Clarke principal Timothy Voels had high praise for Ganesh. “He’s an exceptional student, but more so a remarkable young man,” Voels said. “He just has such an insatiable thirst for knowledge. He truly loved to learn, to research, to write and share his knowledge with others.”

His research paper, “Close Companions to Kepler Objects of Interest: Results from a Large Adaptive Optics Survey,” has already earned both him and Clarke $1,000 awards. But the most rewarding part of the experience, Ganesh said, was the life lessons he learned while working on the project. “I learned that if you choose something to do that you really love,” he said, “it doesn’t really feel like work at all.”