Future Leaders winner is a young Coloradan searching for the secrets of the universe
Throughout the school year, CBS Colorado along with our partners, Chevron and Colorado School of Mines, celebrate high school students excelling in science, technology, engineering and math, STEM. The Future Leaders Award comes with $1,000 and a profile on CBS News Colorado.
CBS
Julia Gao is the latest Future Leaders winner. She's a rising junior at Fairview High School in Boulder. Beyond a tough schedule of Advanced Placement classes, Gao is doing internships with have her working on the college level.
"I really like everything about space," she told CBS News Colorado.
She works to preserve the light that we can see in space.
"I joined Dark Sky to work on night sky conservation efforts and to minimize light pollution where we can so we can preserve the stars," Gao explained.
She also revels in the mysteries of space.
"One thing that I was really interested in was dark matter, which makes up 70% of our universe, but we don't know anything about its composition," she said.
Through an internship at Colorado State University, Gao is working among the physicists who are searching for the sterile neutrino, which could explain dark matter. A neutrino is the most basic subatomic particle from which all things are made.
"It basically carries no charge and very minimal mass so it's very hard to find. But, if we do find the sterile neutrino that could be evidence that our understanding of the standard model, which is the model for all subatomic particles is incomplete," she said.
Gao is writing a computer program that uses machine learning to look for the signs of the sterile neutrino in images taken by a subatomic particle detector.
"It's a really great honor to be part of such a big important global collaboration, and I'm glad to be doing my part," Gao said.
In the summer of 2024, in a lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, Gao worked on a study of how oxidative stress impacts brain cells and leads to cancer. Oxidative stress is an imbalance in the body where there are too many unstable molecules called free radicals and not enough antioxidants to neutralize them.
"So I was studying different types of biomarkers for oxidative stress and by looking at those biomarkers on MRI scans it could help doctors in the future diagnose brain cancer earlier," Gao told First Alert Meteorologist Lauren Whitney.
CBS
In addition to these amazing internships, Gao is president of her school's chapter of Mu Alpha Theta, a national math honor society. She's a member of her school's chapter of the Science National Honor Society, and she competes on her school's Science Bowl Team.
"You are involved in a lot of things, so why get involved in these particular activities?" Whitney asked.
"Because there are a lot of just straight up science clubs or ways to do science, but when you can combine that with helping the people around you, I think that's really impactful," Gao replied.
In the 2025-26 school year, Gao and her friend will organize the first Mustang Math Tournament in Colorado. Mustang Math is a national organization that does tournament math competitions for middle school students. Gao hopes to recruit 100 middle school students to participate.
"I hope we can inspire middle schoolers to keep pursuing math and not be as daunted," she explained.
She also plans to continue her own research in physics and trying to unlock the mysteries of the universe.
LINK: Future Leaders
CBS Colorado, Chevron, and Colorado School of Mines accept nominations and pick Future Leaders winners from September to April every year.
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