While he’s interested in all kinds of science, senior Joey Bejin seems to have taken a particular interest in the Red Planet.

“I like the fact that science pulls all of the stuff that you learned the year before and combines it with math and has real world applications,” Bejin said.

Two years ago, Bejin had a chance to do some real world science when he and six others participated in the Mars Exploration Student Data Teams (MESDT) competition through the Radio Astronomy Team, where he and his team were asked to develop a theory concerning the surface of Mars.

“You had to come up with your own theory, and then present it in eight minutes,” Bejin said.

99 slides about theoretical hot springs later, his group walked away with the award for “Best Science”. His project was then presented in Washington D.C. and even published by NASA scientists.

“The whole thing was definitely a team effort,” Bejin said.

This past spring, with a group of only four, Bejin entered the competition again, joined by Nate Atkinson, Michelle Bridges and Adam Gellert. The team was selected for first place, winning a travel scholarship to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to tour the labs and present their research with college interns.

“For this year we are looking at Terra Sirenum, which is a area on Mars,” Bejin said. “But we’re more specifically looking at Columbus and Cross crater… to see if there is any possibility of life in that area.”