Forty-eight high school students who worked with Stony Brook University faculty mentors were recently announced as regional finalists (18) and or semifinalists (30) in the 2010 Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology—one of the top nationwide research competitions for high school researchers.
Many of the competition winners participated in summer research programs offered at Stony Brook, including the Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces program and/or the Simons Summer Research Program. Thirty of the awardees (21 semifinalists and 9 regional finalists) were mentored by Miriam Rafailovich, from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who is one of the nation’s leading mentors of research competition talent and has formed collaborative, interdisciplinary networks with faculty across campus.
Other faculty engaged in mentoring Siemens regional finalists and/or semifinalists include: Benjamin Chu, Department of Chemistry; Liliana Davalos and Dianna Padilla, Department of Ecology and Evolution; Peter Gergen and Robert Haltiwanger, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology; Benjamin Hsiao, Iwao Ojima, and Carlos Simmerling, Department of Chemistry; Jonathan Sokolov, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; and Wei Zhu, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, whose students worked in collaboration with Ellen Li, Department of Medicine.
Stony Brook annually ranks among the leaders in universities nationwide who mentor high school researchers. Of the 1,372 projects submitted by 2,033 students in the 2010 competition, the Siemens Foundation announced a total of 312 semifinalists and 94 regional finalist awards, representing 36 states; regional finalists will be going on to compete in one of 6 regional competitions during November; and winners of the regional events will compete at the National Finals in Washington, D.C., in early December for the top prize of $100,000.
Last year’s grand prize winner (2009) in the individual category of the Siemens competition was Ruoyi Jiang of Ward Melville High School, who was mentored by Carlos Simmerling. In previous years, grand prize winners in the team category worked with Stony Brook faculty mentors Iwao Ojima (2007), and Miriam Rafailovich (2001).
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