Yidian Liu is the Co-founder of PolyGone Systems, Inc, and a 2024 Forbes 30 under 30 Fellow. PolyGone Systems is a Princeton University spinout cleantech company with a mission to remove microplastic pollutants from waterways. Before founding the company, she is a trained designer and an American Institute of Architects NYS scholar with a Master’s degree in Architecture from Princeton University. Since 2021, Yidian and her team have won over 2.4M dollars of research and innovation grants from Princeton University, NJCSIT & NJEDA, and Federal Agencies such as NSF and NOAA, and have successfully raised their pre-seed venture capital funding. Yidian also served as a guest speaker at sustainability-focused events such as NYC Circular City Week, Delaware Water Congress, and Shenzhen/Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale.Prior to her studies at Princeton, Yidian practiced architecture in international architecture and landscape design offices across Europe and Asia. She worked at Lola Landscape Architects in Rotterdam, West Architecture in London, the NYC Housing Authority in New York, Vector Architects in Beijing, and Aedas in Hong Kong. She contributed to the publication of the 2016 NYC Housing Authority Design Guidelines. Yidian’s work has been exhibited in the IHA Gallery in Tokyo, and Shenzhen Biennale. She is also a recipient of multiple international design awards including the 2019 SkyHive Award, 2021 TerraViva Living Museum Design Award.