Two Horned Frogs are among the 100 rising leaders recognized on the 2026 TIME100 Next list, Time magazine's annual roster of emerging figures across science, sports, business, entertainment, government and advocacy.

NASA astronaut candidate Anna Menon '08 and Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles, who played her final college season at TCU in 2025-2026, were named to the list published this fall.

Menon, who earned a bachelor's degree from TCU in 2008 with a double major in mathematics and Spanish, appears in the Advocates category. NASA astronaut Jessica Meir wrote her profile from the International Space Station, describing Menon's career as a model for a new era in which private companies and government agencies share the work of human spaceflight.

“NASA astronaut Anna Menon embodies the trajectory of modern human spaceflight, at a time when the private sector is playing an increasingly pivotal role in a sphere historically led by governments,” Meir wrote.

Menon spent seven years as a biomedical flight controller in Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center before joining SpaceX in 2018, where she rose to lead space operations engineer and mission director. In September 2024 she flew as mission specialist and medical officer aboard Polaris Dawn, the SpaceX mission that carried out the first commercial spacewalk. She became the first Horned Frog in space and, alongside crewmate Sarah Gillis, set the record for the farthest any woman has traveled from Earth.

In September 2025, NASA selected Menon for its astronaut candidate class from a pool of more than 8,000 applicants. She is the first NASA astronaut candidate to have flown in space before her selection. Menon is now completing two years of initial training at Johnson Space Center that will make her eligible for missions to low Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars.

A Phenom

Miles appears in the Phenoms category. Four-time WNBA champion and five-time Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird wrote her profile, crediting Miles with bringing her own style to the league and predicting individual honors and championships ahead.

“Olivia Miles has brought her own style to the WNBA. Not only in the way she plays, but also in the way she shows up on the court: her hair, the goggles,” Bird wrote. “If you go to a Minnesota Lynx game, you’ll see tons of people in the stands, from fully grown men to little kids, rocking Afros. It feels like the league is adapting to her and not the other way around.”

Miles transferred to TCU in 2025 after four seasons at Notre Dame, passing on a projected top-two selection in that year's WNBA draft to play one more college season. She averaged 19.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.6 assists for the Horned Frogs and was named Big 12 Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. TCU went 32-6, won a second straight outright Big 12 regular-season championship and reached the NCAA Elite Eight for the second consecutive year.

The Lynx selected Miles with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA draft in April, the highest selection in TCU women's basketball history and the first time a Horned Frog went in the top two of a professional draft since Ki Aldrich was taken No. 1 in the 1939 NFL draft.

Miles started all 40 regular-season games as a rookie, averaged 19.8 points and 6.0 assists, started the WNBA All-Star Game and broke the league's single-season rookie scoring record with 790 points. On Sept. 28 she was named the unanimous 2026 WNBA Rookie of the Year, receiving all 74 votes from the national media panel.

Time will celebrate the honorees at its sixth annual TIME100 Next event Oct. 29 in New York City. The full 2026 TIME100 Next list is available at time.com.