Andrew Song
Andrew Song has always been interested in astronomy and the grand scale and uniqueness of the universe. After realizing how accessible astronomy and cosmology was after knowing the fundamentals for math and physics, Andrew was inspired to delve deeper into astrophysics and cosmology and set out to address the Missing Satellites Problem which predicts, based on the evolution and organization of matter in the universe, the existence of many more dwarf galaxies than we can currently observe.
Dwarf galaxies are small galaxies composed of 100 million to several billion stars (compared to the Milky Way’s 200-400 billion stars). Working with Zachary Slepian, a post-doc at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Andrew calculated that the difference in the speed at which dark matter and regular matter move through the Milky Way is large enough to potentially cause small clusters of stars with no dark matter, accounting for the lack of observed dwarf galaxies. Andrew wrote a paper describing the research, "The Relative Velocity of Baryonic and Dark Matter within the Milky Way and its Implications," and was named a Regional Finalist in the Siemens Competition for the paper.
Active in extracurricular activities at his high school, Andrew was an avid tennis player and was a captain of the varsity tennis team, as well as the head of the Asian Society and Math Team. He was recognized in the top 1% of competitors in the American Math Competition 12 in 2016. Andrew also competed in the Princeton University Physics Competition in 2015, where his team placed 7th out of 100 teams. Andrew hopes to pursue a career in physics and become an aerospace engineer to stay close to his rooted passions for space and the universe.