Chintan Hossain

My name is Chintan Hossain. I am 18 years old. I was born on Manhattan Island in New York City, New York on August 20, 1986. My parents decided to give me a name that was uncommon and have had good meaning. Chintan means the act of thinking. My parents predicted that I would think a lot. Now I live in Wilmington, Delaware with my mom, dad, and brother. My brother's name is Chetak. My parents are from Bangladesh. I visited Bangladesh twice. I can speak some Bangla (the language spoken in Bangladesh).

I am currently a sophomore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I am double majoring in Physics and Brain and Cognitive Science. The classes I am taking in the spring of 2005 are 8.06 (Quantum Mechanics III), 8.14 (Experimental Physics II), 6.170 (Software Engineering), 9.35 (Sensation and Perception), and 9.65 (Cognitive Processes).

I graduated in 2003 from the Charter School of Wilmington, which is a high school specializing in math and science. I entered the Charter School after finishing 7th grade, skipping 8th.

Some of my hobbies and interests are math, science, and computers. Ever since I was little, I wanted to find out how the world worked. I like challenges and doing new things.

I have been a member of the 24 member 2002 US Physics Team and the 2003 US Physics Team and attended the US Physics team training camp at the University of Maryland during the first week of summer each of those years. Over 1000 students try out for the US Physics Team each year. Two hundred pass the first test and make it to the Semifinal round. The top 24 from the semifinals are invited to the US Physics Team training camp. In 2001 I was a semifinalist, but in 2002 and 2003 I made it to the team. The camp had labs, exams, classes, and guest lectures, and we got a chance to spend time with other kids who like physics.

Each year, the 5 best students from the camp represent the US Physics Team at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), held in a different country each year. In 2003, I was chosen to attend the International Physics Olympiad in Taipei, Taiwan. The international exam has a 5 hour theoretical exam and a 5 hour experimental exam. Based on the total score on the exams, about 20 gold medals, 40 silver medals, and 40 bronze medals are awarded to the best students. I placed 19th overall and won a gold medal. The US team won 3 gold and 2 silver medals, was the highest scoring team, and won the specials awards for Best Theoretical Score (won by Daniel Gulotta), Best Experimental Score (won by Pavel Batrachenko), and Highest Female Scorer (won by Emily Russell).

From January 13-15, 2005, I will be attending the Launch Conference of the International Year of Physics held in Paris, France. Hundreds of physics students, Nobel Laureates, and other prominent physicists from over 80 countries will attend the conference. I am one of the 4 students chosen by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) to represent the US at the conference.

In the summer of 2001 I attended the Canada/USA Mathcamp, which was a 5 week long camp held that year in Colby College in Waterville, Maine. In 2002 I attended the Rutgers Young Scholars Program, a 4 week long camp in discrete mathematics at the Rutgers University. Click here for the YSP 2002 camp website.

In 9th grade, I participated in the AMC-12 and AIME (American Mathematics Competition). The AMC has 25 challenging math problems and we were given 90 minutes to do them. The maximum score is 150. I got a score of 92, and just barely made it to the AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination), scoring the cutoff score of 92. The AIME has 15 problems that are harder than the AMC-12, and we were given 3 hours to do them. I didn't pass to the next level from the AIME. The next levels are the USAMO (USA Mathematics Olympiad), and the IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad). The following year, I took the AMC-12 and AIME again. In 2002 in my junior, I passed the AMC-12 with a score of 118 and took the AIME for the third time.

I participated in the Delaware Math League program for many years. In 4th grade I won third place in the state (there was a tie) in the 1996 Delaware Math League. In fifth grade I won first place in the state in the 1997 Delaware Math League. I was in a 3-way tie between Chia-Chen (Jenny) Tang from Harry O. Eisenberg Elementary School and Aaron Meng from The Independence School. Three years later, my math league team won the 2000 Delaware Secondary Math League. In 2001 math league, in my sophomore year, our team won second place. In my junior year, in the 2002 math league, I won third place individually, and our team won first place.

In March of every year, the top 5 students from the top schools at each grade level in Delaware participate in the invitational math meet. In the 1997 Invitational Math Meet I won first place there (there was a 7-way tie). In sixth grade I participated in the 1998 Invitational Math Meet. I won first place again. There was a tie between Aaron Meng and I. In seventh grade I participated in the 1999 Invitational Math Meet and won first place in the state for the third time in a row. I participated in the 2000 Invitational Math Meet but I made one mistake and didn't win anything individually. However, our team won first place. In 2001, our team won second place at the 2001 Invitational Math Meet. In 2002, our team placed first at the 2002 Invitational meet.

In 9th grade I participated in the 2000 Math League Press Competition. There was a meet every month for 6 months. We did 6 math problems at each meet. I got a score of 29 and ranked among the top 20 students. Our math league team, from the Charter School of Wilmington won second place nationally. I got score of 32 in the 2001 Math League Press, and placed sixth. Our school placed first. In the 2002 Math League Press, I placed third individually and our team placed first.

In fifth grade I won the Robert Davis Award. The Robert Davis Award is given in McCullough Elementary School (the school I went to for grades 3-5) to one male and one female student at the end of fifth grade for academic achievements.

I participated in the Johns Hopkins Talent Search for a couple years. In fifth grade I participated in the 1997 Johns Hopkins Talent Search and won first place in the state of Delaware in quantitative ability. In 7th grade I participated in the 1999 Johns Hopkins Talent Search and won first place in the state in math ability and received national recognition. The seventh and eighth grade talent search involves taking the SAT. The students who score 700 or more out of possible 800 on either the math or verbal part before the age of 13 are invited to participate in the Study of Exceptional Talent (SET). I scored a 790 on the math part of the SAT. To see other SET members' home pages click here- SET Members' Home Pages

For the past four years, I participated in the Science Olympiad. In the 1999 Science Olympiad I won awards in two events. I won a silver medal in Physical Science Lab (there was a two way tie) and I also won seventh place in What Are You Trying to Tell Me. In the 2000 Science Olympiad I won three medals. I won bronze medals in Physics Lab and Reach for the Stars and fourth place in Fermi Questions. In the 2001 Science Olympiad, I won gold medals in Water Strider, Reach for the Stars, and Fermi Questions at the state level. Our school placed first in the state and was invited to the National Science Olympiad. I placed sixth in Physics Lab at the national level. In 2002, our school participated in the Invitational, State, and National Science Olympiads. The Invitational and Nationals were held at the university of Delaware this year. At the Invitational, I won gold medals in Physics lab and Fermi Questions and fourth place in Reach for the Stars and Dynamic Planet. Our team placed second. At the state level, I won gold in Fermi Questions, silver in Reach for the Stars, bronze in Dynamic Planet, fifth in Physics Lab, and ninth in Water Strider. Our team placed third, and the other team from our school placed first. I competed in Fermi Questions at the nationals as an alternate, and won a gold medal.

In 2000, I participated in the Science Fair. My project was called "The Effect of Radiation on Seed Germination". I radiated seeds to see if the radiation would kill harmful microorganisms without harming the seeds much, making the seeds more productive. It turned out that the seeds germinated and grew best without radiation, however there were trends in the height vs. amount of radiation graph that showed that my hypothesis could be partially correct. My project won third place in my school science fair and an honorable mention and plant pathology award in the Delaware Science Symposium.

I participated in the Science Fair again in 2001. In my project, entitled "Conquering the Heart Using Nonlinear Dynamics," I modeled cardiac activity using a mathematical model to possibly predict normal and abnormal heart activity and possibly restore normal activity to an abnormal heart. I placed first in my school science fair, won Best of Show at the New Castle County Expo and was invited to the regional Delaware Valley Science Fair. In addition, I was named a Davidson Fellow Laureate and won a $50,000 scholarship for my project. The Davidson Institute for Talent Development annually gives out $50,000, $25,000 (starting in 2003), and $10,000 scholarships to students who have completed a significant piece of work in mathematics, science, technology, music, literature, or philosophy that has the potential to benefit society.

A recently published book, Genius Denied has a lot of information on gifted programs in the US, and in particular addresses the lack of sufficiently challenging programs for gifted students. I was featured in a chapter of the book for describing my experience at the Charter School of Wilmington.

In the 2002 Science Fair, I submitted a project entitled, "A Quest in Computational Neurobiology for Higher Order Processes." I used a computational model to simulate the behavior and interactions of neurons. Using the model, I found some behavior that may be related to higher order neural processes such as memory and information processing. I placed first at my school science fair, second at the New Castle County Science Expo, and I was invited to the regional Delaware Valley Science Fair.