Alice Tang, PhD, a student in UCSF‘s Medical Scientist Training Program, was recently named to Forbes magazine’s 2026 “30 Under 30” list for science. Tang is being recognized in particular for using AI computational tools to understand and diagnose complex diseases like Alzheimer’s.
A 2023 graduate of the UCSF/UC Berkeley joint Bioengineering PhD program — where she worked in the lab of mentor Marina Sirota, PhD — Tang is currently wrapping up her MD studies at UCSF. Alice is also an alum of GEPA’s Discovery Fellows Program, and our Summer Research Training Program, where talented undergraduate researchers spend a summer doing graduate-level research projects in the labs of UCSF faculty members.
Tang uses AI to analyze millions of health records for better diagnostics and personalized therapies, including for Alzheimer’s and autoimmune disorders. Her method has helped uncover novel insights into disease, including that dementia presents differently in men and women. The hope is to produce better diagnostics and personalized therapy across a wide spectrum of disorders. A physician, engineer and scientist, her publications in Nature Aging, Nature Medicine, and Science Translational Medicine have been cited more than 800 times.
The awards span 20 categories of 30 honorees each across the arts, technology and social impact. Candidates were evaluated by Forbes staff and a panel of independent, expert judges on a variety of factors, including funding, revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness, and potential — along with being 29 or younger as of December 31, 2025. Nearly 60 University of California students, faculty and researchers were recognized.
Read more about Alice's ”30 Under 30” in Science recognition.