Ambika Bumb, BME 05
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology | White House
In December 2019, Bumb joined the U.S. Department of State as Health Science Technology Advisor to the Office of the Secretary of State. She immediately began working on the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Her team led the Global Repatriation Task Force that brought home more than 100,000 Americans who were stranded across the world when countries were closing and commercial flights were no longer available. Seven months into her tenure, her team was awarded the Distinguished Honor Award, given for exceptionally outstanding service or achievements of marked national or international significance. Bumb has served as Board member of the International Biomedical Research Alliance, Strategic Advisor to the Energy Sciences Area of Berkeley Lab and CEO of the biotech company Bikanta. At Georgia Tech, she was recognized with the Helen Grenga Outstanding Woman Engineer and E. Jo Baker President’s Scholar Awards. The NIH has also recognized her research with the Orloff Technical Advance Award as a “platform” technology with implications that will broadly advance medicine.
Her research has led to 16 patents and the spinout of her biotech company. Recently, she transitioned to the position of Deputy Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology with a broad mandate to advise President Joe Biden.
“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,” says Bumb.
Fun fact: Despite various fears, Bumb has macheted her way through jungles in Rwanda to see silver-backed gorillas in the wild, gone swimming with dolphins in the open ocean, and gone spelunking in deep caves climbing a waterfall to get out.
40 Under 40 Class of 2021
Head of Growth – Devices & Services, Google Ads, Brand & Trust | Google
“Georgia Tech was the first educational institution that challenged me,” Elleby says. “It required me to not only focus on my studies, but it pushed me to make a decision early on about the kind of person I wanted to be.”
Program Manager, Venture | All Raise
“We each have a specific purpose in this world, and being a student or recent graduate of Georgia Tech sets us up so well to begin uncovering what that may be,” Rankin says.
Head of Product Strategy | Ultimate Guitar
Fun fact: In addition to being an avid rock climber, Radman plays saxophone in a blues funk rock band called The Vinyl Suns.
Cofounder & CEO | Stord
Fun fact: Henry is a triplet. “I have two incredible sisters my age as well as an older brother and sister who are twins,” he says.
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology | White House
Fun fact: Despite various fears, Bumb has macheted her way through jungles in Rwanda to see silver-backed gorillas in the wild, gone swimming with dolphins in the open ocean, and gone spelunking in deep caves climbing a waterfall to get out.
Georgia State Senator – District 50 | Georgia State Senate
Fun fact: Hatchett is a huge fan of the show Jeopardy. When he was younger he would watch the show with his dad, and when he got to Tech, he and his roommates rarely missed an episode.
Sustainability Engineer | Skanska
“Georgia Tech people inspire me. I think I’m always trying to live up to their achievements. As a student, I was inspired by students, faculty, and industry and that continues today,” Mitchell says.
President’s PhD Scholar | Imperial College London
Fun fact: If he were not an engineer and researcher, Jagtap would be a filmmaker. One of his YouTube videos has more than 1.5 million views.
Attorney | Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP
“My philanthropic and service efforts can be traced back to my years at Tech, where I organized service projects through my fraternity,” says Zhang, who served as an SGA delegate at Tech and vice president of his fraternity, Sigma Pi.
CEO & Founder | Flock Safety
Fun fact: Langley’s favorite form of stress release is baking.
Foreign Service Officer (Diplomat) | U.S. Department of State
Fun fact: Hudgins recently joined the “CaiRollers,” the first roller derby team in Egypt, and the only roller derby team on the African continent outside of South Africa.
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.
Assistant Professor | Harvard Medical School
Associate Bioengineer | Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Fun fact: Zhang is an avid birder. He was a pioneering birder in mainland China and has published in the journal of the American Birding Association.
Managing Partner | Collab Capital & Managing Director | Techstars
Fun fact: Givens says he didn’t really start eating vegetables until he was 25.
Sustainable Transportation Specialist | AECOM
Fun fact: At the time, she was the only woman in the Georgia Tech Off Road club and drove in the SAE Mini Baja East Competition during her sophomore year at Georgia Tech.
Training Operations Manager/Lead F-35 Instructor Pilot | Lockheed Martin
Fun fact: Moore says she eats a fairly healthy diet, but she can crush an entire jar of Nutella if it’s in the house.
Development Lead | VentLife
Fun fact: Yarabarla grew up playing competitive tennis and played on two intercollegiate teams (Georgia Tech and Swiss Institute of Technology). However, recently his favorite hobbies are photography and cinematography.
Loads and Dynamics Engineer | Barrios Technology (NASA Johnson Contractor)
Fun fact: For the last 11 years, Smith has traveled the world performing outreach education as “Ksmooth the Engineering Dude.”
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.
Cofounder & Managing Partner | Shear Structural
Fun fact: Atkinson has a vintage glassware side hustle called ATLVNTG. And, she and her husband own a boutique bottle shop called Elemental Spirits Co., in their Atlanta, Poncey-Highland neighborhood.
Consultant | Anneru Solutions Incorporated
Advice for new Yellow Jackets: “Take time to find out who you are and never forget it. Write it on a tablet in your home and your heart. Even if you venture away, it will bring you back home.”
Founder & Senior Architect and Planner/Assoc. Director | International Development Collaborative/UO Urban Design Lab
Fun fact: Her career in spatial justice started in second grade with an assignment to write a letter to the President. Armed with a pencil and 3-lined craft paper, she described to President Clinton the negative effects of assigned seats during lunch. As a result, the principal worked with the PTA to revise the seating rules.
Professor | City U
Fun fact: Basu—always the curious researcher—wanted to figure out how humans learn to smile when we're happy. He tried an experiment on his baby by correlating happy moments with a frown instead…but had to stop after his wife said she’d ban him from being with his daughter!
Assistant Vice President, Software and Systems | StreamLabs Water
Advice for new Yellow Jackets: “Whether interning or co-oping, I would recommend trying to diversify your experience as much as you can. My Georgia Tech education was much more than my degree; It was the network, the opportunities, and the culture.”
Senior Meteorological Scientist | The Weather Company, IBM
“My education experience was challenging and global in nature, taking me to study abroad programs in France and conferences across Europe and India, and opening my aperture to both the suffering and the opportunity that lies ahead,” Belanger says.
Director of Engineering Center | Technical University of Moldova
“My Georgia Tech education forged my personality and abilities. Georgia Tech teaches you how to rule this world, there are no boundaries that cannot be reached or explored,” Sargu says.
Meteorologist | 11 Alive
“Georgia Tech allowed me to ‘embrace the nerd’—and I follow this motto in my career, being nicknamed ‘Nord the Nerd’,” she says.
Building Envelope Engineer | Raymond Engineering
Fun fact: Bir doesn’t just study water, he also paints with it. He studied watercolor painting in high school.
Assistant Professor | Mississippi State University
Fun fact: Priddy fell in love with running while in grad school. Her first race was the Pi Mile in 2013. From then on, she was hooked. She ran the Triple Peach in 2014, and the Peachtree Road Race each year after while she lived in Atlanta.
CEO | Class Central
“I am really proud that my alma mater has since also become a leader in this space by offering OMSCS, GT’s online master’s degree in computer science, for a mind-blowing price of $7K,” Shah says.
Technologist R&D Engineer | Applied Materials Inc.
Fun fact: Kumar’s first name “Arkadeep” means the light from the sun—the literal translation in the Bengali language (his mother-tongue) means the sun’s light in dawn, which brings light from the darkness. Kumar’s PhD research at Tech was on solar cells as clean energy.
Cofounder | Charityvest
Fun fact: Foltz is obsessed with golf course architecture and history.
Mathematics Education Doctoral Candidate | University of Michigan
Fun fact: Washington has an Amtrak rewards card because she loves riding cross-country trains.
Associate Scientist | CARMABI Foundation
Fun fact: Marhaver used to run the 100-meter hurdles
CEO & Cofounder | Pinwheel
“Every hell week, every final cram, every concept I couldn't get and had to find help to overcome prepared me and refined me to believe...I can do hard things. My degree from Georgia Tech gave me grit,” Witbeck says.
Cofounder and CEO | LymphaTech
Fun fact: Weiler and his wife, who also has her bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD from Georgia Tech, have six degrees from the Institute between them. They also attended the same middle and high schools.
CEO and Cofounder | LiveLike
“My work has taken me to all corners of the globe, and the exposure to the international student community at Georgia Tech has been a key reason I feel comfortable working among different nationalities and cultures,” Walavalkar says.
Founder & CEO | MINWO
Fun fact: She still holds her high school’s 100-meter hurdle record.
President & CEO | Volk Optical
Fun fact: Gupta has lived in five countries: Kuwait, India, the U.K., the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. Her family was in Kuwait when Iraq invaded. She and her family fled the country in 1990, staying in a refugee camp followed by travel through Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt to the United Kingdom. She came to the U.S. in 1999 for her undergraduate education.
Partner | New Enterprise Associates
“My true passion and drive within software engineering developed at Georgia Tech. It was so impactful in shaping me that I still keep in touch with many of my professors,” Larco says.