#b#South Senior Is Intel Semifinalist#/b#
Arka Adhikari, right, a senior at High School South, was named a semi-finalist in the 71st annual Intel Science Talent Search, sponsored by Intel Corporation and Society for Science & the Public. He is one of 300 semifinalists nationwide and is the recipient of a $1,000 award for his research project titled “The Effect of Germline Prb (retinoblastoma protein) Mutation on Skin Melanoma and Bone Cancer Initiation.” His project focuses on a mathematical model of cancer progression by comparing the rates of cancer cell mutation.
Arka also had the opportunity to honor one of his teachers, and he named Charles Ashton, a math teacher at South, as the individual who had the strongest impact on his education.
The Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition, brings together the best and brightest young scientific minds in the United States. There were more than 1,800 applicants this year, an increase of 5 percent from 2012.
#b#Top Finishes for HS Olympiad Teams#/b#
WW-P schools competed in the Science Olympiad Regional Tournament. High School South Team I placed first, and High School South Team II placed second. The teams’ advisors are Meenakshi Bhattacharya and Sunila Sharma.
High School South students achieved individual medals in the following events:
Astronomy: first place for Bill Yan Huang and Alex Zhou; second place for Apoorva Shah and Charlie Gu.
Disease Detectives: fourth place for Neil Chitrao and Jonathan Ting; fifth place for Andy Luo and Stephanie Huang.
Dynamic Planet: fifth Place for Peter Ku and Alexander Clifton.
Experimental Design: second place for Jonathan Ting, Rishabh Singh and Bill Yan Huang; fifth place for Angela Mao, Ishan Mazumdar, and Jaskeerat Sethi.
Helicopter: first place for Jonathan Kuan and Maymur Baig; second place for Yinan Zheng and Alex Zhou.
Optics: second place for Peter Ku and Jason Shi.
Protein Modeling: first place for Charles Zhou, Udit Gupta and Ikshita Singh; second place for Kiran Vaidya, Andrew Chen, and Stephanie Huang.
Rocks and Minerals: first place for Apoorva Shah and Andrew Chen; second place for Aayush Visaria and Pranay Nadella.
Sounds of Music: first place for Jasper Tyan and Derrick Wang; third place for Jeffrey Kuan and Charles Zhou.
Towers: first place for Deepti Upmaka and Alex Zhou.
Write-It-Do-It: first place for Charles Zhou and Ikshita Singh.
Epidemiology: first place for Jonathan Kuan, Udit Gupta, Elizabeth Yang, and Sahana Jayaraman; fourth place for Pranay Nadella, Krishna Trivedi, Chaitanya Asawa, and Aditi Gore.
#b#Private School#/b#
Phillips Exeter Academy: Brandon G. Kaplowitz, grade 11, of West Windsor, earned high honors for the fall term. Nikhil Raman, grade 10, of Plainsboro, earned highest honors for the fall.
