Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski set her sights high from an early age, even building her own plane at the age of twelve and later piloting it herself, flying it above the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Now, at 22, Pasterski is being hailed by her peers as the “New Einstein.” As the first female in decades to graduate at the top of her undergraduate physics program at MIT with a 5.0 grade point average, she is currently pursuing her doctorate in theoretical high energy physics at the Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature at Harvard.
Pasterski has done research in black holes, spacetime and quantum gravity, and her work has been cited by Stephen Hawking and her own Harvard advisor Andrew Strominger, among others. She’s been granted thousands of dollars in support of her research, including a $250,000 Hertz Foundation fellowship and a $150,000 National Science Foundation fellowship. Forbes named her to its 30 Under 30 All-Star list.
This is all pretty heady stuff, but Pasterski seems to be quite down-to-earth. She claims never to have had a sip of alcohol or tried a cigarette, and she steers clear of most social media. She does, however, maintain a website called PhysicsGirl where she lists her appearances in the press and at international conferences and her impressive accomplishments to date.
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