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03/01/2025

03/01/2025

16/08/2024

15-year-old scientist, Heman Bekele - of Ethiopian origin - has been named TIME's 'Kid of The Year.'

He started experimenting with household items like dish soap and detergent around the age of four. Just before his 7th birthday, while trying to develop a 'solution to energy,' he created the most dangerous of what he describes as 'potions' which he says 'almost started a fire.'

Heman, born in Addis Ababa, realised the dangers of sun exposure after moving to America and began thinking about ways to help. He read about imiquimod, a drug used to treat skin cancer, and wondered if it could be made more accessible in the early stages of the disease. He proposed creating a bar of soap infused with the drug as an affordable and simple solution, potentially reducing the high costs of skin-cancer treatment.

In 2023, he submitted a video about his idea to the 3M competition, and was soon invited to pitch it at the company’s headquarters in Minnesota. He won the competition, securing a $25,000 prize to fund his research. Later, at a networking event hosted by the Melanoma Research Alliance in Washington, D.C., he met Vito Rebecca, a molecular biologist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins, who is providing him with a professional lab to continue his work.

16/08/2024