The world is full of extraordinary young people brimming with ideas for how to crack tough problems. Every year, we recognize 35 such individuals from around the world—all of whom are under the age of 35.
These scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs are working to help mitigate climate change, accelerate scientific progress, and alleviate human suffering from disease. Some are launching companies while others are hard at work in academic labs. They were selected from hundreds of nominees by expert judges and our newsroom staff. Get to know them all—including our 2025 Innovator of the Year—in the profiles that follow.
2025
Innovator of the Year
Sneha Goenka
She designed the computations behind the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing. Read more
Plus: This year, we surveyed past and present honorees to learn how scientific careers around the world are being impacted by the new Trump administration and have summarized our findings in a related story. And in an opinion piece, a longtime judge for the Innovators competition argues for boosting US federal investment into basic research—at a time when many researchers are reeling from recent funding cuts.
How Trump’s policies are affecting early-career scientists—in their own words
Every year, we recognize extraordinary young researchers on our Innovators Under 35 list. Recent honorees told us how they’re faring under the new administration.
Opinion: Why basic science deserves our boldest investment
The humble inventions that power our modern world wouldn’t have been possible without decades of support for early-stage research.
Shaping Tomorrow: Science, Health, and Policy
A three-part Roundtables series recognizing innovators in science and health, and examining Trump's impact on the future of research.
Here’s how we picked this year’s Innovators Under 35
Here’s the process we follow each year to decide which young scientists, entrepreneurs, and inventors to recognize.
Judges
Pieter Abbeel
Professor and Jim Gray Chair of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley; Director, Berkeley Robot Learning Lab
Tyler Allen
Research Program Leader, Duke University School of Medicine
Leilani Battle
Robert E. Dinning Endowed Associate Professor in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
Sara Berger
Director, Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab; Senior Research Scientist, Responsible Technology, IBM Research
Anna Blakney
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia
Ed Boyden
Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology, McGovern Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MIT
Meredith Broussard
Associate Professor, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University
Yet-Ming Chiang
Kyocera Professor of Ceramics and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT
Vivian Chu
CTO and Cofounder, Diligent Robotics
James Collins
Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science, MIT
James Dahlman
McCamish Foundation Early Career Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Tech and Emory School of Medicine
César de la Fuente
Presidential Assistant Professor, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
David Fattal
Founder and CTO, Leia
Javier García-Martínez
Director, Molecular Nanotechnology Lab, University of Alicante
Marzyeh Ghassemi
Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
Julia Greer
Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering, Caltech
Grace Gu
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
Zhen Gu
Professor of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles
Ilan Gur
CEO, Advanced Research and Invention Agency
Guosong Hong
Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University
Hao Li
CEO and Cofounder, Pinscreen; Professor, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence
Sharon Li
Associate Professor of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin—Madison
Tongchao Liu
Assistant Chemist, Argonne National Laboratory
Marc Miskin
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Margaret Mitchell
Researcher and Chief Ethics Scientist, Hugging Face
Lerrel Pinto
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, New York University
John Rogers
Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Neurological Surgery, Northwestern University
Nabiha Saklayen
CEO and Cofounder, Cellino
Julie Shah
H.N. Slater Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT
Mona Sloane
Assistant Professor of Data Science and Media Studies, University of Virginia
Irene Solaiman
Chief Policy Officer, Hugging Face
Venkat Viswanathan
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
Cyrus Wadia
CEO, Activate
William Woodford
Cofounder and CTO, Form Energy
Quansan Yang
Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington
Jackie Ying
Director, NanoBio Lab; A*STAR Senior Fellow
Xu Zhang
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
Ben Zhao
Neubauer Professor of Computer Science, University of Chicago
Credits
Editing: Allison Arieff, Rachel Courtland, Teresa Elsey, Niall Firth, Mat Honan,
Charlotte Jee, Amy Nordrum, David Rotman, Amanda Silverman
Copy editing: Anne Torpey, Linda Lowenthal
Fact checking: Jude Coleman, Karen Font, Jill Langlois
Engagement: Juliet Beauchamp, Abby Ivory-Ganja
Art direction: Stephanie Arnett
Illustration: Mark Wang
Photography: Tony Luong, Christian Sinibaldi, Juliana Tan