Four Westchester high school seniors have successfully been named finalists for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ 2019 Science Talent Search.
The talent search, presented by the Society for Science & the Public, aims to honor the nation’s brightest and boldest young minds with cash prizes for original research in “critically important scientific fields.” Since the addition of Regeneron as a sponsor in 2017, the company has committed $100 million over 10 years to better award these STEM all-stars and their schools.
Earlier this month, 300 semifinalists were announced from the nearly 2,000 entrants. Each semifinalist received $2,000 for themselves and another $2,000 for their schools, and of the 300 students, 27 were Westchester County residents.
Now those 300 have been whittled down to just 40 finalists from across the country, who will all be honored at an award ceremony this March in Washington, D.C. Westchester is proud to say that four, a full 10 percent, are locals.
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Chirag Kumar, of Horace Greeler High School in Chappaqua. His project used machine learning to more precisely measure sea temperatures by satellite, to better predict climate change.
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Emma Montgomery, of Ossining High School, developed new versions of an enzyme used in editing genetic base pairs by reengineering an original.
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Brent Perlman, from Armonk’s Byram Hills High School, developed a method for producing oxygen in human cells via photosynthesis using spinach chloroplasts.
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Aditi Singh, also of Horace Greeley High School, created a computational model depicting short-term visual memory as a fundamentally limited ability, potentially restricted even further by our brains’ neurological functions.
Every finalist has already received the $2,000 each for themselves and their schools, and is guaranteed at least $25,000 in further awards, with a prize of an astounding $250,000 for the top project. Following a public presentation of their projects, the top 10 awards will be announced at the gala dinner ceremony on March 12.
