Akilan Sankaran ’25 was named the Seaborg Award winner and selected to speak on behalf of the Regeneron Science Talent Search Class of 2025 – 40 finalists of the U.S.’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. Akilan’s peers identified him as the student who best exemplifies their class and the legacy of nuclear chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1951 and served on the Society’s Board of Trustees for 30 years.
For his Regeneron Science Talent Search physics project, Akilan built a mathematical model to learn about a puzzling phenomenon in fluid dynamics. A droplet of fluid that falls into a vibrating bath acts in strange ways that don’t correspond to classical physics. The droplet “walks” by sliding along the fluid’s surface and even seems to “tunnel” between cavities in the shaking fluid. He used a mix of simulations and experiments, as well as theoretical proofs involving partial differential equations. He built a model of a droplet system that could make it easier to study its most surprising elements in three dimensions. Lessons from models of systems like these could also shed light on complex environmental threats like shoreline erosion.
The 40 finalists were honored during an award ceremony at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C, where they were awarded more than $1.8 million in prizes for their groundbreaking research, exceptional problem-solving skills, and potential to shape the future of STEM. Learn more here.
