Daniel Ndocaj

Daniel is an aspiring engineer from Armonk, New York interested in exploring the world of materials. He intends to major in Chemical Engineering and hopes to work towards the development of new materials that can serve humanity.

Daniel first became interested in materials when he learned about the principle of biomimicry. Fascinated with the ways in which scientists were incorporating ideas from naturally occurring structures into new materials with remarkable properties, he was prompted to join his school’s Science Research program. For two years, Daniel collaborated with Dr. Michael Gordon from the University of California, Santa Barbara to investigate the optical properties of bio-inspired metasurfaces for biomedical applications. Carrying out his project, Daniel ran Finite-Difference Time-Domain optical simulations on a multitude of structures and spent a summer working in the lab at UCSB, obtaining and analyzing reflectance spectra for the metasurfaces. Daniel was named a Top 300 Scholar in the 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Search.

Aside from research, Daniel was involved in a number of academic clubs. He was captain of Academic Challenge, a trivia competition, where the team competed consistently at the national level. He was also president of Science Olympiad and Vice President of Mu Alpha Theta Honors Society. In the summer after High School, Daniel worked as a camp counselor at a local nature preserve, helping to foster a love for the great outdoors.

In his free time, you will find Daniel playing guitar, hiking, or speedcubing. He is also a geography enthusiast and enjoys learning about the diverse history and cultures of the world. At Columbia, Daniel looks forward to researching the next generation of materials, building cool projects in the Makerspace, as well as exploring New York City.