Shaena Montanari makes Forbes 30 Under 30 List

At the beginning of each year, Forbes Magazine publishes "30 Under 30," a list of today's "young game changers, movers and makers." Their fourth annual list, published earlier this month, contains 600 millennials in 20 different categories and Shaena Montanari, a Ridgefield High School alumni with strong roots in our community, is on their "30 Under 30 in Science."

According to Forbes, here is why Shaena Montanari is part of this elite list:

Shaena Montanari, Postdoctoral research associate, Columbia University-American Museum of Natural History

Montanari earned her Ph.D. at 24; she chemically analyzed the fossils of extinct animals, including dinosaur eggshells that showed what the Gobi desert was like 80 million years ago. Now she's focusing in using DNA barcoding to understand the diets of tigers and other mammals being overrun by humans to make sure they still have prey to eat.

Shaena was a member of Ridgefield High School's Class of 2005, her parents were members of the Class of 1975 at RHS, and her family has been keeping Ridgefielders warm since they opened the doors of Montanari Fuel in 1946.

Congratulations, Shaena, and best of luck in the future.

Photograph from Forbes.