9 Regeneron Semifinalists From Horace Greeley, Byram Hills

CHAPPAQUA/ARMONK, NY — 32 students from across the Hudson Valley, including nine from Horace Greeley High School and Byram Hills High School, were named semifinalists, or Scholars, in the prestigious 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search.

The Society for Science announced the 300 Scholars on Tuesday, and 32 of them were from the Hudson Valley. The 300 Scholars were selected from the 1,949 student-scientists who entered the competition. They were chosen based on their research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and promise as STEM leaders demonstrated through the submission of their original, independent research projects, essays and recommendations.

"The enthusiasm and quality of projects from this year’s participants were just outstanding," said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science and publisher of Science News.

"Each year, I am tremendously impressed by the ingenuity that the students bring to the competition. Their hard work, creativity and perseverance should be applauded."

For being named Scholars, each student will receive $2,000, and their schools will receive $2,000 for each of them.

The Science Talent Search will name 40 finalists, chosen from among the 300 Scholars, on Jan. 24. Those finalists will then go on to compete for more than $1.8 million in awards during a week-long competition in Washington, D.C. from March 9-15.

The four Horace Greeley Scholars and their projects are:

• Carly Googel, 17, Horace Greeley High School, Project Title: The Connection Between Stress and a Person’s Ability To Understand Their Own Mind and the Minds of Others
• Elvin Lo, 17, Horace Greeley High School, Project Title: An Empirical Evaluation of Zeroth-Order Optimization Methods on AI-Driven Molecule Optimization
• Julia Sun, 17, Horace Greeley High School, Project Title: Deregulated Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) and Malignant Transformation
• Amy Yang, 17, Horace Greeley High School, Project Title: Image-Based Deep Learning on Air Quality Using a Nine-Layer Residual Neural Network

"Our four scholars have worked extremely hard and they deserve such a merit," said HGHS science research teacher Dr. Haroula Argiros. "We are incredibly proud of them!"

Dr. Lisa Papernik, science research teacher at HGHS said that the Science Research program at Horace Greeley provides a supportive environment where a student can begin with an idea, build confidence and skills with help from their peers, teachers and outside metnors, and then develop the idea into a nationally recognized research project.

"We are so proud of Carly, Elvin, Julia and Amy," Dr. Papernik added. "Each of their projects is the result of incredible creativity, initiative and hard work."

The five Byram Hills Scholars and their projects are:

• Rohini Elora Das, 17, Byram Hills High School, Project Title: “Let’s Sleep On It”: Employing the Brain App To Measure the Impact of Sleep in Consolidating Prior Learning
• Remi Paige Matza, 18, Byram Hills High School, Project Title: Revealing the Retinal Vascular Changes Caused by Age-Related Macular Degeneration
• Samantha Maya Milewicz, 17, Byram Hills High School, Project Title: Selective Inhibition of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Attenuates Traumatic Brain Injury-Mediated Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption in a Novel Dynamic in vitro Model
• Lindsay Miller, 17, Byram Hills High School, Project Title: Here Comes the Sun: The Impact of Chronotype and Seasonal Mood Variation on Pupillary Light Response Across the Circadian Cycle
• Samantha Schaevitz, 17, Byram Hills High School, Project Title: Investigating the Use of Focused Ultrasound To Induce Blood-Brain Barrier Opening and Increase Drug Delivery Into a Murine Model of Primary High Grade Glioma Tumors

"Congratulations to our five top scholars for this outstanding achievement," Byram Hills HS Principal Christopher Walsh said. "Their work represents the best of Byram Hills and the continued strength of the entire Authentic Science Research Program."

The students are all part of the three-year Authentic Science Research Program at Byram Hills.

"We are incredibly proud of these talented student scientists," Stephanie Greenwald, director of the Authentic Science Research Program, said. "This is a great day for Byram Hills. Our five top scholars are excellent representatives of our outstanding senior class. They demonstrate the dedication, intellectual curiosity and resiliency we see in all of our students in the science research program."

SEE ALSO: 32 Hudson Valley Students Named Regeneron Scholars For 2023