During this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS), seniors Andrew Kelly and Ann Liu were selected among 2,000 national participants to be in the top 300. Kelly’s project was “The Purification of Oleic Acid and the Effect of Oleic Acid Purity on the Size of CdSe Nanocrystals,” while Liu’s project was “Investigating Strategies for Retinal Regeneration in Mammals via a Meta-Analysis of Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Datasets.”

Both students stated that they put in over 200 hours of research over the summer.

Most seniors in Science Research stayed after school to finalize their projects and work on their applications.

On top of this, Liu reflected on the amount of time it took just to fill out the STS application.

Liu said that the STS application was, “almost as long as a college application.”

While COVID did not directly affect the competition, it did limit participants from conducting their work in person in labs. The students recommend that any seniors who have an interest in research should pursue this challenge, and while being challenged you learn and grow from the experience. Kelly and Liu each received $2,000, and the school was given a total of $4,000 for each student’s placement. This was well deserved as both the students put in a large amount of effort and were rewarded as a result.