据美国《纽约邮报》22日报道，美国纽约长岛“女神童”艾莉娅·萨布尔10岁上大学，14岁在纽约州立大学石溪分校获得学士学位，随后在费城德雷塞耳大学攻读博士学位。今年2月19日，年仅18岁的艾莉娅被韩国建国大学正式聘为细胞科学全职教授。
吉尼斯世界纪录总部证实，18岁的艾莉娅已经打破了一项被前人保持了300年的世界纪录，成为有史以来“最年轻的大学教授”。在此之前，英国著名物理学家牛顿19岁的门徒科林·麦克劳林曾在1717年被英国大学聘为了教授。
连跳8级上大学
艾莉娅从小就是个“神童”。她两岁时就能读完全本小说，甚至能自己写一些短小说；艾莉娅在4年级时就学完了所有中学课程，10岁的她一连跳了8 级，直接升到纽约州立大学石溪分校攻读学士学位。艾莉娅在14岁时成功获得了学士学位。此后，她又来到费城德雷塞耳大学开始攻读博士学位，研究生毕业后， 18岁的艾莉娅来到路易斯安那州新奥尔良市南方大学任教，成了一名年轻的大学物理学教师。
今年2月19日，18岁的艾莉娅被韩国首尔市建国大学先进合成科技系正式聘为细胞科学全职教授，艾莉娅将于下个月前往韩国任教。
拒谈爱情私生活
不过，对于物理学之外的东西，艾莉娅似乎显得有些不自在，譬如她拒绝谈论男朋友等私生活话题。艾莉娅只是说，她在纽约和费城德雷塞耳大学中都有朋友，但由于她经常外出旅行，并且将大量时间花在了物理学研究上，所以她目前压根没有多少时间进行正常的社交活动。
Guinness names Northport teen world’s youngest professor
BY CARL MACGOWAN
Alia Sabur was appointed as a full-time faculty Professor at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea as research liaison with Stony Brook University. (Photo by Toby Armstrong / April 21, 2008)
Alia Sabur is accustomed to raising people’s eyebrows.
The child prodigy from Northport enrolled at Stony Brook University at age 10 and played clarinet with the Rockland Symphony Orchestra at 11.
So perhaps it was inevitable that Sabur would wind up in the Guinness Book of World Records.
That happened last month, when the venerable publication named Sabur the world’s youngest college professor.
Sabur was three days shy of her 19th birthday in February when she became a professor at Konkuk University, in Seoul. The previous record was held by a student of physicist Isaac Newton, Colin Maclaurin, who set the mark in 1717.
“He’s in every calculus textbook there is,” she said. “When I found out about it, I thought, ‘I can’t replace him.’ But it’s been 300 years and someone had to replace him, so why not me?”
Konkuk University has an academic partnership with Stony Brook University, where Sabur received a bachelor’s degree in 2003 — when she was 14. Sabur starts in Seoul next month.
She will be doing some classroom instruction, but mostly will focus on research into developing nanotubes for use as cellular probes, which could help discover cures for diseases such as cancer, she said.
Down the road, she would like to develop a noninvasive blood-glucose meter for people with diabetes, she said. Her mother, Julia, and her father, Mark, both have diabetes.
Sabur said classroom teaching in Seoul will be challenging because she doesn’t speak Korean. “I can speak math and music,” she said.
For now, she is teaching math and physics courses at Southern University in New Orleans. The college was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and remains largely housed in trailers, she said.
While there, she is staying at Mt. Carmel Mother House, a convent occupied by relief workers. She said she wanted to teach in New Orleans to help the city recover.
“They consider me a relief worker in a different way,” she said.
A fringe benefit of working at Southern has been exposure to New Orleans’ legendary music scene. Listening to the city’s jazz music has “opened me up a little bit,” Sabur said.
But she is looking forward to going to Korea next month, in part because the country is known for appreciating classical music.
Despite her numerous accomplishments — she started reading at age 2 — Sabur said she never had earned a Guinness world record before.
“I think one is pretty good,” Sabur said.
