Dear Readers,
We are so excited to announce the publication of the ninth edition of the Columbia Junior Science Journal! As editors of this journal, we have always strived to spotlight outstanding research done by high school students, and this issue features a collection of impressive and novel work across various scientific disciplines.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was involved in the publication of this edition: the members and executive board of the Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal, the wonderful student authors featured, their research mentors, their parents and peers, and anyone else who contributed. We would also like to congratulate all of the authors on their remarkable achievement and their dedication to scientific excellence amidst the uncertainty and tumult left in the wake of COVID-19.
We recognize how COVID-19 and other worldwide crises have fundamentally changed the landscape of scientific research, particularly regarding access to resources and laboratories necessary for hands-on research. Our goal this year was to curate a journal that spans a wide range of scientific topics and disciplines, but to also create a cohesive publication that is sensitive to many of the most pressing issues in the world today. With this in mind, we received an unprecedented number of submissions this year, and our editors painstakingly reviewed each and every submission, selecting only a small fraction to publish. We hope that you read this journal not as a set of disparate articles, but as a thoughtful analysis of many contemporary issues that involve the scientific community. From tackling textile waste pollution to detecting cryptojacking using machine learning, we continue to cover a wide range of topics in our journal. We cordially invite you to join us as we explore these topics and offer insights and solutions along the way.
Overall, it has been a great pleasure serving as the 2023-2024 Editors-in-Chief of the Columbia Junior Science Journal. We look forward to seeing and reading about all of your continued scientific endeavors for many years to come!
Sincerely,
Coco Huang and Jimmy Zhang
Editors-in-Chief
Columbia Junior Science Journal