Fifty-eight members of the University of California (UC) community have been named to the 2026 Forbes “30 Under 30” list, highlighting young leaders in fields such as artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, science, and more. The honorees include alumni and faculty from seven UC campuses.
The Forbes “30 Under 30” awards recognize 600 individuals across 20 categories. Candidates were assessed by Forbes staff and a panel of independent judges based on criteria like funding, revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness, and potential. All honorees are under the age of 30 as of December 31, 2025.
UC Berkeley had the largest representation with 32 honorees. Other campuses included UCLA with 11, UC San Diego with nine, UC Santa Barbara with three, UC Irvine and UC San Francisco with two each, and UC Davis with one.
Among those recognized is Sam Yang (UC Berkeley), cofounder of Nova Intelligence. His company uses AI to modernize outdated business software systems by analyzing legacy code and rewriting it for easier maintenance. “The goal is to help businesses handle large software migrations faster and more cheaply,” according to Forbes.
In education technology, Aryan Bhadouria and Adam Goldstein (UC Berkeley) created TeachShare, an AI platform designed to help educators create lesson plans and grade assignments efficiently. TeachShare has over 300,000 users and has raised $2.3 million in funding.
Ryan Dehmoubed (UC Berkeley) co-founded JuiceMind to make computer science education more accessible for K–12 students through collaborative curriculum supported by AI grading tools. The startup serves half a million students and was recognized by the White House among notable AI tools for education.
Other notable honorees include Laurence Allen (UC Berkeley), whose company Terranova developed robots that inject wood chips underground to raise land above flood levels while generating carbon sequestration credits; Chao (Charles) Hu (UC Irvine), who co-founded Reverse Energy Solutions to recycle expired solar panels; Selene Sari (UCLA), founder of Vox Aeris which improves air filtration using sound waves; Arkin Gupta (UC San Diego), who joined Citadel after leading Morgan Stanley’s central risk desk; and Theodore Pornprinya (UC Berkeley), cofounder of Plume which focuses on asset tokenization via blockchain technology.
Several honorees are involved in health care innovation. James Hu (UC Irvine) co-founded Illuminant Surgical to support doctors during operations using graphics projected onto patients’ skin. Zach Rosen and Henry Kasa (UC Berkeley) launched Brellium to improve clinical documentation accuracy using AI.
Social impact initiatives were also highlighted. Alex Edgar (UC Berkeley) cofounded Youth250 to increase youth involvement in civic life nationwide: “Through its Toolkit, Gen Z Scorecard, Champions Network and Open Letter to America, Youth250 has equipped 5,000 organizations to increase youth influence by July 4, 2026.” Mackenzie Feldman’s nonprofit Re:wild Your Campus trains students in reducing pesticide use in public spaces.
The list also includes innovators in retail such as Arya Keshavarzian (UC San Diego), who co-founded LuxConcerige for luxury car rentals; Ruth Sack (UCLA), who expanded her family’s leather brand Streets Ahead into direct-to-consumer sales; scientists like Yihang Chen (UCLA), who develops nanoscale medical implants; entrepreneurs such as Alice Tang whose research uses AI for better disease diagnostics; transportation leaders including Aaron Guo (UC Berkeley) at Hybron producing lightweight aerospace components; venture capitalists Jonathan Chang (UCLA); Ryan Koh and Grace Ma from UC Berkeley investing heavily in AI startups.
This year’s recognition underscores the significant contributions from young members of the University of California system across a wide range of sectors.
