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10:48 a.m. M.
Saturday 05 December 2020
(BBC):
A teenage scientist and inventor, honored by Time of America magazine with the title of Baby of the Year 2020, which was awarded for the first time, said she hopes to inspire others to devise solutions to the world’s problems.
Gitanjali Rao, 15, has devised technologies that include a device that can identify lead in drinking water and an app that detects cyberbullying.
She was chosen from more than 5,000 American candidates for the outstanding title.
“If I can do it, you can do it and anyone can do it,” Rao said.
In an interview with Time magazine by actress and human rights activist Angelina Jolie, Rao said that she is not like his “scientific model.”
“All I see on television is that the scientist is an old man, usually a white man,” he added.
He added: “My goal has become not only to create my own devices to solve the world’s problems, but also to inspire others to do so as well, because from personal experience it is not easy not to see anyone else like you.”
Rao, who is from Colorado, said there are many problems that need to be resolved.
“Our generation faces many problems that we have never seen before, but at the same time we face old problems that still persist,” he told Time magazine.
“For example, we are sitting here and the world is facing a new epidemic, and we continue to face human rights problems, and there are problems that we are not responsible for, but now we must solve them like climate change and cyberbullying with the introduction of technology, ”he explains.
The Time magazine award is Rao’s most recent accolade.
She was previously dubbed “America’s Best Young Scientist” for inventing a low-cost, rapid test to detect lead-contaminated water.
Time magazine began naming the Man of the Year in 1927 and later updated the title to Person of the Year.
And last year, Greta Thornberg, the Swedish student who inspired a global movement to combat climate change, was the youngest person the magazine had chosen.
Time magazine said the new nickname “Child of the Year” is “a barometer of the emerging leaders of America’s younger generation.”
Next week, it will announce the Person of the Year for the year 2020.
