Leonardo Gámez, a student at PrepaTec Mexico City, was recognized nationally with the 2025 Harvard Book Award.

The recognition is given out by the alumni of Harvard University to high-achieving students in 11th and 12th grade reading classes, from a pool of 2,000 high schools from around the world. 

“I lack the words to express how grateful I feel and how surreal it feels to win an award like this,” Gámez said. 

At just 17, Gámez has said he’s always been passionate about science, with a permanent question roaming his mind: “Why does the world work this way?”

“Carl Sagan loved to work, and when a child asked him, ‘Why are leaves green?’ he said the most important thing was not to say ‘because they are,’ but rather ‘I don’t know, let’s find out,’” Gámez said. 

During the selection process for the award, he shared his life story, showing how science has been his constant motivation to create projects that not only advance technology, but also help improve the society around him.

As someone who is constantly developing science projects, he created ResQ AI, an application that uses Artificial Intelligence to optimize response times to medical emergencies and provide efficient solutions. 

This project took him to the Space Exploration Educators Conference in Space Center Houston, United States, last year. There, before a panel of NASA educators, he presented the potential of AI in space.

He also developed Love Warning, an app designed to help his friends detect when their relationships were becoming toxic. This app was selected to participate nationally in the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s PAUTA science fair.

Gámez, who is nearing the end of his fourth semester at PrepaTec, has expressed his dream to become an astronaut. With this goal in mind, he will conduct research in quantum physics at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, Slovakia. He also plans to take the SAT exam to pursue a degree in physics in the U.S.

Mexico News Daily