May 14, 2013 09:05 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Ritankar Das, 18, an Indian American teenager has become the youngest graduation topper in more than a century at the University of California, Berkeley, after completing a double major in bioengineering and chemical biology and a minor in creative writing within three years.

Das is also the first student to earn the 'University Medal' honor from the University's College of Chemistry in 58 years and the first ever from the Department of Bioengineering. The honor includes a $2,500 scholarship.

The University Medal, established in 1871, is conferred every year to an outstanding graduating student with a minimum Grade Point Average of 3.96.

Das is graduating from Berkeley, with more than 200 credits and a GPA of 3.99, including eight A+ marks.

He will receive the medal at Commencement Convocation, May 18 that will be addressed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and California Gov. Jerry Brown.

"In my 30 years at Berkeley, I cannot think of a single undergraduate student who would match Ritankar's accomplishments, his range of activities and projects that he initiated and currently leads, and his academic excellence," said Marcin Majda, professor and undergraduate dean in the College of Chemistry.

At Berkeley, Das formed a campus chapter of the American Chemical Society, taught a DeCal course on chemistry internships and found the Berkeley Chemical Review research journal.

Since the age of 13, Das worked on several energy-related research projects at the British-Petroleum funded Energy Biosciences Institute, Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, the US Department of Energy and Taiwan's Academia Sinica as a Cal Energy Corps recipient.

His research projects concentrated on developing enhanced solvents to break down cellulose for bio fuels and discovering new ways to grow nanowires to use in high-efficiency solar cells.

Das is the founder and chairman of 'See Your Future', a non-profit organisation that employs digital learning techniques such as YouTube and Skype to encourage deprived students to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers.

Once he graduates, Das will depart to Oxford University to pursue a master's degree in biomedical engineering through a fully funded Whitaker Fellowship. He will then head to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a chemistry Ph.D. program.

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