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Although Joe Smith has always been curious and interested in many things, his desire to learn more led him to join a nonprofit astronomy group when he was a high school freshman.
His curiosity about the stars never wavered, and Smith, a 17-year-old freshman at Caltech in Pasadena, was one of two local students recently named a 2025 Davidson Fellow.
A physics and computer science major, Smith developed a machine learning technique in 2024 to identify astrometric binaries, or pairs of stars that orbit each other, in sky surveys. Using artificial neutral networks, his tool allows astronomers to distinguish true binary star systems from chance alignments in massive data sets like the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission.
Bob Davidson, founder of the Davidson Institute, a national nonprofit organization supporting profoundly gifted youth, said Smith’s work could potentially advance research in areas from black hole detection to stellar evolution.
“For 25 years, the Davidson Fellows Scholarship has recognized some of the most remarkable research undertaken by young people in the nation,” Davidson said of the Reno, Nevada institute.
“The 2025 class of Fellows continues to raise the bar for achievement as we celebrate this milestone year, marked by innovation, perseverance and the hundreds of alumni whose work continues to make a lasting difference in their fields and communities,” he said.
Zinia Khattar of San Diego, the second Fellow, was awarded a $50,000 science scholarship.
“Being named a Davidson Fellow is a very welcome surprise,” Smith said. “I am thankful to see how much my curiosity is valued, motivating me to continue pursuing projects I find perplexing and intellectually demanding.”
Although Smith is from Seattle, he moved to Ramona in 2024. He often spent his summers visiting family there, he said.
“Ramona is rural, and whenever I would go outside at night I could see the stars in the night sky. I felt I was working directly with the stars and felt at home,” he said.
As a youngster, he joined the local ham radio club, earning his amateur extra license at age 12. Through the ham radio club, he became involved with the San Diego Yacht Club amateur ham radio group, which eventually led to his connecting with the astronomy nonprofit organization Boyce-Astro.
Based in San Diego, the Boyce Research Initiatives and Education Foundation provides scientific and technical research opportunities to enhance the educational experience of students, and introduces them to scientific and technical communities.
“Ham radio was an opportunity that allowed me to find a group that allowed me to find my passion,” he said.
After being a member of Boyce-Astro for several years, he started a project based on looking at the positions and motions of stars.
“My project developed an automated algorithm — it could deduce whether sets of stars are gravitationally bound. It was an extension of automating what was being done beforehand,” he said.
He had a lot of experience with observational astronomy and binary stars, but he wanted to look for exotic, or very unique binary stars.
“I realized I couldn’t actually determine if the binary star candidates I looked at were chance alignments or stars that only appear to belong to a binary, or were in fact, true binary stars,” Smith said. “I looked online for a tool that could do that for me, and was surprised that no such tool existed.”
From his discoveries, he came up with the rigorous project, which he hopes he can get published, and made his own tool.
In high school, Smith became a private pilot, flying gliders in Warner Springs, were he also worked for two summers. He was also very involved as president of the high school’s chess club, rowed on his varsity crew team and enjoyed traveling.
He graduated in 2025 from the Stanford online high school.
After earning his four-year degree, Smith hopes to continue his education with graduate school before landing his dream job.
“There’s a lot of big telescope missions right now. I’m hoping that by the time I finish my program, I will be the main principle investigator for one of these projects,” he said.
His various interests have helped him hone the skills needed to reach his goals, by encouraging his patience, discipline and motivation, he said.
Smith said earning the scholarship makes a difference in how he feels toward his chosen field.
“I feel less stressed. It really helps me think that my passion for astronomy doesn’t have a price tag. Before, I was thinking of going into the industry side. But with the scholarship, I can chase my passion — it doesn’t have to be sold,” he said.
He credits his grandfather, also named Joe Smith, for building values in his academics and personal life.
“I would not have been able to carry out the project without him in my life,” he said.
The elder Smith has lived in Ramona for the past 40 years, where he was a teacher at both Ramona High School and Olive Peirce Middle School.
The Davidson Fellows Scholarship program offers college scholarships to students 18 or younger who have completed significant projects with the potential to benefit society in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature and music.
For more information about the 2025 Davidson Fellows, visit: DavidsonFellows.org.
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