David Alex Rosengarten

NEW YORK

David Alex Rosengarten, 18, of Great Neck, studied dark matter and the controversial galactic rotational curves for his Intel Science Talent Search physics project. Dark matter, which is theorized to make up 25 percent or more of the universe, emits little or no detectible radiation but exerts observed gravitational force on stars and galaxies. To avoid the complications of modeling matter in the physical fourth dimension, David's calculations were conducted in a fifth dimensional model, allowing him to mock-up galactic rotation models without describing visible matter. His results showed that Einstein's General Relativity Theory, in principle, could modify rotation curves without including dark matter. Fourth dimensional calculations, in contrast, support the existence of dark matter. David, who attends John L. Miller-Great Neck North High School, captains the chess team and also the math team, which advanced from 105th to 4th place nationally under his leadership. The son of William and Elissa Rosengarten, David is an accomplished cellist, a nationally ranked chess player and the recipient of many math and science awards. He hopes to study at Harvard or MIT.