This year's "America's Top Young Scientist" is a 14-year-old who developed a soap that effectively heals skin cancer.
Ninth-grader Heman Bekele from Annandale, Virginia, earned the top prize in the 3M and Discovery Education Middle School Science Fair.
With nine other finalists, Heman has spent the past four months trying to earn the title of "America's Top Young Scientist."
The goal of the competition is to inspire students in fifth through eighth grades to think outside the box and come up with a solution to a global problem.
Winners of the award get a $25,000 cash reward in addition to the honorable title of "Young Scientist of the Year."
Winners of the award get a $25,000 cash reward in addition to the honorable title of "Young Scientist of the Year."
Heman accepted the award on October 9 and 10 at 3M's headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. Heman created a chemical soap bar to cure melanoma. Production of one bar of soap runs roughly half a dollar.
Over the following five years, Heman plans to perfect his discovery and establish a nonprofit to distribute the soap to underprivileged areas, as reported by 3M and Discovery Education.