Top U.S. and International High School STEM Students Attend the 38th Annual Research Science Institute

81 high school students from 31 states and 13 countries convene virtually for prestigious six-week summer academic research program.

McLean, VA (June 28, 2021) – The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) welcomes 81 top achieving U.S. high school and international scholars to the 38th annual Research Science Institute (RSI), sponsored in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). RSI is an intensive, six-week program that gives students the opportunity to conduct original, cutting-edge science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research. Due to the coronavirus, RSI 2021 is being held virtually from June 27-August 7.

“We are so pleased to make innovative use of technology to deliver this unique program,” said Joann P. DiGennaro, CEE President.

RSI scholars learn about the careers, achievements, and challenges of STEM through presentations and dialogue in RSI’s Distinguished Guest Lecture Series. RSI’s 2021 guest lecturers include:

• Steve Fein, MD, RSI ’89, President, Heme Onc Call
• Shamit Kachru, PhD, RSI ’86, Department Chair, Physics, Stanford University
• Wolfgang Ketterle, PhD, Nobel Laureate, Physics, MIT
• Scott Kominers, PhD, RSI ’04, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School
• Shan Kuang, Conservator and Research Scholar, New York University
• Sandor Lehoczky, Managing Director & Partner, Jane Street
• Tom Leighton, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO, Akamai Technologies
• John Mather, PhD, Nobel Laureate, Physics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Andrew Murphy, PhD, Executive Vice President, Research, Regeneron
• Max Nova, RSI ’07, Co-Founder & COO, NCX
• Sandra Ro, CEO, Global Blockchain Business Council
• Jeremy Wolfe, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology & Radiology, Harvard Medical School and Director, Visual Attention Lab, Department of Surgery, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
• Jason Yang, CTO & Co-Founder, DGene
• Feng Zhang, PhD, RSI ’99, Core Institute Member, Broad Institute, MIT

Dr. Jamie L. Wells, MD, FAAP, an RSI ’91 alum, is leading the Institute this summer.

RSI is offered cost-free by CEE to competitively selected top achieving students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Students are selected by CEE’s committee of professional educators and RSI alumni based on high school records, personal essays, standardized test scores, teacher recommendations, research experience, potential for leadership, and honors and awards in math and science. To date, nearly 3,000 high school students - representing every U.S. state and more than 56 nations-- have experienced RSI.

The RSI annual summer program consists of one week of theoretical classroom work, followed by four-and-a-half weeks of cutting-edge research under the mentorship of leading scientists, engineers, and researchers in the students’ respective areas of interest. In their final week, students demonstrate their research work through written academic papers and oral presentations to their peers and a panel of judges.

2021 RSI U.S. STUDENTS

Alabama
Yewon Lee, James Clemens High School, Madison
Maanasi Limaye, Bob Jones High School, Madison

Arizona
Ella Wang, Basis Chandler, Chandler
Christine Yang, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

California
Jack Albright, Nueva School, Hillsborough
Harsh Deep, Harker School, San Jose
Jennifer Lew, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, Rolling Hills Estates
Camilla Martinez, North Hollywood High School, North Hollywood
Ashwin Sivakumar, Flintridge Preparatory School, La Canada
Andres David Carranza Moreno, Colegio Bilingue Richmond, Bogota, Colombia

Colorado
Jason Cui, Fairview High School, Boulder

Connecticut
Natalie Shell, Greenwich Academy, Greenwich

Delaware
David Yan, Charter School of Wilmington, Wilmington

District of Columbia
Avani Ahuja, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC

Florida
Varsha Naga, Winter Springs High School, Winter Springs

Georgia
Bertil Axel Max Bee-Lindgren
Asmi Kumar, Milton High School, Milton
Aaditya Saha, Chamblee High School, Chamblee

Hawaii
Tyler Matsuzaki

Idaho
James Liu, Timberline High School, Boise

Illinois
Amy Dong, Hinsdale Central High School, Hinsdale

Indiana
Siya Goel, West Lafayette Jr-Sr High School, West Lafayette

Kentucky
Shreyas Kar, DuPont Manual High School, Louisville
Allen Lin, Carol Martin Gatton Academy, Bowling Green

Louisiana
Ashini Modi, Caddo Parish Magnet High School, Shreveport

Maryland
Dhruv Pai, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring

Massachusetts
Kieran Dunn, Boston College High School, Dorchester
Frank (Yucheng) Liu, Newton South High School, Newton Center

Michigan
Reagan Choi, Troy High School, Troy
Donald Liveoak, Allen Park High School, Allen Park

Nevada
Anya Zhang, Ed W Clark High School, Las Vegas

New Hampshire
Kevin Cong, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter
Abigail Thomas, Nashua High School – South, Nashua

New Jersey
Daniel Xia, Ridge High School, Basking Ridge
Richard Zhu, Peddie School, Hightstown

New Mexico
Phillip Ionkov, Los Alamos High School, Los Alamos

New York
Amber Luo, Ward Melville High School, East Setauket

North Carolina
Dheepthi Mohanraj, North Carolina School Sci. /Math, Durham

Ohio
Michelle Park, Solon High School, Solon

Oregon
Aditya Sood, Westview High School, Portland

Pennsylvania
Steven Liu, Shady Side Academy, Pittsburgh

Texas
Russell Li, St. John’s School, Houston
Eli Meyers, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin
Isabella Quan, Westlake High School, Austin
Stephanie Wang, Seven Lakes High School, Katy

Utah
Gary Zhan, Logan High School, Logan

Virginia
Meenakshi Ambati, Albemarle High School, Charlottesville
Comfort Ohajunwa, Governors School at Innovation, Manassas
Cameron Sharma, Mills E. Godwin High School, Richmond

Washington
Gabriella Lui, Newport High School, Bellevue
Alexander Popescu, North Central High School, Spokane

West Virginia
Alice Guo, Morgantown High School, Morgantown

2021 RSI INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Bulgaria
Angel Raychev, High School “Boyan Penev,” Sofia
Hristo Todorov, High School of Mathematics and 984Natural Sciences, Kyustendil

Canada
Alec Dewulf, Ashbury College, Ottawa

China
Xiru Hou, High School @ Renmin, University of China, Beijing
On Ki Luo, Pui Ching Middle School, Kowloon, HK
Ai Xiao, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH - US

India
Niranjan Baskaran, Gateway International School, Chennai Tamil Nadu
Palak Jolly, Shri Ram School, Gurgaon
Sahilkrishna Vazhathoyidil, BVM Global School, Chennai Tamil Nadu
Aria Vikram, National Public School, Bangalore

Ireland
Sreehari Pillai, Institute of Education, Dublin

Kazakhstan
Beksultan Akilbekov, NIS (Nazarbayev Intellectual School), School of Chemistry and Biology, Almaty
Tair Satubaldin, NIS (Nazarbayev Intellectual School), School of Physics and Mathematics, Almaty

Lebanon
Ruba Houssami, Hariri High School II, Beirut
Reina Ibrahim, Rafic Hariri High School, Saida
Abdulrahman Zaatari, Rafic Hariri High School, Saida

Saudi Arabia
Mahdi Al Ismail, Rowad Alkhaleej International School, Dammam
Nouran Alyousif, Manarat Al Riyadh Schools, Riyadh

Singapore
Caithlin Ho, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School, Singapore
Velmurugan Aravindh Kuppusamy, NUS High School Math/Science, Singapore
Nevan Lim, Edgefield Secondary School, Singapore
Samuel Soo, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), Singapore
Yun Xin Tham, Raffles Institution, Singapore
Jun Kai Yeong, NUS High School Math/Science, Singapore

South Korea
YoungJu (Sean) Choi, Dwight School Seoul, Seoul

Switzerland
Lukas Munzel, Gymnasium Baumlihof, Basel

Tunisia
Aziz Hanafi, Red Cross Nordic UWC, Flekke

Turkey
Deniz Arikan, Enka Schools, Istanbul
Ege Turan, Robert College, Istanbul

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About Research Science Institute

For the past 37 years, CEE's Research Science Institute has provided students with the opportunity to conduct original research in state-of-the-art university laboratories, hospitals, and corporate research facilities. The heart of RSI is the five-week research internship where students conduct individual projects under the tutelage of mentors who are scientists and researchers. RSI is cost-free for students to attend. RSI is collaboratively sponsored with MIT. For more, visit https://www.cee.org/research-science-institute.

Center for Excellence in Education
7918 Jones Branch Drive Suite 700
McLean, VA 22102

Media Contact:

Tom Flavell, (703) 448-9062 ext. 237, tflavell@cee.org

Follow CEE on Twitter @CEE1983

The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) was founded in 1983 by the late Admiral H.G. Rickover and Joann P. DiGennaro, President of the Center. The Center’s mission is to nurture high school and university scholars to careers of excellence and leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and to encourage collaboration between and among scientific and technological leaders in the global community. CEE sponsors the Research Science Institute (RSI), the USA Biolympiad (USABO), and the Teacher Enrichment Program (TEP). For more information, visit CEE’s website, https://www.cee.org.

This release was published on openPR.