WISCONSIN RAPIDS (WAOW) – A senior at Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids attended the White House Science Fair last week. Kaisa Crawford-Taylor spent 7 months working on a code that searches the database of 2.7 million galaxies to find supermassive black hole binaries, all during her free time.
“So, what I was looking for, were supermassive black hole binaries and those are basically two supermassive black holes orbiting around each other,” Crawford-Taylor explained.
Her family helped her submit her project to the White House Science Fair, and months later, she was one of the candidates invited to Washington, D.C.
“We are counting on all of you to help build a brighter future,” President Obama said to the kids during the fair. “For you to use your talents to help other communities, and your country, and the world, we will be with you every step of the way.”
President Obama didn’t have time to visit Crawford-Taylor’s project, but she shook his hand, as well as the hands of others with connections.
“I met a lot of high up people, like John Holdren, who is the scientific advisor to the president,” Crawford-Taylor said. “I got to talk to him, I met a lot of people from NASA actually.”
Next fall, she will be a freshman at UW-La Crosse, and she hopes her research will continue to shoot for the stars.
“I do have several ideas to bring this project a little farther, I do have some research opportunities for my freshman year in college,” Crawford-Taylor said.
She is taking her project to the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Ohio at the end of April.
