Teen’s Work on Laser Earns Semifinal Berth

Aman Narang, a 17-year-old senior at The Harley School in Brighton, N.Y., thought that the computer model he was asked to develop at an eight-week summer program at the University of Rochester would be just busywork. Now it has earned him a $1000 prize as a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search and the satisfaction of knowing that he has made a real contribution to the Rochester, N.Y., university's laser fusion program.

Narang modeled changes in the output spectrum of the 30-kJ Omega laser system, an inertial confinement fusion research instrument at the university's Laboratory for Laser Energetics, as researchers increased the bandwidth of its input. His simulation verified the accuracy of diagnostic spectrometers at the facility.