Last month, Dr. Fogarty, one of the most accomplished medical icons and entrepreneurs, and Tanishq Abraham, one of the brightest young minds in the world, met at the Fogarty Institute for Innovation to share ideas on medical innovation and discuss Tanishq’s future educational plans and career aspirations.
Tanishq is a 12-year-old boy with an abnormally high IQ – he is the youngest American member of MENSA, a high IQ society, where he scored in the 99.9 percentile. His accomplishments are already numerous and quite impressive, including graduating from the American River College in Sacramento in one year with degrees in Mathematical and Physical Sciences, General Science and Foreign Language Studies with a GPA of 4.0; speaking at a NASA conference and writing articles for the organization; appearing on the Queen Latifah Show to discuss his solar discoveries; and speaking at a TED conference explaining the exoplanets and supernovas he has already discovered and discussing climate change.
Tanishq wants to study bioengineering and become a surgeon, among other aspirations. During his meeting with Dr. Fogarty, he received great career advice, including the benefits and challenges of becoming a surgeon, the importance of surrounding yourself with strong team members and to always keep the end goal in mind: to serve and benefit the patient.
The young man also had an opportunity to meet with some of our startups and learn about the incredible work they are doing to solve some of the most critical health issues. Surbhi Sarna, founder and CEO of nVision, shared her experience studying bioengineering at Berkeley and what it takes it takes to launch a successful medtech startup; EchoPixel gave Tanishq a test drive of their innovative 3D imaging technology; and G-Tech showcased their technology for the early diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases and disorders.