59th Annual STS (1999–2000)
Finalists
Matthew Burton Reece

KENTUCKY
Matthew Burton Reece, 18, of Louisville, submitted a mathematics project in the Intel Science Talent Search, that proposes a faster way of simulating the motion of fluids. Understanding fluid flow is very important. Airplane designers, for instance, need to understand how the plane's design affects the airflow around it. Meteorologists need fast simulations to improve their forecasts. Computers can do these simulations now, but rather slowly. However, when the velocity field of a fluid is broken down into wavelet components, a computer needs fewer values to represent it. This means that simulations of the flow have to compute fewer values and so they do the job faster. Matt is a senior at the duPont Manual Magnet High School and has earned more than two dozen academic honors and awards. Matt plays the violin and enjoys hiking but his primary interest is in the kind of pure science that will eventually have applications that can improve peoples' lives. In preparation for a career in physics, Matt hopes to attend the University of Chicago. He is the son of Kenneth and Beverly Reece.