Getting her doctorate - at 14
Karen Heller
Issue date: 2/5/04 Section: News
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Which is precisely what she is: A charming, poised 14-year-old engineering doctoral candidate at Drexel University, said to be the youngest female Ph.D. student in the nation.
"I'm studying nanophotonics," Alia said.
Nanopho-what?
Alia patiently describes her field of study to a severely science-impaired adult. "It's the study and creation of electronic devices using optics at the nanoscale," she said. "My area of interest is using fiber-optic cable to pass light through them and create hollow beams, like cones but hollow, and inside them you can trap atoms. The only way we have now is expensive, unreliable and hard to get. I'm trying to change that."
Actually, Alia discovered an alternative method in college, back when she was 12.
"We're going to help her apply for patents," said Drexel's dean of engineering, Selcuk Guceri.
Alia, who received a generous fellowship, began her doctoral program this month and, along with parents Julie and Mark Sabur, plans to move here from Long Island once they find a house, preferably near the campus in University City.
When Alia does something, she tends to do it extraordinarily well.
She went from fourth grade to college. "There was really no other option," she said. "I could go to college, do nothing, or rot in fifth grade."
She has a black belt in karate. Four years ago, she picked up the clarinet. Today, she studies with Philadelphia Orchestra principal Ricardo Morales, who accepts one out of 40 applicants. Two weeks ago, she played an impromptu concert at Guceri's home with acclaimed pianist Lang Lang. "It was really fun," Alia said.
Alia began reading when she was eight months old and now devours 100 pages in an hour.
Her senior year at Stony Brook University of the State University of New York, Alia mistakenly arrived two hours late for a 2 1/20-hour test in applied mathematics.
She finished in 15 minutes and received an A.
"I don't have a photographic memory, you see," she said. "I just have this ability to process information, and then once I understand it, I remember it. It goes into the right files."
As Guceri puts it, "She has a very unusual ability for comprehension. She looks at a physical phenomenon and can relate it to other areas. It's a complete picture of understanding."
Like most children, Alia is a work in progress. She's just on a faster schedule.