38 CA Students Awarded In 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search

CALIFORNIA — Thirty-eight California students were among the top 300 scholars named in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021. Each student will receive a $2,000 award and their schools will also receive $2,000.

The competition doesn't end with the top 300. On Jan. 21, 40 of the 300 scholars will be named Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists. From March 10-17, all 40 finalists will compete for more than $1.8 million in awards provided by Regeneron, including the top prize of $250,000.

More than 1,700 high school seniors entered the original research competition, which judged them on research skills, commitment to academics, innovative thinking, and promise as scientists.

The winners are from 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 10 foreign countries.

The California winners tackled topics such as medicine, the environment, and technology.

The goal of the Regeneron Science Talent Search is to identify, inspire, and engage the nation’s most promising young scientists to solve society’s most urgent challenges. The Society for Science program has been held every year since 1942.

“The remarkable drive, creativity and intellectual curiosity that each one of these scholars possesses represents a hopeful outlook for our future and our collective wellbeing,” said Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science. “At a time when many students’ educational experiences are being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, I am incredibly humbled to see gifted young scientists and engineers eager to contribute fresh insights to solving the world’s most intractable problems.”

Here is the full list of California Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021 winners:

• Vardhan Agrawal, Age: 18, Cupertino High School; Project Title: BP-Lytic: A Novel Apparatus to Continuously, Cufflessly, and Affordably Monitor Blood Pressure Trends
• Shray Alag, Age: 17, The Harker School; Project Title: Analysis of COVID-19 Clinical Trials: a Data-Driven, Ontology-based, Longitudinal, and Natural Language Processing Approach
• Parth Asawa, Age: 17, Monta Vista High School; Project Title: Mapping US Solar Insolation and Analyzing Cloud Predictability with a Novel Method using NASA’s DSCOVR & SORCE Satellites
• Akhilesh Balasingam, Age: 17, Archbishop Mitty High School; Project Title: A Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulator for Multi-Terminal RRAM Devices with Applications to Brain-Inspired Computing
• Daniel Feng, Age: 17, University High School; Project Title: Discovering Antibiotic Molecules in Ceanothus leucodermis and Enhancing and Quantifying Their Efficacy with a Novel Simulation-Aided Method
• Jessie Gan, Age: 17, San Diego Jewish Academy; Project Title: Predicting Metastasis with a Novel Biophysical Cell-Adhesion Force Technique
• Sanjana Gurram, Age: 17, Westview High School; Project Title: Optimization of Plant Cellulose to Create a Cost-Effective and Environmentally Benign Oil Spill Sorbent
• David Hu, Age: 18, Lynbrook High School; Project Title: Probabilistic Zero Forcing on Grid, Regular, and Hypercube Graphs
• Eshani Jha, Age: 17, Lynbrook High School; Project Title: Thiol Functionalized and Manganese Dioxide Doped Biochar for the Removal of Toxic Organic and Inorganic Contaminants from Water
• Elisha Johnston, Age: 17, Joseph Lister High School for Biomedical Sciences and Technology; Project Title: A Novel Mechanistic Hypothesis Elucidating the Role of a Medical Procedure in Managing a Root Cause of Osteoarthritis by Regenerating Cartilage
• Beom Joon Kim, Age: 18, Palos Verdes High School; Project Title: Flexible, Water-Resistant, and Biocompatible Medifoam-and URGO-Based Resistive Random-Access Memory for Skin-Wearable Healthcare Devices
• Navya Lam, Age: 18, Henry M Gunn High School; Project Title: Harnessing CRISPRi and HiPSCs to Down Regulate SFPQ Gene Expression Results in Massive Cell Death; Immense Implications for Animal Tested Drugs
• Sabrina Li, Age: 17, Walnut High School; Project Title: Effect of Baycrete Texture and Tidal Elevation on the Recruitment of Ostrea lurida and Amphibalanus amphitrite in San Diego Bay, CA
• Sean Li, Age: 17, Monte Vista High School; Project Title: On Group-Theoretic Extensions of Penney’s Game
• Stanley Liu, Age: 17, Arcadia High School; Project Title: A Microfluidic Device for Blood Plasma Separation and Fluorescence Detection of Biomarkers Using Acoustic Microstreaming
• Michael Maloney, Age: 18, Proof School; Project Title: Mask Mandates and COVID-19: The Efficacy of Face Mask Mandates in Increasing Mask Usage, While Decreasing the Spread of and Deaths from COVID-19 in the United States
• Andrei Mandelshtam, Age: 17, University High School; Project Title: The Structure of the Positive Monoid of Integer-Valued Polynomials Evaluated at ALPHA IN Q
• Beatrice Mihalache, Age: 17, Los Gatos High School; Project Title: The Effects of Polyethylene Microbeads and Polyester Microfibers on the Firmicutes and Proteobacteria Phyla in the Human Gut Microbiome
• Charit Narayanan, Age: 17, Mission San Jose High School; Project Title: A Novel Cohort Analysis Approach to Determining the Case Fatality Rate of COVID-19 and Other Infectious Diseases
• Jian Park, Age: 18, Sage Hill School; Project Title: DT-DBSCAN: Density Based Clustering of Planar Datasets in Linear Expected Time Through Delaunay Triangulation
• Aalok Patwa, Age: 18, Archbishop Mitty High School; Project Title: Analysis of the Tumor-Immune Microenvironment Reveals Predictors of Recurrence and Overall Survival in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
• Melanie Quan, Age: 18, Las Lomas High School; Project Title: Developing a Sustainable Cycle of Compostable and Water-Soluble Plastics by Repurposing Waste Products of Algal Biofuel Production
• Shreya Ramachandran, Age: 17, American High School; Project Title: Water Recycling: The Effect of Soap Nut Grey Water on Soil and Plant Health, E. coli and Fecal Coliform Contamination, and the Soil Microbiome
• Anushka Sanyal, Age: 17, Homestead High School; Project Title: Intronic RNA Lariats Protect Against Neurodegenerative Disease Related Protein Aggregation
• Saloni Shah, Age: 17, The Harker School; Project Title: Identifying Resilience Mutations in an Alzheimer’s Disease Whole-Genome Sequencing Cohort
• Siddharth Sharma, Age: 18, BASIS Independent Silicon Valley; Project Title: Nature’s Learning Algorithm? Experiments and Analysis of the Hebbian-LMS Algorithm
• Nitin Sreekumar, Age: 18, Troy High School; Project Title: Variation in Gene Expression Reveals Genes Predictive of Overall Survival in the Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Subtype
• Nitya Sunkad, Age: 17, Amador Valley High School; Project Title: Effects of Spaceflight on Gene Expression Patterns in Dermal Tissue
• Aditya Tadimeti, Age: 17, The Harker School; Project Title: Machine Learning and Wildfire Burned Area: Examining Computational Techniques to Predict Fire Size for Practical Insights
• Claire Tang, Age: 17, Lynbrook High School; Project Title: Automated Diagnostic Imaging for COVID-19: from the Unknown Detection to Clinical Prediction
• Emily Tianshi, Age: 17, The Cambridge School; Project Title: Biomimicking Torrey Pine Needles: Atmospheric Moisture Harvesting Through Alternating Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Micro-Patterns
• Katherine Tung, Age: 17, Menlo School; Project Title: The Sperner Property for 132-Avoiding Intervals in the Weak Order
• Bala Vinaithirthan, Age: 18, San Ramon Valley High School; Project Title: Prediction of Phenotypic Cancer Drug Response with an Image-Based Dual Convolutional Neural Network
• Jeffrey Wang, Age: 17, The Bishop’s School; Project Title: A Systematic Method to Identify Significant Changes in 3D Genome Compartmentalization Across Multiple Cell Lines
• Sidra Xu, Age: 17, The Harker School; Project Title: Application of Gene Embedding for Improved Somatic Mutation-Based Primary Cancer Typing and Biomarker Discovery
• Jessica Zhang, Age: 17, Proof School; Project Title: Classification of Tight Contact Structures on a Solid Torus
• Aaron Zhao, Age: 18, Harvard-Westlake School; Project Title: Comparative Evaluation of Metal Chelators for the Reduction of Redox-Active Metal Concentration
• Alec Zhou, Age: 18, Brentwood School; Project Title: An Eddy Current Sensor for Low-Cost Smart Water Meter for Real-Time Water Management

The program has been sponsored by Regeneron since 2017. Regeneron committed $100 million over 10 years to the program. Regeneron replaced Intel as the title sponsor.

“An exceptional group of student leaders and innovators comprise this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search scholars, with an array of projects that demonstrate the power of science,” said Hala Mirza, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Citizenship at Regeneron. “We are honored to celebrate the next generation of young scientists and inventors who can elevate the STEM community and our broader society through their high-quality research and novel discoveries. These are the inspiring problem solvers who will help address the current and future challenges facing our world.”

Previous competition participants have gone on to win 13 Nobel Prizes, 11 National Medals of Science, 6 Breakthrough Prizes, 21 MacArthur Foundation Fellowships, and 2 Fields Medals.

Read more about Society for Science including how to compete in future competitions.

Read more about Regeneron.