Behind the Microscope: Talking with Stuyvesant’s Student Scientists

Stuyvesant is known for being a STEM school, offering a wide variety of science, technology, engineering, and math programs and classes. While the school offers many resources, some students have supplemented them with courses of study outside of school. Here is a look at some of Stuyvesant’s very own student scientists.

Kristoff Misquitta

Being a student scientist is “loving science and not stopping there. It means pursuing it, [and] actually looking at how you can apply science to the world,” sophomore Kristoff Misquitta defined.

Misquitta, whose interest in experimentation began with a third-grade science project about solar panels, applies science to the world in a multitude of ways. For one, he takes advantages of the many science electives at Stuyvesant, as he is currently taking Molecular Biology and participates in Stuyvesant’s numerous biology-related clubs. For example, Misquitta is a member of the Biology Division of Science Olympiad and the leadership board for the Research Club, as well as a member of Science Bowl, stuyMAPS (Modeling a Protein Story), and the SIGMA Magazine. Misquitta also pursues science outside of school by meticulously looking through scientific journals and reading them on his train rides, at home, or whenever he has a free moment.

Reading journals helped Misquitta come up with an idea for the Genes in Space competition, a nation-wide contest that looks for ideas that overcome limitations present in space explorations. It honors applicants from across the country who reject the notion that the sky is the limit. Misquitta received an Honorable Mention in the competition last year.

“My proposal [sought to] quantify the amount of microRNA-31 present in the body and space and use that as a biomarker and indicator of bone mineral density loss in space,” he explained. To get to the point of formulating an experiment, Misquitta spent arduous hours at Barnes & Noble’s, researching “until [his] guest Wi-Fi pass ran out,” he said. The smell of coffee and the sound of the blender created the background for his scientific journey.

Occasionally, frustration accompanies this journey. “One of the biggest obstacles I face is finding inspiration,” Misquitta admitted. “Sometimes you have to look through a lot of articles to find something you can relate to. Often, I've spent a whole day just reading article after article and at the next day I get up, it's all gone. I forget every single thing I read and that's really frustrating.”

To clear his head, Misquitta admires and observes nature as he takes walks in the park by his house. “[This] sounds like something that wouldn't technically be very interesting, but nothing fosters more imagination in me than just looking at nature because it's simple. It's pure. And that's ultimately what science is: it's a pure field and you have to be in sync with it in order to be inspired,” Misquitta professed.

Misquitta continues to be engrossed in this field of study that has captivated both him and his brother, who is a chemical engineer. In order to foster that interest, Misquitta plans on taking several Stuyvesant’s biology electives, including Regeneron Biology and Cancer Research. As for his ultimate ambition, Misquitta aspires to “use science in some way to change the world,” he said.

Liza Reizis

Junior Liza Reizis’ interest in science began during middle school when her class visited different scientific laboratories and conducted chemistry experiments. Similar to Misquitta, Reizis’ family, who is involved in science, inspired her to pursue the field. As a child, Reizis was interested in environmental studies and ecology, but currently is more focused on molecular biology.

Reizis also competed in Genes in Space. She won first place two years ago as a freshman, for her experiment on the compromised immune systems of astronauts who returned from space, regarding T-cells, the cells that mediate the immune response. She used the polymerase chain reaction semi-quantitative method to observe mouse blood over a series of time and see whether it helped indicate immunodeficiency development.

The competition was introduced to her by biology teacher Jessica Quenzer, who encouraged all of her research biology classes to participate. Quenzer played an active part in Reizis’ project, having attended the first International Space Station conference and the launch of Reizis’ experiment with Reizis.

Reizis was inspired to participate in Genes in Space by a previous winner of the competition. Winning the competition “was also really awesome because the year prior to me, Julian Rubinfien (‘17), who is also from Stuy, won,” Reizis said. “The whole time, I [had] been looking at him as a role model and it was very fulfilling to see myself in the same place as him.”

Stuyvesant, Reizis explained, helps her develop her own scientific career because of the multitude of opportunities it offers for anyone who wishes to further their interest in science. “The teachers of [the] biology department are also super, super supportive and will encourage questioning and further research,” Reizis elaborated.

Reizis has already taken Molecular Biology, Advanced Placement (AP) Bio-Psychology, and Regeneron Biology. In addition to these classes, Reizis has been making progress outside of school as well. In the past, she has taken care of cephalopods at a marine biology lab and interned at the International School of Biology. This summer she will work at the prestigious Rockefeller University with Dr. Howard Hang.

In the future, Reizis hopes to find a field that she is dedicated to. She tentatively plans on majoring in biology but is aware that her scientific interests could change. “I’m just going to continue looking for new questions to pursue and answer,” she said.

Elizabeth Doss

Junior Elizabeth Doss had never expressed much interest in science before coming to Stuyvesant. She had taken basic courses, such as Earth Science, in middle school, but did not discover her passion until freshman year at Stuyvesant. After taking Modern Biology with biology teacher Marissa Maggio during her first semester, and Quenzer during her second, Doss developed a newfound interest in biology.

As a result of that interest, she found herself participating in several programs at and outside of Stuyvesant. Last year, Doss took part in the Urban Barcode Research Program, in which she aided in research at Mount Sinai Hospital at the Icahn School of Medicine, trying to detect a mutation in one sequence in a gene and identify a difference between cancer cells and normal cells. “I learned a whole bunch of cool techniques,” Doss explained. “I [worked on] PCRs and cultured cells.”

Last summer, Doss participated in a research program at Stuyvesant led by biology teacher Jerry Citron. Students completed a variety of experiments, such as testing the fountain water to measure how much lead was in them, as well as collecting water from the Hudson River after it rained to measure its acidity. Doss is also the president of stuyMAPS (Modelling a Protein Story), where members pursue biology outside of the classroom by using a series of software programs, like Jmol, to examine different protein structures.

Doss has taken Urban Ecology, Research Biology, and is currently taking AP Computer Science. She hopes to take AP Biology and AP Environmental Science next year. “There’s a huge variety of courses you can take,” she said. “For me, in particular, there [are] so many different biology courses that we offer. But also, if you’re a researcher for chemistry, you can take Advanced Chem Lab and all those different courses. [Stuyvesant] caters to whatever science you go into.”

This accommodation has been extremely beneficial for Doss, who is interested in both biology and computer science. She has also expressed interest in mathematics and has dedicated time to her job at the Museum of Math. “It’s nerdy, but it’s a lot of fun,” Doss said.

Ultimately, Doss is interested in the general fields of STEM. “For both computer science and math, I love that feeling when you solve a problem that you’ve been struggling over for a really long time and then you finally get it and it’s the best feeling in the world,” she elaborated.

Her long-term goals, though, lie in the realm of biology—more specifically, between biology and medicine. However, she is certain that she wants to become a research scientist, delving into diseases, especially cancer. She said, “It’s cheesy, but I just want to help as many people as possible.”

[a]To layout: spread style, with different boxes for each interviewee.