Hobbies
Discussing how the world works, computer games, ping-pong,computer tweaking, movie critiquing, photography.

Clubs
Physics Team, Chemistry Team, Math Team, Science Research Team, Junior States of America, Academy Model UN, Debate Team, Orchestra, Spanish Honor Society

Experience
: Silver Medalist, International Chemistry Olympiad 2004; first place, Mandelbrot Math Competition 2004; American Mathematics Contests (AMC); American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME); top 100, USA Math Olympiad; top 20, US National Chemistry Olympiad; winner, USA Math Talent Search 2004.

Biography
I am a senior at the Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology (better and more easily known as AAST). As the name says, my high school is a technical school focused on science and math, and is partly responsible for my interests in these subjects. My fascination with science started in elementary school, when my parents, both scientists working in the industry, encouraged me to ask questions about the natural world. In this process, my parents bought me a children's illustrated scientific encyclopedia, which I religiously perused as if it had the answers to all the questions in the world (which was partially true). At the same time, my mother, who used to be a middle school math teacher in China, raised my interest in math by introducing me to algebra and geometry while I was in fourth grade. Most of middle school was not challenging since the school's math and science courses simply went over material that I had already learned in the years before. This was what motivated me to apply for the math-and-science focused high school that I go to today. Before high school, my interest for science and math was generalized, but as time progressed, I found that in science, I enjoyed the more mathematically based sciences more: physics and chemistry. The rigorous math needed to support these subjects felt much more satisfying to me than merely memorizing facts and using purely qualitative arguments to explain some phenomenon. My interest in math also changed after I went to the Programs in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS) one summer. In math, began to favor analytic proofs rather than just evaluating statements. Incidentally, this type of math proof is similar to the type needed in physics. My interest in proof-based math eventually brought me to the USAMO, which then led me to the analogous competition in physics and chemistry. Last year, I focused mostly on chemistry and eventually ended up winning a silver medal at the international competition. However, while at the chemistry study camp, I found that out of all the subtopics of chemistry, I enjoyed physical chemistry the most because of the way it embraced math.

Since physical chemistry is the border between chemistry and physics, I realized that I would probably enjoy pure physics also for its use of math-involved proofs, which has led me to where I am now. For college, I am fairly certain that I will be majoring in the sciences, though I am still deciding among Harvard, MIT, Caltech, and Stanford as the optimal place for me to do this.