The first woman to graduate top of her undergraduate class in Physics at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 20 years, Pasterski’s incredible mind was noticed early in life when she piqued the interest of professors by building a single engine plane herself, flying it solo at just 14.

“I couldn’t believe it,” recalls Peggy Udden, an executive secretary at MIT, “not only because she was so young, but a girl”.

The Cuban-American has also attracted the attention of NASA, who are keen to recruit the young woman at the first opportunity.

But even NASA might have some competition when it comes to poaching the brain-box as she is also reportedly being courted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Aerospace giant Blue Origin, among others.

Meet the 23-year-old woman billed as the new Einstein