Jia Yun (Jeanny) Yao

Jeanny Yao is Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of BioCellection, a chemical recycling company that turns unrecyclable plastic waste into virgin-quality chemical intermediates. At the age of 17, Jeanny presented her research findings on plastics degradation and upcycling at the TED2013 conference together with her then-research partner, Miranda Wang. Subsequently, they founded the company while in their college dorm. In 2017, the team began inventing this chemical recycling technology. Jeanny, recently named Forbes 30 Under 30, is the first-named inventor of their core technology. She holds an Honors Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and environmental science from the University of Toronto.

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