UCL academic named MIT Technology Review 2021 Innovator under 35

Dr Adnan Mehonic
Dr Adnan Mehonic

Dr Adnan Mehonic (UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering) has today been named to MIT Technology Review’s annual list of Innovators under 35 as a Pioneer.

Every year the media company recognises a list of exceptionally talented technologists whose work has great potential to transform the world.

Previous technologists to make the list include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s chief designer Jonathan Ive, the cofounder of iRobot Helen Greiner, Max Levchin, the cofounder of PayPal and John Rogers, materials scientist at the University of Illinois.

Commenting on his inclusion on the list, Dr Mehonic said: "It is a great honour to be selected as one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators under 35 and share this recognition with an impressive list of awardees."

Dr Mehonic is an assistant professor in nanoelectronics and a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow in UCL’s Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering. His work has focused on developing a memristive technology with potential for the future of computing, AI and brain-inspired systems, with vastly improved energy efficiency.

Memristors are novel electronic devices; they simultaneously store and process information and exceed conventional integrated circuit technology. This has tremendous potential to solve current technological challenges, accelerate the future development of AI algorithms and provide enormous societal benefits.

Commenting on his work, Dr Mehonic says: "Building from atoms up and by discovering and harnessing the physics of nanomaterials, I am developing a memristor technology that offers an opportunity to augment transistor-based electronics and provide crucial building blocks for the future of computing and AI systems with unprecedented energy efficiency."

Tim Maher, Managing Editor of MIT Technology Review, said: "We get more than 500 nominations for the list every year, and getting that list down to 35 - a task not only for the editors at MIT Technology Review but also for our 30+ judges - is one of the hardest things we do each year. We love the way the final list always shows what a wide variety of people there are, all around the world, working on creative solutions to some of humanity’s hardest problems."

The honourees will be featured at the upcoming EmTech MIT conference, which is MIT Technology Review’s annual flagship event that offers a curated perspective o the most significant developments of the year, with a focus on understanding their potential business and societal impact. EmTech MIT will be held online from September 28th to 30th 2021.