BUA Senior Named Regeneron Scholar, Semifinalist in US Presidential Scholar’s Program

BUA senior Friedrich Liu ’21 was named as a top 300 scholar in the 80th Regeneron Science Talent Search—the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. A total of 1,760 students around the country entered the competition this year, which is owned and produced by Society for Science. In recognition of this achievement, Friedrich received a cash award of $2,000, and Boston University Academy also received $2,000 to use toward STEM-related activities.

Friedrich was recognized for his research in Alzheimer’s disease in conjunction with Beth Israel’s Dynamical Biomarkers Lab, finding underlying patterns in patients with Alzheimer’s disease through mathematical models. Using the Fourier transform and cluster analysis, Friedrich studied the brain signals of Alzheimer’s patients to explore the association between patients’ neuropsychiatric symptoms and their brain signals. Through his research, Friedrich found that behavioral and psychological symptoms were strongly correlated with EEG powers. He writes: “I am excited that this new clustering approach of EEG signals may provide physicians with a new tool to diagnose and evaluate patients with Alzheimer’s disease.”

Friedrich was also one of the 15 Massachusetts’ semifinalists chosen to represent Massachusetts for the US Presidential Scholar’s Program. From nearly 3.6 million graduating high school seniors from across the country, over 6,500 students were identified as candidates in this program, and 625 semifinalists were selected. These semi-finalists form the pool from which the 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholars will be chosen in Mid-May.

The Presidential Scholar’s Program recognizes and honors some of our Nation’s most distinguished graduating seniors. 

Congratulations, Friedrich, on these impressive accomplishments!