Maya Burhanpurkar (born February 14, 1999) is a Canadian researcher.

Personal life

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]

Career

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]

References

External links

• personal web site