Biography
I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on November 2, 1986. I came to Cleveland, H, USA on September 28, 1998. Few people besides myself are interested in the 12 years between those two dates, so I'll skip most of that time. The only thing worth noting here is that in 3rd grade I entered a Physics-Math Gymnasium, and for 5 summers between 5th grade and the present I've attended summer math camps. Four of them were in St. Petersburg (associated with the St. Petersburg State University), the other one was the Ross Summer Program at the Ohio State University. I plan to go back to the Ross Program this summer also. Yes, I have been told that I'm a nerd. In fact, I am on the volunteer answer team of ww.mathnerds.com, where we (the MathNerds) answer mathematical questions that anyone might have. For the first two years after I came to the US, I attended a small Jewish school and did mostly nothing. Learning English was for a time enough to amuse me. I did convince the math teacher that perhaps "x+3=7" was less complicated than I could handle, so the math classes I spent with an Algebra 2 or Geometry book outside the classroom. In 8th grade I took the AMC, advanced to AIME, and haven't as of yet managed to take the USAMO (last year I was mathematical enough, but not a permanent enough resident yet). Life got more exciting in high school. The Hathaway Brown School (private; all-girls; "where girls soar"), of which I am currently a junior, has a most wonderful Student Research Program, which I entered in 9th grade. For two years, I was working on a research project at the BioMEMS lab at the Cleveland Clinic; I attended the Ohio Academy of Science annual meeting, and was chosen as part of the delegation to attend the American Junior Academy of Science annual meeting in February 2003. In the beginning of my junior year, after attending the Ross Summer Program (8 weeks of number theory 24/7), I decided that I really was more interested in mathematics, and that the pace at which my research project could move at the level of commitment I could allow myself outside of school was too slow for the four years I had. So I started working on a project that sought to mathematically determine the optimal length of a musical scale; I will present this project at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair during the week directly preceding the physics training camp. There were a score of other contests, though none worth specifically mentioning. I probably have enough certificates from Ohio mathematical competitions to cover the walls of my room with them instead of wallpaper. I took a chemistry test in 10th grade and placed 26th out of 3800 USA and Canadian students. I will be participating in a French contest in the very near future, and plan a year-long creative project in French for my senior year. I am presently taking 6 AP courses; have a 1550 (800 math) SAT; and a number of other nice scores on standardized tests, with which I won't bore you because I would fall asleep first. As for hobbies, I must meet my free time to ask it about what I like to do when I have any. When the two of us met last, the hobby was reading, and two growing obsessions - Instant Messenger and number theory - were springing up on the side. There were also some modest attempts on my part to do sports, but those failed quite miserably, as I found out that I really preferred reading a book at home to running outside.