The Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering recognizes Magi Richani as the recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Richani attained a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in 2011. Richani’s legacy at the department includes the Undergraduate Advisory Board, which she established while during her undergrad.
Richani later studied at the University of California, Berkley. She graduated in 2012 with a Master’s in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a specialization in Engineering and Project Management, as well as a Certificate in Management of Technology, Business administration and Management from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Image 1: Magi Richani receives Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Department Chair Dr. Bob Gilbert
During her undergrad, Richani read about the lack of sustainability within the dairy industry, and decided to engineer a better system by leveraging plant genetics to create protein. She established Nobell in 2016 to bring the protein to the open market.
Over the last 7 years, Richani has grown the company from a one-woman enterprise with $100K in seed money to a 70 person team today backed by $102M in investment that has captured the attention of heavy hitters like Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Robert Downey Jr. and Andreesson Horowitz. The company, now called Alpine Bio, has pivoted to develop a plant that has been modified to produce casein, a key dairy protein found in milk. This protein will then be extracted and used to formulate alternatives to dairy that require a fraction of the water and land of traditional dairy production. Richani currently holds over 20 patents on engineering proteins. "Our food system contributes to ⅓ of all greenhouse case emissions, that’s more than the entire transportation system (cars & planes combined)," she says. "The majority of these emissions are tied to animal products (beef and cheese being the highest emitters)."
Richani serves as an advisor to the non-profit organization Food Solutions Action (FSA) to promote political support for engineering solutions aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change. She also sits on the board of BIO’s Agriculture & Environment committee, which is the largest non-profit advocating on behalf of US biotechnology. 
Image 2: Magi Richani in the field during planting season as Alpine Bio completes its largest planting to date in the Midwest.
In an op-ed that she wrote for Forbes, she advocates for farmers, asking policy makers to commit to the people actually doing the work. “Farmers are ready for industry leaders to give them the proper tools to tackle the climate crisis. To develop those tools, we just need to think from the soil up and put the farmer at the center of the solution.”
Richani has been recognized nationally, with awards such as Fast Company - #1 spot in World Changing Ideas for Agriculture, INC Female Founders 2024 award, Time Magazine Green Tech 2024 award and MIT 35 under 35.
