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Second Nexus © 2019
[DIGEST: Futurism, Chicago Tribune, Marie Claire, OZY]
Harvard University believes the world’s next Einstein is among us — and she’s a millennial.
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At age 23, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski is already one of the most well-known and accomplished physicists in the U.S. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Cuban-American Chicago native graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in just three years with a 5.0-grade point average, the highest possible, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard with full academic freedom — meaning she can pursue her own study on her own terms without staff interference.</span></p><p><div id="action_button_container"></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pasterski first attracted the attention of the scientific and academic community after single-handedly building her own single-engine airplane in 2008, at age 14, and documenting the process on </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=blVmHo_8bmA"><span style="font-weight: 400;">YouTube</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">MIT professors Allen Haggerty and Earll Murman saw the video and were astonished. “Our mouths were hanging open after we looked at it,” Haggerty </span><a href="http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/this-millennial-might-be-the-new-einstein/65094"><span style="font-weight: 400;">recalls</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “Her potential is off the charts.”</span></p><p><div data-conversation-spotlight=""></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At age 16, she piloted the aircraft herself over Lake Michigan, becoming the youngest person ever to fly their own plane.</span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img alt="Pasterski" class="" height="401" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAREAAAAJGZiMTdjMmRkLTVkNTEtNGVmNy1iN2NhLTU4M2I2MzQzNWNlMA.jpg" width="699"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Credit: <a href="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAREAAAAJGZiMTdjMmRkLTVkNTEtNGVmNy1iN2NhLTU4M2I2MzQzNWNlMA.jpg">Source</a>.</small></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I couldn’t believe it,” </span><a href="http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/this-millennial-might-be-the-new-einstein/65094"><span style="font-weight: 400;">recalls</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Peggy Udden, an executive secretary at MIT. “Not only because she was so young, but a girl.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pasterski had first flown a plane at age 9, an experience she casually relayed to a teacher at her public high school, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora. The teacher </span><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-remarkable-sabrina-pasterski-0802-2-20150728-story.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">replied</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">: "That's nice, but what have you done lately?"</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"That's become my mantra ever since," Pasterski </span><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-remarkable-sabrina-pasterski-0802-2-20150728-story.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chicago Tribune</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in a 2016 interview. "That's nice, but what have you done lately?"</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An only child, Pasterski </span><a href="http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/this-millennial-might-be-the-new-einstein/65094"><span style="font-weight: 400;">admits</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> she’s not on social media and, unlike the majority of her peers, has never had a boyfriend, smoked a cigarette, or drunk an alcoholic beverage. Instead, she spends her free time exploring the concepts of quantum gravity, black holes, and spacetime, the mathematical model that combines space and time into a single continuum. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Among the papers she’s published, which are listed along with other accomplishments on her website, </span><a href="http://physicsgirl.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">PhysicsGirl.com</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">: “S</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">emiclassical Virasoro Symmetry of the Quantum Gravity S-Matrix,” </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Gaussian Measures and the QM Oscillator,” </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">a</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">nd “Low’s Subleading Soft Theorem as a Symmetry of QED.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Her work in the physics community has led to standing job offers from Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin, and NASA, among others.</span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAzNzUyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTUzNTA5OX0.xQhoXyh1mDNYaUW_FP0Sc-T428LSLjHENMbxkLXllYk/img.jpg?width=980" id="9cdd5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bdfb8f130ae2ce95116fae990bd234f5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Credit: <a href="https://assets.rbl.ms/22037529/origin.jpg">Source</a>.</small></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though Pasterski herself is a standout, her interest is part of a larger trend of millennials — especially women — graduating with degrees in physics. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 1999, the number of physics graduates was at its </span><a href="https://futurism.com/this-woman-is-said-to-rival-einstein-and-shes-only-23/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">lowest point</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in four decades. However, according to the </span><a href="https://futurism.com/this-woman-is-said-to-rival-einstein-and-shes-only-23/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">American Institute of Physics</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, 8,081 bachelor’s degrees in physics were awarded in 2015—the highest number ever recorded. Some </span><a href="https://futurism.com/this-woman-is-said-to-rival-einstein-and-shes-only-23/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">theorize</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the increase is a direct result of more women enrolling in and staying with physics as a major.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Be optimistic about what you believe you can do,” Pasterski </span><a href="http://physicsgirl.com/youngwomenshonors.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a> <i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Marie Claire</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> earlier this year. “When you’re little, you say a lot of things about what you’ll do or be when you’re older—I think it’s important not to lose sight of those dreams.” </span></p>
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