McLean, Va. (May 22, 2024) – The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) announces that Owen Dugan, a 2020 CEE Research Science Institute (RSI) alum, is among the 18 high school seniors named recipients of the 2024 Hertz Fellowships in applied science, engineering, and mathematics.
“I am so proud of Owen,” said Joann P. DiGennaro, CEE President. “He personifies excellence.”
Owen is an alum of CEE’s Research Science Institute (RSI), the most prestigious international summer research program for high school students. At RSI, which is collaboratively sponsored with MIT, students conduct original, innovative research; the program emphasizes advanced theory and research in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One hundred of the world’s most accomplished high school students are selected annually to participate in RSI, which is cost-free to all competitively selected students. To date, more than 3,000 high school students representing every U.S. state and 62 nations have experienced RSI. For more information, visit https://www.cee.org/programs/research-science-institute.
His research is at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and physics, working to develop AI that enables breakthroughs in physics and to use physics techniques to design more capable and safer AI systems. He will attend Stanford University to pursue a doctorate in computer science. Dugan earned a bachelor’s in physics in two and a half years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his research ranged from developing machine learning algorithms that automatically discover scientific theories to using concepts from physics to study linear sequence architectures for enhancing the speed of large language models. He was honored with MIT’s Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award for his contributions. Among other awards, Dugan is a U.S. Presidential Scholar, a Neo Scholar, and a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. He is from Sleepy Hollow, NY.
Through the Hertz Fellowship, the John and Fannie Hertz Foundation identifies the nation's most promising young innovators and disruptors in science and technology, empowering them to become the future leaders who keep the U.S. safe and secure.
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About the Center for Excellence in Education
CEE, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was founded in 1983 by the late Admiral H.G. Rickover and Joann P. DiGennaro, President of the Center. The Center’s mission is to nurture high school and university scholars to careers of excellence and leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and to encourage collaboration between and among scientific and technological leaders in the global community. CEE sponsors the Research Science Institute (RSI), USA Biolympiad (USABO), Teacher Enrichment Program (TEP), and STEM Lyceums. For more information, visit www.cee.org.
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