With a rare exception here and there, most scientists will at least complete a college-level science class before making their first cancer research breakthrough. Heman Bekele, on the other hand, is just wrapping up his sophomore year of high school.
By the time he was named Time Magazine’s Kid of the Year in 2024, Heman was already generating buzz in the scientific community. The year before, he’d won the grand prize in the 2023 3M Young Scientist’s Challenge, in which kids compete to think of the most unique solutions to common problems.
His entry? A soap that could potentially be used to treat skin cancer, inspired by his early childhood years in Ethiopia.
“One of the things that really stood out to me was that a lot of people worked really long hours outside in the sun,” says Heman, who first began developing the idea when he was around 11 years old. Over time, he learned more about skin cancer, its prevalence in low- and middle-income countries, and the lack of awareness and treatments for patients in those countries.
“I wanted to take action within the field of skin cancer and make it more affordable to get treatment,” he explains. From there, Heman began a long, slow, trial-and-error process that ultimately led him to soap as a treatment delivery device. “What is the universal product that everyone uses? I landed on soap, which significantly outweighed every other option.”
In this episode of the Your Stories podcast, Heman discusses the story behind his idea for a soap to treat skin cancer, along with the need for affordable skin cancer treatment and the challenges of finding scientific mentors when you’re still too young to get a driver’s license.
