Sexiest Geeks Alive

There are many definitions of “geek” that we will be indulging on this blog. One defining characteristic of geek which is my personal favorite: Wondering “why?” and then proceeding to try to figure it out. Eva Vertes is just such a woman, one who is known for starting the process of investigation when she was just a girl.

photo from borazivkovic on Flickr

When she was 14, she wrote to a number of professors to see if she could work in their labs. Seems she was particularly interested in heavy metals and wanted to conduct some experiments. Her work led to the discovery of certain properties of a chemical compound called RPI-069 which demonstrated a dramatic effect on limiting the kind of cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s. Here’s her abstract on prospective Alzheimer’s treatment from when she was 17, which won her the title of “Best in the World in Medicine.” She figures she was able to start asking the questions which led to these discoveries particularly because she was naive in knowing how other people thought.

Eva wildly underestimates her ability simply to think in a different direction, as you can see in her talk at TED - when she was only 19. Now far more knowlegable in the field of medicine, she wonders about the purpose of cancer in our bodies, suggests a radical re-visioning of our understanding of cancer - and wonders if we can control and then harness it in the future. Sidenote: One of my other favorite things about the TED talk is that she shows one of my favorite classic geek traits: She’s nervous and awkward when trying to talk about herself, but as soon as she starts talking about her ideas, the words flow and she lights up. Now that’s sexy!

I wasn’t able to figure out where she is now. Google and targeted searches at Stanford, Princeton and Sylvester Cancer Insitute websites were fruitless. If anyone knows, I’d love an update!