he youngest professor in the whole world: who is she?
This woman made history when she became a professor at only 19 years old. Currently, she is 29 and still works in the sphere that she loves the most – which is science. The name of the youngest professor in the world is Alia Sabur, and she is American. She can definitely be included in the never-ending list of the inspiring women who prove that everything is possible.
Alia Sabur was born on the 22nd of February 1989, in New York City, in the family of Mohammed and Julie Sabur. Her father was Pakistani, and her mother was an American reporter. When Alia was only eight months old, she started reading the words. When she was two, she read the book “Charlotte’s Web”. Of course, her parents suspected that their daughter is not like everyone else. However, Alia was the only child in the family, so they did not have anyone to compare her to and realize that she is a gifted girl. As the teacher who tested her once said, her abilities went beyond the IQ scale.
She quickly became the brightest pre-school student in Northport, New York. At the age of five, she was done with her primary-school classes and moved on to the middle school. When Alia was seven years old, she went to high school to take classes there, and teachers just could not keep up with her abilities. However, she was still socializing with her peers. At nine years old, the administration of Alia’s school said that she had to attend high school and study together with sixteen-year-olds. According to Alia, she did not want to go there, because she did not like the older children teasing her for her outstanding brains. Sometimes she was called a know-it-all, and some children even went as far as grabbing her homework.
Alia’s parents tried to find another school for their exceptional daughter. In the end, the State University of New York (Stony Brook) accepted her, with a note that she can try their program if she really thinks she will manage it. However, her mother had to accompany her to every class. So, at the age of only ten, Alia Sabur went for the undergraduate degree – she studied applied mathematics.
At first, the young girl was afraid of how she would do. However, she was also really excited because she had the opportunity to attend physics classes at the university. As Alia would later remember, the majority of teachers were really nice to her, but there were a few who did not like her. There was a professor who told her that she was not as good as the guys, even if she did better than them. Still, the fellow students were very supportive of Alia, and her parents made her hang out with people her age because they did not want her to be unsociable.
Except for school, Alia was amazingly talented in other spheres since she was young. For instance, when she was 9, she received the black belt in Taekwondo. Apart from that, she professionally learned to play the clarinet.
When Alia was only 14, she graduated with the “summa сum laude” status, and broke the record, becoming the youngest student in the history of the United States to do so. However, Alia was a huge perfectionist and was not going to rest after her great achievement. She wanted to conquer new heights. So, she moved on to greater things when she went to study at the Drexel University for her Master degree. Her course was successful, and at the age of 17, when most people are in high school, she completed her Master’s degree and went on to study for the Ph.D.
However, this was the time when Alia’s illusions about the world of science have shattered into pieces. She saw the poor conducting, along with realizing that many professors are not motivated by their passion for science. Alia had a fallout with the advisor who was also a supervisor of her Ph.D. Unhappy with the advisor stealing her ideas and applying for patents and grants using them, Alia sued Drexel University. The advisor, however, denied the accusations and threw them back at Alia. Even though Drexel University has admitted that the young genius did not plagiarize from someone else, they still refused to give her a Ph.D. The academic prodigy has been expecting to receive the Ph.D., so this was a shock to her. As Alia mentioned, this was the first time that she was unable to achieve her goal, so she went through a rough period, but eventually, she promised herself that she is not going to give up her dreams because of one bad luck situation.
Nevertheless, in 2008 she has applied for the program in South Korea, which allowed her to receive a place of professor in this country. She had to teach students the discipline “Advanced Technology Fusion”. This opportunity was given to her by Seoul’s Konkuk University. At the time, she was a little under 19 years old. This made Alia Sabur the youngest professor in the entire world. The Guinness World Records has officially documented her historical achievement.
Alia said that in South Korea everyone treated her as some kind of celebrity. When she walked around the campus, people were staring at her. She was often invited to give the inspirational speeches for young students. As much as Alia loved teaching in South Korea, she still missed home, and she did not renew the contract with Konkuk University when it expired. In 2009, she returned to New York to be with her family and friends.
This woman was always in search of new knowledge. In 2010, she enrolled in the law school, hoping to become a lawyer and protect the rights of people. Alia mentioned that being 21 years old at the time, for once in her life she was of the same age as the fellow students. The same year, she appeared on the American news with her innovational idea, which was later considered as a possible option in helping to alleviate the oil spill of Deepwater Horizon, which happened in the Gulf of Mexico.
Alia Sabur says that a person always has room to grow, and this is the life principle that she follows. She noticed that people like her, who did a lot of things at the early stage in their life, are often treated special just because of their age. Nonetheless, when you grow up, the fascination subsides, and you find yourself to be just a regular person. Alia is not letting her status of world’s youngest professor get to her and make her self-conceived. She puts all of her efforts into working hard on her personality and skills and learning something new that will help her in life.
Nowadays, Alia Sabur is just doing the things she likes, without putting pressure on herself and achieving some set goals. She gives speeches at different universities and the summits. She advises young people to follow their dreams and figure out where their heart belongs to, to take every new opportunity, and to stop feeling like they are failing the expectations that the others lay on them. She works as an attorney, and her specialization is intellectual property. She is only 29 years old, and she knows that there is plenty of time ahead of her, that she can spend on useful things. As for now, she spares herself from all the rush that she got as a child and teenager, and lives for herself.
This was the inspirational story of the amazing woman Alia Sabur, who was born with incredible talent and later solidified it with her hard work and persistence. She holds a record as the youngest professor in the world, and she fully deserves the acknowledgment that she has received. Alia’s example proved us that there is nothing impossible in the world.
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