Indian-American teenager Gitanjali Rao has been voted TIME’s first girl of the year for her work using “technology to address problems ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying.”
The 15-year-old from Colorado, USA, was selected from 5,000 nominees and interviewed by Academy Award-winning Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie for TIME.
From a young age, the aspiring scientist had begun to think about how to use science and technology to bring about social change in global dynamics. Speaking to TIME, she said that at age 10 she had first mentioned research into carbon nanotube sensor technology to her parents, which had left her mother in a state of confusion.
At the age of 11, Rao won the Discovery Education 3M Scientist Challenge and was named “30 Under 30” by Forbes for her innovations.
Rao’s latest discovery is an app called Kindly, which detects cyberbullying at an early stage, based on artificial intelligence technology.
In another similar development, Rao has developed another application called Tethys, a device that can measure the content of lead contamination in water with the help of carbon nanotubes.
He is currently working on a product that will help diagnose prescription opioid addiction at an early stage based on the production of mu opioid receptor gene proteins.
In 2018, she was the prestigious winner of the US Environmental Protection Agency President’s Youth Environmental Award.
In the interview with TIME, the 15-year-old says: “I don’t look like your typical scientist. All I see on TV is that he is an older scientist, usually white. assigned roles, in terms of their gender, their age, the color of their skin. “
“If I can do it, you can do it and anyone can do it,” he added.
Rao is an ardent supporter of MIT Tech Review and considers her to be her favorite in pop culture news. “I read it all the time. I think that’s where the inspiration really comes – hearing about all these amazing people at schools like MIT and Harvard who are doing incredible work with technology,” said the young scientist.
With an immense interest in genetics, Rao wants to continue his higher education in genetics and epidemiology from MIT.
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