--- title: This MIT Grad Is So Talented, Stephen Hawking Cited Her description: By the time Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski was 13, she had built her own plane and flew it solo. Now it's her career that has taken flight. canonical: https://time.com/5303545/sabrina-gonzalez-pasteriski-mit-grad/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-06T20:32:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:06:04.884Z og:title: Physics Wiz and MIT Grad Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski Is So Talented That Stephen Hawking Cited Her og:description: She flew a plane she built by age 13. Now its her career that has taken flight og:url: https://time.com/5303545/sabrina-gonzalez-pasteriski-mit-grad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde54fecf62023259/69893277fb4eac96a6896cf2/sabrina-gonzalez-mit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4802 og:image:height: 2701 og:image:alt: sabrina-gonzalez-mit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Physics Wiz and MIT Grad Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski Is So Talented That Stephen Hawking Cited Her twitter:description: She flew a plane she built by age 13. Now its her career that has taken flight twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde54fecf62023259/69893277fb4eac96a6896cf2/sabrina-gonzalez-mit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, a Physics Whiz So Talented That Stephen Hawking Cited Her > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=b33f9d83-0d91-46d0-9e5e-e2d0a6e8ae88&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Shalayne Pulia / InStyle](https://time.com/author/instyle/) ## Shalayne Pulia / InStyle Contributor Jun 6, 2018 8:32 PM UTC  Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski Tony Luong by [Shalayne Pulia / InStyle](https://time.com/author/instyle/) ## Shalayne Pulia / InStyle Contributor Jun 6, 2018 8:32 PM UTC By the time [Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski](http://physicsgirl.com/) was 13, she had learned how to fly a plane, built her own aircraft, and flown it solo. Since then, the aeronautical wunderkind’s academic career has similarly taken flight. Pasterski earned an undergraduate physics degree from MIT in three years with a perfect GPA and is now a Ph.D. candidate in physics at Harvard’s Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature. **The theory of Pasterski:** The Chicago native, whose work in high-energy physics theory was cited by Stephen Hawking in 2016, remains down-to-earth. In response to a viral meme that called her the next Einstein, she says, “No one will be Einstein. He was who he was.” Pasterski says she’s not about to accept rank among the world’s most groundbreaking physicists until she has actually, well, _broken ground_. “I’m not cool,” she says. “Not yet.” **Across the university:** Pasterski is studying the nature of gravity and space-time—essentially working to clarify our understanding of how the universe operates. A paper she wrote on [asymptotic symmetries and electromagnetic memory](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP09%282017%29154) has already been added to Harvard’s grad-school curriculum. [**_Read more: This Astronaut Keeps Breaking Boundaries for Women At NASA_**](http://www.instyle.com/news/female-astronaut-peggy-whitson-nasa) **Aerial inspiration:** The opportunity to take flight lessons when she was 9 helped spark Pasterski’s interest in science. She originally dreamed of building spacecrafts and working for an aerospace company. But when she started interning for Boeing Phantom Works and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center while she was a student at MIT, she realized she’d rather learn more about the physics behind flight. “You get a sense of how things are connected to each other \[when you build a plane\], but you don’t necessarily know the science behind why it can fly in the first place.” **STEM Star:** Advocates for STEM research across the globe know that this first-generation Cuban-American is poised to make her mark. Jeff Bezos offered Pasterski a standing job opportunity at his Blue Origin aerospace company, and _Star Trek_ alum [George Takei tweeted](https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/689842843838320640?lang=en) an article about her work to his millions of followers in 2016. **Sage advice:** Pasterski says she’s gotten this far by measuring her success against her teenage self, not others in her field. “It’s humbling to admire your previous self and realize you’re the same person—you can \[succeed\] again.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.instyle.com/celebrity/sabrina-pasterski-stephen-hawking-physics) _originally appeared on_ [_InStyle.com_](http://instyle.om) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5303545/sabrina-gonzalez-pasteriski-mit-grad/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5303545/sabrina-gonzalez-pasteriski-mit-grad/"},"headline":"Meet Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, a Physics Whiz So Talented That Stephen Hawking Cited Her","datePublished":"2018-06-06T20:32:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:06:04.884Z","description":"She flew a plane she built by age 13. 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