Meet The Youngest Professor In Miami Dade College History

Before Nathan Thomas entered Coral Park Elementary in 2010, he got a perfect score on his kindergarten readiness assessment test. 

Later that month, young Nathan shocked staff at the school with his deft piano skills during a Christmas show. 

“We are doing an injustice to this child…You have to challenge him more,” Nathan’s mother Merlyn Rani Thomas recalls a counselor telling her after his dazzling holiday performance. 

A month later, Rani started homeschooling the whiz kid. The family has visited more than 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, India, Scotland, France and Germany, turning the world into Nathan’s classroom. 

Grocery stores, historical monuments and postal offices became a place for learning. 

“I remember reading him books on the steps of Thomas Jefferson’s home. You know, how much more perfect could it be?” Rani said. 

That unique learning path paid off. Nathan earned his associate degree in mathematics from Miami Dade College when he was 14.  At the time, he was the College’s youngest graduate, until this past April when his brother Noah topped that feat by three months. 

 

By the time Nathan was 18, he had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Honors College at Florida International University. 

After graduation, Nathan became the youngest professor in Miami Dade College history, at 18 years and 346 days old, according to Mary de Laosa, vice provost of human resources and organizational development.

Since then, the now 20-year-old has been teaching engineering courses as an adjunct professor at Kendall Campus’ School of Engineering, Technology & Design. 

This semester, the young prodigy, who is working toward a juris doctor degree at the University of Miami School of Law, is currently teaching a microprocessors course and a coding class. 

“I’m proud to have him as part of our staff,” said Manny Perez, dean of the School of Engineering, Technology & Design.  “I think anytime you have the opportunity to meet a person like Nathan, you realize that there is someone special…someone who can serve as an inspiration to our students.”

A Prodigy

Nathan’s connection to MDC started when the then 9-year-old received tutoring from Kendall Campus math professor David Tseng.

The first test Tseng gave Nathan was a problem with infinite sequences. He had to figure out what numbers came next depending on the structure of the sequence. 

“[In one] minute, he told me the numbers,” Tseng said. “I said holy cow…it’s like [in] your head, your brain is like a computer!”

Tseng realized that Nathan was able to digest complex information and suggested he enroll at the College.  When he was ten, the youngster started taking dual enrollment courses at the school.

“[On my] first day of class for college algebra…my mom got me outside the class, and [my professor] thought that my mom was a student,” Nathan recalled. “She was like, ‘You can bring your son in as long as he’s quiet’… my mom had to explain to her, ‘No, no, he’s a student’.”

After graduating from Kendall Campus, Nathan earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from FIU as a teenager.

Homecoming

In August of 2023, Nathan started as an adjunct professor at MDC.

“I always thought about coming back and teaching one day,” Nathan said. “But when I said one day, I thought I meant when I was older…like a lot older.” 

Nathan’s youth often blindsides his students. 

 “The feedback we get all the time from the students is, ‘so he’s like my age!’ And there’s some older students saying, you know, ‘this person can be my son,’” Perez said. 

Undeterred, the young professor designs his curriculum to include a heavy dose of hands-on projects like his mom designed for him.

“I think I definitely [have] a unique classroom in terms of how the class [is] conducted,” Nathan said. “I don’t give homework that much…I like it team-based, project-based, very active, not passive.”

While teaching his first class at Kendall Campus, he was offered a job as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Rani said. It included a yearly salary of $100,000.

Nathan balanced his new job with his teaching role at the College. But after one month of training, the patent office gave him an ultimatum: quit teaching or lose the job. 

He chose teaching, refusing to abandon his students.

“[Nathan] stayed by the principles of having started something and not [wanting] to ditch the students in the middle of the semester,” Rani said. 

Currently, Nathan is teaching online courses so he can focus on his studies at the University of Miami School of Law. He’s expected to graduate in 2028 and plans to work in the field of intellectual property. 

“I hope he continues to succeed, [gets] his law degree, makes a difference and helps people,” Rani said. 

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