11岁上大学，13岁发《JACS》！这位华裔天才少年碾压大学生：有不懂的可以问我（附视频）

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想象一下，当你满怀憧憬的走进大学教室，却发现你的助教是一名11岁小孩。并且告诉你：“有问题可以发email给我。”

这也……太Shock了吧！但这个小孩确有其人，他叫丹尼尔·刘（Daniel Liu）。

10岁上高中（渥太华山Ottawa Hills），他就赢得2015届化学教育基金会举办的“你是化学家”（You Be the Chemist）挑战赛，击败四万名对手并获得1万美元奖金。丹尼尔是比赛中年纪最小的选手，同时也是该比赛有史以来年纪最小的获胜者。

11岁他被美国托莱多大学（University of Toledo）录取。但由于缺少高中学分，他同时也在高中上课。“我正在UT参加我的所有课程，但我也在高中就读，所以我在那里获得了这些课程的学分。”实验室、大学课程、高中课程，丹尼尔同时兼顾三方。

在大学中，由于课程难度，大多数学生都未能参加迈克尔·杨的有机化学讲座。然而在2017年春季的首次测试中，丹尼尔获得了99分，该课程平均分仅为50，这震惊了迈克尔教授。丹尼尔现在是迈克尔教授实验室的研究员。并且去年他与人合著发表了一篇论文，该论文承诺以更快，更便宜，更环保的方式制造药物和杀虫剂。

13 Year-Old Boy Genius

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Most students fail the first midterm in Michael Young’s organic chemistry lecture at the University of Toledo. In spring 2017, the average was a 50. But one student, Daniel Liu, scored a 99.

“He smoked the competition,” Mr. Young said.

Daniel is now a researcher in Mr. Young’s lab. He co-authored a paper, published on May 22, that promises a faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly way to make pharmaceutical drugs and pesticides.

He is 12 years old.

Every year, Mr. Young has students join his lab. Daniel was interested right away. “I did a bit of background research,” he explained.

UT’s Environmental Health and Radiation Safety department does not allow children under 12 to be in labs. But with his parents’ permission, Daniel was able to start work in Mr. Young’s lab more than a year ago, when he was still 11.

“Having Daniel has definitely been interesting,” Mr. Young said. “On the one hand, his intellect is very much like an adult, but socially he’s still a kid.”

Early on, Daniel had to be told to clean up and peppered fellow researchers with questions, which sometimes rubbed others the wrong way, Mr. Young said.

But now, “he’s like a lab mascot,” the professor said.

Daniel blends in at the lab, handling chemicals, chatting with colleagues, and operating the Rotovap, his favorite piece of lab equipment.

He wears bright blue goggles over his glasses and an extra-small lab coat he brought for himself with a Buzz Lightyear T-shirt underneath.

Sometimes he has to stand on his tiptoes to grab what he needs.

In his time in the lab, he has learned to take initiative and to clean up after himself. “He’s grown emotionally to the point where I consider that he’s almost a regular undergraduate,” Mr. Young said.

Mohit Kapoor, a postdoctoral associate in the lab, said he enjoys working with Daniel.

The two were co-authors on a recent paper. Daniel double-checked Mr. Kapoor’s writing, verified results, and did some writing of his own.

Daniel explained that he and Mr. Kapoor converted bonds into molecules during their research. “Currently the methods to make these are going to use four or five steps for the one step that we are able to use,” he said.

While they work, Mr. Kapoor said, “we talk a lot.” Daniel said that most of his friends are from high school or UT, particularly the lab.

“Daniel is always here Monday through Friday,” Mr. Young added. “He often asks, ‘Oh, can I come in on Saturday?’ and sometimes we let him.”

Daniel’s intelligence was evident as early as kindergarten, Ottawa Hills School District Superintendent Kevin Miller said. He skipped through several grades in elementary school.

After he finished fifth grade, Daniel headed straight to high school in fall 2015. This past school year, technically his junior year, he took all of his classes at UT.

“At one point Daniel pretty much tapped us out of our extensive offerings in math and science,” Mr. Miler said. “Ultimately, we work closely with UT regarding Daniel’s academic needs because they are obviously very special.”

Daniel has a 4.0 GPA at UT. He said he likes school because he gets to learn new things.

Though he no longer takes classes at Ottawa Hills High School, Daniel is still considered a high school student. He participates in Science Olympiad and Quiz Bowl. The latter team won a national championship in April.

Daniel is no stranger to national recognition. In 2015, he was the youngest-ever winner of the national You Be A Chemist challenge, a Quiz Bowl-style competition. He made it through 11 rounds of chemistry-related questions to win a $10,000 check.

The following year, a classmate in Daniel’s organic chemistry course at UT posted a photo of him online. The tweet quickly went viral, garnering Daniel articles in the Huffington Post and Teen Vogue.

Daniel and Mr. Young both attest that this did not affect their research.

Right now, Daniel is working on two of his own projects. “I gave him a goal and he is doing some of the work to actually try to obtain that goal,” Mr. Young said.

Daniel does not remember how he became interested in chemistry, but said he would like to be a researcher or professor when he grows up.

In a year, he will graduate from Ottawa Hills High School. He said he would like to go somewhere else for college but “it depends on if I get in.”

For now, he is taking a second-year Spanish class at UT over the summer. When class lets out at 11:30 a.m., he heads up to the lab.

On Sunday, Daniel celebrates his 13th birthday. He does not know what he will do to celebrate, but on Saturday he plans to bring cake to the lab.

在2016年，一个美国大学女生被自己11岁的助教惊呆了：“这个在我有机化学课上的孩子只有11岁。他说如果有问题可以给他发email”

Daniel Liu is a child genius who won hearts online when he was 11 years old after he went viral for offering to help his much older college classmates. Back in 2016, the science whiz was taking classes at the University of Toledo while also enrolled at his high school.

一年以后，女生发推特说她的朋友在更高级的化学课上看到了这个小孩儿。他坐在教室的最前排，看来还是在当助教……

Mohit Kapoor, a postdoctoral associate in the lab who worked with Liu on the paper published back in May, said the boy was a pleasure to work with. According to Liu, their research involved him and Kapoor converting bonds into molecules. “Currently the methods to make these are going to use four or five steps for the one step that we are able to use,” he noted.

然后在去年，已经没有同学能找到这个小孩子的身影了。女生从校报那里得知：原来他是去参加研究项目了，已经不上课了…

推特发出后，无数网友表示震惊：11岁的自己连小学都没毕业，整天想着揪前排女生的辫子，结果人家已经把大学课程学完了…

The tweet went viral, turning the chemist prodigy into an instant online sensation.

这个11岁就上大学有机化学课的孩子，叫Daniel Liu，是一位华裔少年。(他今年13岁，过了6月份就14岁了)。

Daniel在10岁就上了高中。11岁时，他参加了美国有名的青少年化学大赛“你是一个化学家”(You Be The Chemist)，从3万多竞争对手中脱颖而出拿到冠军，并且成为了这项比赛有史以来年纪最小的获奖者。Daniel还因此在白宫受到了即将卸任的奥巴马的接见。

Liu’s remarkable achievements actually go way back to 2015, when he beat over 30,000 other students to become the youngest to win the Chemical Educational Foundation’s “You Be the Chemist” challenge at age 10, in his freshman year of high school.

除了奥巴马，他还“接见”了全美家喻户晓的科学节目主持人Bill Nye▼

显然，在获得这些荣誉以后，高中的课程对于Daniel来说已经不足以满足他的学习需求了。

于是11岁的他通过大学项目，来到了托雷多大学学习大学水平的化学课程。

什么？你问为什么这个大学你没听说过？

这是因为Daniel其实还没有从高中毕业啊！他现在名义上还是一个高中生，挂名在家附近的高中，但实际上每天是在托雷多大学上课修大学学分。而选这个大学的原因，纯粹是因为离家近而已。

等到他今年下半年高中正式毕业，他就可以申请MIT或者哈佛了。

来到托雷多大学上课的Daniel依然进度飞快。他在很短的时间里上完了大学的化学课程，然后在2018年开始，选择加入学校的研究项目，和研究生博士生一起进行化学研发工作。

Daniel参加的前沿研究项目，是为了找到一种更廉价、快捷的大规模生产药物的方法。

Two years later, at age 13, Liu would go on to co-author a research paper that promises a faster, cheaper and more environmentally friendly way to make pharmaceutical drugs and pesticides.

他的同事告诉记者：“Daniel真的什么都懂，他参加了整个实验过程的方方面面。”可以说，Daniel是这个实验的核心人物。”

“和他工作的时候，就好像在和一个博士生工作一样。”

“Having Daniel has definitely been interesting,” Young said. “On the one hand, his intellect is very much like an adult, but socially he’s still a kid.”