Konkuk hires world’s youngest prof

Alia Sabur

The youngest college professor in the history of the world will begin working next month at Konkuk University, the school said yesterday.
Nineteen-year-old Alia Sabur, of New York, has been formally recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. The former child prodigy received a bachelor’s degree from Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York, at the age of 14. Konkuk has an academic partnership with Stony Brook.
Sabur also has a master’s degree and has completed all of the requirements for a doctorate in materials engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia except for her dissertation, according to Sabur’s personal Web site.
Sabur will start teaching in the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion at Konkuk next month. According to the Long Island-based newspaper Newsday, Konkuk hired Sabur in February, three days shy of her 19th birthday.
The previous mark for the world’s youngest professor was held by Colin Maclaurin, a student of physicist Isaac Newton, who was hired at the Marischal College of Aberdeen, England in 1717 at the age of 19.
Konkuk said Sabur applied for the position last year after the university posted an advertisement in the United States. The school said it offered her a one-year contract.According to Newsday, Sabur does not speak Korean.
“I can speak math and music,” she was quoted as saying.

By Ser Myo-ja Staff Reporter [myoja@joongang.co.kr]