62nd Annual STS (2002-2003)
Finalists
Anatoly Preygel

MARYLAND
Anatoly Preygel, 17, of Germantown, submitted a mathematics project to the Intel Science Talent Search reporting on his study of knot theory, which examines closed curves in three-dimensional space. Anatoly's research investigates some aspects of the recently introduced quandle cocycle knot invariants. He addressed the hard question of when two knots are the same (isotopic). Using "quandle coloring," he gives a new invariant, "degree," and shows how to compute it. He also links degree to the bridge number of the knot. The study of mathematical knot theory is the subject of increasing academic interest because of possible applications in physics, chemistry and genetics. At Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Anatoly is active in the science and math clubs, maintains the school web site and works as system administrator. He has received many math and computer programming awards as well as the Rensselaer Science and Math Medal. The son of Dr. Ilya and Sofya Preygel, Anatoly was born in Moldova, and he reads Russian and French fluently. He plans to study math and computer science at MIT preparing for a career as a professor of mathematics.