10 years after being named a Siemens finalist, Adam Solomon keeps his eyes on the stars

“Follow your passions as far as they take you.”  

That’s the advice Adam Solomon, a Long Island-born scientist who has traveled the world with an eye on the stars, gives to current high school students.

Solomon, raised in Bellmore and Merrick, followed his own passion into outer space 10 years ago when he became a finalist in the Siemens science competition.

“I loved the excitement of discovery, of studying the farthest reaches of space and the deepest laws of nature,” said Solomon, who first delved into scientific research as a student at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore.

Solomon’s thirst for discovery led him around the country with his project, which studied failed stars called brown dwarfs. He and his collaborators found ways to better determine a brown dwarf’s age, which is difficult to measure, he said.

A decade after earning one of the most prestigious high school science research awards in the country, Solomon has kept reaching for the stars -- literally. Solomon studied astronomy and physics at Yale University before earning his master's degree at the University of Cambridge.

Now Solomon, who just completed a doctoral program at Cambridge, is at the University of Pennsylvania for a postdoctoral research fellowship.

“I would strongly recommend spending some time abroad, while you're young and unencumbered,” said Solomon, who said he had a “fantastic” time “living in other countries amidst other cultures, making friends from all over the globe and having easy opportunities to travel.”

Before returning to the States, Solomon lived in Heidelberg, Germany, as a visiting researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Back home, Solomon encouraged students and their parents to keep an open mind about the current challenges facing the education system, including New York’s controversial Common Core program.

“Most American adults actually aren't that good at math; they see it as a collection of techniques and grind work,” he said. “It's not. It's a way of thinking, a world of thought and ideas that can be opened up by learning creativity and critical thinking skills that we tend not to learn elsewhere, yet serve all of us well.”

Saying that the “soul” of math lies away from technique and calculation, he added, “It seems to me that Common Core is striving -- successfully or not -- to get kids to think mathematically, and that is a goal worth aiming for.”

That open-mindedness, Solomon said, can be applied like a mathematical theory to life for students.

“Believe it or not, you can be a productive, employed member of society while still doing something you really enjoy,” he said. “So keep an open mind.”