McLean's Ethan Zhou Places In Top 10 Of Regeneron Science Talent Search

Press release from Fairfax County Public Schools:

Ethan Zhou, a student at McLean High School, has placed 7th in the national 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search.

The competition is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. Zhou received a $70,000 award for studying the theory behind a machine learning model in which the learning program receives training data gradually.

His math research could be especially useful for algorithms that predict and learn from events that are revealed over time, like the weather. 

Ethan is a three-time USA Math Olympiad qualifier and heads the math league at McLean High School, where he helped double the size of the club. He is also a prize-winning pianist, a skill he has honed for more than a decade. The son of Jia Hong and Guangming Zhou, Ethan has also tutored at the Hope Chinese School for five years.

His advice for other students interested in science is to "stay curious, nature is full of mysteries, and if nothing else, remembering this can make life more beautiful."

This press release was produced by Fairfax County Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.