Maya Burhanpurkar

Burhanpurkar was born in Orillia, Ontario, Canada and completed high school in 2016 at Barrie North Collegiate Institute.[1][2] She was an undergraduate majoring in physics at Harvard College. She has been awarded a Rhodes scholarship to study Computer Science and the Philosophy of Physics at Oxford University.[3]

At the age of 10, Burhanpurkar built a microbiology lab in her family basement and began conducting scientific experiments after volunteering in a hospital in India.[4][5] Two years later, she developed an intelligent-antibiotic which selectively kills pathogenic bacteria such as E-coli but preserves intestinal microbiota.[6]

When she was 13, she received the Platinum Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair for her work on the cardiac and gastrointestinal safety of two Alzheimer's drugs.[7][8] Burhanpurkar was inspired to study the safety of Alzheimer’s drugs after the death of her grandfather from Alzheimer’s disease.[9][10]

At the age of 14, Burhanpurkar conducted fundamental physics research for which she was again awarded the Platinum Award at the Canada-Wide Science fair.[11] She made the first physical detection of absement with a team in Steve Mann’s lab, competed at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair,[12] and was selected as a regional finalist for the 2013 Google Science Fair.[13][14]

She filmed a documentary on the effects of climate change on Inuit communities featuring Chris Hadfield and Margaret Atwood after an expedition to the Arctic which received the international Gloria Barron prize.[15][16][17][18]

In 2013, Burhanpurkar was named one of Canada's Top 20 Under 20.[1] She was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)[19] and was the Ontario Junior Citizen of the Year (2010).[20]