Balamurali Ambati
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| Ambati Balamurali | |
 Ambati Balamurali Krishna |
|
| Birth name | Ambati Balamurali |
| Born | July 29, 1977 (age 29) |
Balamurali Ambati, M.D. (born July 29, 1977) was the youngest ever person, according to Guinness Book of Records, to become a doctor.
Ambati graduated from New York University at the age of 13 and Mount Sinai School of Medicine at age 17, becoming the world's youngest doctor in 1995. He completed an ophthalmology residency at Harvard University, where he developed strategies to reverse corneal angiogenesis, after becoming a winner at the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and the International Science & Engineering Fair and becoming a National Merit Scholar. He received the prestigious Raja-Lakshmi Award in the year 1995 from Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai. After completing a fellowship in cornea & refractive surgery at Duke University in 2002, he joined the faculty of the Medical College of Georgia, where he practices clinical ophthalmology and conducts research in such areas as corneal angiogenesis and outcomes of corneal and refractive surgery. He also volunteers with the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital, traveling to under-privileged countries to practice and teach ophthalmic surgery.
[edit] Family
His father Dr Rao fought school administrators to allow his son to study at his own pace, which was nearly twice as fast as his peers, and says that he taught Balamurali and his brother to be focused and to desire accomplishments.
Balamurali and his family were detained in India for over 3 months in a suit related to alleged dowry demands by the family for his brother's wife, which delayed Dr. Ambati's entry to the ophthalmology program for 2 years, leaving him to begin his residency in 1998. All charges against him were dismissed in October of 1996 and all his family members were acquitted in June 1999.
Balamurali wrote a book on AIDS with his brother, who is also a doctor. His mother is a Tamil linguist and mathematician.
