At the age of four, most kids were watching  Sesame Street and Barney, but he was watching  Bill Nye the Science Guy. When others wanted to  go to the swing set in the park, he wanted to go to  the “Realm of the Atom” in the Hall of Science. At  the age of five, while others begged for “Cat in the  Hat” books, he begged for issues of Popular  Science. Junior Danny Zhu was born to stand  out, and today, he is a force to be reckoned with  in the world of mathematics and science. 

Zhu’s parents, who both majored in engineering,  fostered his love for mathematics. A  native New Yorker, Zhu was exposed to math at a  very young age by his mother, who is a math  teacher. His proficiency in math was apparent by  second grade when he won several class math  competitions. Zhu went on to attend Louis  Pasteur Middle School 67 in Queens. He was  required to attend math classes outside of his  middle school at Hunter College High School  because he had already surpassed the level of  math taught at his school. By eighth grade, he  had already completed the high school math curriculum. 

Zhu’s accomplishments continued through  high school, where he took multivariate calculus  and differential equations, classes taken after calculus,  his freshman year. He took a transformations  and geometry course at New York  University his sophomore year, and Linear  Algebra his first term junior year. 

Zhu challenges himself in other subjects as  well. He is currently taking AP Physics C, AP  Computer Science, AP English Language and AP  Spanish Language, along with his regular requisite  junior classes. For Zhu, homework and the  large course workload is not stressful. “Physics  and computer science are all easy and fun for  me. I guess it’s because there’s a lot of math  involved,” he said. AP Computer Science is his  favorite class. 

Zhu also juggles academics and extracurricular  activities. He is on the math team, the  robotics team, the school Quiz Bowl team and is  the copy chief of The Stuyvesant Standard. He  also is in the school chorus and plays the flute for  the school band. His favorite extracurricular  activity is the robotics team. “While making  robots [is] an extremely fun experience, watching  them compete and sometimes win [is] highly satisfying  and exciting,” said Zhu. 

When he was only thirteen years old, Zhu  started winning national awards for his math and  science talent. He participated in Mathcounts, a  middle school nationwide competition, coming  in first place for New York State in 2003 and making  seventh place in the nationwide competition  in 2004. Zhu has participated in the United States  of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO)  every year since 2004. Only about 500 students a  year are eligible to take the USAMO and the test  itself gives students nine hours to complete six  essay/proof mathematical questions. Zhu is also  a “Who Wants to be a Mathematician?” winner,  which is a contest that allows high school students  to compete for cash and prizes by answering  mathematics questions. He took home $2,000  and Maplesoft math software. In addition to  math competitions, Zhu has won many physics  competitions. He was a U.S. Physics Olympiad  semifinalist from 2005 to 2006 and a member of  the 2007 U.S. Physics team. The physics team will  represent America at the International Physics  Olympiad, set to take place in Isafahan, Iran this  July. 

Although Zhu has an active academic life,  he still has many hobbies to fill his down time.  He enjoys reading science fiction, reading web  comics, playing ultimate Frisbee and computer  games, programming computers and sleeping.  He has no trouble managing a busy school life,  his extracurricular activities and his social life.  Though Zhu has never felt overwhelmed by his  courses, he feels “a bit pressured, though it  doesn’t really bother me,” he said. 

“Danny’s a cool guy to talk to and, although  I’ve never seen him without a calculator, it’s  because he genuinely loves math. He’s not  obsessed with grades at all,” said junior and  robotics teammate Samuel Crisanto. 

Zhu’s math and physics accomplishments  have not only enriched him academically, but  have also helped him to meet people across the  country. “I have made a lot of friends on the  math team and met a lot of really cool people  from all around the country. Some people think  that being on the math team means having no  social life, but we just have our own niche,” said  Zhu. He wants his future profession to involve  robotics or computer science. 

For students in Stuyvesant who have trouble  in either math or physics, Zhu has two simple  words of advice: “Don’t panic!”