Heman won the title of America’s Top Young Scientist in 2023, thanks to his parents, who supported and developed his love of science.
Heman Bekele was keenly interested in his science experiments from a young age. By the age of seven, he enjoyed seeing the results after mixing after he got in his hand.
Highlights
- Heman Bekele was born and raised by his parents, Wondwossen and Muluemebet.
- Heman’s mother is a special education teacher at FCPS’s Lynbrook Elementary School.
- The young scientist’s father is a U.S. Agency for International Development human resources specialist.
Initially, he started his examinations by mixing soaps, and when he was gifted with a chemistry set, Heman began looking for chemical reactions.
Over the years, his craze for such activity started to grow. He studied online that aluminum and sodium hydroxide can produce prodigious amounts of heat.
He was selected as the rising 10th-grader at Woodson High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, by the 3M company and Discovery Education.
Additionally, Heman invented a great soap that could one day treat and even prevent multiple forms of skin cancer.
Heman Bekele Values His Father And Mother’s Support For His Passion
Heman Bekele was born to his paernts Wondwossen and Muluemebet in Ethiopia. At the age of four, Heman moved to the United States of America with his parents.
While growing up in Ethiopia for some years, he saw people working long hours under the hot sun.
Introducing our Kid of the Year, Heman Bekele: The fifteen-year-old invented a soap that could one day treat, and even prevent, some skin cancers https://t.co/3uonC5hDR9 pic.twitter.com/6gwdJwmQG8
— TIME (@TIME) August 15, 2024
People had a hard time, which has remained on Bekele’s mind since then. His parents also told him the importance of not staying in the sun for too long without sunscreen.
They even told their two other kids, Hasset and Liya, to be protected under the sun.
Furthermore, his mother, Muluemebet, is a special education teacher at FCPS’s Lynbrook Elementary School.
She describes her son as self-driven, saying he started exploring science at a young age.
Moreover, at a young age, Heman made his parents and other family members proud by making skin cancer-treating soap.
Being a notable figure at a young age, Bekele has also thanked his family and parents for supporting him throughout the journey.
Talking about his father, Wondwossen works as a human resources specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Bekele Is Likely To be Of Afro-American Racial Background
Heman Bekele and his parents spent most of their lives in Ethiopia, suggesting Bekele’s family is originally from Ethiopia.
Heman Bekele, the teen who invented a soap that could one day treat—and even prevent—some forms of skin cancer, is TIME’s Kid of the Year https://t.co/6IxgUm5Geg pic.twitter.com/rXwzb4upsa
— TIME (@TIME) August 15, 2024
Likewise, the exact details of Heman’s ethnicity remain unknown, but he is possibly of Afro-American descent. However, this is still to be confirmed.
A few details about Bekele’s private matters are available. Heman is mainly focused on his career, so he and his parents prefer keeping their personal information away from media appearances.
Additional Information
- Heman won a cash prize of $25,000 as the winner of its Young Scientist Challenge.
- Bekele works part of every weekday in a lab at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
- In 2023, he came across the 3M challenge and submitted a video explaining his idea.
