Sydney Zhang

Sydney Zhang is a senior at Westview High School in San Diego, California. He is the founder and CEO of VisionCure, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit company dedicated to preventing common eye diseases in underprivileged communities, including seniors and low-income families. As a STEM and AI enthusiast, he began his research projects in his home garage, fueled by a passion for providing low-cost, point-of-care solutions for patients with vision difficulties. He developed a novel paper-based lateral flow assay targeting two tear biomarkers for the at-home diagnosis of dry eye disease. By utilizing data-driven algorithms to count eye blinks, he designed a mobile health app called “EyeScore” for early dry eye screening at no cost. He has published two first-authored papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and was inducted into the National Gallery for America’s Young Inventors. He was selected as an awardee of the National Eye Institute “Eye on the Future Contest” for his dry eye research. In 2024, he was chosen as a speaker at the United Nations Science Summit (UNGA79), representing the voices of young global scientists. He was also honored as a George H.W. Bush Daily Point of Light honoree for his community service.