Jasmin Joseph is El Camino Real’s softball-playing future scientist

If the producers of television's hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory" ever need to add a teenage star to their cast of brilliant, eccentric minds, then Jasmin Joseph of Woodland Hills El Camino Real would fit right in.

She's an aspiring scientist and a top softball player for the No. 1 team in the City Section. She ranks No. 2 in her class academically and is headed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She gets about three hours a sleep each night juggling her many responsibilities and couldn't be happier. She never forgets her long-term ambitions.

"I want to see a world where there's no genetic diseases, no Parkinson's, no Tay-Sachs, no Huntington's, no cystic fibrosis," she said.

Her dreams and aspirations started when she sat in the biology class of Annie Darakjian as a freshman and sophomore. She remembers also being inspired by the movie "Lorenzo's Oil," about parents searching for a cure for their ill son.

"I fell in love and wanted to go into genetics and bioengineering," she said. "I want to work in a lab and do research."

Her softball teammates joke that at MIT, "they have rulers on their bats."

Her coach, Lori Chandler, said, "The rarity is her combination of smarty-pants brains with her dedication to softball. She is off the scale smarty-pants wise but she's equally as dedicated on the field."

Joseph is the starting center fielder and leadoff batter for the Conquistadores (18-1). She's batting .548 with 13 stolen bases.

She didn't start playing softball until she was 13. But she's a quick learner and her speed makes her invaluable on the field.

In the classroom, Darakjian noticed early on that Joseph was different.

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Jasmin Joseph is El Camino Real's softball-playing future scientist