Speaker Jack Andraka’s Accomplishments Include…
Jack Andraka is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer who speaks to audiences of youths and adults all across the globe about his personal story, research, and his ideas for STEM education reform and fostering innovation and creativity. His journey began at age fifteen when, after losing a close family friend to pancreatic cancer, he invented an inexpensive early detection method for pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancer that costs 3 cents and takes 5 minutes to run. Now studying electrical engineering and anthropology at Stanford, Andraka conducts research on nanorobots, inexpensive biosensors, disease diagnostics, and global health interventions while serving as faculty at the Stanford Anesthesiology Summer Institute. Outside of research, Jack has worked on combining anthropology, engineering, and big data to address pressing global health challenges, particularly in the monitoring of environmental contaminants and disease outbreaks.
Andraka’s groundbreaking results have earned him international recognition, most notably a 2014 Jefferson Award, the nation’s most prestigious public service award, the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award, the Out 100, White House Champion of Change in Open Science, Time Magazines 30 under 30, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeeper, and Advocate Magazine’s 40 under 40 award.
In addition, Andraka was First Lady Michelle Obama’s personal guest at the 2013 State of the Union Address. He has been featured in several documentaries including Morgan Spurlock’s Sundance Film Festival entry, “You Don’t Know Jack,” Linda Peters’ award-winning film, “Just Jack,” and the online version of Ken Burns’ “The Emperor of All Maladies”, as well as 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, CNN, BBC, Fox, Rede Record de Televisão, and radio, newspaper, and magazine articles around the world.
Andraka speaks at a wide variety of locations including universities, schools, technology organizations and corporations, hospitals and the education sector in over 40 countries. Notable venues include a mainstage TED talk, 19 TEDx talks, a panelist at the annual Clinton Global Initiative, and a X-Prize Foundation Visioneer. His audiences range from youth—children and teens- to adults interested in using their creativity and curiosity to change the world.
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Andraka also runs programs for mentoring disadvantaged LGBT youth in STEM fields. He is a member of both the Junior and U-23 national kayaking teams and placed in the top 20 at the U-23 Wildwater Kayaking World Championships.
Andraka’s inspiring and compelling memoir, Breakthrough: How One Teen Innovator Is Changing the World (HarperCollins), delves into the challenges and triumphs he faced on the road to his revolutionary discovery. He aims to inspire young people, who he argues are the most innovative.
