59th Annual STS (1999–2000)
Finalists
Jonathon Simon

MARYLAND
Jonathan Simon,17, of Chevy Chase, reported to the Intel Science Talent Search on his physics-based engineering research to improve diffractive lenses, which play a major role in such devices as optical interconnects and will in the future be used in photo detectors. Higher diffraction efficiencies are now possible as a result of technological advances in making multilevel lenses with sub-wavelength features, but testing these lenses has been far too time-consuming to be practical. Jonathan's "intelligent optimization" - based on a multi-resolution algorithm that he created - has streamlined the process. He carried out his work at the Army Research Laboratory, where it is currently being written up as two papers for submission to refereed journals. At Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Jonathan is on the varsity hockey team, has served as president of the chess team, game programming club and chamber music club, and plays second-chair violin. Holder of several academic awards, his interests include holograms, robots, remote-control helicopter flying and backpacking. The son of Drs. Richard and Caroline Simon, Jonathan plans to study at Caltech for a career in optics research.