Alex Liebeskind
Alex Liebeskind is from Los Angeles and graduated from Brentwood School. In college, he is looking forward to exploring the breadth of engineering in pursuit of solutions to real world problems. At Brentwood, Alex shared his STEM passion by serving as copresident of the STEAM Day planning committee and president of the school’s Ecology Club, for which he was awarded the Benefacta Community Service Award for 4 consecutive years. He was a certified computer science, chemistry, and calculus peer tutor, having received departmental honors in both calculus and computer science. Alex avidly enjoyed Latin and earned gold medals on the National Latin Exam. He is also a National Merit Scholarship winner.
Outside of school, Alex pursued his STEM interests primarily through research, directed at applying his computer science skills to pertinent societal problems. In this vein, he joined the UCLA Computer Vision and Graphics Laboratory where he led a project entitled “Computer Calculated Biomarkers for Neuropsychiatric Disorders Based on fMRI Scans”. This work was aimed at assigning objective biomarkers to neuropsychiatric disorders including attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia through the analysis of subject fMRI data. The project also included collaboration with the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Applying his computer science background to environmental engineering issues, Alex joined the USC Lynett Wave Research Group. Here, he worked on Celeris, a modeling software that simulates coastal environments. This model could be used to manufacture and interactively modify artificial environments, with projected applications from the Department of Defense to entertainment. Based on his work, he was invited to give at TEDx talk at the Cal State University San Marcos TEDx “Shifting Paradigms” conference.
In his free time, Alex enjoys playing soccer. In addition to representing Brentwood on the varsity team for all four years of high school, he also captained his club team. He was elected to the CIF Southern Section Gold Coast 2nd Team All-League twice, the CIF Southern Section Gold Coast 1st Team All-League once, and named his program’s defensive MVP for three consecutive years. Other favorite pastimes include attending concerts, playing board games, and folding origami.