Yano, 21, to Become Youngest to Attain M.D. at Univ. of Chicago

(CHICAGO) -- Sho Yano says that even though the reference to the popular ’90s show Doogie Howser M.D. amuses him and makes him feel “pretty good,” he doesn’t want to known as a “whiz kid.”

“I kind of want to be the doctor,” he said. “I got through training early [but] my dream is to have a real achievement. Finding anything that would be helpful to people in general. Just knowing that I’m gonna help someone. That would be great.”

A doctor is just what Yano will become Saturday when the 21-year-old becomes the youngest student to attain an M.D. from the University of Chicago.

In 2000, when ABC News interviewed him as a 9-year-old college freshman at Loyola University, he said he eschewed the word “genius.”

When he was 12 — having already graduated in three years from Loyola University — Yano entered the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, participating in a program where students get both their doctorate and medical degrees.

He completed his first year of medical school, got his Ph.D. in molecular genetics and cell biology and then pursued the rest of medical school so that he’d be at least 18 when it came time to work with patients.

Yano was reading by the age of 2, writing by the age of 3 and composing music by 5. At the age of 8, he scored a 1,500 out of 1,600 on the SAT.

Next up for Sho Yano? A five-year residency in pediatric neurology.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio