Launching the "Girls Unleashed" interview series live from The Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, exclusively at LataUnleashed.com. Our inaugural interview features the brilliant Gitanjali Rao: Scientist, Pilot, Author, Inventor, and Time's FIRST-ever "Kid of the Year"!
Source: ColoradoParent
A testament to the brilliance of human minds, The Nobel Museum serves as the ideal platform to showcase brilliant young female inventors as this iconic institution has been a treasure trove of human ingenuity since 2001. However, history hasn’t always supported, much less heralded, women’s accomplishments in the same way as it has male innovators. At one point, U.S. laws even prohibited women from owning property. Consider this, imagine how many women inventors may have submitted U.S. Patents under their husband's names?
Women now earn half of all doctoral degrees in STEM subjects yet are awarded only 10% of U.S. patents. Women face greater obstacles as their patent applicants are more likely to be rejected, and sometimes required to submit a more “detailed” description then men are, which often weakens the protection afforded by the patent.
Women of Color patent holders shrink to an even smaller number, so it was serendipitous, almost miraculous, to meet an incredibly driven, ambitious and compassionate young South Asian-American girl like Gitanjali, who has already shattered the glass ceiling on multiple fronts.
In Pursuit of Excellence
Located in the picturesque Gamla Stan (Old Town) of Stockholm and honoring the inventor of dynamite and visionary founder of the Nobel Prize, Alfred Nobel, as you enter the Nobel Museum you are greeted by the iconic Nobel Prize medal.
Inspirational Quote: "Learning is the birth right of everyone" – Kailash Satyarthi.
Here are some of the brilliant women who have received the Nobel Prize previously!
Gitanjali embodies this legacy of excellence.
During my six-month journey from Tasmania through Estonia and the "happiest" countries in Scandinavia, the pinnacle was interviewing her at the first European Female Venture Capital Summit in Paris, part of Anne Ravanona's Global InvestHER Summit.
Picture of the two of us taken at the InvestHer Summit
Gitanjali embodies her own “Science for Kindness” approach to tackle some of the most critical problems on the globe, and was the ripe old age of 4 when she got started!
In 2020, TIME partnered with Nickelodeon to search social media and school districts across the US to find the most influential Kid of 2020, and Gitanjali was selected from 5,000 nominees. Her contributions span from developing a device to detect lead-contaminated water to launching an app to thwart cyber bullying. Aside from gracing the cover of Time magazine, she has also delivered a coveted TED Talk and was named in Forbes' 30 under 30 list last year.
Source: Time Magazine
Growing up in Colorado within a traditional South Asian home, Gitanjali has pursued everything from fencing and swimming to baking, piano, and Classical Indian Dance. According to Gitanjali, “I’ve always grown up in this environment where I was taught that you can’t just wait for someone else to do something; you have to take that first step [...] If you don’t like the way the world works, fix it.”
Indeed, Gitanjali started leveraging science and technology to drive social change when she was in 2nd grade. As Gitanjali told Angelina Jolie in an interview for Time, her first invention, Tethys, was motivated by her desire to create a feasible solution to catastrophes like the Flint, Michigan water crisis, which exposed thousands to lead-contaminated water. Tethys uses carbon nanotubes to detect lead in water faster than any existing ltechniques, communicating measured, lead-induced changes in electrical resistance via Bluetooth. Awarded the Young Scientist Challenge in 2017 for her prototype of Tethys, Gitanjali is now working with the Denver water facility to further refine the device.
Gitanjali Rao testing out her first innovation, Tethys Credit: India Times
She then went on to create Kindly, an app that uses AI to catch early signs of cyberbullying, and also worked on Epione, a device that employs epigenetics and genetic engineering to identify early-stage opioid addiction, empowering physicians to assess risk, halt addiction progression and enhance preventive measures. Her groundbreaking work earned her the Top "Health" Pillar Prize in the 2019 TCS Ignite Innovation Student Challenge and recognition as Time’s top young innovator in 2020.
Source – Instagram
Gitanjali's mission is to cultivate a global community of young innovators focused on impactful solutions. She champions focusing on one exciting solution rather than attempting to solve all problems, likening it to being a superhero. Her recent feature in Marvel’s Hero Project showcases her as "Genius Gitanjali."
Her feature on Marvel as Genius Gitanjali
Empowering the next generation, she shares her passion by mentoring over 30,000 students, particularly aspiring female STEM enthusiasts. She has also authored a number of inspirational STEM novels for students, including "A Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM" and "Baby Brother Wonders."
Source: Instagram
As Gitanjali explains, “It’s weird to me that it was almost like people had assigned roles, regarding their gender, their age, the color of their skin,” and she claims that her “goal has really shifted not only from creating my own devices to solve the world’s problems but inspiring others to do the same as well.”
As a South Asian-American scientist, patent litigator, entrepreneur, and investor funding female-founded US startups, I'm encouraged to see Gitanjali, a young South Asian woman, recognizing the racial and gender-based inequities in STEM fields and acting as a “STEM promoter” to encourage and inspire young people everywhere.
What a delight conversing with Gitanjali garnering insights from this budding innovator's impressive journey so far, and learning more about her future vision and aspirations. Not only is she an inspiration to her generation, but she is living proof that age is not a barrier to making a significant impact on the world. Let's support and invest in the next generation of leaders who, like Gitanjali, are already changing the world.
Stay tuned for more insightful and inspirational interviews with our “Girls Unleashed” Leadership Series.
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