I consider myself reasonably intelligent, or at least intelligent enough that I can admit when someone is better at me than something because hubris doesn’t look good on anyone. So when Cigdem Kahyaoglu, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Toledo, Ohio, tweeted out a photo of Daniel, an 11-year-old in her orgo class, you bet your bottom dollar I was immediately ready to bow down to our new child-genius overlord:
https://twitter.com/cigdemk14/status/767688383393038336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Despite being 11, Daniel is technically in high school but takes some classes at Toledo as well. According to Cigdem, he was even making the rounds at UT calculus classes last year:
https://twitter.com/cigdemk14/status/767788509486866433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
With over 85,000 re-tweets and 170,000 likes, people started replying to Cigdem’s tweet with all manner of suggestions, some saying they want to be his new friend while others advised to capitalize on his smarts:
https://twitter.com/markserranopro/status/767757047253262339
https://twitter.com/SharksOnCouches/status/767726698661937152
@Mr_TR3maQUElate 😊 email him and keep in touch over the next few years. Could be the building blocks to a job in the future 😉
— K.🖤 (@COCOKayyy) August 22, 2016
lemme have his email 😂 I gotta take that class
— 🌟DanGlo🌟 (@DanGlo__) August 22, 2016
https://twitter.com/Nudah/status/767787073986256896
https://twitter.com/xoxxxoooxx/status/767760401362743296
https://twitter.com/frootgarden/status/767784325161050112
@sanalokhat where was he when I was failing chem
— Saarah H (@SaarahTailor) August 22, 2016
One guy is apparently a student at the high school he goes to and says he’s nice but rambunctious:
https://twitter.com/NathanCard_/status/767741559764754432
This would be overwhelming for any normal 11-year-old, but for Daniel it may just be a walk in the park. According to Metro he was the youngest ever Chemical Educational Foundation’s National Challenge Champion in 2015, and won a $10,000 scholarship to the college of his choice at the White House Science Fair in April.
Daniel Liu, You Be the Chemist National champ, visiting the White House today for the science fair @POTUS @chem_ed pic.twitter.com/S7SR1omXYl
— Benjamin McMurray (@OHHSPrincipal) April 13, 2016
He’s even met Bill Nye the Science Guy:
@cigdemk14 two GOATs in one photo 🐐🐐 pic.twitter.com/2rWHPIhdC6
— Luke Dangler (@dangles1707) August 23, 2016
Give it a few years and I’m sure we’ll be seeing Daniel on the cover of TIME for curing cancer, creating perpetual motion or finally figuring out where all the missing socks go after they teleport out of the dryer. Ideally the third option, as I own a lot of socks and don’t have cancer. The important stuff in life, y’know?
[H/T Metro]