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This year, approximately 2,000 students entered the Regeneron STS, where they “submit original research in critically important scientific fields of study.” The organization said that the search is “unique among high school competitions in the U.S. and globally, Regeneron STS focuses on identifying, inspiring, and engaging the nation's most promising young scientists.”
Judges narrowed the field to just 300, based on their research skills, commitment to education, innovate thinking and prospects as a scientist.
The 36 students selected received $2,000 as well as their schools. From the pool of semifinalists, 40 will be chosen as finalists and invited to Washington, D.C in March for their final judgment. The finalists will be awarded at least $25,000 and the top 10 will earn between $40,000 and $250,000.
According to the judges, in 2017, Regeneron became only the third sponsor of the Science Talent Search, increasing the overall awards distribution to better reward the best and brightest young minds.
“Through its 10-year, $100 million commitment, Regeneron nearly doubled the overall award distribution to $3.1 million annually, increasing the top award to $250,000 and doubling the awards for the top 300 scholars and their schools to $2,000 each to inspire more young people to engage in science.
“We are inspired by the incredible energy and passion of every scholar who is using research to make the world a better place,” Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science & the Public, Publisher of Science News and 1985 Science Talent Search alum, said. “These young students will be the key to unlocking solutions to many of our world’s most pressing challenges.”
This year's local Regeneron scholar semifinalists and their research projects include:
Bellmore:
- Andrew Brinton, John F. Kennedy High School: “Marsh Restoration: Ribbed Mussels (Geukensia demissa) as a Revival Mechanism to Rebuild the Coastal Salt Marshes of Long Island, New York.”
- Kenar Gelman, John F. Kennedy High School: “Chondrocyte Adenosine A2A receptor signaling leads to cellular homeostasis through activation of Protein Kinase A (PKA).”
- Katherine St. George, John F. Kennedy High School: “The Ketogenic Diet Ameliorates The Effects of Caffeine in Seizure Susceptible Drosophila melanogaster.”
Central Islip:
- Yu Zhu, Central Islip High School: “The effects of simulated microgravity on the biofilm production and susceptibility of Acinetobacter Tat mutants.”
Commack:
- Kimberly Liao, Commack High School: “Identification of a Model Agnostic Disease Driver in Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis; Implications for Drug Development.”
- S. Shamtej Singh Rana, Commack High School: “Wildfire Prediction and Reduction for the West Coast of the USA Using a Neural Network Approach.”
Glen Cove:
- Nicole Khalmov, Glen Cove High School: “Emotional Intelligence and Moral Competence Across Age Groups: A Study of Secondary School Students and Teachers.”
Great Neck:
- Kallista Zhuang, Great Neck South High School: “A Novel Link Between Xenoestrogen Bisphenol-A’s Neurotoxicity and Neuroinflammation via Estrogenic Activity and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis.”
Herricks:
- Carris Hsu, Herricks High School: “Development of a Frustrated Total Internal Reflection Biosensing System for Noninvasive Terahertz Imaging and Detecting Cell Growth.”
- Bhav Patel, Herricks High School: “Changes in Neural Connectivity Underlying Attention Abilities Before and After Antipsychotic Treatment in First Episode Psychosis Patients.”
Hicksville:
- Sejal Gupta, Hicksville High School: “Development of a Machine Learning Algorithm to Predict the Path of Joints for Gait Rehabilitation.”
Island Trees:
- Sheryl Lin, Island Trees High School: “Artesunate and Quercetin in Combination – Mitigation of Amyloid Plaque-Induced Cytotoxicity in Alzheimer’s.”
Jericho:
- Feiyang Dai, Jericho High School: “Predicting Major Depressive Disorder Treatment Response: Examining Pretreatment Biomarkers GABA and Glx.”
- Emily Gan, Jericho High School: “Light manipulation for outdoor microalgae cultivation: Fluorophore co-cultivation and microbiome characterization of model and environmental isolates.”
- Jennifer Lin, Jericho High School: “Lysosomal nutrient metabolism: Amino acids and cholesterol synergistically modulate mTORC1 signaling in atherosclerosis.”
Lynbrook:
- Sara Bahri, Lynbrook High School: “Altered Bilayer Elasticity as a Novel Mechanism for Aminoglycoside Antibiotics’ Toxicity.”
Manhasset:
- Kevin Carratu, Manhasset High School: “Supplementation of Antioxidants with Curcumin, Quercetin, and L-glutathione to Reduce Dopaminergic Neurodegeneration, Alpha-synuclein Accumulation, and Decreased Motility Associated with Parkinson’s in Caenorhabditis elegans.”
- Kevin Gauld, Manhasset High School: “Optimizing Neural Image Classifiers Through the Usage of Neural Style Transfer in Image Preprocessing.”
- Ella Wesson, Manhasset High School: “Engineering One Layer of a Two-Dimensional Acoustic Band Gap Material and Reconstructing the Sound Pressure Field Using Acoustic Holography.”
- Elizabeth Wu, Manhasset High School: “Developing Algorithmic Machinery to Explore the Cosmological Horizon Problem by Numerically Solving Maxwell’s Equations in the Kasner Metric.”
North Shore:
- Keaton Danseglio, North Shore High School: “Transgenerational Effects of Paternal Stress in Drosophila melanogaster.”
- Kyra McCreery, North Shore High School: “Associations between the Slowdown in North Atlantic Tropical-Cyclone Translation Speed and Intensifying Storm Precipitation.”
Old Westbury:
- Karen Li, The Wheatley School: “Probing the Interactions between Carbohydrates and Aromatic Amino Acids.”
Plainview-Old Bethpage:
- Kreena Totala, Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School: “The Novel Quantification of White Matter Microstructural Alterations in Thalamocortical Tracts as a Predictive Measure of ADHD Behavior and Subtype in a Pediatric Population.”
- Priya Chainani, Paul D. Schreiber High School: “The Predictability of U.S. Drug Deaths Through State Level Income Inequality and Neuroticism.”
- Jaime Levin, Paul D. Schreiber High School: “Categorizing geocoded anti-vaccination tweets in urban areas using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and dictionary-based modeling.”
Roslyn:
- William Borges, Roslyn High School: “An Innovative Approach to Recover Nitrogen from Wastewater Using Nanostructured Cellulose Sulfate.”
- Andrew Goldberg, Roslyn High School: “Compression of Intrinsic Neural Timescale in Schizophrenia.”
- Jake Stoller, Roslyn High School: “Examining the Effects of Decitabine on the Efficacy of DS-3032b in Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma.”
Smithtown:
- Caitlin Wilkinson, Smithtown High School East: “Rates and Traits: The Potential for Utilizing Above-ground Plant Traits to Predict Denitrification in Long Island Salt Marshes.”
- Stephanie Lin, Smithtown High School West: “Convolutional Neural Network of Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI Detects Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer Patients Pre Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy.”
Syosset:
- Hailey Edelman, Syosset High School: “Exploring the Role of Cannabidiol in a Caenorhabditis elegans Model.”
- Michelle Li, Syosset High School: “Linarin and Luteolin Elicit Anti-Amyloid-β Cytotoxicity and Inflammation Properties as Novel Treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease.”
Three Villages:
- Jordan Klein, Ward Melville High School: “Prevalence of Tick-Borne Diseases in Fire Island Deer Ticks.”
- Mariam Quraishi, Ward Melville High School: “The Effect of Sibling Status of Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder on Symptom Severity and Social Development.”
Westbury:
- Abishek Ravindran, W. Tresper Clarke High School: “Implementation of Novel Sector Weight and Google Trends Data Objectives using MOEA/D Curtails Systematic Risk for Quintessential Investors.”
“Congratulations to all 300 scholars from this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search and welcome to a network of exceptional student leaders and innovators,” Hala Mirza, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Citizenship at Regeneron added. “We are thrilled to recognize and honor these students for the many contributions they are making to the STEM community and our broader society. With such a wide array of interests and high-quality work, we are eager to follow their progress in the years to come.”
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