Joseph Sun

  • BioE and CS @ Stanford, Class of 2030
  • Creating technology for the social good
  • Brain-Computer Interface enthusiast
  • Directed PASDC and raised $425K+ with 60+ counselors
  • Making neuroscience research more accessible
  • Former national debater
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01 / 04 Neuroscience research

Research

I designed a study of how the brain reacts to an implanted electrode, and whether blocking one protein, galectin-3, could calm it. In mice, an antibody against it was associated with about 60% fewer activated immune cells around an implanted wire. The work is published.

2026 AAN Neuroscience Research Prize · one of three high school recipients

The research, in plain language →

A microscope screen showing four fluorescence channels of one slice of brain tissue, plus a merged image. A dark oval gap sits in the middle of each.

the tissue

A student in a white lab coat, mask and gloves lifts the wire lid of a mouse cage on a lab bench.

in the lab

Three students hold framed Neuroscience Research Prize certificates beside a man in a blue suit, in front of a green American Academy of Neurology backdrop.

the AAN prize

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02 / 04 Debate

Nationally
Awarded
Debater

I love explaining my ideas in a way that a layperson can follow, and teaching my strategies and techniques so that people younger than me can enjoy debate too.

  • Champion2025 Stanford Invitational
  • Champion2025 Stephen Stewart Invitational
  • 2×State qualifier
  • #1in the Bay Area
  • 1×National qualifier
  • #3 in California · #24 in the nationTeam ranking, raised as captain and now coach

More about debate →

Three debaters stand in a school library holding plaques and silver trays from the Stanford Invitational; the one in the middle holds the Open California Lincoln-Douglas first-place plaque.

Stanford, 2025

About twenty debaters in business clothes pose in front of a school building, some holding small prizes.

the team

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03 / 04 Entrepreneurship

PASDC

I directed the Palo Alto Speech & Debate Camp for two summers. I changed how it was priced, came up with a two-versus-two format, and trained more than sixty counselors. We taught 742 students.

ActivityHero’s #1 Language Arts Camp of 2025

The case study →

The camp staff in matching olive-green camp T-shirts, posed in rows on a lawn under a wooden pergola.

the staff

A staff member in a green STAFF T-shirt, seen from behind, reads from a sheet of paper while addressing a large group of campers seated on a lawn under trees.

addressing the camp

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04 / 04 Software, devices, teaching

Projects

A student neuroscience publication, a reader for scientific papers, and a wearable for chemotherapy recovery. Two are live, and one is still in early design.

All projects →

abcafter Cajal, loosely

NeuroView

astrocyte?…and that?

PaperDive

Heart rateSkin temperaturedrift: buzz, then a real readingSchematic · not data

Ember

Curious about brains, and the machines we keep trying to plug into them.

Joseph Sun

Bioengineering, Stanford

I’m Joseph, a first-year at Stanford studying bioengineering. I’ve spent time on a quiet problem in neural interfaces, the way the brain slowly responds to an implanted electrode, and on a few other things: software for reading papers, a student neuroscience publication, and a debate camp I ran for two summers.

This is where I keep it all.

Read about the researchAbout me

Everything, as a list

  1. IPaperDiveTurns dense scientific papers into study guides you can talk back to.2026 · Free beta
  2. IIPASDCThe Palo Alto Speech & Debate Camp, which I directed for two summers.2024–2025 · Directed two summers
  3. IIINeuroViewA student-run publication, and a free curriculum for starting a neuroscience club.2025– · Ongoing
  4. IVEmberA wearable that notices when a pattern changes, then asks for a real temperature reading.2026 · Early design
  5. All projects, and the ones still to come

Right now

  • First year at Stanford, studying bioengineering.
  • Designing Ember, with a team: a wearable for chemotherapy recovery.
  • Building PaperDive, a reader for scientific papers.
  • Co-running NeuroView, a student neuroscience publication.
  • Coaching high school debate.