Nineteen year old is world's youngest professor
Categories: In the news, Education
Everyone feels their child is an amazing talent but learning of the accomplishments of a true child prodigy is always an eye-opening experience.
Take Alia Sabur from Northport, N.Y., for instance. As an 8-month-old baby she started talking and reading. By the time she was five, she had finished elementary school and started attending college when she was ten. She completed a bachelor's of science degree in applied mathematics graduating summa cum laude from Stony Brook University at the age of fourteen.
Sabur, who is currently nineteen years old, and has earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Drexel University, has been hired as a professor at Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. Accepting the position made her the youngest college professor in history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, beating the previous record held by Colin Maclaurin in 1717.
However, breaking a three hundred year old record had nothing to do with her decision.
"I really enjoy teaching," said Sabur. "It's something where you can make a difference. It's not just what you can do, but you can enable a lot of other people to make their changes."Spoken like a true educator!
In addition to her teaching duties, Sabur will also continue with her research which involving developing nanotubes for use as cellular probes that could help aid in cures for diseases.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mckenna 4-24-2008 @ 8:30PM
Wow. Well, good for her, but what's the rush? The Guinness Book of World Records? Also, I wouldn't allow my kid to skip her childhood or the socialization lessons of growing up and experiencing similar things with her peers. I imagine she never competed in any team sports, or made it to her senior prom...
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Jessica 4-25-2008 @ 2:19PM
McKenna, Have you ever met a genius?
A child prodigy would likely not be interested in associating with their social peers as their peers, intellectually and emotionally, would actually be much older, along the lines of her parents. I am sure this girl was driven by the need to learn and succeed. She would be bored by normal peer interaction.
queenoqueens 4-24-2008 @ 8:41PM
Not only is she intellectually intelligent, but I'm guessing she's emotionally intelligent too, if she could start college at 10 and be unfazed by it. Amazing
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Jessica 4-25-2008 @ 8:51AM
Awesome!
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mckenna 4-25-2008 @ 3:13PM
Hmmm, well if that's the case, I'm sad for her. BTW, Steven J. Gould and Werner Heisenberg both had normal childhoods, graduated with their peers and are both considered geniuses... And who said she was unfazed by starting college at age 10?
I'm not saying her accomplishments aren't amazing. Rest assured, I'm appropriately impressed. I'm saying there are also important life lessons to be learned from the boring peers, especially when she's going to have to deal with the general population in order to have much success (and/or happiness) outside of personal academic accomplishments.
Here's my take on it: It's not up to me to understand the genius, it's up to the genius to understand her world. I'll be fine regardless. If she were my child, I'd want her to have that as well.
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David Ehrenberg 5-01-2008 @ 1:17PM
I think it is amazing and I can relate. Our son had a miserable time in school until he started community college at age 11. In college he only had 2 or 3 hours of class a day, studied for an hour, and spent the rest of the day playing with his friends or on fun hobbies. He's only 14 and transferring to UC Berkeley as a junior in the fall. He's very outgoing, so if he has a girl friend when he's older, I suspect he will go to her prom. He constantly chats with his friends (his age) and they say he's not missing anything by skipping middle school and high school. The nicest thing is just having so much time to hang out and be a kid rather than have to do so much homework like they do in high school.
Enuwe 6-09-2008 @ 1:19PM
W.A.O!!!!! i still find it so difficult to believe that she a human being like me! please if it really true, i which to tap from her knowledge, if it is true even marry her,so that my offspring can be like this, probably have a prof. at age 14.I PRAY 4 HER,
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