TARRYTOWN, N.Y. and WASHINGTON, March 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --
$250,000 top award goes to
Yunseo Choi in nation's oldest and
most prestigious STEM competition for high school seniors
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN)
and Society for Science (the Society) announced that
Yunseo Choi, 18, of Exeter, New Hampshire, won the $250,000 top award in the 2021 Regeneron
Science Talent Search, the nation's oldest and most prestigious
science and math competition for high school seniors. Historically
held in person in Washington,
D.C., this is the second year in its 80-year history that
the competition took place virtually to keep the finalists and
their families safe during the ongoing pandemic. Forty finalists,
including Yunseo, were honored tonight during a virtual winners'
award ceremony. More than $1.8
million was awarded to the finalists, who were evaluated
based on their projects' scientific rigor, their exceptional
problem-solving abilities and their potential to become scientific
leaders.
Yunseo Choi won first
place and $250,000 for her
project where she played theoretical "match maker" for an infinite
number of things or people. She studied matching algorithms that
work for a finite number of couples and determined which important
properties would still work for an infinite number of pairs.
Matching theory has numerous real-life applications, including
matching organ donors to recipients, assigning medical school
applicants to rotations and pairing potential couples in dating
apps.
Second place and $175,000
went to Noah Getz, 17, of
New York, New York, for his
research where he adjusted the way computer models identify
promising pharmaceutical compounds, which could make the discovery
of new drugs faster and less expensive. Noah's method treats
classification as an information retrieval task, similar to the
ranking results from a browser search. When he tested his model, it
identified two drugs that might dramatically reduce the levels of
an inflammation marker implicated in both Alzheimer's disease and
COVID-19.
Third place and $150,000
went to Eshani Jha, 17, of
San Jose, California, for
her development of a biochar filtration system that removes
microplastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and heavy metals (such
as arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury) from drinking water. Biochar
has properties similar to charcoal but is much more sustainable and
affordable because it can be made from biowastes. Eshani found that
its effectiveness could be enhanced by increasing its surface area
and carbon content and by adding certain chemical modifications to
improve its ability to sequester contaminants. She estimates her
filter would cost under a dollar per month.
"Congratulations to the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021
winners," said Maya Ajmera,
President and CEO of Society for Science, Publisher of Science
News and 1985 Science Talent Search alumna. "Throughout the
COVID-19 pandemic, students like Yunseo have shown incredible
resilience and perseverance in the face of new obstacles,
conducting rigorous research, while navigating an uncertain world.
These young people are the stewards of our future and I could not
be more inspired by their hard work and pure grit."
The Regeneron Science Talent Search provides a national stage
for future leaders in STEM – bringing together the best and
brightest young minds to present their original research ideas to
leading scientists. The competition celebrates the hard work,
innovative thinking, leadership qualities and creativity of
students who are bringing a fresh perspective to solving
significant global challenges through rigorous research and
cutting-edge discoveries. The judging panel also considers how
these research efforts, innovative thinking and leadership
qualities demonstrate the students' potential to become future
leaders in critical STEM fields.
"Congratulations to this year's winners of the Regeneron Science
Talent Search. Your curiosity and passion for science – as
well as your unique genius for it – has now been validated," said
George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D.,
Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron,
who credits his experiences as a winner of the 1976 Science Talent
Search for propelling him on a path that led his team to invent
several of the world's most important medicines, including
treatments for blindness, allergic diseases, Ebola and COVID-19. "I
hope you now take on the responsibility of using your powers and
ingenuity to help address some of the truly existential challenges
facing humanity, from disease to climate change."
Other top honors from the competition include:
Fourth Place: Gopal Goel, 17, of Portland, Oregon received a $100,000 award for math research that made
connections between two subjects regarding randomness and
probability. Prior work by others had shown that a connection
existed, but Gopal indicated that this connection is much more
general in nature. He believes his work can be useful to
researchers in the fields of nuclear physics, quantum field theory
and meteorology, and hopes it will aid in the search for the true
nature of quantum gravity, more commonly known as "the theory of
everything."
Fifth Place: Timothy Qian, 18, of Rockville, Maryland received a $90,000 award for a study of quantum metrology,
which uses quantum entanglement to get more accurate measurements.
Tim developed an innovative protocol that could one day be used
with quantum sensor networks to improve hardware controlling
quantum computers and improve nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonance
imaging.
Sixth Place: Vetri Vel, 16, of Veazie, Maine received a $80,000 award for his project engineering a deep
learning system that combines a small computer and a thermal camera
to detect heat signatures of a fallen person and immediately text
for help. His hands-free detection system was able to distinguish
among competing images to identify a fallen person at an average
accuracy of 98 percent. He started his project after a neighbor
collapsed alone at home. Falls are a leading cause of fatal injury
among older adults.
Seventh Place: Alay Shah, 17, of Plano, Texas received a $70,000 award for the development of a diagnostic
tool that tracks eye movement to identify neurological disorders
that he hopes can become a low-cost alternative to MRIs. Alay's
tool tracks pupil movement and gaze with an infrared camera and
uses software he wrote. The data is then analyzed using deep
learning algorithms to identify abnormal eye reflexes. In clinical
tests of patients with Parkinson's, dementia, multiple sclerosis
and ADHD, Alay found unique eye patterns associated with each
condition.
Eighth Place: Wenjun Hou, 18, of Portland, Oregon received a $60,000 award for using quantum computing to
solve the well-known computer science question called the "knapsack
problem." He not only wrote a new quantum algorithm, but also
designed quantum hardware to implement the central component of his
algorithm. This is believed to be the first time this has ever been
done.
Ninth Place: Vivian Yee, 17, of Beverly Hills, Michigan received a
$50,000 award for research on
inequalities in COVID-19 incidence and outcomes in the counties of
New York City. By modelling rates
of transmission, recovery and death alongside housing, education
and employment status, she found higher rates of transmission and
death in more socially vulnerable communities. Her findings, which
are included in a Consensus Memorandum accepted by the
Congressional Coronavirus Task Force, may help guide future
policies and initiatives for public health.
Tenth Place: Sam Christian, 17, of Austin, Texas received a $40,000 award for research looking at
computationally modeled data from numerous observatories and NASA's
TESS telescope to identify and observe movements of planets in 69
wide-binary star systems, which are twin-star systems spaced up to
a light year apart. He showed that the orbits of these exoplanets
align to a great extent with the orbit of their binary system. His
findings, when applied to a larger sample, could shed additional
light on how planets are formed and evolve.
Dasia Taylor, 17, of North Liberty, Iowa, was named the Seaborg
Award winner and given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the
Regeneron Science Talent Search Class of 2021. The 40 finalists
chose Dasia as the student who most exemplifies their class and the
extraordinary attributes of nuclear chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, who
won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1951 and served on the
Society's Board of Trustees for 30 years.
Each finalist not in the top 10 received $25,000. These students will join the ranks of
other Science Talent Search alumni, many of whom have gone on to
have world-changing careers in STEM fields, and some of whom have
earned the most esteemed honors in science and math, including the
Nobel Prize, National Medal of Science and MacArthur Foundation
Fellowships. In total, Regeneron awarded $3.1 million in prizes through the Regeneron
Science Talent Search 2021, including $2,000 to each of the top scholars and their
schools.
About the Regeneron Science Talent Search
The
Regeneron Science Talent Search, a program of Society for Science
since 1942, is the nation's oldest and most prestigious science and
math competition for high school seniors. Each year, around 2,000
student entrants submit original research in critically important
scientific fields of study and are judged by leading experts in
their fields. Unique among high school competitions in the U.S. and
around the world, the Regeneron Science Talent Search focuses on
identifying, inspiring and engaging the nation's most promising
young scientists who are creating the ideas that could solve
society's most urgent challenges.
In 2017, Regeneron became only the third sponsor of
the Science Talent Search, increasing the overall awards
distribution to better reward the best and brightest young minds.
Through its 10-year, $100 million
commitment, which also supports a range of outreach and equity
programs, Regeneron nearly doubled the overall award distribution
to $3.1 million annually, increasing
the top award to $250,000 and
doubling the awards for the top 300 scholars and their schools to
$2,000 each to inspire more young
people to engage in science.
Program alumni include recipients of the world's most coveted
science and math honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes, 13 National
Medals of Science, six Breakthrough Prizes, 22 MacArthur Foundation
Fellowships and two Fields Medals.
Learn more
at https://www.societyforscience.org/regeneron-sts/.
About Society for Science
Society for Science is
dedicated to the achievement of young scientists in independent
research and to public engagement in science. Established in 1921,
the Society is a nonprofit whose vision is to promote the
understanding and appreciation of science and the vital role it
plays in human advancement. Through its world-class competitions,
including the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Regeneron
International Science and Engineering Fair, the Broadcom MASTERS,
and its award-winning magazine, Science
News and Science News for Students,
Society for Science is committed to inform, educate, and inspire.
Learn more at www.societyforscience.org and follow us
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat
(Society4Science).
About Regeneron
Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN) is a leading
biotechnology company that invents life-transforming medicines for
people with serious diseases. Founded and led for over 30 years by
physician-scientists, our unique ability to repeatedly and
consistently translate science into medicine has led to nine
FDA-approved treatments and numerous product candidates in
development, almost all of which were homegrown in our
laboratories. Our medicines and pipeline are designed to help
patients with eye diseases, allergic and inflammatory diseases,
cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, pain, infectious
diseases and rare diseases.
Regeneron believes that operating as a good corporate citizen is
crucial to delivering on our mission. We approach corporate
responsibility with three goals in mind: to improve the lives of
people with serious diseases, to foster a culture of
integrity and excellence and to build sustainable
communities. Regeneron is proud to be included on the Dow Jones
Sustainability World Index and the Civic 50 list of the most
"community-minded" companies in the
United States. Throughout the year, Regeneron empowers and
supports employees to give back through our volunteering, pro-bono
and matching gift programs. Our most significant philanthropic
commitments are in the area of science education, including
the Regeneron Science Talent Search and Regeneron
International Science and Engineering Fair.
For additional information about the company, please visit
www.regeneron.com or follow @Regeneron on Twitter.
Media Contacts
Ella
Campbell, Regeneron
914-572-4003,
ella.campbell@regeneron.com
Gayle Kansagor, Society for
Science
703-489-1131,
gkansagor@societyforscience.org
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