Smithtown HSE Senior Earns 4th In International Science Competition

DALLAS, TX — Holy Mary Zaher, a Smithtown High School East senior and Regeneron scholar, placed fourth in the world in the category of Behavioral Science at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair held in Dallas, Texas, the school district announced.

Zaher's research project was titled, "The Correlation Between Peroxisome Levels and Short-Term Memory Loss in a PINK1-/- Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease."

Smithtown HS East Science Research Coordinator Maria Zeitlin traveled to Texas with Zaher.

"I am so proud of the work we did to prepare, to learn and to present," Zeitlin said. "It was an epic journey of discovery. In fact, our program title is ‘ThINK Discovery’ and never has it been more apparent!"

In addition to her placement, Zaher was selected to read her question to the panel which was being broadcast live. She was also chosen to read a second question which was submitted for the Excellence in STEM Panel which followed immediately after and featured a Nobel laureate and several notable scientists.