SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Leanne Fan, a 14-year-old freshman at Westview High School, was named the winner of the prestigious 3M Young Scientist Challenge, becoming the second member of her family to earn the contest's top honor and the resulting $25,000 prize.
Leanne earned the title of "America's Top Young Scientist" through her invention of headphones that can both diagnose and treat mid-ear infections. It's a medical issue that plagues her mother.
“She always gets ear infections and she makes me put essential oils into her ears. But it never really works," Leanne said.
At age 11, she began developing a method of using blue light to kill bacteria causing the infection.
Leanne entered the contest, beating out applicants from across the country to become one of the 10 finalists who were flown to 3M's headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. There, Leanne took part in a number of team science challenges before pitching her invention.
She was shocked when she won.
"In the video when they showed the winner, there’s this picture of me crying because I was not expecting it at all," Leanne said.
Her sister Cara Fan, now a senior at Westview, won the same contest in 2019 with her invention of a spray-on bandage to treat infections without antibiotics. Leanne said Cara's interest in science inspired her.
“Originally, I wasn’t really planning to go into the route of science, and then she started doing bacteria testing in little petri plates, and I was like 'That’s so cool!' So that’s how I started doing it.”
Cara has already patented her invention and plans to continue working on it when she goes to college next year.
Leanne's next step is more intense testing of her headphones. She says she already has offers from labs to help with the research.
Both sisters say they hope to one day develop their products and bring them to market.
