Gitanjali Rao is an inventor, an aspiring scientist, author, speaker and an active promoter of STEM around the world. She was recognized as America's Top Young Scientist and was a recipient of an EPA Presidential award for her patented invention of an innovative lead contamination detection tool. Rao is also the inventor of “Epione”—a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering, and "Kindly"—an anti-cyberbullying service using AI and Natural Language processing.

She was honored as Forbes “30 Under 30 in Science” in 2019 and TIME’s “Top Young Innovator” and "TIME Kid of the Year" for her innovations and STEM workshops she conducts globally, which has inspired over 68,000 students in the last two years across six continents and 42 countries.

Rao is the author of the book "Young Innovator's Guide to STEM", which guides students, educators, or teachers through a self-developed prescriptive 5 step innovation process. She was appointed as a UNICEF Youth Advocate 2021 for using science for solving social problems such as cyber-bullying and developing solutions for environmental protection . She is conducting her research on optimizing a key step in the gene sequencing method for quicker detection of viruses at the Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA.

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