Managing Team
The Society of Teen Scientists is owned and operated by Authentic Research Partners LLC. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, we are a diverse team of professionals with extensive experience in scientific research, high school science education, education leadership, artificial intelligence, and technology entrepreneurship.
📍 Princeton, New Jersey
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Sergey Samsonau, PhD
Co-Founder & Academic Director
Dr. Samsonau brings two decades of expertise across scientific research, research education at all levels from middle school to graduate school, and industry R&D in AI, data science, and finance. His innovations in education over the years are enabling authentic research mentoring to scale to every talented student.Read full profile →
Dr. Samsonau brings two decades of expertise across scientific research, research education at all levels from middle school to graduate school, and industry R&D in AI, data science, and finance. His innovations in education over the years are enabling authentic research mentoring to scale to every talented student.Read full profile →
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Matthew Pearce
Strategic Advisor
Matthew has over 30 years of experience advancing research-based education at some of the world's leading high schools: Latymer Upper School, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and the Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science. A pioneer in bringing authentic research into secondary education, he has mentored countless students who went on to excel in science, engineering, and innovation.
Matthew has over 30 years of experience advancing research-based education at some of the world's leading high schools: Latymer Upper School, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and the Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science. A pioneer in bringing authentic research into secondary education, he has mentored countless students who went on to excel in science, engineering, and innovation.
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Dr. Luke Perkins
Strategic Advisor
Dr. Perkins brings 30 years of experience in R&D program management and technology commercialization from Schlumberger and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. A prolific inventor with 21 patents and more than 100 invention disclosures, he led programs such as PPPL's $27M FLARE fusion facility and now guides our mission to teach students the research methods used to create first-of-a-kind technologies in industry and national labs.
Dr. Perkins brings 30 years of experience in R&D program management and technology commercialization from Schlumberger and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. A prolific inventor with 21 patents and more than 100 invention disclosures, he led programs such as PPPL's $27M FLARE fusion facility and now guides our mission to teach students the research methods used to create first-of-a-kind technologies in industry and national labs.
Our Story
For over a decade, Dr. Sergey Samsonau asked one question:
How do we bring real research education to every talented teenager?
2015–2018
While working at PRISMS in Princeton, Dr. Samsonau set up labs and led research in Nanotechnology and Data Science research. Brought professional-level Data Science education to high school. Co-led one of the strongest IYPT teams in the USA — the International Young Physicists Tournament, a competition like no other, where students work on deep, open-ended research problems for months. Published approaches helping in bringing research practices into the regular classroom.
- IEEE Conference paper (2018) - Integrating authentic research in high schools
- IOP Science paper (2018) - Blending computation and experimentation in school labs
2019–2025
While at NYU, founded the AI for Scientific Research group. Created a framework that increased mentor capacity at least 5-fold while improving benefits for students at the same time. Mentored over a hundred students in research. Published the methodology: arXiv paper (2022-2024) - Framework for scalable authentic research education.
Conceptualized and organized the AI Meets Science NYC-metro area Conference (2024) - Scientists from different fields and major universities and organizations discussing how they use AI in research.
Full agenda with speakers and poster sessions | Photos
2025 and beyond
Together with Olga Vine, and with strategic advisement from Matthew Pearce and Dr. Luke Perkins, we established a society that provides community and resources that enable every talented student to go from a raw idea to a comprehensive research project.
Our team of lab directors and course instructors is growing. Want to get involved? Join us.
Step by step. High school. University.
And now - ready for every talented teenager.