Pioneer Academics is proud to announce that 118 papers authored by scholars from the 2021 program have been nominated for publication in The Pioneer Research Journal, an annual publication showcasing the most outstanding undergraduate-level research and writing generated by the high school students from 48 countries and regions who participated in this year’s program.
The scholars whose work has been nominated hail from five continents, 13 countries and regions, and 104 high schools. The nominated research papers present original research in a wide range of academic fields spanning STEM, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Pre-professional disciplines.
The Pioneer Research Program is the world’s only online research program granting U.S. college credit for high school students. These nominated research papers form the capstone of the Pioneer Research Program, in which exceptional high school students from around the world follow Pioneer’s strict process to conduct original research. The scholars enrolled in the program meet online with small international cohorts to develop deep knowledge in their research concentration before moving on to work individually with the professor to generate an undergraduate-level research paper on a topic of their own.
All of the research papers completed by Pioneer Scholars undergo rigorous academic oversight, each one representing a significant achievement in original exploration and discovery and held to the highest academic standards. The 118 papers nominated for the 2021 edition of The Pioneer Journal, which marks the 8th volume, comprise the top 10% of the papers produced during Pioneer’s 2021 Spring and Summer terms. The nominated papers will now be evaluated in a comprehensive review process which includes a double-blind review by a panel of more than 40 university faculty experts from leading universities and colleges.
We look forward to announcing the papers selected for publication shortly after the start of the new year. In the meantime, we congratulate the authors of all the nominated papers, each of whom exemplifies the academic rigor embodied by the Pioneer system. For a complete list of nominated papers and authors, please see the chart below.
Scholar Name | Scholar School | Scholar country and regions (by school) | Pioneer Research Area | Pioneer Research Topic |
Aadvik Shukla | The Shri Ram School Moulsari | India | Sociology/Political Science | The Uttar Pradesh Anti Conversion Ordinance, 2020 - Deconstructing the stated neutrality of legislative material in the BJP’s populist, majoritarian India. |
Aanya Bhalla | International School of Hyderabad | India | Chemistry/Biology | Developing Alectinib-based Small-Molecule Antagonists to Treat Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer |
Aaron Lu | West Point Grey Academy | Canada | Business | Casper Sleep Valuation: Are Investors Sleeping on Casper’s True Value? |
Amena Hussain | South Brunswick High School | United States | Neuroscience | Dopamine signals reward prediction error and action selection |
Anna Kassim | Croydon High School | United Kingdom | Philosophy | Being’s Chain, God’s Death, and Atlas’ Shrug: How meaning is blurred and deferred in the consideration of godlessness and freedom |
Anna Song | Seoul Foreign School | South Korea | Film Studies / Media Studies / Sociology / Culture Studies | Instagram: A Tool for Maintaining Sex: Comparative Objectification in Young Women |
Anruo Wang | Shenzhen College of International Education | China | Education | The academic implications of out-of-school tutorials on Chinese and American students’ high-stake test performance |
Ariane Vidal | San Francisco University High School | United States | STS | Race in the Eugenics Movement and the Progressive Era, 1910-1939 |
Ashlesha Bhojane | Hollis-Brookline High School | United States | Psychology / Neuroscience | A Healthy Body Is a Healthy Brain When It Comes to Alzheimer's Disease |
Bao Nguyen | Punahou School | United States | Chemistry | A theoretical study into the stepwise mechanism of the McLafferty rearrangement of 2-pentanone |
Brian Fan | Appleby College | Canada | Economics/Mathematics | Game Theory: Red Packet Game |
Brian Nguyen | Northside College Prep High School | United States | Film Studies / Media Studies | Film’s Portrayal of Mental Illness and Violence: Schizophrenia, DID, and PTSD |
Caroline Greenstone | Greenhill School | United States | Philosophy | Making Decisions in a Crisis: The Ethics of Scarce Resource Distribution Policies During COVID-19 |
Catherine He | Ridley College | Canada | International Relations/Political Science | Myanmar Risk Analysis |
Charisma Chen | Westridge School for Girls | United States | Economics/Political Science | Eliminating the Inefficiencies of the Current Car Resale Market Through Startup “BuyoutALease” |
Chong Tin | Eton College | United Kingdom | Cultural Studies/Environmental Studies | A Contemporary Perspective on the Health of the Great Barrier Reef and the Wellbeing of the Torres Strait Islanders |
Christopher Buyalos | Calabasas High School | United States | International Relations/Political Science | New Wars in Yemen? Classifying Debates around post-Cold War Conflict and Tracing the Emergence of New Wars in Yemen |
Claire Liu | Naperville North High School | United States | Music/Music Theory | The Role of K-pop in Modern East Asian-American Cultural Identity and Mental Health |
Connor Lee | La Cañada High School | United States | Criminology/Sociology | An Analysis on the Value of Self-Control in Committing Crimes |
Daeyong Kwon | Centennial High School | United States | STS/Computer Science/History/Political Science/Culture Studies | Distinct Minorities’ Relationships with Political Ideology in Baltimore City |
Daniel Zhu | Dougherty Valley High School | United States | Biology | Does IL-10 induced upregulation of the NKG2A receptor in NK cells result in lymphopenia of NK cells in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2? |
Dat Chau | Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School | United States | Sociology/Political Science | Vietnam: Disillusioned Equality for Ethnic Minorities |
David Li | William P. Clements High School | United States | Computer Science | Using Networks and Supervised Machine Learning to Analyze and Predict the Results of Team Sports Games |
Dhun Nishchal | Heritage Xperiential Learning School | India | Physics/Chemistry | Identification of the different chemical structures present in an unknown sulfur sample using K-edge X-ray absorption near end structure (XANES) data analysis |
Divya Mamidi | Mira Loma High School | United States | Economics / Political Science / International Relations / Sociology | Private Companies Dictating Public Purpose: Aadhaar in India’s Digital Welfare Revolution |
Dorothy Chan | Brooklyn Technical High School | United States | Environmental Studies | Imagining a carbon-neutral future through Standard Oil’s Four Sisters standing: Beyond Petroleum, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell |
Duru Unsal | Alameda High School | United States | International Relations | “Democracy as a Choice:” Weimar Civil Society and the Rise of the Nazi Party |
Efe Uğurlu | Robert College | Turkey | Physics/Astronomy | Putting Constraints on the Dark Matter Density at the Center of our Galaxy from the Most Recent Observations of GRAVITY |
Ege Kabasakaloğlu | Bahcesehir High School for Science and Technology | Turkey | Computer Science | Analyzing Generalized Harary’s Tic-Tac-Toe Using Automated Algorithms |
Elise Pham | Lawrence Dale Bell High School | United States | Biology | Mechanisms of Inhibition for β-lactam Resistance: A Novel Investigation of Therapeutic Efforts against Gram-negative Bacteria |
Emory Sun | International School of Beijing | China | Mathematics/Physics | Representations of a natural number as the sum of four of eight squares |
Enzo Banal | North Hollywood High School | United States | Media Studies/Political Science | A Photo Finish Amidst a Hurricane: Why Election Outcomes Have Been Consistently Narrow Despite Institutional Bias |
Ezgi Erzincan | Saint Joseph Istanbul | Turkey | Political Science/International Relations | The Consequences of Urbanization on Access to Housing and Education in Turkey: Struggles and Coping Strategies of Syrian Refugees |
Faruk Ecirli | NUN Schools | Turkey | Business | Exploring the Entrepreneurial Differences Between Immigrant and Local Populations within the Context of Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurship |
Hanqi Su | Culver Academies | United States | History/Culture Studies/Political Science | Liberation Through the Imperial Imagination: Garveyism in Nigeria, 1919-1922 |
Hao Jiang | International Department of the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University | China | Chemistry | Formation of Umami Taste in Furu: The Role of Fermentation and Associated Health Benefits |
Haoyu Wang | International Department of the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University | China | Cultural Studies/Anthropology | Communication and Trade Between African and Chinese Merchants in Guangzhou, China |
Inyoung Lee | Seoul Foreign School | South Korea | Economics / Political Science / International Relations / Sociology | Civil Society and Democratization: The Role of the Labor Movement in South Korea’s Democratic Transition |
Irene Lin | Homestead High School | United States | Music/Music Theory | Complexity Within Minimalism: Rhythmic Perception of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music |
Isaac Lowry | Granville High School | United States | Biology | A Proposal to Facilitate Endogenous, Physiological Adrenal Steroidogenesis in 21-OHD CAH Patients via Recurrent Enzyme Replacement Therapy- |
Isabella Lashley | The Chapin School | United States | International Relations/Political Science | Along a Post-Colonial Spectrum: Considering Theory through an Analysis of Jordanian and Lebanese Identities |
Ivy Jiang | Stuyvesant High School | United States | Psychology | The Curious Mind of Self-Deception: The Effects of Personality and Its Influence on Academic Achievement |
Jeffrey Chen | Niskayuna High School | United States | Chemistry | Skin-Inspired Semiconducting Polymers and SulfurNitrogen Containing Porous Polymer Networks |
Jiali Yu | Hangzhou Foreign Languages School | China | Mathematics/Computer Science | Impact of Fans on Home Court Advantage in the NBA |
Jiaxi Wei | Shenzhen Middle School | China | Physics/Chemistry | Sulfur K-edge XANES Study of Determining the Proportion of Known Structures in an Unknown Element |
Jiayuan Jiang | The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University | China | Cultural Studies/Anthropology | A Temporary Gender Indexical : How Female Mandarin Serves as a Constructive Force on Modern Female Identity in Beijing Society |
Jingru Yang "Jenny" | United World College Changshu China | China | Anthropology / Psychology / Culture Studies | An Examination of Urban-Rural Differences in Maternal Child-Rearing Strategies: Using Data from Shanghai and Sui-Ning |
Jingyuan Zhang | The Experimental High School Attached To Beijing Normal University | China | Architecture/Art History | “War” at “Home“: The Feminist Narratives of Martha Rosler’s Photomontages |
Jiyul Shin | Korea International School | South Korea | Literature/History | Secret of the Grotesque: Exploring the physical and fantastical realms of Nikolai Gogol’s The Nose and E.T.A. Hoffman’s Little Zaches called Cinnabar |
Josephine Lee | Seoul Foreign School | South Korea | Economics | Advancement during Crises in Developed Countries: A Comparative Analysis of Economic Growth of Germany and Italy |
Junfei Sun | United World College Changshu China | China | Computer Science / Biology / Neuroscience | A more efficient cell segmentation network with SkipNet |
Kathryn Beistle | Gilbert Classical Academy | United States | Economics/Political Science | Overproduction and Inefficiency in the Fashion Industry: A Proposal for Creative Destruction |
Kayla Wanahita | United World College of South East Asia - Dover | Singapore | Film Studies / Media Studies / Sociology / Culture Studies | What Are the Differences of White and Black Women's Actions Within America's Political Structures During and Following the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade |
Kenedy Quandt | Sierra Canyon High School | United States | Biology/Neuroscience | Effectiveness of Virtual Reality on the Arm Following Stroke |
Kosta Barsov | Nova International Schools | Macedonia | Environmental Studies/Engineering | Efficient Wastewater Treatment through Smart Stormwater Management |
Kyle Tignor | Dallastown Area High School | United States | Mathematics/Physics | A Proof of the Asymptotic Formula for Partitions |
Kyra McKauffley | Churchill High School | United States | History/Culture Studies/Political Science | “Everything for Them, Nothing for Us”: Slogans and the “Us versus Them” Relationship of the 2006 and 2011 Chilean Education Protests |
Lara Buruk | Robert College | Turkey | Economics | The Effect of Culture on How Emotions Influence Spending Decisions |
Laura Zhang | Ravenswood School for Girls | Australia | Sociology/Political Science/History | Opening Our Hearts: An Analysis of How Noel Pearson Reframes the Debate Through Irony and Identification |
Luojia Liu | Shenzhen Foreign Languages School | China | Business | How friendship and shared leadership impact team performance |
Manya Lalwani | Flintridge Preparatory School | United States | Anthropology/ STS | Do the Incarcerated Have Rights? The Impact of Covid-19 in America’s Prisons |
Michael Jacob | Research Triangle High School | United States | Physics | Modeling the Frequency Shift of Light Emitted from Stars Orbiting Around Black Holes |
Michelle Liu | Chinese International School | China-Hong Kong | Psychology | The Efficacy of Practicing and Expressing Gratitude Interventions for Improving Well-Being in Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong |
Minghan Gao | Qingdao No. 58 High School | China | Media Studies | The Comparison Between BBC News and Myanmar Times: How Do Different Frames Express Racial Grievances of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar? |
Moxuan Xiong | Rutgers Preparatory School | United States | Philosophy | Trans Selfhood, (Mis)recognition, and Post-identity Resistance |
Munachimso Isabel Ohakamma | L.V. Hightower High School | United States | Psychology | Collective Memory Within the Black Community |
Naisha Agarwal | Saratoga High School | United States | Computer Science | Recommendation Algorithms to Encourage Equal Access to Influencers in a Network |
Nanru Dai | BASIS International School Guangzhou | China | Mathematics | A Brief Introduction to Fractional Coloring with Applications to Graph Products |
Nathaniel Chapman | St. Paul`s School | United States | Philosophy | An Examination of Descartes’ Doubt and the Foundations of Certain Knowledge |
Paridhi Latawa | Liberal Arts and Science Academy | United States | Mathematics | Applications of Convolutional Codes to DNA Codes and Error-Correction |
Peter Tizora | USAP Community School | Zimbabwe | Engineering | Investigating the Advantages of Battery Swapping For Increased Adoption of Electrical Vehicles |
Qianyu Liang | Shenzhen College of International Education | China | Psychology | The Relationship Between Religious Practice and Depression: Intrinsic Religiousness as Moderator |
Rheem Abbas | West Ashley High School | United States | Political Science/International Relations | There is no 'Ancient Egypt.' There is Only Nubia: The Shifting Role of Grade School Education in the Shaping of Sudanese National History |
Rishika Gupta | Amity International School, Saket | India | Sociology/ International Relations/Political Science/Gender Studies | Gendered Nature of Art & Resistance in Kashmir |
Rizabek Alpamys | Atyrau `Bilim-Innovation` lyceum | Kazakhstan | Engineering/ Computer Science | Facial Edge Extraction Using Quantum Hadamard Edge Detection Algorithm |
Ruby Tseng | The Primacy Collegiate Academy | China-Taiwan | Literature | Resurrecting Dead Voices |
Ruomin Xin | Shanghai United International School Gubei Campus | China | Biology | Introducing probiotics or probiotic polysaccharide A to complement Nivolumab’s antitumoral activity in colorectal cancer |
Ryan Hsi | Mercer Island High School | United States | Music/Music Theory | Background and Analysis of Fugues No. 3, No. 5, and No. 7 in Nikolai Kapustin’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, OP. 82: The Life and Compositional Mind of Nikolai Kapustin |
Ryan Su | Concordia International School Shanghai | China | Biology | The Potential of Linoleic Acid as an Anti-biofilm Agent Paired With Antibiotics to Target P. Aeruginosa Biofilms |
Samantha Shah | San Ramon Valley High School | United States | History / Sociology / Biology | The Illegitimate Defenses of Nazi Physicians |
Sangwon Shin | The SMIC Private School, Shanghai | China | Chemistry/Biology | Structure-based mixed cannabinoid design presents new opportunities for fibrosis treatment |
Sean Liu | Dulwich College Beijing | China | Engineering | Automatic Flood Barrier for Protecting Urban Underground Facilities |
Seungmo Ku | Korea International School, Jeju Campus | South Korea | Computer Science | Arbitrary Length and Arbitrary Quality Audio Steganography |
Shiv Kampani | Dhirubhai Ambani International School | India | Engineering | Swarm and Search Systems An Application of Swarm Robotics to the Exploration of Fireground Environments |
Shivani Menon | Oakridge International School Bangalore | India | Literature/Philosophy | The Representation of Untouchables as Others in Indian Literature |
Siddharta Laloux | Sevenoaks School | United Kingdom | Physics/Computer Science/Mathematics | Epidemic Propagation in Multilayered Networks |
Simratpal Deol | Ithaca Senior High School | United States | Environmental Studies | Exploring the Adverse Health Effects Associated with Atrozene and Whether More Substantial Restrictions are Required in the United States |
Soham Dasgupta | Mallya Aditi International School | India | Computer Science | Learning predictive models of entity-threat relationships in cybersecurity from distributed representations of knowledge graphs |
Songpei Li | Rutgers Preparatory School | United States | Economics / History / Poltical Science / International Relations | The Impact of the 2008 Financial Crisis on JPMorgan Chase and its future Implications |
Sophia Lao | Cosumnes Oaks High School | United States | Political Science | The Impact of Female Political Representation in State Legislatures on Abortion Policy in the United States |
Tianyi Wang | Shanghai Pinghe School | China | Biology/Neuroscience | Effectiveness of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) on Upper Extremity for Stroke Patients: A Scoping Review |
Ugochukwu Osondu | Federal Government Academy, Suleja | Nigeria | Mathematics | Tiling the [n × n] square with (1 × 1) squares and (n − 2) × 2 rectangles |
Veer Gokhale | German Swiss International School | China-Hong Kong | Physics | A Study of Prompt and Non-Prompt J/psi production at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV via the mu+mu- channel using data from Compact Muons Solenoid (CMS) Experiment |
Wangruoxi Liang | Keystone Academy | China | Economics/International Relations | Trade liberalization, capital stock, sectoral growth and urban-rural inequality: evidence from China |
William Kim | Seoul Foreign School | South Korea | Economics | UAI and Economic Development: A Case Study of Singapore and South Korea |
Xiaohan Wang | The Webb Schools | United States | STS/Media Studies/Political Science/Philosophy | Conspiracy Theory as a Technology of Power |
Xiaoyi Shi | Shanghai Foreign Language School | China | Biology | Mutability and Function of SARS-CoV-2 ORF9b |
Xinran (Cici) Xu | Saratoga High School | United States | Environmental Studies | Expanding Intergovernmental Water Markets Between Colorado River Basin Tribal Countries and Western States as a Response to Socioeconomic Drought |
Xintong Chen | York School | United States | Psychology | Comparing the Response Rate, Remission Rate, and Effective Age Range of High-Frequency Left Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (HFL rTMS) and Low-Frequency Right Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (LFR rTMS) in Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) |
Xueyin Yang | Shanghai American School Pudong | China | Gender Studies/Sociology | A Tale of Two Model Minorities: A Critical Analysis of Saving Face |
Yage Xin | Shenzhen College of International Education | China | Science, Technology & Society (STS)*/Anthropology/ Sociology | "I Have Autism": Uses and Misuses of Autism as Internet Slang in China |
Yan Shu | SMIC High School | China | Literature/Film Studies | The Madness of Indifference: Literature and Film on the Comic Insanity of 20th Century Warfare |
Yanxi Ren | Shenzhen Middle School | China | Neuroscience | Light and Photoreceptors Beyond Vision |
Ying Hu | Rutgers Preparatory School | United States | Education/Sociology | Trends of Chinese Given Names and the Reflective Female Gender Stereotypes |
Yixuan Huang | Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School | China | Literature/Film Studies | As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing: the Psychotherapeutic Effect of Comedies |
Yong Jie Chou | St. Paul`s Co-educational College | China-Hong Kong | Sociology/ Media Studies | #Challenge Accepted for Women in Turkey: Trending Instagram Participation or Collective Feminist Activism? |
Yue Yu | Teensen Genesis School | China | Physics/Biology | Realistic Kinetic Properties for Oxygen-Sensitive K+ Channels in Gloms Cells of the Carotid Body |
Yueqi Mei | Guangdong Country Garden School | China | Psychology/Gender Studies/Sociology | How Parent’s Perceptions of student’s academic performance are affected by gender and gaming behavior |
Yukino Sakai | Dulwich College Beijing | China | Engineering/ Mathematics | A Mathematical Model of Rocket Staging and Staging Optimization |
Yuqian Qiu | Vanke Meisha Academy | China | Environmental Studies/Engineering | A Pilot Wastewater Treatment Plant Designed to Target the Removal of Nanoplastics using Acoustic Radiation Force (ARF) |
Yushan Yuan | Tabor Academy | United States | Environmental Studies | Apply Systematic Evalation in Anti-Plastic Programs |
Yuxiang Zhang | The Thacher School | United States | Astronomy/Physics | Is GW170817A Real? Investigating the Detection Confidence of GW170817A |
Zane Mogannam | De La Salle High School | United States | Chemistry/ Biology | A Comparative Analysis of Three Nucleoside Analogue Inhibitors as Antiviral Therapeutics Against SARS-CoV-2 RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase |
Zehra Gundogdu | Bahçeşehir High School for Science and Technology | Turkey | Art History/Architecture | Change of Byzantine Art Programs through Iconoclast Era |
Zhefei Cao | The Ethel Walker School | United States | Mathematics | Further Hops in Toads and Frogs |
Zihao Gao | McCallie School | United States | Business | EDU Valuation: A New Era for Private Education or the Beginning of the End? |
Ziyu Zhou | BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour | China | Economics/International Relations | Migration’s Effect on the Sending Country: The Case of Poland |
Zoey Duan | Punahou School | United States | Psychology | Comparing Mediated Effects: Child Language Brokering Frequency and Family Obligation on the Association between Disaster Severity and Acute Stress Disorder Symptoms |
Doing research is commonplace.
