Siemens Results Announced Two Seniors Named Semifinalists
By Maddie Broder ’09
News Associate Editor
On October 19th, seniors Janet Li ’08 and Irene Zhang ’08 were named semifinalists in the prestigious national Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology for high school students. Zhang and Li are among only three hundred students from thirty-two states who were named semifinalists of this competition. Winners are selected in each scientific category by a panel of scientists with expertise in that particular field.
Being named a semifinalist is testimony to a competitor’s hard work and lab skills. To apply to the competition, on October 1st Li and Zhang each had to submit a twenty-page report on the findings of a summer research project that they completed in a science lab. The research paper had to be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the Principal Investigator of the lab in which the work had been carried out, as well as a recommendation from Choate. A main criterion for submission is significant findings in a student’s research. “You don’t have to find the cure for cancer or anything, but the work should have some implication, even if it’s on a small level,” said Zhang. Both students will probably have the results of their research later published in scientific journal articles by their labs.
Summer Research
Li worked for two months this summer at the Cancer Immunology Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center, under Dr. Pramod Srivastava. Li’s father, who also works in that lab, helped her set up the internship. Li examined the function of the protein GP90 in the endoplasmic reticulum in mouse cells. The implications of the work relate to the spreading of cancerous cells. Li worked in a physics research lab in 2006 and decided to pursue research opportunities this past summer as well. “I guess you could say I like doing science research during the summer,” she explained.
Zhang worked at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. She investigated the hypothesis that liver cancer is more prevalent in people who have formerly had a liver disease such as hepatitis. The National Cancer Institute has a summer research program for high school students; Zhang read descriptions of the different research labs at the National Institute of Health, the NCI’s parent organization, and then applied to the ones that interested her.
Of her summer research experience Zhang said, “The first few days were very intense: wading through the science papers from my lab. It was a great learning experience.”
Both semifinalists said science is their favorite subject in school. “The Choate preparation in science is very helpful for doing summer research,” said Zhang. “It’s great to see the concepts you’re learning in the classroom happening in the lab. First the textbook and then the real world.”
Neither Li nor Zhang participated in Choate’s Science Research Program (SRP), a course designed to prepare students for working in a research lab. They both said they were interested in taking SRP, but the time commitment of the class was hard to fit into their schedules. No SRP students participated in the Siemens contest this year. Science Research Program director Deron Chang hypothesized that this was because the October 1st deadline for contest submission is a hard time constraint to work with. Most SRP students did not complete their summer research until late August, which would leave them only a month to write the twenty-page dissertation required for the Siemens competition.
Li and Zhang admitted that time constraints were difficult. The students had to balance writing college application essays and the scientific articles for Siemens. “It was definitely tough,” said Zhang. “Before I submitted my college applications, I was sort of wishing that I had had that extra time to work on the essays, but I think it all worked out okay.” Li agreed, saying that it’s good to “learn to roll with the deadlines.”
Li and Zhang number among a select few Choate students to have gained recognition from the Siemens Science Competition in the last few years. In 2006, Choate Allic Sivaramakrishnan ’07 was a national semifinalist, and Karthik Kasaraneni ’07 was both a national semifinalist and a regional finalist. In 2005, Pooja Phull ’06 and Kiran Pendri ’06 were named national semifinalists. Pendri was subsequently named a regional finalist, won second place at the New England Regional Competition and then finished second in the nation as a national finalist.
“It’s really cool that so many kids at Choate can do research, because usually high school students don’t get research opportunities,” said Zhang. “It’s impressive that so many kids apply to the competition from Choate, because not that many kids from other prep schools enter into this competition.”
Ray Diffley, the head of Admissions, agreed with Zhang. “Siemens is a perfect example of the developing young scientists at our school,” he said. “We’re incredibly proud that our students are doing so well in their fields and truly fostering a love of learning.”
