63rd Annual STS (2003-2004)
Finalists
Lisa Doreen Glukhovsky

CONNECTICUT
Lisa Doreen Glukhovsky, 18, of New Milford, studied a method of rapidly and accurately measuring the distance to potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids for her earth and space sciences project for the Intel Science Talent Search. High-resolution images of the asteroid were taken simultaneously from one European and one U.S. observatory and a computer spreadsheet was created to calculate the distance to the asteroid using parallax shift, the apparent position shift of a relatively near object against a more distant background when observed from different locations. Lisa's distances differed by less than 1 percent compared to NASA's predictions, which take days and powerful computers to calculate. Lisa believes her method of measuring near-Earth asteroids could one day help mitigate the danger of asteroid collisions with Earth. First in her class of 341 at New Milford High School, Lisa has perfect SAT scores. The daughter of Zakhar and Anna Glukhovsky, she is fluent in French, Russian and Hebrew, plays piano and violin and is concertmistress of the school orchestra. The recipient of numerous honors, Lisa hopes to pursue a career as a teacher or research scientist.