Jazz Munitz Named an Intel Semifinalist

Hendrick Hudson High School senior research student Jazz Munitz has been named a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search. Jazz was recognized for his research project, Microfluidics-Facilitated Synthesis and Characterization of Apoptosis-Inducing Low-Cost Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapeutics

The Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) is the nation’s most prestigious pre-college science competition. Alumni of STS have made extraordinary contributions to science and hold more than 100 of the world’s most coveted science and math honors, including the Nobel Prize and National Medal of Science. Annually, students entering the Intel STS compete for more than $1.6 million in awards. Only 300 students are announced as semifinalists each year. From this select pool, 40 finalists are then invited to Washington, DC in March to participate in final judging, display their work to the public, meet with notable scientists, and compete for three top awards of $150,000 each.

The Intel Science Talent Search encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions and develop the skills needed to solve the problems of tomorrow.

For more information visit: https://student.societyforscience.org/intel-sts

Dr. Christine Rogers, Hendrick Hudson’s Science Research Program Director, said, “Jazz is a leader and an excellent communicator. His creative scientific ideas are followed by persistence, hard work, precision, thoroughness, and, also an understanding that, without the proper communication, an idea may be lost. He was interested in nanotechnology and how it could be used in medicine. He worked tirelessly, reading scientific articles and developing new ideas with energy and eagerness. His creativity and imagination allowed him to tackle ideas unexplored in high school science, only rivaled in upper academic circles. Jazz thinks out of the box.”

Dr. Rogers continued, “Reading about possible treatments of cancer, he developed a nanoparticle, coupled with molecules, which would target and specifically killed cancer cells. Unabashed, he navigated academic circles and found a laboratory, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City under the direction of Dr. Willem Mulder, to implement his idea. And he did it with tremendous success, which led to his INTEL paper and a publication soon to be submitted to a scientific peer-reviewed journal.”