Stuyvesant Holds Second Annual Regeneron Awards Ceremony

With a few opening jokes, biology teacher and research coordinator Jason Econome opened the Second Annual Regeneron Awards Ceremony in Lecture Hall A on Friday, February 2, and then proceeded to recognize all of the students who had participated in the Regeneron competition, as well as the teachers who had aided them.

The awards for both participants and the four semi-finalists—seniors Tiffany Chen, Jenny Gao, Benedict Ho, and Julian Rubinfien—were presented by a group of seniors in the various research classes offered at Stuyvesant. These classes varied in length and topic, with three-semester Biology Regeneron and two-semester Social Science, Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics Regeneron. While Econome mentored students in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, teachers Gary Rubenstein and Ellen Schweitzer taught Mathematics and Social Science, respectively. Upon receiving their certificates, each researcher briefly summarized his or her work, and students were then led outside the lecture hall to view poster presentations created by the researchers.

The projects on display encompassed a wide range of topics. Chen’s project aimed to predict which New York City neighborhoods were most likely to gentrify in the future using machine-learning algorithms, and submitted her results to the Regeneron competition under the category “Behavioral and Social Sciences,” despite taking the Mathematics Regeneron class. Where many people see research as working in a lab, Chen disagrees. “I spent a lot of my time coding on a computer, and it helped me realize that research is not just going to a lab… Being able to do a lot of research at home actually helped me understand more about what I was looking for,” Chen said.

PProjects like Chen’s came as a surprise to several students, such as freshman Michael Hu. “I was expecting really science-y projects, but there were some projects, discussing [topics like] suicide or gentrification, and I wasn’t expecting that to come up here,” Hu said. “I did not know there were so many potential topics I could research on.”

Other researchers, like senior Razeen Adit, went the classic route of finding a lab and working on a project there. Adit studied the correlation between lupus and antinuclear antibodies at Johns Hopkins University, and viewed his experience positively. “In a classroom, a teacher tells you things, force-feeding you knowledge, but when you do the research yourself, you actually see the connections for yourself, providing a deeper understanding in the topic,” Adit said.

Senior Brain Isakov, who also presented his project, was given the opportunity to work with a mentor in Condensed Matter Physics—a topic not conventionally covered in schools—but was also taxed by a daily two-hour commute both ways. Ultimately, Isakov’s work paid off, and he was grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Regeneron competition. “I had my own freedom to explore, which can’t be compared to being in a regular classroom setting,” Isakov said.

Students were inspired by the posters presented by these students. Freshman Jonathan Schneiderman felt that speaking with senior researchers was extremely eye-opening. “It didn’t seem doable [before], going to do a serious project like these. It still looks hard, but it doesn’t look like a Sisyphean task,” Schneiderman said, expressing interest in joining the program in the future.

Econome played a critical role in assisting the researchers with getting into labs and developing their research interests and ideas. “Mr. Econome has so much experience in research. He has tons of connections that help seniors work in labs, because he worked in so many,” senior Michael Zheng said. “His connections with alumni also helped. [My project] was completely double-checked by a researcher who works in molecular biology, from Stuyvesant.”

Econome also taught a three-semester biology research class, which introduced students to common research techniques that would be helpful in a lab, such as restriction enzyme analysis, PCR amplification, and transformations of bacteria, as well as how to read and analyze data. “This program teaches you how to be persistent, and to always think of problems as solutions waiting to be revealed,” Econome said. “This is a great way to spend the summer, working side by side with professionals, learning and making connections that will last a lifetime.”

Compared to previous years, the 2017-2018 research cycle at Stuyvesant came with additional aid from the Alumni Association. Board of Directors member Vanessa Liu identified three ways the association is helping students with the Regeneron Science Talent Search: seeking out alumni to review papers, offering lab space, and stimulating interest in scientific research. In the future, the Alumni Association plans to offer field visits and opportunities to talk to scientists later in the spring.

Although none of the four semi-finalists became one of the forty Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) finalists this year, they were still rewarded, with each semi-finalist receiving two thousand dollars for both themselves and the school.

Principal Eric Contreras was especially grateful for the increased interest in the research program this year, as the level of enrollment was more than double that of the previous year. “The researcher and inventor are people that bring new and fresh ideas, new perspective, and are not complacent when looking at the world as it is. We are dependent on them to move forward, as a species,” Contreras said.