Since childhood, Daniel Liu has shown intelligence, knowing how to read the alphabet at 1 year old and reading fluently at 2 years old. At 9 years old, Daniel took honors courses in Chemistry and Advanced Statistics. At 10 years old, he participated in the national You Be the Best Chemist competition.

Beating 30,000 contestants, Daniel won the prize of 10,000 USD (240 million VND). This achievement gave Daniel the opportunity to meet President Obama at the White House. "This has sparked my love for Chemistry. I feel that Chemistry always exists around our lives," the male student shared.

At the age of 13, the boy enrolled in advanced courses in Chemistry at the University of Toledo (Ohio, USA). Here, Daniel became famous on social networks when he appeared in an Inorganic Chemistry class, confidently telling his friends: "If you have any questions, you can ask me via email."

During this time, Daniel also worked in the laboratory of organic chemistry professor Michael Young. In fact, the laboratory at the University of Toledo (USA) would prohibit children under 12 years old, but because Daniel had strong scientific research ability and knowledge, he was given special access.

Under the guidance of Professor Michael Young, Daniel successfully published his first paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The research on how to produce pharmaceuticals in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way earned Daniel a patent.

daniel-liu-1.png
Daniel Liu - Chinese-American prodigy, currently a software engineer at Google.

In 2019, the family moved from Ohio to Michigan so that Daniel could focus on studying and working in the Melanie Sanford Chemistry Laboratory. At that time, the male student was studying a dual degree at the University of Michigan (USA), majoring in Chemistry and Computer Science.

At age 14, Daniel is officially the youngest member of the Melanie Sanford Chemistry Lab at the University of Michigan. Every week, Daniel spends 10 hours in the lab doing research, under the direct guidance of Professor Melanie Sanford.

Studying at university at the age of 14, Daniel could not avoid being doubted by others for what he did. However, professors and doctors still trusted the boy. Professor Melanie Sanford said: "Seeing Daniel work seriously and achieve remarkable research results, I saw no difference between him and other students." Dr. Mohit Kapoor, who has worked with Daniel for a long time, said that the boy is as mature as a researcher.

With outstanding achievements in studying and researching, in 2022, Daniel received the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. The prestigious scholarship is awarded to outstanding students participating in research in the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). After 4 years of continuous efforts, in 2023, Daniel graduated with an absolute GPA of 4.0.

Talking about his future plans, Daniel said: "For Chemistry, I will continue to research deeper into the issues of interest. As for Computer Science, I want to work at Google or similar companies."

Daniel has now joined Google as a software engineer. To achieve this, Daniel said, he is always grateful to his parents for their wholehearted support that helped him maximize his talents in Chemistry and Computer Science.

The incident before the exam of the male student who won the Gold Medal at the Chemistry Olympiad Right before the first round, Nguyen Kim Giang had a high fever so the result was not as expected. With the encouragement of his teacher, the male student got up and continued his journey to conquer the Gold Medal.