Justin says that tae kwon do and fencing help him stay fit and "build character." He also regularly takes part in math competitions. Justin would like to pursue a career in biomedical research, noting that "new technology is opening vast new opportunities to test and improve current ideas."
Professors Rick Darke and Sung Park are Justin's science heroes because they taught him the fundamental principles of physics, which Justin says "whetted my appetite for science."
In an effort to thin their blood and prevent heart attacks, Justin's father and grandmother take daily doses of aspirin. However, as a side effect, both of them suffer stomach ailments. Justin was concerned that their daily dosage of aspirin was too high, but when he tried to find out how much they should be taking, he got many conflicting answers. This led him to try to figure out what the minimum daily aspirin dosage is for anticoagulant purposes.
Eight vials of blood were drawn from 11 subjects by his father, an oral surgeon. Each vial was then treated with eight different doses of aspirin. Justin then put the samples in a machine to measure platelet aggregation. This allowed him to design an in vitro model that accurately quantifies aspirin's effect on platelets, which enabled him to determine the minimum dosage for each of the 11 subjects.
