The Genius of Black People
Created by Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, TheHub.news presents its Black History Month series celebrating the genius of Black people—stories of courage, faith and creativity forged in struggle. Inspired by ancestors like Walter Francis White, this series honors sacred memory and lifts up the divine brilliance shaping justice and resilience today.
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Heman Bekele’s parents knew early that their son was destined for greatness. At four, he conducted his first science experiment and never looked back. Just before his seventh birthday, he received a chemistry set that included sodium hydroxide. While researching chemical reactions, he learned that sodium hydroxide and aluminum together can produce prodigious amounts of heat. That’s when his interest in mixing potions just to see what would happen began to shift into a desire to create something that could help others. “I thought this could be a solution to energy, to making an unlimited supply,” he told Time’s Jeffrey Kluger. Instead, he almost started a fire—but he didn’t stop experimenting. More than eight years later, at just 15, Heman Bekele’s scientific work would earn him the title of Time magazine’s 2024 Kid of the Year.
A year earlier, Bekele, a brilliant sophomore at Woodson High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, won the Young Scientist Challenge with his invention of a soap that can treat and possibly cure skin cancer. Whether it is his own work or others’, Bekele is passionate about skin-cancer research and finding a cure. “It’s incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on somebody else’s life,” he says. “That’s the reason I started this all in the first place.”
Born in Ethiopia, Bekele remembers his parents warning him and his sisters about the importance of protecting their skin with sunscreen or proper clothing. He recalls seeing laborers toil under the hot sun, their skin exposed and likely without protection. He didn’t think much of it until he arrived in the United States, where he has lived since he was four. There, he began to understand how dangerous overexposure to the sun and ultraviolet radiation can be.
Today, he continues work on his invention in a Baltimore lab alongside Vito Rebecca, a molecular biologist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins, whom he met at a Melanoma Research Alliance networking event. Their goal is to patent his soap and secure FDA certification—a process that may take several more years. Bekele has a head start thanks to his parents—a teacher and an HR specialist—who brought him and his two sisters to America so they could have a better education, honoring and nurturing their son’s interest in science. Now, other adults, including Deborah Isabelle, his mentor from 3M, which sponsored the challenge he won, recognize Bekele’s genius, expanding his village of individuals “stewarding him on his long scientific journey” and the road toward greatness.
Despite his accomplishments at such a young age, Heman Bekele remains humble about his invention. “Anybody could do what I did… I worked towards that idea, and I was able to bring it to life.” Heman Bekele’s mission to cure skin cancer earned him the honor of Time magazine’s “Kid of the Year” in 2024.
Source: https://time.com; Photo credit: Dina Litovsky
