A number of Canadians made it onto Forbes’ most recent “30 Under 30” lists, but our personal fave may just be Ann Makosinski. The inventor from B.C. has been creating things she was a wee seven year old armed with a glue gun, and has gained recent notoriety for such amazing inventions as a flashlight that runs of the heat of a human hand, and a mug that uses the heat from a coffee cup to charge a phone. Genius!
While making the Forbes list is a huge achievement, this is hardly Ann’s first big break. She was also named to Time’s 30 Under 30 list in 2013, and won the prestigious Google Science Fair in the same year. Since then she’s been on a number of talk shows including Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and has also delivered five TEDx talks. Not bad for someone who just turned 19 a few months ago!
Ann is currently a second-year student at UBC, and in case you didn’t feel like enough of an inferior underachiever, you’ll be shocked/depressed to learn that she doesn’t even study science or engineering: she’s an English major who prefers to work on science and business endeavors outside of school.
Ann’s e-Drink mug is now a fully functioning prototype, with the Hollow Flashlight going into production sometime this year. Congratulations Ann! We can’t wait to see what else you come up with.
