Science Talent Search Targets City Students

By ELIZABETH SOLOMONT, Special to the Sun | January 18, 2007

Twenty-one New York City high school seniors are among 300 students named as semifinalists in a prestigious science competition.

They were chosen yesterday from among 1,075 entrants in the Intel Science Talent Search, an annual science competition whose winner is awarded a $100,000 scholarship award.

The New Yorkers are the largest group from a single city, competition officials said. Stuyvesant High School had the most semifinalists in the area, with seven students making the cut. Other public and private schools citywide whose students were selected included the Bronx High School of Science, as well as the Edward R. Murrow, Midwood, Townsend Harris, St. Francis Preparatory, Brooklyn Technical, Staten Island Technical, Abraham Joshua Heschel high schools, and the Chapin School.

"That so many students this year come from schools in New York City is quite an achievement," Intel's chairman, Craig Barrett, said in a statement.

The competition's next round is later this month, when 40 finalists will be chosen. In March, 10 students will be selected to receive college scholarships totaling $500,000. Each of the finalists will display their research at the National Academy of Sciences, and will get an Intel laptop.

One of the semifinalists, Michael Berger, 17, said he was excited to be selected, adding that the real "reward" is seeing positive results from his study titled, "The Efficacy of Selected Biofeedback Techniques In Mitigating Symptoms Associated With Autism Spectrum Disorder."

"I wanted to conduct a study that would hopefully bring some new dynamic to the table," Mr. Berger, a senior at the Bronx High School of Science, said.

Other semifinalists from New York City included: Sarah Bayefsky, Jenny Chen, Zachary Frankel, Amanda Fried, Kathryn Friedman, Andres Gonzalez, Marni Hershbain, Hermain Khan, Margarita Krivitski, Natalya Kvetnaya, Kevin Li, Ildar Mannapov, Stanislav Nikolov, James Pickel, Mahbub Rasul, Bing Shao, Zujaja Tauqeer, Bushra Wazed, Victor Wong, and Ann Yang.