Top High School Students Study Science at Westmont
More than 40 top math and science high school students from the U.S. and foreign countries are arriving at Westmont for the 54th Summer Science Program (SSP) through Aug. 1. SSP students will learn astrophysics by day and observe near-Earth asteroids at night with Westmont’s 24-inch Keck telescope.
SSP, which has been held in Ojai since 1959, moved to Westmont three years ago. It is one of the nation’s oldest and most successful pre-college research programs. Since 2000, it’s the only one operated and funded by its own alumni.
SSP alumnus Richard Bowdon now directs the program. Fellow alumnus and Westmont professor of physics Warren Rogers facilitated the move from Thacher School in Ojai to Westmont.
Other SSP alumni include: Ed Krupp, director of Griffith Observatory; Mitchell Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corp. and founding chair of Mozilla Foundation; and Edmund Bertschinger, chair of the physics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.