Meet The World’s Youngest Professor   

At 19 years old, Alia Sabur is the youngest college professor in history. From Northport,  New York, U.S.A. Alia has clearly been ahead of the learning curve since an early age. She  started talking and reading when she was just 8 months old. She finished elementary school  at age 5 and made the jump to university at age 10. And by age 14, Alia earned a bachelor’s  of science degree in applied mathematics summa cum laude from Stony Brook University — the  youngest female in U.S. history to do so. Her education continued at Drexel University,  where she earned an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering. On top of her  unprecedented academic achievements, Sabur has a black belt in the Korean martial art of tae  kwon do and is also a music prodigy. She has been playing clarinet with orchestras since her  solo debut at age 11, playing with recording artists Lang Lang and Smash Mouth.

•Alia Sabur.

With an unlimited future ahead of her, Alia directed her first career choice to teaching.  She was three days short of her 19th birthday in February when she was hired to become a  professor at Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. This distinction made her the youngest  college professor in history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, beating the  previous record held by Colin Maclaurin, a student of physicist Isaac Newton, in 1717.

Explaining why she chose teaching, Alia said: “I really feel I can help a lot of people.” At  Konkuk University, Ali said she will take part in classroom instruction, but will also focus  on research into developing nanotubes for use as cellular probes that could help aid in  cures for diseases.

Before taking up the appointment, however, Alia has taken up teaching math and physics  courses at Southern University in New Orleans, which is still struggling from the  devastation left in Hurricane Katrina’s wake in 2005. Funny enough, though she is old enough  to teach in New Orleans, she cannot join her fellow professors in a bar after work. In  Korea, where the drinking age is 20, she might have more luck. In traditional Korean  culture, children are considered to be 1 year old when they are born, and add a year to  their age every New Year instead of their actual birthday, so in Korea Sabur is considered  20.

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