Social Good Engineering Magazine: GineersNow Social Innovation GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 001 | Page 46

PRODIGY
Jake Barnett:
Autistic Child
turned
Physics Genius
by Cielo Panda
Photo Source:
Indianapolis Monthly
Photo Source: Indianapolis Monthly
J
ake Barnett, born on
May 26th 1998, is
presently an American
Physics Student and
child prodigy. However,
his parents never knew
that he was—because at
the age of two, Jake was
diagnosed with Autism, Asperger Syn-
drome. Jake’s parents were crushed when
they were told he may never talk or read
ever again.  His parents never gave up
and used a special treatment for children
with autism called “floortime therapy”,
where children are allowed to play or
focus on subjects that interested them.
Jake showed a remarkable early interest
in astronomy and would study books of
stars over and over again.

During an outing to a local
planetarium, one of the presenters asked
the audience why the moons of Mars are
odd-shaped like potatoes. The three-
year-old Jake simply raised his hand

“Excuse me, but what are the
sizes of the moons around mars?”

The lecturer answered and
Jake looked at him and said,

“The gravity of the planet is so
large that [the moon’s] gravity would not
be able to pull it into a round shape.”

Silence filled the room. All
eyes were on 3-year old Jake. It was clear
what everyone was thinking.

“Who is this three year old?”

Jake continued to attend
public school, but was soon bored. Jake’s
parents took the psychologist’s advice
and withdrew him from school and
he was allowed to sit-in on astronomy
and advanced math classes at Indiana
46
University—Purdue Institute Indianap-
olis (IUPUI). Jake prepared for proper
college schooling, by learning—all by
himself—pre-requisite high school
math. This includes Algebra, Algebra 2,
Geometry, Trigonometry and Calculus.
He learned all this by himself in just two
weeks! He passed all the test that were
needed to exempt him from school. Jake
enrolled at the college at the young age of
twelve.

The prodigy, Jake, tutors
fellow students, normally graduate and
post-graduate students. He has healthy
discussions with professors and is de-
veloping an alternative theory of the Big
Bang Theory, his hypothesis being that
the Big Bang couldn’t have happened
through advanced math. He is also
presently a paid researcher in Quantum
Physics.

In 2013, Jake was admitted
to the Perimeter Scholars International,
a one-year non-degree master’s level
program at the Perimeter Institute for
theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario.
At the age of 15, he was the youngest
student admitted into the program. He
completed the program in 2014, and has
subsequently been listed as a doctoral
student at the Perimeter Institute.

Jake, also wants to help other
kids and adults who find mathematics
difficult. He believes that math can be
learned easily if the subject is presented
in a much simpler manner. So he plans
to write books on how to simplify math.
He has also appeared in TEDxTeens to
inspire other kids his age. This amazing
guy hopes that one day he will be able to
disprove Einstein’s theory of Relativity.