Young Sabrina Pasterski, considered the next
Einstein, built her plane and flew it solo at 14
By Himansu
“When you’re tired you sleep, and when you’re not, you do physics,”
says Sabrina Pasterski, ‘The Next Einstein’ as named by Harvard
University. She flew a plane before she drove a car. She doesn’t own a
smartphone. Unlike most millennials, she also avoids social media; you
won’t find her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or even LinkedIn.
However, she does keep her website PhysicsGirl updated with her many
accomplishments and accolades. Image: Scoop Whoop
Sabrina Pasterski is a first generation Cuban-American. She was born
in Chicago in 1993, then enrolled in the Edison Regional Gifted Center
in 1998. She graduated from Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in
2010. Sabrina began taking flying lessons in 2003 and by 2006, started
building her first kit aircraft, reports Inc.
An MIT graduate and Harvard PhD candidate, she is interested in
answering some of the most complex questions in physics. She began
experimenting with the subject at a very young age, which led to the
construction of a single-engine plane she built herself and flew solo
when she was just 14 years old. MIT Professors Allen Haggerty and Earll
Murman recruited “PhysicsGirl” after watching the video of the plane she
was creating on YouTube. “Our mouths were hanging open after we looked
at it. Her potential is off the charts,” said Haggerty. Even though she
was initially waitlisted, she was accepted and graduated with a grade
point average of 5.00, reports Latin Times.
Most high-achieving students graduate from high school with
transcripts and resumes filled with lofty grades and test scores and a
battery of extracurricular activities. Sabrina has soared past those
accolades since her plane and solo flight. “At first it was really a
challenge, because I was 12 when I started working on it. It’s an
amazing experience that you really can’t get from textbooks,” she said.
She is now a certified light sport air manufacturer. Image: Scoop Whoop
What stands out to principal Eric McLaren of Illinois Mathematics and
Science Academy is Sabrina standing as one of just 23 women named as a
US Physics Team semifinalist, an honor afforded to a pool of about 300
students. The experience made Sabrina aware of the under-representation
of women and minorities in the sciences. She is now working on a
documentary to encourage them to study science. “She certainly has a lot
of abilities in math and science and she’s taken what she knows and
applied it to real-world things,” said principal McLaren. But the most
compelling thing for me is that she is committed to creating a path for
other young women and other minorities to pursue science, reports Chicago Tribune.
Already an accomplished speaker, Sabrina has given talks at
Princeton, Harvard (including the Faculty Conference), MIT, and Forbes
Summit Philadelphia. Apart from NASA showing interest in Sabrina, Jeff
Bezos, the founder of Amazon and aerospace developer and manufacturer of
Blue Origin, has also offered her a job.
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