On January 10, Siemens Regional Finalist and Intel Semifinalist Lucy Cheng (12) presented her research at the 219th American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference in Austin, Texas where she received a Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award High-School Honorable Mention.

According to its official website, the mission of the AAS is “to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the Universe.” Held from January 8 to 12, the 219th AAS conference featured speakers and presenters who discussed their cutting-edge findings in astronomy.

“It was really amazing to present my project to people who were astronomers and who understood the significance of my project,” Lucy said.

In her project titled “Detailed Chemical Abundance Patterns of Andromeda Dwarf Satellites from Coadded Spectra,” Lucy calculated the abundances of metals in the smaller galaxies that surround the Andromeda galaxy, which neighbors the Milky Way. She worked on this project this past summer at the Science Internship Program (SIP) in UC Santa Cruz.

“Lucy has made the most of her research experience, absorbing every new bit of information just as she did in my freshman physics class three years ago,” faculty advisor Chris Spenner said. “She truly enjoys the discovery process.”

After hearing about the conference from her UCSC mentor Raja Guhathakurta, Lucy decided to participate. In preparation, she made a poster and reviewed her paper to make sure she remembered the details of her project.

“It was slightly intimidating at first because the audience knew so much more about astronomy,” she said. “It was a professional setting.”

Though Lucy had not formally studied astronomy prior to undertaking her project at SIP, she said she has always harbored an interest in this field.

“I see the stars in the sky every day, and because I didn’t know much about them, I wanted to learn more,” she said.

According to Lucy, there were not too many hurdles while conducting her research, but there was one moment when she thought the project would collapse. Nevertheless, she said that after doing more work, she was able to figure it out.

“Science excites me, because I like knowing how everything works,” Lucy said. “As for research, I like solving problems that no one else has solved before.”

Currently, she is continuing her project and hopes to start another astronomy project this summer.