Science Talent Training Center
This center is to organize yearly Science Talent Training Program (STTP) to train motivated high school students in conducting cutting-edge research projects with Dr. Jian Ge and part of his international research team during the summer and academic year. The goals are to inspire an interest in science; give students a professional level research experience; and cultivate students’ curiosity, imagination, and creativity.
2024 Science Talent Training Program
Sky is the limit
The 2024 Science Talent Training Program (STTP) is an online research training program in which students are trained on the basics of research and conduct independent research on a specific topic. It consists of a summer section (6/10/2024-8/9/2024), a fall 2024 section (8/10/2024-12/31/2024), and a spring 2025 section (1/1/2025-6/8/2025). In this program, students spend ~40 hours/week training during the first part of the summer and then conducting their own research later on. Students can continue their research in the fall section of 2024 and in the spring section of 2025. Previous STTP students have significantly benefited from their long-term research commitments. Research fields include astronomy, environmental science, artificial intelligence applications in big data, astrobiology, statistics, and optics. Results from their research can be used for competitions and science publications.
To apply for this program, please submit your CV, a copy of your high school transcript, a statement of science interests along with a cover letter to astrojge@gmail.com.
Astronomy
Potential research topics include Comets, NEOs, exoplanets, brown dwarfs, stars, binaries, young stars, nebula, black holes, galaxies, quasars, AGNs, and cosmology
Big Data
Data mining, data processing, data analysis, data simulation, statistical study, MCMC, time series analysis, Gaussian Processes
Artificial Intelligence
Deep learning, tensorflow, CNN, machine learning, GPU processing, and PCA
Environmental Science
Potential research topics include greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, water vapor, man-made molecules, geological temperature record
The Team
Director, Dr. Jian Ge, Chair Professor of Astronomy
Dr. Jian Ge is the director of Science Talent Training Center and chair professor of astronomy at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was a professor of astronomy at University of Florida in 2004-2020, an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University in 2000-2004, and a postdoc research fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Lab in 1998-2000. He received his Ph.D in Astronomy at the University of Arizona in 1998 and his BSc at University of Science and Technology of China in 1989.
Dr. Ge started to train high school students in doing research in 2010 and established the STTP outreach program at the University of Florida in 2017 (https://news.clas.ufl.edu/stargazing-to-siemens/). To date, he has trained over 50 high school students and most of recent students have attended or are attending top 10 colleges in the world, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Caltech, Cambridge, Columbia, Chicago, UPenn, Duke, Cornell and Brown.
Dr. Ge is the Principal Investigator of the on-going Earth 2.0 space mission, the Dharma Planet Survey and a collaborator of the NASA TESS mission. He was PI for the MARVELS survey of the SDSS-III program in 2008-2014, PI for the TOU, EXPERT, LiJET, and W.M. Keck Exoplanet Tracker optical Doppler instruments and also FIRST near IR Doppler instrument. He led the development of dispersed fixed-delay interferometry for both single and multiple object Doppler spectroscopy and the first silicon grism and large format silicon immersion grating. He also led the development of advanced image slicer integral field optics, and new generation coronagraphic image and pupil masks for NASA Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF). His team discovered five new planets (including planet Vulcan orbiting 40 Eridani), confirmed three transiting planets, 24 brown dwarfs, over 400 new binaries and over 10 low-mass planet candidates. Dr. Ge and his team also discovered about 700 high redshift quasar 2175 Å dust absorbers, about 500 Ca II absorbers and about 100 rare C I absorbers. and molecular hydrogen in four high-redshift damped Lyman alpha quasar absorbers, and measured high redshift Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation temperatures. He has published over 300 refereed journal and technical papers and abstracts, and was awarded with three US patents.
Research Mentor, Dr. Yinan Zhao
Dr. Yinan Zhao, a postdoc at the University of Geneva, Swiss, obtained his Ph.D degree under the direction of Prof. Ge at the University of Florida in May 2020. His research focuses on the area of data intensive astronomy and machine learning, particularly in exoplanet detection with Doppler spectroscopy and quasar absorption line systems. He is also interested in general-purpose GPU programming and the origin of Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).
Research Mentor, Mr. Kevin Willis
Kevin obtained bachelor degrees in physics and astronomy at the University of Florida in 2017. He began research with Dr. Ge in 2015 and has worked on a variety of projects involving exoplanet detection pipelines, astrophysics simulations, and machine learning. He has been teaching Python in the STTC since Summer 2019.
Research Mentor, Ms. Beverly Ge
Beverly Ge is a PhD student in Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. She graduated from Harvard College in 2020 with a B.A. in Environmental Science and Engineering, after which she spent two years working as an environmental consultant. She began conducting scientific research while in high school at the University of Florida's Department of Chemical Engineering. Her research on polymers with the ability to change color in response to toxic chemical vapors resulted in a patent, a co-authored paper, and numerous awards at prestigious science competitions. While at Harvard, Beverly explored the contamination of private wells in New Hampshire by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), ultimately co-authoring a paper published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Currently, her interests lie at the intersection of climate change and public health. She is passionate about using data to serve the public good and science communication.
Testimonials from our Alumni
Carrie Li, Princeton 2022
Brian Wu, Stanford 2024
Kevin Carlson, MIT 2020
"Doing research at UF and Arizona has been such an integral part of my high school experience! At UF, everyone would do weekly presentations and get direct feedback from Dr. Ge and his team on their respective projects. Every day at lunch, we would also be able to bounce ideas off each other and Dr. Ge in a friendly setting. Both were extraordinarily helpful for keeping our research innovative and on topic while also honing our communication skills.
At Arizona, I got the chance to visit and take data at Mt. Lemmon Observatory. Not only was I able to see fantastic sights and do some hiking on our way up the mountain, I was able to take data using the UF-operated telescope and do up-close observations of the beautiful stars. At Arizona, I also learned sophisticated Python programming to track stellar movements with experienced people in the field.
I will always remember the fantastic memories I made and interesting skills I learned as part of this wonderful research experience. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in astronomy research!"
Albert Jan, Columbia 2025
"Having begun my research with almost no background knowledge in Astronomy, I initially felt unconfident in my ability to tackle the fascinating but complex project I pursued as a rising senior. Luckily, Dr. Ge and his team were excellent at providing me with the materials needed to succeed while still giving me room to learn and explore on my own; it was the perfect balance. For example, Dr. Ge knew exactly which research papers I needed to get me going, and whenever I had a scientific question or wanted to plan for the future, the team was happy to set up individual productive Zoom meetings with me throughout the summer. Everyone was extraordinarily patient and friendly, and I felt comfortable exchanging my own ideas, taking advice, and communicating my progress each week. I appreciate that Dr. Ge was always curious and concerned about how quickly we were moving along our projects. The rest of the team also helped me greatly in navigating the world of deep learning and introducing me to useful concepts in Python as well—as an incoming computer science student at Columbia, I know that having all this knowledge will help me tons in the future! And speaking of college, I'm also grateful that Dr. Ge, occupied as he is, was happy to write a personalized recommendation letter for me. I came into STTP with nothing and left with a substantial project and 20 page paper to be proud of, many months' worth of acquired scientific knowledge under my belt, a growing curiosity to build a greater understanding of our universe, and my first true experience in academia. Spending these past several months under Dr. Ge's guidance was the most challenging, yet worthwhile, experience of my entire academic career. "
"Aside from my family members, I don't think there has been a person in my life as influential as Dr. Ge. I have conducted a self-led research project under Dr. Ge's guidance from 2017 to 2020, and I can confidently say that it has been one of the most transformative experiences of my high school career; furthermore, the skills and insight that I have gained while working with Dr. Ge are things that will carry me far into college and beyond. Simply put, if I hadn't decided to conduct research with Dr. Ge, I would not have been exposed to as much of the world as I have today.
The summer after my freshman year of high school, I traveled to Gainesville, Florida and began working with Dr. Ge in the University of Florida's Department of Astronomy. I walked into Dr. Ge's building not knowing how to write a single line of code and barely understanding the complicated Physics and Mathematics concepts that govern the field of Astronomy. I didn't have much to fear though, because one's abilities aren't the most important attribute to Dr. Ge. Rather, passion, drive, and grit stand out the most.
Perhaps one of the most exciting features of that summer was being able to travel to Tucson, Arizona with other members of Dr. Ge's research team, which was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. I remember learning about Astronomical concepts, instrument design, as well as data analysis using cutting-edge computational techniques, which have continued to play a part in my research today. Journeying up to Kitt Peak National Observatory as well as the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter network of telescopes opened me up to the extremely critical research that is being conducted in Astronomy today that may soon permit the discovery of humanity's second home, elsewhere in the universe. From shadowing Dr. Ge as he fixed his 50-inch Dharma Foundation telescope to being able to see the entire Milky Way in the night sky for the first time in my life, I walked away from Arizona knowing that science doesn't have to be difficult and complicated; once you see the beauty of it, it's passion and curiosity that carry you the rest of the way.
For the next two-and-a-half years as I continued working with Dr. Ge, I learned that curiosity, passion, and grit are three of the most important traits for one to excel at whatever they do. Dr. Ge showed me that curiosity enables one to ask questions and propose new ideas to society; passion is what drives us to continue deriving the answers and solutions to these questions and problems, and grit is the tool that lets us build alternative paths should we encounter the many obstacles in our work. For that, I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Dr. Ge over my high school career, and I sincerely hope many others will continue to have this incredibly valuable experience as well. Dr. Ge's perseverance and dedication to mentoring students represents everything that I could possibly wish for when searching for a mentor to conduct research under."
“As a rising senior in high school, I was lucky enough to work in Dr. Ge’s astronomy lab. Through my research, I gained invaluable experience in astronomy instrumentation, scientific writing and communication that I continue to use to this day. My project consisted of programming an adaptive optics system for the University of Florida automatic telescope. My research taught me how to interface software with hardware and apply physics to solve real-world problems. Additionally, I was able to develop my communication skills by effectively communicating obstacles and solutions to other lab members. All aspects of my work in Dr. Ge’s lab gave me the tools to be successful in an intensive college environment. I submitted my research paper to the Siemens Competition and received recognition for my work which helped to build my resume for college applications. Additionally, I developed the ability to effectively communication complex ideas which helped with college admission interviews and essays. The academic material I studied under Dr. Ge’s supervision has resurfaced since beginning my undergraduate degree at MIT, and I can attribute this early exposure to advanced material as an influential factor to my ability to learn quickly and succeed at a high-level institution.”
Our STTP Alumni
Past High School Researchers Their Status
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Ashley Xu, 2021-2023 Stanford University; the 3rd prize in Physics and Astronomy in the 2022 ISEF competition
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Jerry Yuan, 2020-2023 Stanford University
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Benson Wang, 2020-2023 Yale University
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Hannah Fang, 2020-2023 University of Pennsylvania
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Hannah Wang, 2020-2023 Cornell University
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Iona Xia, 2020-2023 Stanford University; top presenter at the 2021 Sigma Xi Student ResearchConference
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Michael Fang, 2020-2023 Purdue University
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Justin Hou, 2020-2022 Columbia University, the interdisciplinary award in 2021 Sigma Xi student research conference, the top presenter award in 2021 Sigma Xi student research showcase
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Zarar Haider, 2020-2022 Columbia University, the 2022 National Young Astronomers Award (2nd place)
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Allen Chao, 2020-2023 Cambridge University
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Larry Ge, 2020-2022 Cambridge University
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Ivory Wang, 2022-2023 Washington University
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Franklin Wang, 2019-2022 MIT, Regeneron STS scholar, 2022; Davidson Fellow (top award), 2021; ISEF Peggy Scripps Award (top award), 2021
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David Chang, 2020-2022 Columbia University, Regeneron STS scholar, 2022
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Kevin Wang, 2020-2022 Princeton University
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Gary Xu, 2020-2022 Princeton University
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Alina Yuan, 2020-2022 Cornell University, ISEF finalist, 2022
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Jasmine Sun, 2020-2022 Brown University
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Jessica Jin, 2020-2022 Tufts University
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Amanda Hao, 2019-2022 George Town University, the interdisciplinary award in 2021 Sigma Xi student research conference, the top presenter award in 2021 Sigma Xi student research showcase
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Alexander Li, 2021 Carnegie-Mellon University
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Alexander Hu, 2020-2021 MIT
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David Zhou, 2020-2021 Columbia University, Science Research Fellow
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Albert Jan, 2020-2021 Columbia University
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David Zhang, 2019-2021 Columbia University
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Ruibo (Brian) Wu, 2019-2021 John Hopkins University
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Claire Chen, 2020-2021 George Institute of Technology
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Brian Wu, 2017-2020 Stanford University; Regeneron STS finalist, 2020; Davidson Fellow, 2019; ISEF finalist, 2019 (NASA Grand Award), 2018 (Special award); Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Jack Yuan (Canada), 2017-2019 Stanford University; Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar, 2019; ISEF finalist, 2018 (Special award)
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Crystal Hu (China), 2017-2019 Cornell University; Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar, 2019
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Joshua Zou, 2018 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar, 2019
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Raymond Li, 2017-2018 MIT; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Matthew Zhang (Canada), 2017 Cambridge University
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Jerry Li (China), 2017 Penn State/George Institute of Technology
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Julie Xue (China),2017 University of South California
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Elaine Wang (China), 2017 Columbia University
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Sara Qu, 2017 Harvard University; Siemens competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Carrie Li, 2017 Princeton University; Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar, 2018; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Philip Pan, 2017 University of Pennsylvania; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Anna Huang, 2017 UCLA; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Bailey Tucker, 2017. University of Chicago, Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Benjamin Nagoshi, 2017 Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Brandon Lo, 2017 George Institute of Technology; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist,2017
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Jerry Xu, 2017 UC Berkeley; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Roger Kim, 2017 Cornell University; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Kevin You, 2017 Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Cindy Wang 2017 MIT
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Tiffany Zhao, 2017 Stanford University
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Andy Zhu, 2017 MIT, Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Bill Zhu, 2017 Harvey Mudd College; Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar, 2018
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Michael Cao (China), 2017 Columbia University
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Vladimir Zeltsman, 2017 Purdue University, engineering; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Andrew Chun, 2016 University of NC at Chap Hill; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2017
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Dacheng Li, 2016 University of California at Los Angeles
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Hetu Patel, 2016 George Institute of Technology
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Rebecca Dai, 2016 Yale University; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2016
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Kevin Carlson, 2015 MIT; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2015
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Khaya Klanot, 2015 Yale University; Siemens Competition Semi-finalist, 2015
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Michael Spiegel, 2014 Cornell University, Physics
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Enes Grahovac, 2014 Florida Institute of Technology
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Nikhil Krishnan, 2013 Caltech, Applied Mathematics
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Angela Gui, 2013 Caltech, Astronomy
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Eric Reid, 2013 Lehigh University, Electrical Engineering
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Maria-Ines van Olphen, 2012 University of Florida, Biomedical Engineering
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Alexandria Moore, 2012 Purdue University, Electrical Engineering
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Jordan Katz, 2012 University of Michigan
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Christina Hendryx, 2011 University of Maryland, Mathematics
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Abigail Stewart, 2011 University of Florida, Mathematics
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Anthony Weishampel, 2010 Duke University