Gitanjali Rao

Gitanjali Rao has been recognized as America’s Top Young Scientist and has received an EPA Presidential award for inventing her device ‘Tethys’—an early lead detection tool. Gitanjali is also the inventor of ‘Epione’—a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering—and ‘Kindly’—an anti-cyberbullying service that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing. She was honoured as Forbes’s ‘30 Under 30 in Science’ in 2019, TIME’s ‘Top Young Innovator’ and TIME’s first ‘Kid of the Year’ in 2020 for her innovations and STEM workshops she conducts globally, which has inspired 35,000 students in the last two years across four continents. In her sessions, she shares her own process of innovation that can be used by students all over the world. She is an experienced TED speaker and often presents in global and corporate forums on innovation and the importance of STEM.