Vivek Abraham from Texas in semi-finals of ‘Genius Junior’

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NEW YORK – A third Indian American has moved on to the semi-finals of NBC’s game show “Genius Junior.”

Vivek Abraham, 11, from Dallas, Texas appeared on the show in the episode titled “Little Big Thinkers,” on April 29 and won a $35,000 prize along with his team members Anna, 10, from Mayodan, North Carolina, and Summer, 10, from Long Branch, New Jersey.

The team competed in four rounds: Human GPS, Number Cruncher, Talking Dictionary and Memory Master, trying to get to The Cortex and the finals.

According to a Frisco Enterprise report, Abraham takes online courses in physics, astrophysics and mathematics from Northwestern University, is a member of the Davidson Institute, a part of a robotics team at Illinois State University and was a contestant on the show “Child Genius: Battle of the Brightest,” two years ago.

Abraham is inspired by astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, and wants to become one too.

“I started out wanting to be an astrophysicist when I was 7. When I found out my favorite subjects – math, astrophysics and physics – were combined into one, I was excited to see the combination of those,” Abraham told the Frisco Enterprise.

“He (Hawkings) revolutionized the realm of astrophysics. I want to follow in his footsteps,” he added.

News India Times reported earlier that two other Indian American contestants, Shivani Sahu, 12, from Paramus, New Jersey, and 12-year-old Apoorva Panidapu from San Jose, California, have already made it to the semi-finals of “Genius Junior.”

While Sahu is told to be a ‘Talking Dictionary’ due to her extensive vocabulary, Padidapu is a math whiz deemed to be called a ‘Human Calculator.’

The show is hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, who asks questions that involve spelling, math, geography and memorization.