Alumni Association’s 40 Under 40 Honors 6 BME Grads

They earned bachelor’s degrees and doctorates. They work in the White House, medical technology, higher ed, and even the United States Army. Yet they’re all changing the world for the better wherever they are — which has earned them a place among the Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s 2021 class of 40 Under 40.

Here are the six alumni from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering on this year’s list:

Mahdi Al-Husseini, PP 2018, BME 2018, MSCS 2020

Aeromedical Evacuations Officer | U.S. Army

“Iron sharpens iron, and my peers at Georgia Tech were certainly of a higher caliber. I remain in touch with many of my former classmates; their success is inspirational,” Al-Husseini says.

Ambika Bumb, BME 2005

President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology | White House

“My initial exposure at Georgia Tech to developing nanotechnology led me to Oxford to do a PhD and then the NIH for two post-docs, all related to nanomedicine. I launched a biotech startup Bikanta from that academic research and for five years enjoyed the nimbleness and innovation that a startup allows for,” Bumb says.

Cory Sago, Ph.D. BME 2019

Senior Director, Head of LNP Discovery | Beam Therapeutics

“As scientists and engineers, many of us are wired to try to understand the facts of our world (the ‘what’). I’d encourage GT students and new graduates to also consciously pursue the ‘why’ behind the world,” Sago says.

Mike Weiler, BME 2010, MSME 2012, Ph.D. BioE 2015 

Cofounder and CEO | LymphaTech

“During grad school at Georgia Tech, I was a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, a graduate of the NSF Innovation Corps, and a TI:GER Fellow. The TI:GER program was particularly instrumental in my career, as it provided an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of business model generation and customer discovery applied to my dissertation research. The final business plan that we created in the TI:GER program is very similar to the business plan that LymphaTech still follows today,” Weiler says.

Varun Yarabarla, BME 2016

Development Lead | VentLife

“I was honestly a little disappointed that I would be leaving engineering behind when I chose to pursue medical school. However, when there is a will, people can always find a way; in medical school, I still used my engineering-based computer coding skill to land a position in a distinguished neurology lab,” Yarabarla says.

Y. Shrike Zhang, Ph.D. BME 2013

Assistant Professor | Harvard Medical School
Associate Bioengineer | Brigham and Women’s Hospital

“The engineering education at GT is excellent and transdisciplinary,” Zhang says.

See the full 40 Under 40 on the Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s website.