Students from Great Neck North and South High Schools received a trove of science awards. Winners and their achievements follow.
I-SWEEEP
South High students Annabelle Ng and Robin Shum are Bronze Medal winners (energy category) in the Ninth Annual International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering & Environment) Project Olympiad (I-SWEEEP), for their project, Optimization of a photosynthetic microbial fuel cell based on Rhodospirillum rubrum. Annabelle and Robin have garnered two additional awards for their research project—Siemens Science Competition Semifinalists and President’s Environmental Youth Awards Program Honorable Mention Region 2 Winners.
Long Island Junior Science & Humanities Symposium
North High winners: August Chen, Finalist and First Place, Physics; and Finalists Olivia Descorbeth, Melanie Katz and Jasmine Wong.
South High student Emily Cheung was a presenter at the Symposium.
Long Island Psychology Fair
North High Finalists Olivia Descorbeth, Aviya Litman and Fernanda Wenzel, Graelin Mandel, and Amy Shteyman.
South High winners: Best in Category (Interdisciplinary Psychology) Michael Shen and Sunny Shi; and Honorable Mention (Educational Psychology) Tooba Alwani and Ramya Kumar.
Long Island Science Congress
North High LISC winners include: Highest Honors—Simona Fine (also took First Place in category Behavioral Science); Honors—Niva Haber and Jacqueline Slobin, Joshua Nouriyelian and Aaron Naim, Caitlin Yam, and Ashley Yu; and Merit—Jonathan Goldman and Jonathan Rismany.
South High LISC winners include: Highest Honors—Kevin Hui, Benjamin Newman, Patrick Shen, and Jaysen Zhang; High Honors—Yiqing (Elissa) He and Melody Yang, and Joshua Lee and Bradley Sheen; Honors—Joshua Hom and Sungmin Ko, and Macy Meng; Achievement—Dorothy Liu, William Ren and William Zheng, Cindy Wang and Michelle Xing, and Sean Zhang; and Merit: Aram Baghdassarian and Jesse Smith, Tiffany Hung and Allan Lee, and Nicholas Polichronakis and Andrew Tsao.
Long Island Science & Engineering Fair (LISEF)
North High First Place winner August Chen, Physics and Astronomy (now advances to the International Science and Engineering Fair); Second Place winner Julia Goldsamt, Animal Sciences; Honorable Mention winners: Jasmine Wong, Earth & Environmental Science (also received Ricoh Sustainable Development Award and U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize Regional Award); and Graelin Mandel, Behavioral Science (also received American Psychological Association Certificate Award).
South High Third Place winners: Tooba Alwani and Lynn Hlaing; and Honorable Mention winners: Michael Shen and Sunny Shi, and Rubin Smith.
New York State Science Congress
North High student Simona Fine was chosen to compete in the Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS) New York State Science Congress, to be held in June, for her behavioral science project, Talk Color to Me: The effect of the languages an individual speaks on the way the individual describes color.
New York State Science & Engineering Fair
South High Second Place winner Emily Cheung, and Honorable Mention winners Tooba Alwani and Lynn Hlaing.
(North High students did not enter this competition.)
Science Olympiads
North High Olympiad winners include: Second Place, Remote Sensing winners Nicholas Calto and Scott Rothbaum; Third Place, Green Generation winners Michelle Goh and Cheryl Tung; and Sixth Place, Disease Detectives winners David Liu and Megan Xu.
South High student Olympiad honorees are: Yiqing (Elissa) He and Aric Zhuang, who qualified to take the National Exam for the Chemistry Olympiad, and Allan Lee, who was named a Semifinalist in the Biology Olympiad.
WAC Science Fair
North High School was the host school for this year’s WAC Lighting Foundation Invitational Science Fair. The fair had two divisions. Division I covered in-school projects for students in grades 9–11. Division II covered seniors or projects performed at a registered research institution, or both. There were eight competition categories: I. Computer Science and Modeling; II. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; III. General Biology; IV. Behavioral Science; V. Chemistry; VI. Earth and Environmental Sciences; VII. Physics and Astronomy; and VIII Prototype Engineering.
Specialty awards were given to North High student Aviya Litman in Biophysics, and to South High students Allan Lee and Joshua Putter recipients of the WAC Lighting Foundation Lighting Award.
North High First Place winners, with Division (Div) and Category (Cat): Luhan (Ophelia) Chen (Div II, Cat VII), team project with a Manhasset student; Aviya Litman (Div II, Cat III); Graelin Mandel (Div II, Cat IV); and Aaron Young (Div I, Cat VIII). Second Place winners: Natasha Dilamani (Div I, Cat VIII); Julia Goldsamt (Div II, Cat III); Michael Jan (Div I, Cat I); and Amy Shteyman (Div I, Cat III). Third Place winners: Matthew Weinstein (Div I, Cat III) and Zhengtao (Thomas) Yu (Div II, Cat VII). Merit winners: Jonathan Gao and Patrick Gao (Div I, Cat VII); Cynthia Mei (Div II, Cat VII); and Jasmine Wong (Div II, Cat VI). Honorable Mention winners: Julia Kaluta (Div II, Cat II), Keva Li (Div I, Cat III); Julia Prager-Hessel (Div I, Cat III); and Fernanda Wenzel (Div I, Cat VIII).
South High First Place winners: Matthew Ko and Dorothy Liu (Div I, Cat, VI). Second Place winners: Ramya Kumar (Div II, Cat IV); Allan Lee and Joshua Putter (Div II, Cat III); Joshua Lee and Bradley Sheen (Div I, Cat VIII); Rubin Smith (Div II, Cat VI); and Melody Yang (project done with Elissa He who was unable to attend the Fair, Div I, Cat VI). Third Place winners: Elisabeth Dimitratos and Shaminta Hamidian (Div I, Cat IV); Olivia Lundelius (Div I, Cat I); Evan Lo and Macy Meng (Div I, Cat III); and Haarika Reddy (Div II, Cat III). Merit winners: Kaitlyn Cheng and Tiffany Hung (Div I, Cat III); Sarah Khan and Su Yeon (Sue) Kim (Div I, Cat III); Vivian Lim (Div II, Cat VI); and William Ren and William Zheng (Div I, Cat VIII). Honorable Mention winners: Winston Gao and Shawn Kang (Div I, Cat VIII); Joshua Hom and Sungmin Ko (Div I, Cat III); Daniel Kim and Kevin Tan (Div I, Cat III); Cindy Wang and Michelle Xing (Div I, Cat III); and Sean Zhang (Div I, Cat IV).
Faculty Advisors
North High science research teachers/competition advisors are Christina Pallante Keyes, Alan Schorn and Dr. Marie van Nieuwenhuizen. Science research teachers/competition advisors at South High are Dr. Carol Hersh, Michelle Sorise and Dr. James Truglio.
