Check Out MIT’s 2011 List Of Top Innovators Under 35; Who in Boston Made the Cut

The MIT technology gods have spoken: of the 35 greatest innovators in the world under the age of 35, five are based in the Boston area. Come on MIT Technology Review, just five Bostonians are on your TR35 2011 list? Haven’t you ever heard of home field advantage?

So how does this five for 35 — or 0.14 “innovator average” — stack up against Boston’s performance on MIT TR35 lists of years past? Let’s take a look…

• TR35 2011: 5 Boston area-innovators, 0.14 average
• TR35 2010: 7 Boston area-innovators, 0.2 average
• TR35 2009: 6 Boston area-innovators, 0.17 average
• TR35 2008: 6 Boston area-innovators, 0.17 average
• TR35 2007: 7 Boston area-innovators, 0.2 average
• TR35 2006: 10 Boston area-innovators, 0.29 average
• TR35 2005: 9 Boston area-innovators, 0.26 average

The stats seem to indicate that Boston is indeed in a bit of a young innovator-slump. Or maybe MIT just wasn’t playing as fair in years past. Whatever the case, check out what Boston’s five TR35-stars did to earn spots on the coveted roster this year.

Paul Wicks (R&D director at PatientsLikeMe Inc., Cambridge)

-Wicks transformed the PatientsLikeMe network from an online ALS patient outpost to a global online community serving people who suffer from over 1,000 different types of serious diseases worldwide.

Riccardo Signorelli (president and CEO of FastCap Systems Corp., Boston)

-Signorelli is helping to make batteries for hybrid cars less expensive through his development of new ultracapacitor materials that utilize carbon nanotubes.

Ben Rubin (co-founder and chief technology officer at Zeo Inc., Newton)

-Rubin created a device — consisting of a headband with built-in sensors — that tracks the amount of time a user spends in REM, deep and light sleep each night, allowing users to monitor and improve sleep quality.

Alina Oprea (research scientist at RSA Laboratories, Cambridge)

-Oprea developed cloud computing security software that guarantees user protection from data tampering as well as data inaccessibility.

Yemi Adesokan (co-founder and CEO at Pathogenica Inc., Cambridge)

-Adesokan is developing a DNA sequencing technique for medical testing that will allow doctors to quickly, and inexpensively, diagnose specific aspects of patient infections.

Related posts:

1. Boston Launches First Bike Share Program in Mass.
2. “Boston Food Finds” Explores Beantown’s Top Restaurants

Short URL: http://www.newenglandpost.com/?p=1845

Posted by erik devaney on Aug 24 2011. Filed under Business, Top Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry