Time names 15-year-old scientist first ‘child of the year’

The American magazine Time has been choosing a ‘man of the year’ or – for the first time in 1936 – a ‘woman of the year’ since 1927. Aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh kicked off at the age of 25 in 1927 and only got a younger successor than himself last year – 92 years later – with the then 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. In the meantime, the election has been renamed ‘Time’s person of the year’.

This year Time for a new scoop, together with TV channel Nickelodeon: the magazine puts Gitanjali Rao on the cover as the very first ‘kid of the year’. Rao is barely a year younger than Greta Thunberg, last year’s laureate in the ‘person of the year’ category.

15-year-old Gitanjali Rao is a scientist and inventor. She has been fond of science since she was ten. She developed new technologies in different domains. She invented a device that can quickly detect lead in drinking water and an app and Chrome extension that uses artificial intelligence to detect cyberbullying.

Gitanjali came from a group of 5,000 nominees from the United States. A jury of young people and comedian and TV presenter Trevor Noah reduced that number to five more finalists. In the end they chose Gitanjali Rao from Denver.

“I don’t look like your typical scientist. What I see on TV are older, mostly white, male scientists ”, she says in the interview with actress Angelina Jolie in Time. “My goal has therefore shifted. I not only want to make my own devices to solve global problems, but also inspire others to do the same. Because I know from my own experience that it is not easy to meet no one else like yourself. My message is: ‘If I can do it, you can too, and everyone can’. ”

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