Ana Malfa Receives First Place, ISWEEEP Awards at WESEF

PHS senior Ana Malfa earned a first place award in Medicine and Health at the Westchester Science and Engineering Fair (WESEF), held on March 4 at Sleepy Hollow HS, for her science research project on alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive pediatric soft tissue cancer. Ana and six other first place winners were selected to participate in the International World (Engineering Energy Environment) Project Olympiad (ISWEEEP) in Houston, Texas, May 3-8. They received awards from Regeneron that will cover the costs of the event. Earlier this year, Ana was one of 300 students nationwide to be named a scholar (semifinalist) in the Regeneron Science Talent Search.

Two other PHS seniors who presented at WESEF received fourth place awards in their categories: Silpaa Gunabalan in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Vincent Ferraiuolo in Mathematics.

WESEF, a showcase for the best high school science research students in Westchester and Putnam counties, is the regional version of the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair. This year, over 550 students presented their multi-year research projects in 15 categories.

Pictured: Vincent Ferraiuolo, Ana Malfa, Silpaa Gunabalan

Photo credit: PHS Science Department