, /PRNewswire/ — World Science Scholars (WSS) is a World Science Festival initiative that selects a small number of gifted high school students from around the world to explore disciplines at the cutting edge of science through online courses taught by experts in these fields. To celebrate the fifth year of the program and provide an opportunity for scholars to get to know each other and some of the program’s instructors, WSS organized an in-person festival from September 28 to October 2, 2022.
Scholars from the 2020 and 2021 cohorts, along with a family member, were invited to attend an all-inclusive trip to New York City to participate in the festival. A total of thirty-three scholars and their respective families participated in various activities, exploring both academic and cultural aspects of New York City. The festival included a series of talks by eminent scientists, many of whom have taught WSS courses, laboratory visits to the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and New York University, and a student panel at Columbia University. Cultural activities included visits to Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, American Museum of Natural History and sightseeing from the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center. During these activities, academics participated in discussions about new and exciting scientific fields. They also bonded with their classmates over their shared love of math and science, forming what promise to be lasting friendships.
The festival helped achieve an important goal of the WSS program: to bring together some of the brightest and most ambitious young minds from around the world and expose them to scientific fields, opportunities and renowned scientists that can help expand their vision of how can participate in science to change the world.
World Science Scholars (WSS), a program of the World Science Festival, selects a small group of high school students from around the world with extraordinary mathematical talent and offers them an unparalleled opportunity to apply their skills to unexplored disciplines. Guided by world-renowned experts, scholars examine ways in which advanced mathematical skills can be applied to solve complex challenges in a wide range of scientific fields.
WSS program participants currently come from the United States and an additional 30 countries on six continents. In addition to his passion for mathematics, the scholar’s interests range from astrophysics and quantum physics to bioinformatics and combinatorics to climate change and neuroscience. They can expand their knowledge in these areas by participating in the program.
Through the close interaction between academics and faculty, the WSS program has served as a springboard for academics to gain opportunities that are often only available to undergraduates:
The World Science Festival (WSF) produces original live and digital content that brings scientific discoveries, knowledge and perspective to a broad general audience.
Our flagship live event, the World Science Festival, is an unprecedented annual tribute to imagination, ingenuity and inventiveness. Through programming that ranges from vibrant debates and discussions to plays and films, world-class scientists, leading thinkers and renowned artists bring science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theatres, museums and public halls of New York, making the esoteric comprehensible and the familiar fascinating. In March 2016, WSF launched the World Science Festival Brisbane, bringing its distinctive programming to new audiences and establishing the first annual festival outside of New York. The Festival’s live events have attracted more than 3.3 million people worldwide and millions more have watched our shows online.
World Science U is the WSF’s online education platform, offering in-depth and multi-layered master classes on science, led by renowned scientists, for students and lifelong learners around the world.
