Celine Zhang '26 chosen among top 40 in Society of Science competition.
Exeter extended its success in the nation’s the nation’s oldest and most prestigious STEM competition, with another Exonian reaching the finals of the Regeneron Science Talent Search.
Celine Zhang ’26 will join 39 other young scholars from across the country to compete for $1.8 million in prizes during the finals in March in Washington, D.C. The talent search, sponsored by the American biotech company Regeneron and overseen by the Society of Science, is in its 85th year.
Zhang’s project is titled “Designing Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Agent Motion Planning.” She explains: “Imagine Peggy wants to prove to her friend Victor that she knows a solution to a game but does not want to reveal to him what that solution is. I developed a zero-knowledge proof for a class of block-pushing games, which would allow Peggy to do just that. My zero-knowledge proof is both efficient and generalizable to a wide class of games. In today’s digital world, zero-knowledge proofs allow for preservation of privacy in a variety of contexts.”
Exeter has a proud history in the competition, including boasting overall winners Yunseo Choi ’21 and Achyuta Rajaram ’24, who each took home a $250,000 top prize. Past competitors include 13 Nobel laureates and 23 MacArthur Fellows.
Along with Zhang, two other Exonians were chosen this year as semifinalists. Congratulations to Sebastien Sobeih ’26 and Andy Song ’26 for earning a place among 300 semifinalists.
