The Georgia Tech Alumni Association has released the 2026 Class of 40 Under 40 alumni. Collectively, the Class of 2026 includes 40 impactful Yellow Jackets spanning 10 industries and hailing from 14 states. Honorees have founded eight companies and led more than 30 organizations. Two alumni represent the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE): Sihong Wang, PhD MSE 14, and Simiao Niu, MS ECE 15, PhD MSE 16.

Simiao Niu is an assistant professor at Rutgers University. Before Rutgers, Niu was a hardware system engineer at the health technology team for Apple Inc. He received his postdoctoral training at Stanford University and his doctoral degree at Georgia Tech in 2016. Niu’s research on wearable technology and bioelectronics has led to multiple awards, including the MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific List, Materials Research Society (MRS) Early Career Distinguished Presenter, and Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher. His current work focuses on wearable devices and energy harvesting systems for biomedical applications.

Favorite Tech Memory: Defending my PhD thesis and getting my PhD degree.

Sihong Wang is an associate professor in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. He received his PhD in materials science and engineering from Georgia Tech in 2014 and his bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in 2009. From 2015 to 2018, Wang was a postdoc in chemical engineering at Stanford University. He has published over 90 papers in numerous high-impact journals, including Science, Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Electronics, Nature Sustainability, and others. Wang’s research group currently focuses on soft polymeric bioelectronic materials and devices as the new generation of technology for biomedical studies and therapeutics. As of May 2026, his research has been cited more than 34,200 times, with an H-index of 69.

Favorite Tech Memory: My favorite memories were going to the CRC in the evening to work out or play badminton with friends after a day of experiments in the lab.

Read about the entire 2026 Class of 40 Under 40 on the Georgia Tech Alumni website.