CEE News:

MCLEAN, VA — Phillip Ionkov of Los Alamos High School is among the 81 top achieving U.S. high school and international scholars the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) welcomed 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 June 27 through Aug. 7.

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

2021 RSI U.S. Students:

New Mexico

Phillip Ionkov, Los Alamos High School, Los Alamos 

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 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

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.