La Jolla High School senior Elizabeth Zhang plays tennis, carries college-level courses, competes in the school’s science team and, in her spare time, studies the effects of El Nino and El Nina on typhoon activity.
Zhang finished as a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) for her typhoon project. The competition is often considered the “junior Nobel Prize.” The Intel Foundation awarded $1,000 to both Zhang and the high school.
Zhang researched typhoons in the Western Pacific to see if they strengthened during El Nino and El Nina years.
“I think it’s an important topic to study, especially since recently we’ve been getting Hurricane Katrina and all those other hurricanes,” Zhang said. “More than ever now, studying such natural phenomenon is really important.”
Zhang frequented the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to collect data. She analyzed satellite images, water temperatures, currents and wind patterns, concluding that the warming ocean increased the number and strength of typhoons and hurricanes, said La Jolla High physics teacher Martin Teachworth.
The project is at least college-level work, according to Teachworth.
“She’s very meticulous,” Teachworth said. “She’s very good at organizing information, putting it together and how she attacks and analyzes it.”
Competing in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl fueled Zhang’s passion for oceanography. Zhang largely tackled the typhoon project on her own. She decided on the topic, carried out the research and analysis and only approached Teachworth for suggestions.
Zhang began working on the project in 10th grade. Although she was named a semifinalist in the Intel contest and in the Siemens Westinghouse Science Competition, her project placed first in the nation in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Student Involvement Project.
The future is bright for Zhang. She has applied to Stanford University, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She expects to study science or engineering in college.
Since a child, Zhang has found science and math fascinating.
“It’s an area I understand really well,” she said. “I like the idea of knowing or studying how things work or how things function, basically the laws of everyday life.”
More than 1,558 students ages 15 to 18 from across the United States entered projects. Three hundred were chosen as semifinalists and 40 will go on to the final round. Fifty-three percent of the entrants were female.
Since the contest’s inception 65 years ago, STS alumni have received six Nobel Prizes, three National Medals of Science, 10 MacArthur Foundation Fellowships and two Field Medals.
“We’re looking for America’s next best scientists,” Intel spokeswoman Tami Casey said. For information visit www.intel.com/education or www.sciserv.org.