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One of the 40 national finalists in this year's Intel Science Talent Search contest is Dmitriy Aronov, a Stuyvesant High School student who pursued his project in the lab of Dr. Jonathan D. Victor, a Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and an authority on mathematical approaches to vision and neuroscience.

Dmitriy, 17, submitted a mathematics entry in the Intel Science Talent Search that may increase our understanding of how groups of nerve cells in the brain cooperate when transmitting information.

Using data on brain activity in the visual cortex, he studied the coding mechanism by which the brain transmits information via sequences of electrical impulses (spikes). He examines ways of measuring the similarity of two sequences of spikes. He also extends his analysis to multiple codes, generated simultaneously by several cells, in an effort to understand better how cells collaborate.

Dmitriy will present his work as first author at the 2001 conference of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. At Stuyvesant High School, Dmitriy is webmaster of the school web site, a member of the chess team, an editor of the math publication, and a peer tutor in math, physics, and computer science.

Born in Russia, he has received many math, science, and chess awards. He is the son of Anatoliy Aronov and Dr. Yevgenia Aronova, and hopes to study applied mathematics at Columbia University for a career as a researcher in biomathematics.

For thousands of students who dream of careers in science, the Annual Science Talent Search (STS) has helped make that dream a reality.

In March of 1998, Science Service announced the new sponsor of this prestigious institution: Intel.

Now in its 60th year, it is the nation's oldest and most highly regarded science competition. The STS has identified young scientific talent with remarkable precision: alumni include five Nobel Laureates, ten MacArthur Foundation Fellows, and two Fields Medalists.