SSMV and R.I.P. Students Place in Intel Science Talent Search

Three members of the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt senior class and one student from the CSO's Research Internship Program have been named as Semifinalists in this year's Intel Science Talent Search. Each student won $1,000 prizes and matching awards will be sent to their schools.

• Emily Alsentzer, a student at Hume-Fogg Magnet School, completed her project in Richard Peek's laboratory (Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology), entitled "Identification of novel H. pylori adhesins responsible for binding the host cell receptor decay-accelerating factor (DAF)."
• Ben Gu, a student at Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet School, completed his project in Eric Skaar’s laboratory (Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology), entitled "Human Hemoglobin Polymorphisms Affect Recognition by S. aureus Receptor IsdB."
• Jasmine Kelly, a student at Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet School, completed her project in Tiffiny Tung's laboratory (Department of Anthropology), entitled "Reconstructing Climate Change and Food Production in the Ancient Peruvian Andes Using Stable Isotope Analysis." Jasmine was also recently recognized as a Siemens Semifinalist for this research.
• Yixian "John" Su, a student John P. Stevens High School in Edison, NJ, completed his project in Nabil Simaan's laboratory (Department of Mechanical Engineering), entitled "Evaluation of Curved Nitinol Stylets for Optimized Robotic Insertion of Perimodiolar Electrode Arrays."

The Intel Science Talent Search is a premiere pre-college science competition that received 1,839 applications this year, choosing only 300 as semifinalists. Emily, Ben, and Jasmine were the only applicants from Tennessee to be recognized. On January 25, forty finalists will be invited to Washington, DC to compete for the top prize.

We would like to join The Tennessean in congratulating Emily, Ben, Jasmine, and John!