youngest person to publish research paper

International Book of Records

"youngest to publish maximum research papers (female)", - naeesha halai (maharashtra, india).

Record Category

Solo Activity

Record Holder

1st Holder NAEESHA HALAI

YOUNGEST TO PUBLISH MAXIMUM RESEARCH PAPERS (FEMALE)

Maharashtra, Mumbai, India

AWARDED ON?

Mon 27-Sep, 2021

Description

The World Record of “YOUNGEST TO PUBLISH MAXIMUM RESEARCH PAPERS (FEMALE)” is achieved by NAEESHA HALAI on 27th September 2021 from Mumbai (Maharashtra) India. 21 years 2 months 25 days old Naeesha published 26 research papers in the field of law, politics, and human rights and has set a new world record for the International Book of Records.

Images Showcase

Featured Reviews

Salute the talent.

• PRIVACY POLICY
• TERMS & CONDITIONS
• RECORD POLICY

We have emailed you a PDF version of the article you requested.

Can't find the email?

Please check your spam or junk folder

You can also add [email protected] to your safe senders list to ensure you never miss a message from us.

"A Six-Year-Old Who Loves Owls May Be The Youngest Author Of A Scientific Paper"

Cancel and go back

IFLScience needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out our Privacy Policy

Advertisement

Sign up today to get weekly science coverage direct to your inbox

© 2023 IFLScience. All Rights Reserved

Newsletters  in your inbox!

Subscribe today for our  Weekly Newsletter  in your inbox!

A Six-Year-Old Who Loves Owls May Be The Youngest Author Of A Scientific Paper

Stephen Luntz

Freelance Writer

Stephen has a science degree with a major in physics, an arts degree with majors in English Literature and History and Philosophy of Science and a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication.

Book View full profile

Book Read IFLScience Editorial Policy

DOWNLOAD PDF VERSION

Grace Fulton published a scientific paper. Graham Fulton

Many young children love exploring nature and have the inquisitorial minds that make the best scientists. Few, however, get to have their name on a peer-reviewed paper, and it seems likely Grace Fulton has set a record by doing so at the age of six. Although her father is her co-author, he is keen to stress Grace's authorship is not simply for show, she's played an important part at several stages of the research.

Graham Fulton  is an ornithologist at the University of Queensland. His research includes how well owls adapt to urban environments. “Grace absolutely adores owls,” Graham said in a  statement . “She was only four when she started spending nights with me in the rainforest searching for them, and now she knows all of their calls."

For his most recent research, Graham compared the presence of owls at a Brisbane park with the nearby Mount Glorious rainforest. He told IFLScience that “[Grace] attended fieldwork on all occasions and always [attended] school the next day. She was in Prep at that stage. She could read the data and tell which owl was most common both on the data (excel sheet) and from being at the fieldwork. She could recall the moments I forgot.”

“She asks questions that inspire research, looks at the data, never stops learning, corrects me when I mark down the wrong bird,” Graham added, so when the work was published in  Pacific Conservation Biology , both Fultons were listed as authors.

The authors found a near absence of owls in the suburbs, aside from one southern boobook outside the study itself. Meanwhile, five species of owls demonstrate the health of the rainforest site.

“We think that city parks must be linked to larger forests where the owls breed. They then enter the parks looking for food sporadically,” Graham said.

There is no Guinness World Record for the youngest published scientist. However, when Sophia Spencer co-authored a study on social media and the  love of science , she was widely reported as being the youngest author of a published scientific paper. As far as we can determine, no one challenged this claim so it seems likely Grace has now broken the record by more than a year.

Grace is also the lead author of a paper currently undergoing review, in which she recorded a bird nesting in a previously unrecorded type of environment. Grace has expressed an intention to eventually become a butterfly researcher, despite her father telling her, “They're just bird food.”

The Fultons are  crowdfunding  to go to North Queensland once the lockdown ends to extend into new territory a study on aggression in honeyeaters Graham has been conducting for 29 years.

ARTICLE POSTED IN

More nature stories.

Zaps From Electric Eels Might Transfer DNA To Other Animals

Vampire Finches Live On Wolf Island And Have A Very Strange Diet

The “Age Of Snakes” – How Dinosaur Mass Extinction Let Snakes Feast On New Diverse Diets

IFLScience The Big Questions: Are We Ready For The Next Massive Solar Flare?

IFLScience The Big Questions: How Are Glaciers Changing In A Warming World?

What NASA Said In Their Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Study Report

• YOUNGEST RESEARCH PAPER…

YOUNGEST RESEARCH PAPER AUTHOR TO WRITE RESEARCH PAPERS IN TECHNOLOGY

• October 8, 2021

Anshu Malika Roja Selvamani (Born on 10th September 2003) of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, became the Youngest Research paper author Author at the age of 17 years to write a research paper on the technological subject “Face Recognition Bot Using Deep Learning” and it was published into International Journal of Research on December 2020.

Related post

YOUNGEST GIRL TO IDENTIFY FLAGS AND THEIR...

TODDLER TO SOLVE THE MAXIMUM PIECES OF...

YOUNGEST TO SOLVE THE MAXIMUM PIECES OF...

Search world records, submit a record..

MOST BOITAS EVER CREATED AND FLOATED BY PEOPLE...

FASTEST FLASH CARDS IDENTIFIED BY A TODDLER

LARGEST PUSHPIN MOSAIC (LOGO)

YOUNGEST GIRL TO IDENTIFY FLAGS AND THEIR COUNTRIES’...

Longest letter to god by brahmakumaris india, largest collection of miniature books – nikunj vagadiya, indian beard artist world record.

Copyright 2014 - 2019 @ Genius Foundation & World Records India

Perth boy Rehan Somaweera has become one of Australia's youngest authors of a scientific paper

A father and son bonding over their love for snorkeling has lead to 10-year-old Rehan Somaweera becoming one of the youngest people in Australia to author a published scientific paper.

Key points:

• Rehan Somaweera discovered an interesting unknown fact about the WA common octopus 
• He and his dad confirmed the discovery by recording what they saw across four different reefs
• His findings were published in a CSIRO journal and he now dreams of being a scientist 

Whenever the sun is shining, Rehan and his dad Ru put on their wetsuits and flippers and jump in the sparkling blue water at Perth's Mettams Pool.

It was on one of these underwater adventures that year five student Rehan fell hook, line and sinker for the West Australian common octopus because of its "weird skin" and eight tentacles. 

"When I saw the octopus it hooked me in because it looked like a creature from a different planet," he said. 

With a now-piqued interest in the WA common octopus, Rehan noticed the species was often hanging out with the brown-spotted wrasse fish. 

"I thought it could be by coincidence, but it wasn't, it was actually following it," he said.

His dad Ru, who studies animal behaviour for a living, did not believe the discovery at first.

A keen snorkler, Mr Somaweera said he had never noticed those two creatures together.

But his son was right, so the pair spent the next year watching and recording what they saw across four different reefs in Perth. 

Unique marine discovery

What they discovered is known as nuclear-follower behaviour, which itself is not new, but Mr Somaweera, a behavioural ecologist, said it was not known among these two creatures. 

Rehan discovered the brown-spotted wrasse follows the octopus around as it uses its tentacles to forage for food, making it easier for the fish to also score a feed. 

"We know that certain animals that disturb the flow when they're feeding, creates feeding opportunities for other animals," Mr Somaweera said. 

For example, that could be an octopus sticking its tentacle in a crevice and flushing out food for the fish to eat. 

In the words of Rehan — it's lazy but clever. 

With all the data the pair were collecting on their snorkeling trips, they wrote a scientific paper that has now been published in a CSIRO journal.

At just 10, Rehan is one of the youngest Australians to have done so, behind at least one other — Brisbane girl Grace Fulton who researched owls from the age of four and later published a paper. 

"Getting something in a well-received, international journal as your first ever publication when you're 10-years-old, I think that's a big hit," Mr Somaweera said. 

"It's not a massive research project but what was important, or what was exciting about this, is getting a child involved in actual research." 

Having had a taste of science, Rehan now dreams of being a scientist in the future. 

"Of course I do!" he said. 

Dad's Sri Lankan upbringing inspires

Mr Somaweera, who grew up in Sri Lanka, said he didn't spend much of his childhood in the water because it was tricky getting from the middle of the island to the coast.

"It was a childhood dream that never came true, so when we started living close to the ocean here, I made sure that I enjoy it, but I also give the opportunity for my kids to enjoy that," he said. 

"It's a window to another world ... the underwater world is amazing."

He said being able to share his passion of marine life with his children by not only telling them about it, but showing them, created a special bond. 

"I'm a huge believer of getting kids out there and I'm starting from my own two kids," Mr Somaweera said. 

"So for them to have that eye to detail and also question certain things...[it] made me really proud."

• X (formerly Twitter)

Related Stories

What a hoot: the adventures of one of australia's youngest scientists.

What is a lemon shark? Meet the docile, shy creature named after a fruit

'Lunging up riverbanks': The mysterious freshwater whipray that's baffling fishers and scientists

• Animal Science
• Marine Biology