Family: The son of Donnie and Sara Mullis of Highland Forest Drive, he has an older brother, Clifton.

Background: Chris, 16, is a rising junior at Providence Day School, where he is a National Honor Society member, president of the Science Club, on the golf team and a Student Government Association representative. A member of the
Charlotte Amateur Astronomy Club, Chris is working on a binary stars study
with University of South Carolina at Lancaster physics Prof. Daniel Faulkner. Special honor: Chris received a second place Earth and Science Award at the
39th International Science and Engineering Fair in Knoxville, Tenn. His
project, ``Detecting Changes in Orbital Periods of Eclipsing Binary Stars,``
also netted him $350, a gold medallion and a personal computer.

Binary stars are: ``Solar systems in which there are two suns instead one.
It`s very complex because the two suns are actually orbiting each other.``

Prized possessions: ``A Compaq computer and my World War II German
binoculars.``

Favorite summertime activities: ``To stay at my (family`s) beach house (in
Myrtle Beach) and surf.``

Career plans: ``Going up in space on one of the shuttles interests me, but I don`t want to have a career as an astronaut; I love astronomy too much. I hope to become a mission specialist. There have been at least three mission
specialists who have gone up on shuttles.``