Eric Shyu
ILLINOIS
Eric Shyu, 18, of Naperville, synthesized and characterized novel
metal-organic polymer networks for his Intel Science Talent Search project in
chemistry. Eric investigated the role that cadmium perchlorate would play in the
creation of coordination polymers. His work resulted in 12 new polymer solids,
two of which had unprecedented structures. Moreover, one of these was the
first-ever example of a specific polymer lattice pattern - a significant
discovery, and something numerous investigators had been seeking for more than a
decade. Both polymers were found to emit intense blue-white light when exposed
to ultraviolet light. This luminescent property may contribute to the
development of better light-emitting diodes. It is believed that six or more
peer-reviewed publications will result from this work. The son of Kae Shyu and
Chung-Jeing Yuan, Eric attends Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora. He
is a member of Mu Alpha Theta and heads up his school's InvenTeam project to
build a low-cost, durable water filter. He plans to attend MIT or Caltech and
hopes to reveal the connections between different fields of study such as
chemistry and mathematics.
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