Greenwich HS Student Wins Google Global Science Fair

If ever there was a ‘whiz kid,’ Greenwich High School (GHS) student Olivia Hallisey certainly is one.

The GHS junior — who aspires to be a physician just like her grandfather — is the Google Global Science Fair 2015 Grand Prize Winner. Prompted by the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa, Olivia developed a quick, inexpensive, and accurate detection of the virus that does not require refrigeration.

She competed against thousands of teens from around the globe to advance to the finals that were held at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA on Sept. 21. It was there that she was awarded the grand prize of $50,000 in scholarship funding.

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“Winning (will) enable me to continue to develop my Ebola Assay Card as a multiple disease diagnostic assay, and to make a meaningful impact on global health through the early detection of often fatal diseases. I am inspired by Dr. Kent Brantly, who showed the global community our collective moral obligation to act with courage and compassion,” Olivia said in her Google Science Fair profile.

Outside of school, she volunteers with the Connecticut Chapter of the Special Olympics, as a middle school tutor and youth swim instructor. “I am a competitive swimmer and plan to swim in college. I hope to be a doctor like my late grandfather, and work for a global health organization such as Doctors Without Borders,” Olivia said.

According to her research summary, “current Ebola detection methods are complex, expensive, require unbroken refrigeration from manufacture to use and up to 12 hours from testing to confirmed diagnosis. This research creates a “stable and stored at room temperature” temperature-independent Ebola Assay Card (EAC), which utilizes the stabilizing properties of silk fibroin to “break the cold chain” and allow for water-activated detection of Ebola antigens, with detection limits that are analogous to current sandwich ELISA techniques. The EAC provides rapid, inexpensive, accurate detection of Ebola viral antigens based on color change within 30 minutes in individuals prior to their becoming symptomatic and infectious.”

Olivia said she wants to continue her research to develop similar tests for other diseases including HIV, Lyme disease and certain cancers. (To read the specifics of her research, click here.)

Olivia wasn’t the only Greenwich High student to achieve success in the Google Global Science Fair.

Fellow GHS junior Margaret Cirino was recognized as a Regional Finalist, earning GHS two honorees in the top-90 of the competition. Her research proposed the novel synthesis of a dissolvable and biocompatible corn- starch/PVA micro-carrier that is hydrotropic and easily maneuverable with electromagnetic fields or other external stimuli. This device would potentially be able to deliver drugs to targeted parts of the body and rival other current drug delivery options.

Olivia and Margaret are students in the GHS Honors Science Research course, taught by Andrew Bramante. The Honors Science Research is a unique course for students who are highly motivated, and interested in pursuing original science research in biological, physical, medical, engineering, math and/or technology studies.

Both students will be recognized by the Board of Education at its Sept. 24, meeting at Julian Curtiss School at 7 p.m.

Contributed photo: Google Science Fair Awards Ceremony Presenter Derek Muller and Grand Prize Winner Olivia Hallisey.