The project
Society for Science lists the entry under its full title: On Two-Sided Matching in Infinite Markets. Two-sided matching is the branch of mathematics and economics that asks how members of two groups, each with preferences about the other, can be paired stably, the framework behind systems that assign medical residents to hospitals or students to schools.
Choi's contribution, as the title states, extends that question to infinite markets, where the finite arguments that make matching theory tractable no longer apply in the same way. The finalist listing gives the title, the school and the placing; it does not summarise the mathematics, and this page does not invent a summary of a result it has not read.
How the competition selects a winner
The 2021 finalists were selected from 1,760 entrants on the strength of their projects' scientific rigour and their potential to become world-changing scientists and leaders, in the competition's own phrase. Forty were chosen.
Every finalist receives at least $25,000, and the top ten awards run from $40,000 to $250,000. Choi took the first place and the largest of them. Finalists present their work to a panel of judges who question them on the research itself, which is what separates the competition from a paper submission.
What the Science Talent Search is
Founded in 1942, the Science Talent Search is described as the oldest and most prestigious research-based science competition for American high school seniors. It is run by Society for Science and was known as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search until 1998, then the Intel competition from 1999 to 2016, before Regeneron Pharmaceuticals took over as title sponsor in 2017.
Around 2,000 projects are submitted each year. The top 300 scholars receive $2,000 each before the field narrows to the 40 finalists who compete for the main awards.
The company the prize keeps
The competition's alumni record is the reason a high-school prize carries this much weight. Thirteen former entrants have gone on to receive Nobel Prizes, twenty have won MacArthur Fellowships and eleven have been awarded National Medals of Science.
That history also explains the shape of the prize list. A competition that identifies research potential rather than finished careers pays out across the whole finalist group, not only at the top, and the money is awarded as scholarship support rather than as a trophy.
What is documented - and what is not
Two sources carry this page: the Society for Science finalist listing for 2021, which gives the project title and the school, and the encyclopaedia entry recording the winners and the competition's structure.
No birth year, age, home town, photograph or quotation appears in the sources used here. The finalist listing gives the school's location, Exeter in New Hampshire, rather than a home address, and nothing about what Choi studied afterwards has been documented in these sources. For a competitor who was a school student at the time, that silence is left intact.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- First place in the 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search (Society for Science; Wikipedia winners list)
- Project title On Two-Sided Matching in Infinite Markets, submitted from Phillips Exeter Academy
- 40 finalists selected from 1,760 entrants; first place worth $250,000
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No published birth year, age or home town
- No summary of the mathematics appears in the sources used here
- No information about later study or research
Questions people ask about Yunseo Choi
What is Yunseo Choi known for?
Winning first place in the 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search with a project titled On Two-Sided Matching in Infinite Markets.
How much is first place worth?
$250,000. Every finalist receives at least $25,000, and the top ten awards range from $40,000 to $250,000.
What school did the project come from?
Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire.
What is two-sided matching?
The study of how members of two groups with preferences about each other can be paired stably. Choi's project extended the question to infinite markets.
How old is Yunseo Choi?
No source used here gives an age or birth year. The competition is for American high school seniors.
How competitive is the Science Talent Search?
The 2021 competition drew 1,760 entrants, from whom 40 finalists were selected.
Is Yunseo Choi on Wikipedia?
There is no article devoted to Choi. The name appears in Wikipedia's list of Science Talent Search winners.
Where is Yunseo Choi now?
Nothing after the 2021 competition appears in the sources used here.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Yunseo’s story?
What was Yunseo Choi's winning project about?
How much does first place in the Science Talent Search pay?
Which school did the project come from?
Sources
- Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021 Finalists — Society for Science, 2021
- Regeneron Science Talent Search — Wikipedia, n.d.
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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