Sneha D. Goenka has been named Innovator of the Year by MIT Technology Review, recognizing her advances in rapid genome sequencing to diagnose time-sensitive genetic disorders in infants.

The honor tops this year’s global Innovators Under 35 list, which highlights young entrepreneurs, researchers and inventors who are driving scientific progress and translating discoveries into real-world impacts, according to the organization. From this group, MIT Technology Review selects one honoree whose impact is especially transformative.

Goenka, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, designed computational tools that speed up genome sequencing and analysis, cutting the time it takes to deliver a genetic diagnosis from weeks to hours. The advance can be lifesaving, especially in intensive care units where up to half of infant deaths are linked to undiagnosed genetic disorders, according to the release.

Traditional genome sequencing and analysis can take as long as seven weeks. “Sadly, that’s often too slow to save a critically ill child,” Helen Thomson wrote in the MIT Technology Review profile. “Hospitals may soon have a faster option, thanks to a groundbreaking system built in part by Sneha Goenka.”

Goenka developed faster systems for handling the enormous amounts of data produced by DNA sequencing, which often overwhelm existing software systems. Her work allows physicians to sequence a genome and provide a diagnosis in less than eight hours, setting a world record. She was also named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for this work in 2023, and she is now working on commercializing the technology to bring it to hospitals around the world.

Goenka joined Princeton in January 2025. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, as well as a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. She completed her postdoctoral research at Stanford School of Medicine.