HANNAH HERBST

ABOUT HANNAH

Hannah Herbst has a passion for learning, solving problems, and helping others. She graduated from Florida Atlantic University High School in 2019, and is finishing her bachelor's degree at Florida Atlantic University in 2020.

Hannah created an ocean energy probe prototype that seeks to offer a stable power source to developing countries using untapped energy from ocean currents. This innovation was inspired by Hannah's desire to help her nine-year-old penpal living in Sub-Saharan Africa, where many people live in energy poverty with sporadic or no access to electricity. In addition, Hannah has explored early identification methods for hazardous airborne chemicals in collaboration with I-SENSE at Florida Atlantic University, and is currently studying the properties of shark skin for medical applications at the Florida Atlantic Biomechanics Lab.

Hannah won the 2015 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, earning the title of "America's Top Young Scientist", was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2018, and was awarded first place and Best of Category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2019 (see a complete list of awards). She has received 6 research grants from Florida Atlantic University, and has delivered keynote addresses at the United Nations, USA Science and Engineering Festival, Social Innovation Summit, National Science Olympiad Competition, and World Science Festival. She has been featured in many publications including WIRED, Forbes, and Porter magazines, and the Huffington Post. She has a passion for educating others, especially young girls, using STEM, and has exhibited her research at the 2016 White House Science Fair, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology and FURC conferences, and the United State of Women summit. Hannah was co-captain of FIRST robotics team 7152 for two years, competing in the 2018 Houston World Championship, and now serves as a FIRST mentor. She ran as varsity captain in Track and Cross Country at FAU High School, and led her team to district, regional, and state titles in 2019.