Regeneron Science Talent Search scholars: Long Island has 49 semifinalists, more than any other U.S. region

Herricks High School senior Serena Chen, 17, burst into tears Wednesday after learning she was a semifinalist in the Regeneron Science Talent Search.

Chen and her fellow applicants at the New Hyde Park school were together in science research coordinator Caitlin Etri’s classroom when the news was announced at noon. As Chen put her hands over her face, her friend Hallie Lee, 17, walked over and enfolded her in a gentle embrace.

“It feels unreal,” Chen said, wiping tears off her face with tissues.

Chen was one of 49 Long Island high school seniors named semifinalists Wednesday in the Regeneron contest, the country’s most prestigious science and math research competition. A total of 300 scholars nationwide were chosen by Society for Science, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that started and runs the competition.

Long Island this year produced more scholars than any other region in the country, ahead of San Francisco, with 28; New York City, which had 23; and Washington, D.C., with 19 winners.

Herricks High and John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore had the most winners per school on Long Island, with five scholars each.

The Island's schools have produced dozens of scholars year after year. The region had 50 semifinalists last year and three of them advanced to become finalists. Educators have said continued competition in the talent search boosts enthusiasm in the STEM fields among local schools.

This year, the contest reported a record number of applicants, with nearly 2,500 entrants from 795 high schools.

“With a record-breaking number of applications, these exceptional young scientists and engineers represent the best in the nation,” Maya Ajmera, president of Society for Science, said in a statement.

Overall, the 49 Long Island students came from 27 schools, including two in the only private school named: Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead. The rest attend public schools.

Great Neck South, Jericho, Smithtown High School East and East Setauket's Ward Melville High School in the Three Village district each had three semifinalists.

The selected scholars will receive $2,000 each, and their schools will receive a matching amount for every scholar.

The hard work

Wednesday’s announcement was an emotional moment for many of the teens, some of whom spent years working on their projects. Chen said she began learning the research skills that led to her project, involving obesity and fat cells, when she was a freshman.

Over the past summer, the teen said she often had 12-hour-long days to commute and work at a Weill Cornell Medicine lab in Manhattan. Her mother, Julia Chou, would make her breakfast before she left at 7 a.m. Her father, Jason Chen, would drop her off at the train station and pick her up again around 7 p.m.

“Regeneron has always been a goal I’ve been working for,” said Chen, who has an older brother who was also named a scholar years ago.

After the announcement, some Herricks students hunched over a computer to study the scholar list. They wanted to see how their school compared to others on the Island.

“There's always a little competition,” said Krish Maheshwari, 17. “It's a big year” for Herricks, he said.

Before the announcement, Etri, the science research coordinator, reminded the students that while this is a competition, they should keep in mind the memories and experiences they had leading up to this moment.

“Even if you're not recognized, your work is incredibly valuable,” she told them. “I just want you to know that it's the people that you are [that] is really the important thing that I am most proud of.”

For Chen, one of the experiences she will value is the deepening bond she forged with Lee. The two worked on their applications together, spending many hours in the same room they were in Wednesday.

And that was why Lee, seeing her friend in tears, went to hug her.

“I just felt very happy for her,” said Lee, who was not a semifinalist. “All of us have been working together for pretty much four years. And so this five-person win for Herricks is like a win for everyone.”

Climate change study

Nica Fairweather, 17, was sick at home and about to fall asleep Wednesday when she said a friend called to tell her that her project, about byssal thread production in mussels, had passed the contest’s first round. Byssal threads are fibers that mussels use to hang onto rocks.

Fairweather, a Brentwood High School senior, had spent a year on the project, including extracting mussels from the Sunken Meadow State Park marsh for her research. Her project involves how rising sea temperatures affects the byssal thread production in mussels. 

It was last January when she finalized her project idea, Fairweather said. She remembered there was no snow on the ground then.

“I love snow. I love the winter. It's my favorite season,” she said in a phone interview. “The lack of snow just honestly brought the thought of climate change, and it has stayed on my mind.” 

The most fun part of her research was looking at the mussels under a microscope in the school lab, she said. She remembered marveling at the beauty of the salt crystals on the threads.

“I thought it was very pretty,” she said.

Thinking critically

The field of 300 semifinalists will be further narrowed Jan. 23 to 40 finalists, who will head to Washington in March for an all-expense-paid, weeklong trip to present their projects. The winners will be announced on March 11.

The top award of the contest is $250,000.

Etri, in Herricks, said the competition helps build student confidence and professionalism.

“They're critically thinking about questions that professional scientists are also trying to figure out,” she said. “It's immediately connecting a high school student to these high-level problems and giving them the capacity to feel that they can actually contribute to making a difference.”

The Long Island students’ projects this year ranged from research on cancer treatment to COVID-19 therapy and the impact of light pollution on birds.

At Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, Sadelle Poulsen, 17, studied TikTok messaging aimed at first-time voters. She will become one in a few months.

“I was thinking about what that transition is like when you go from being a teenager into an adult who has that kind of responsibility to cast their vote and participate in politics,” she said. 

The annual student science competition, founded in 1942, is the oldest in the country. Alumni include Nobel laureates and MacArthur fellows. Students submit independent, original research and are judged by leading experts in their fields.

The contest has been sponsored since 2017 by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Tarrytown-based biotechnology company. Before Regeneron, it was funded by Intel and before that by Westinghouse.

With Michael R. Ebert

By Dandan Zou

dandan.zou@newsday.com@DandanZou

Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.