This summer will be Krishna’s third at ChK Group’s laboratory. Last year, he worked with nanophase silica (NS), and he will continue the interesting work. He has been attracted to this research because NS has many applications, one of which is in tires, a crucial aspect of the objects of his passion (cars). Importantly, tires with NS have low rolling resistance, making a car more fuel-efficient. In fact, Hankook, a South Korean tire manufacturer, has modeled tires for such a purpose. Krishna believes that tires with NS can be used in driverless cars, so that they can stop with more authority, as tires with NS have more grip than do conventional ones. This is a groundbreaking innovation, as tires with low-rolling-resistance tires typically have less grip than and, therefore, cannot stop as quickly as standard tires. Krishna is a member of the class of 2016 at Plano East Senior High School, Texas, and is attending the University of Texas at Austin as a first-year mechanical engineering student. He hopes to pursue two bachelor’s degrees–one in engineering and one in English.