Gitanjali Rao

2020 TIME Top Young Innovator
2019 Forbes 30 Under 30
2018 EPA Presidential Award
2017 Discovery 3M Young Scientist Challenge Winnerker Award for Basic Medical Research

Gitanjali Rao, 18 years old, is an inventor, an aspiring scientist, author, speaker and an active promoter of STEM around the world. She was recognized as America’s Top Young Scientist and was a recipient of an EPA Presidential award for her patented invention of an innovative lead contamination detection tool.

Gitanjali is also the inventor of “Epione”—a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering, and “Kindly”—an anticyberbullying service using AI and Natural Language processing. She was honored as Forbes “30 Under 30 in Science” in 2019 and TIME’s “Top Young Innovator” and “TIME Kid of the Year” for her innovations and STEM workshops she conducts globally, which has inspired over 85,000 students in the last three years across 46 countries. Gitanjali is the author of the book “Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM”, available in 6 languages, which guides students, educators, or teachers through a selfdeveloped prescriptive 5 step innovation process.

She was appointed as a UNICEF Youth Advocate 2021 for using science for solving social problems such as cyber-bullying and developing solutions for environmental protection and recently received the Muhammed Ali Humanitarian and Martin Luther King Beloved Community award for her selfless service for the refugee camp students.

She is currently a freshman at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms. Rao was a Delegate to the 2019 Congress of Future Medical Leaders.