Biography
I live in Austin, Texas and am 16 years old, and I would be a high school sophomore. I say "would be" because I am a homeschooler and have been all of my life. I have never gone to school, although I did visit the local magnet middle and high schools for one day each in 6th and 8th grades, respectively. My visits were mildly amusing, but did not make me want to go to school on a regular basis. I have always been interested in physics. When I was quite young, I watched Eureka, a cartoon which presented many basic physics principles. When I was somewhat older, I watched The Mechanical Universe, an Annenberg/CPB physics program produced in collaboration with Caltech. Last year I made my first serious study of physics, working from the college textbook Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, Walker, finishing the textbook this year. I was invited to be on the USA Physics Team last year, and was very disappointed that I could not attend due to a pre-existing conflict. I also tied for first place among first year physics students on Physics Bowl. As to other academic competitions and awards, I compete in the USA Computing Olympiad, of which I was the national champion last year. I also competed in the 2002 International Olympiad in Informatics (computing) which was in South Korea, winning a silver medal. In mathematics competitions, I have qualified for the USAMO every year since 7th grade, attending MOP last year. In middle school, I competed in MATHCOUNTS, which was my first real academic competition. I was the Texas state MATHCOUNTS champion in 8th grade and placed 8th at nationals that same year. My nonacademic interests include chess, fencing, and juggling. I have competed in a number of chess and fencing tournaments, although not with nearly the same level of dedication as with academic competitions. I enjoy reading science fiction written by authors such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke (my two favorite authors).