
On March 3, 2012, 70 of Long Island’s most brilliant high school students, including several Intel finalists and semi-finalists, came to Stony Brook’s Charles B. Wang Center to participate in the Long Island Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. The young scientists, mathematicians and scholars presented papers on a variety of topics including behavioral science, engineering, environmental science, life sciences, math and physical science and medicine. A total of more than $5,000 in scholarships were awarded to the students judged to have the most outstanding presentations by a panel of Stony Brook professors.
Many of the student-presenters were mentored by Stony Brook faculty including: David Talmage, pharmacological sciences; Lorna Role, neurobiology and behavior; Miriam Rafailovich, materials science and engineering; Benjamin Chu and Benjamin Hsiao, chemistry; and Dianna Padilla, ecology and evolution.

This was the fourth time that Stony Brook has hosted the Long Island section of this national event, directed by Chad Karachi from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
2012 Award Winners
First Place, $2,000: Rajkumar Pannal, Commack High School (environmental science)
Title: “Improving Reverse Osmosis Membranes for Desalination: The Modification of Cellulose Nanofibers”
Second Place, $1,500: Jack Sempliner, Paul D. Schreiber High School (math and physical science)
Title: “Strategies Utilized by People with Autism and Neuro-Typical Individuals to Determine Emotion in Faces”
Third Place, $1,000: Anna Sato, Ward Melville High School (engineering)

Title: “A Novel Adsorptive Filtration Approach for the Removal of Radioactive Isotopes of Iodine and Cesium from Water”
Fourth Place, $500: Benjamin Kornick, Roslyn High School (behavioral science)
Title: “OMG: Look Who Joined Facebook! The Relationship Between Parenting and Adolescent Risk Behaviors”
Fifth Place, $500: Danielle Scarano, Plainview–Old Bethpage JFK High School (life sciences)
Title: “Isolation of High Copy Suppressors of the Meiotic Recombination Defect Due to a Weakened Version of the Meiosis=specific Mek 1 Kinase“
The above winners will also receive expense-paid travel to the 50th National JSHS Symposium in Bethesda, Maryland, scheduled between May 2 and

May 6, 2012. The first and second place finalists are invited to present their original research for additional scholarships on the national level.
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