An Ivy League university took time to celebrate a 9-year-old girl for her outstanding work in science.
The honor comes months after she was allegedly racially profiled as a suspicious person while collecting insects for an experiment she was proposing to do with them at home.
Bobbi Wilson, affectionately known as “Bobbi Wonder,” was recognized by Yale University’s School of Public Health on Jan. 20 for her work to stop the flourishing of the destructive lanternfly pest in her hometown of Caldwell, New Jersey, and for donating her personal 27-specimen collection to the institution’s Peabody Museum, the school reports through a press release.
The girl was even invited to affix a label to one of the specimens.
With the donation, Wilson is now considered a Yale donor scientist and her prized work has been entered into the museum’s prestigious database under Lycorma delicatula, the scientific name for the winged bug. In the description tab, the young girl is listed as the collector and now, the display is available for public viewing in the museum’s database.
Assistant professor Ijeoma Opara at the Yale School of Public Health organized the event and said Wilson inspired many at the school.
“Yale doesn’t normally do anything like this … this is something unique to Bobbi. We wanted to show her bravery and how inspiring she is, and we just want to make sure she continues to feel honored and loved by the Yale community,” Opara said.
Wilson dropped onto Opara and the rest of the Yale community’s radar after news about her being stopped by police on Oct. 22 made national headlines.
The young entomologist was collecting spotted lanternflies, harmful insects that plague New Jersey, using a homemade repellent (water, dish soap, and apple cider vinegar) to kill them as they fed on trees near her home. While she was searching, one of her neighbors called law enforcement on her, reporting her as a suspicious person.
The…
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