The World’s Youngest College Professor
April 22, 2008 – 9:56 am by Kim
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Alia Sabur is the youngest person to be employed as a full-time professor. Alia is now 19 years old and a professor of physics at the Konkuk University in South Korea. She was hired February 19th as a faculty member in the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion at the age of 18.
This isn’t Alia’s first record either. In 2004 she was said to be the youngest female Ph.D. student in the nation, working on her engineering doctoral at Drexel University. Keep in mind that she was only 14 at the time, a time when most of her peers were preparing for their first year in high school. In fact, Alia didn’t even attend high school, or middle school for that matter, but went straight from the 4th grade into college.
Furthermore, Alia began reading when she was 8 months old and now reads at a pace of 100 pages per hour. Most children learn to read between the ages of 5 and 7. Additional accomplishments include a black belt in karate and achieving a spot to study with the Philadelphia Orchestra principal, Ricardo Morales.
The amazing part of this story is not the achievements and educational titles that she holds, but the time in which they were attained. Many adults in their mid-twenties have yet to finish a master’s degree, let alone a Ph.D. Which makes me wonder if emotional and social development suffers from such accelerated educational achievement?
It is a relief to see that she excels in extracurricular activities as well, because no one benefits from an intelligent individual with no communication skills. It always upsets me when mathematicians or scientists write poorly and use the excuse that they are not English majors. What good is your theorem or discovery if I can’t understand what you are saying?
A little bit of a tangent there, but kudos to Alia for branching out. In a day and age of the No Child Left Behind Act, it is nice to see that there are still students pushing the envelope and achieving academically.
Media Credit: Photo from newsday.com
One Response to “The World’s Youngest College Professor”
What a great story, Kim. Thanks for sharing!
By Kelly on Apr 22, 2008