Heman Bekele, a 14-year-old high school student, has been named “America’s Top Young Scientist” for developing a revolutionary soap specifically designed to combat skin cancer. Heman Bekele attends WT Woodson High School in Annandale, Virginia, and is in the ninth grade. He was named “America’s Top Young Scientist” for developing an innovative soap specifically designed to combat skin cancer.
Heman spent the last four months fighting against nine other finalists, according to The New York Times, and he produced a compound-based bar of soap designed to treat melanoma. Making a bar of soap costs less than $10. According to 3M and Discovery Education, Heman aims to refine his concept and establish a non-profit organization to distribute the soap to underserved communities over the next five years.
According to The New York Times, Heman’s inspiration for the tournament stemmed from his childhood in Ethiopia. “There, I always saw people who were constantly working under the hot sun,” he remarked. At less than $10 a bar, the soap could help fight skin cancer. The soap would contain ingredients that would reactivate the cells that protect the human skin, allowing them to combat cancer cells.