BU Alum Named to 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 List
Amareen Dhaliwal (CAMED’21) is founder and CEO of a business that helps aspiring clinical researchers access high-quality training
BU Alum Named to 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 List
Amareen Dhaliwal (CAMED’21) is founder and CEO of a business that helps aspiring clinical researchers access high-quality training
Each year, Forbes magazine releases its 30 Under 30 list of the brightest upcoming talent in sectors like entertainment, business, technology, and health care. Boston University alumni regularly appear on the list, and this year is no different. The 2026 iteration includes Amareen Dhaliwal (CAMED’21), recognized in education for a start-up that connects aspiring clinical researchers with training and career support.
The list comprises 600 individuals, drawn from a nomination pool that typically garners 20,000-plus names. Forbes reporters spend months fielding submissions, with outside input coming from judges like Serena Williams, Taylor Swift, and Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban.
Dhaliwal, 29, a psychiatrist with Talkiatry, is founder of the Certified Clinical Research Professionals Society (CCRPS), which offers online certification courses and career resources for young medical researchers involved in clinical trials. Previously, Dhaliwal ran a successful MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) tutoring company. She drew on those skills to build CCRPS, which she launched with her mother, a physician and clinical researcher, while taking a gap year during medical school at BU.
“I always saw how passionate my mom was about training the next generation of researchers,” Dhaliwal says. “She often talked about how many incredibly motivated people were entering the field, but didn’t always have access to training that felt engaging or truly practical.” CCRPS aims to address that gap, offering webinars and certification courses for different research pathways, access to job postings, mentorships, and résumé support.
According to Forbes, “the bootstrapped venture has generated more than $500,000 in 2025 revenue, serving curriculum, training materials, and certifications to 25,000 students across 82 countries aspiring to careers in clinical research.”
The Forbes editors look for scale, impact, creativity, and “potential for success,” according to its website. “And of course, at Forbes, money matters. Whether that’s raising tens of millions from powerful investors or doubling revenue in the past year, our reporters are looking to where the big money is flowing…the list favors the bold, the creative, and the visionaries.”
“Most good ideas come from noticing a problem in your own environment and wanting to help fix it—which is exactly how our work came into fruition,” Dhaliwal says. It also helps to keep a narrow scope, so that you can truly provide solutions without overwhelming yourself, she adds. With CCRPS, “the goal has always been to make training more practical and thoughtful so researchers feel confident in the work they’re doing. If we can help even a small number of researchers run better studies or feel more prepared in their roles, that ultimately benefits the patients who rely on those studies.”