Page 90 - Grasp English B2 (Student Book)

7 Academics

[A] At a very young age, Jeremy Shuler’s parents [B] Alia Sabur’s parents also chose to move with her
realised he was a child prodigy. By the time he was when she started a PhD programme in science at the
two, he could read in both English and Korean, his age of fourteen. As well as being an academic, Alia is
mother’s first language. His parents, who are both a gifted musician and plays the clarinet, choosing to
aerospace engineers, decided it would be better study for her doctoral degree in Philadelphia because
to homeschool him, as he struggled to socialise with of the musical opportunities it offered. Unfortunately,
children of his own age. However, when he attended when she was studying there, she believed that one
maths camp, he quickly made friends, as he found he of her advisors was using her thesis research as his own
had similar interests with that group of people, despite and she took legal action against the university.
the fact they were older than him.
However most of her colleagues in the academic world
Having graduated from high school at just twelve, have shown strong support for her career development.
he then started to study for a bachelor’s degree at a In 2008, when she started work at a university in South
world-renowned university, Cornell. He is the youngest Korea just three days before her nineteenth birthday,
student the university has ever accepted, and it was she was named the world’s youngest professor by the
largely due to his parents’ decision to move to New Guinness Book of World Records.
York state that secured his place. The admissions board
at Cornell felt that whilst Jeremy was intellectually The Seoul university took on Alia as they hoped she
prepared for higher education, he would benefit from would be able to inspire students in a similar position.
continuing to live with his family as he adjusted to life Alia, too, has always been keen to encourage other
as a university undergraduate. He is likely to graduate students to do the best they can, especially when it
Cornell next year and, as to what the future holds, comes to girls gaining qualifications in maths and
a member of the engineering faculty stated: “One science. “If people tell you that you shouldn’t pursue it,
day he’ll solve some problem we haven’t even just ignore them,” she says.
conceived of.”

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