A Harrisonburg teenager recently won fourth place in a national science and math competition. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
At an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. in March, 16-year-old Max Misterka was happily surprised to hear his name announced as the fourth-place winner of the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Each year, around 1,900 students submit their original scientific research to the competition.
Misterka was the only homeschooled student out of the 40 finalists who went to D.C. For his research, he invented a new calculus tool.
MAX MISTERKA: My research was about s-calculus. It's what's called the generalization of q-calculus. That means that it kind of extends q-calculus. … I proved things like the s-power rule and the s-product rule. … I don't know if this has any practical applications. It's pure math.
He may continue working on this research, but –
MISTERKA: I also started a new project. It's about algebraic graph theory, so I'll be working on that probably for the next month or two.
Max received $100,000 with the award. He casually explained that he planned to spend it on his college education – which he's starting this fall, at MIT, two years early. He sees himself perhaps becoming a math professor, or getting into computer programming.
MISTERKA: After I solve a problem, prove something, or just discover something new, I really like the feeling after that. It feels like I'm kind of seeing how things work more.
Max said he really enjoyed meeting the other finalists and learning about their research.
