Gitanjali Rao

Gitanjali Rao is an innovator who is now 20 years old and is a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been recognized as America’s Top Young Scientist and is the innovator of many different products and services. First, she has created a tool to detect if there is lead contamination in water, for this she has received the EPA presidential award. Gitanjali has also invented “Epione” which is a device that will diagnosis early if patents start to have a prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering. She has also created “Kindly” an anti-cyberbullying service that uses AI and natural language processing. For this she was appointed as the UNICEF youth advocate for using science to solve social problems like cyberbullying and pollution. She also received the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award in 2023 and the Martin Luther King Beloved Community Award in 2024 for showing selflessness and a want to help students. Gitanjali has also written Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM available in 6 different languages which explains the five-step innovation process. She also conducts workshops globally; she has inspired over 210,000 students in 58 different countries. Overall, she has been very busy and has had a great impact on many different people and industries, but what started her on this path? Well, Gitanjali was born on November 19, 2005, in Lone Tree, Colorado. Ever since she was little Gitanjali was drawn to science, at only 10 she started to research how to detect lead in water. Which would later lead to her invention of lead pollution detection which is called “Tethys”. After her breakthrough of “Tethys” she has continued to research and invent new products and services. She has also continued to travel and speak out to others about her experiences and how they too can become innovators.