Catching up with 3 former LI science contest finalists

Last of three in a series on the Regeneron Science Talent Search.

One former finalist is now a professor specializing in conservation biology. Another is a college senior studying chemical engineering who mentors young scientists. And another is a successful playwright whose scientific background influenced his career.

The three ex-Long Island high school students recalled what their participation in the former Intel and now-Regeneron Science Talent Search competition meant to them — and discussed what they're doing today.

Long Island is represented each year in the nation's best-known science competition, which began in 1942. Two Nassau County seniors will compete next week.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical firm based in Tarrytown, has funded the contest since 2016. The contest has been run continuously by the Society for Science, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., and prior finalists include several Nobel Prize winners and other notable scientists.

Alexis M. Mychajliw

Mychajliw, the ninth-place finisher in the 2008 competition sponsored then by Intel Corp., is an assistant professor in biology and environmental studies at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. As a senior at Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, her project focused on the impact of habitat loss and wetland development on dragonfly populations. She won a $20,000 scholarship and used it to attend Cornell University.

The science competition was "an excuse to spend time outside collecting data, and those experiences really stuck with me," said Mychajliw, 29, who specializes in conservation biology at Middlebury. "Participating gave me the confidence to keep going in science."

'It made me question why we are not supporting other students like this, and how I could use my own position to help.'

Alexis M. Mychajliw

 

After high school, Mychajliw became more aware of the strong foundation in science research at Long Island schools. So, while a postdoctoral research fellow in Los Angeles at the La Brea tar pits, she started a science fair mentorship program for local high school girls at the museum. Her students won some local awards, but Mychajliw said more importantly they experienced "exposure to research and science and support for college apps rather than winning itself."

"The biggest lesson was to really think about who has access to careers in science. Because participating in high school research for me was so important, it made me question why we are not supporting other students like this, and how I could use my own position to help," she said.

Archana Verma

Verma, 21, is a senior at Stanford University, where she is studying chemical engineering — a field that led her to become a Regeneron finalist when she was a senior at Jericho High School.

Verma placed fifth in the competition in 2017, earning a $90,000 scholarship prize. She studied molecules similar to those used in solar cell dyes to look for more efficient types that can be used in windows that generate solar energy.

She was new to Jericho when she started her project, having moved there in 10th grade. She credited her Advanced Placement chemistry teacher, John Cicale, with helping her join the three-year research project class and supporting her throughout her journey.

"I didn’t expect to win. I had no vision of myself being one of the finalists, but Dr. Serena McCalla [the district’s research coordinator] believed in me and told me, ‘It’s yours to lose,’ " she said.

'I felt really valued … when hard work and curiosity were rewarded.'

Archana Verma

She’s worked in research labs at Georgia Tech, New York University and Stanford, and has applied for Ph.D. programs. Verma also interned at Regeneron the summer after the Science Talent Search finals. She now serves as a mentor to other young people — especially women — who are interested in the STEM field.

Being a finalist was "a super transformative experience," she said, recalling her time in Washington among the other finalists. "I remember leaving D.C. and being so inspired by the finalists, the judges, and Regeneron, and I felt really valued … when hard work and curiosity were rewarded."

Jerry Lieblich

Lieblich, 32, is a writer from Brooklyn who operates his own theater company, Third Ear. He was a fifth-place finisher, earning a $25,000 scholarship in 2006 while a student at Ward Melville High School in East Setauket. His project focused on a cognitive psychology study built around an audiovisual illusion called the McGurk effect.

He uses the lessons he learned as a finalist in his career now as a writer of plays and poems. His work has appeared in New York and Massachusetts in theaters and festivals. He has won several creative writing awards.

"Though the methods of inquiry I now use (plays and poems) are different, the questions I'm asking in my work now (about how the mind works, how language works, how consciousness is formed) are the same questions I was asking as a teenager," he said in a written response.

'Being an Intel finalist taught me there are deep rewards to following the pull of curiosity.'

Jerry Lieblich

 

Lieblich was a finalist when the competition was sponsored by Intel Corp., a California-based maker of computer chips. He has a master's in fine arts from Brooklyn College and a bachelor's from Yale University, where he majored in philosophy.

"If anything, being an Intel finalist taught me there are deep rewards to following the pull of curiosity," he said. "I think being a finalist helped me realize that my interest in consciousness is legitimate, and worth pursuing, with whatever tools (plays, poems, experiments) are handy."

By Joie Tyrrell

joie.tyrrell@newsday.com@JoieTyrrell

Joie Tyrrell is a Long Island native and covers education for Newsday, where she has worked since 1998.