spare time, Reid also writes about pop culture and volunteers her time to teach children about the power of science, technology and engineering.
Jasmine Lawrence, who graduated with a degree in computer science and now works with Microsoft as a program manager for Xbox One, developing cross-platform social experiences for gamers around the world. When Lawrence was 13 she founded her own company, EDEN BodyWorks, a manufacturer of natural hair and skin care products that can be found on the shelves of Target and Wal-Mart stores. In her free time, Lawrence likes to write code, is an avid gamer and reads sci-fi novels.
Sean Warner, who earned his degree in construction technology, developed an idea as a Tech senior to use an insect-based food source to close the loophole in agriculture. That has grown into a full-fledged business, Grubbly Farms, which has developed a protein-rich food source for aquaculture, livestock and pets by feeding food waste to black soldier fly larvae. As the larvae eat through the food waste, they convert it into a quality fertilizer.
Patrick Pittaluga, the business brains behind Grubbly Farms, who drives the marketing, business development and sales. He teamed up with his cousin, Sean Warner, to launch the company after testing with black solider fly larvae in a laundry room. Grubbly Farms has been developing a commercial facility capable of turning five tons of food waste into 500 pounds of protein a day. As a business administration student at Georgia Tech, Pittaluga founded two companies, Predator PC, a custom computer supplier, and Harbor Point, a luxury apparel company.
Michael Roytman, who earned his master's in operations, co-founded Dharma Platform in 2015, a company that uses its SaaS platform to collect everything from logistics to food security data for users in the field without requiring Wi-Fi or cell service. Dharma has partnered with the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders and has received $1.6 million in funding.
Lu Zhang, who took part in Georgia Tech's Atlanta Summer Program as an undergraduate at Tianjin University. One of her memorable experiences during her summer exchange was the World of Coca-Cola just a few steps from Georgia Tech's campus. She's only been finished with her undergraduate degree for seven short years, but has launched and sold a medical device company and has since launched her own venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.
About the Author
