Student earns high honor in national science contest
Science Service president Elizabeth Marincola (left) and Craig Barrett (right), chairman of the Intel Corporation, present Megan with her award.
Photo courtesy of the Intel Corporation
A high school student who spearheaded research in psychiatric disease at the ӳý has received a top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search (STS), the nation’s foremost competition for young scientists which concluded last week in Washington, D.C.
Megan Blewett of Madison, New Jersey finished seventh among 39 other finalists, garnering recognition for her research on a protein that is implicated in both psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. This year, more than 1,700 students participated in the competition. Megan’s top-ten finish earns her a $20,000 scholarship and a distinction shared by many accomplished scientists nationwide, including National Medal of Science winners and Nobel laureates.
"Megan has a poise and research instinct that you don't often see in someone so young,” said Stuart Schreiber, the director of the ӳý’s Chemical Biology Program and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University. “We're thrilled that her remarkable research accomplishments at the ӳý are being acknowledged through such a prestigious distinction."
Megan arrived at the ӳý last summer to work in the ӳý’s Chemical Biology Program. Under the guidance of Angela Koehler and Steve Haggarty, she initiated a project centered on the neuregulin-1 protein. The protein is implicated in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, as well as multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — two neurodegenerative diseases that have been the focus of Megan’s own scientific interests.
“At my age, it is very important to have good role models, and the people who mentored and encouraged me at the ӳý showed me who today’s scientists really are,” said Megan. “The researchers who helped me are some of the best on the planet.”
In addition to her seventh place finish, Megan was bestowed with another honor at the STS competition. She is one of two finalists selected to return to Washington, D.C. in June to speak about her research experiences before the congressional biomedical caucus. There, she will be introduced by Dudley Herschbach, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1986.
Read last month’s news story about Megan’s research and her selection as a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search
