Forbes magazine went looking for young science researchers who are already making waves as twenty-somethings, and the magazine’s editors included one recent CSE graduate on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the sciences: Sarah Guthals (Ph.D., ’14), pictured at left.
The 27-year-old CSE alumna was cited for her role in co-founding ThoughtSTEM, “a company geared towards teaching kids how to program.” According to Forbes, Guthals – who is ThoughtSTEM’s chief technology officer – is also “an education researcher and has published several papers in the field, with a focus both on the best methods to teach computer science as well as methods for providing support for students when teachers can’t.” ThoughtSTEM develops courses, trainings, software and textbooks for children 8 to 18 to learn how to program. Guthals also co-developed the CodeSpells game, which is currently under development as a full-scale commercial product following a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that netted $164,000 from 5,500 backers. She and ThoughtSTEM co-founder Stephen Foster (Ph.D., ’15) also developed LearnToMod, a software program to help students learn how to program modifications (“mods”) in the popular Minecraft programming game.
Guthals isn’t the only Forbes 30 Under 30 scientist from UC San Diego with a connection to CSE. Embriette Hyde (at right) is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Rob Knight, a professor of pediatrics who has a joint appointment in CSE. Forbes cited Hyde’s work as project manager for the American Gut Project, which is led by Knight and is now based at UC San Diego. According to Forbes, the 28-year-old is now focused on “the microbiome – the bacteria residing in and on our bodies that serve important functions for our health.”
Read more about the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science.
Visit the ThoughtSTEM website.