U.S. President and Many Other Personalities Praise Budding Teen Scientist

Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.

— President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015

There’s always a silver lining, as the saying goes and after the media and police ruckus last Monday, budding teen scientist Ahmed Mohamed received praises from people who recognized his brilliance, including one directly from President Barack Obama.

Fourteen-year old Ahmed Mohamed, a freshman at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas built a clock to impress his teachers and brought it to school. An English teacher at the school confiscated the device, thinking that it was a bomb and after some questioning from school authorities that did not believe what he was saying, was later brought by the police to a juvenile detention center.

Release

Follow-up investigation revealed that it was indeed a homemade experiment of a digital clock. Mohamed was released to his parents afterwards. The entire proceedings caught media interest and gained traction, with local and international media reporting the incident. It likewise became a very hot topic on social network sites.

Attention from media and others

Mohamed, as well as other members of his family were interviewed over the incident and Mohamed explained what happened, what he built and what his thoughts were about the incident.

While it caused undue alarm to many and stress to Mohamed’s family, there were positive things that happened as well that balanced the initial criticisms and brouhaha. Ahmed Mohamed has gained attention from people who saw great potential in him. President Obama said he’s built a cool clock and invited Mohamed to the White House for a visit, together with his invention. The White House also invited the teenager to an Astronomy Night event next month to speak with NASA astronauts and scientists.

Box, Twitter, Google and Facebook praised Ahmed Mohamed publicly. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook also sent him an invite. Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton sent a tweet to praise and encourage the budding scientist. The first Muslim in the U.S. Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), showed his support for the teen by carrying a clock while at Capitol Hill.

But the most exciting for Ahmed Muhamed was the invitation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is the “dream school” for the teenager. He was introduced to Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, an astrophysicist from MIT, while he was being interviewed. She told the teen that he is the kind of ideal student that MIT seeks. The physicist works at the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research in California and the Department of Physics at MIT.

Image Copyright: President Obama twitter