Meredith Perry

Education and research

Perry studied paleobiology and astrobiology at the University of Pennsylvania and conducted research with the NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. She co-authored astrobiology research with Christopher McKay.

uBeam

In 2011, Perry won the University of Pennsylvania's "PennVention" competition with a proposed ultrasonic wireless charging system, which she named "uBeam". She founded uBeam later that year; early investors included Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Mark Cuban, and Marissa Mayer. Experts and former uBeam engineers raised doubts about the company's approach, arguing that ultrasound-based charging faced fundamental problems of efficiency and safety and was unlikely to be practical at commercial scale.

Perry argued in a TEDx talk that engineers tend to be linear thinkers and said she had approached the problem differently by consulting public sources and asking basic questions. Perry stepped down as CEO in 2018; coverage at the time reported that the company was shifting toward business-to-business licensing and partnerships.

Elemind

In October 2019, Perry said on Twitter that she had been working on a new neurotechnology. She co-founded Elemind Technologies in 2020. The company emerged from stealth mode on February 6, 2024, when Perry said its wearable device could suppress tremor in people with essential tremor and help induce sleep, and that it was being explored for memory and pain applications.

Elemind's first commercial product is a neurotechnology headband. The company has pointed to a 2024 randomized controlled trial of alpha phase-locked auditory stimulation for sleep-onset insomnia, published in Scientific Reports by authors including Elemind researchers, and has stated that the device helped 76% of participants with insomnia fall asleep 48% faster on average.