APS Recognizes Outstanding High School Research
Efforts at the 52^nd Annual 
International Science and Engineering Fair

From Left to Right 
Andrew Lechner and George Ordway present APS awards to Angela Catherine Lee, Eugenia Chu, Effie M. Wang, and Alan R. Stern.

From Left to Right
APS Judges:  Stephen Flaim, John Horowitz, Barbara Horwitz, George Ordway, 
and Andrew Lechner

     The 52^nd Annual International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) was held in San Jose, CA, on May 6-12, 2001, and brought together 1,205 of the top high school science students from the U.S. as well as 38 other countries ranging from Armenia to Uruguay. Student finalists competed across 14 scientific disciplines, including Biochemistry, Environmental Sciences, Gerontology, Medicine and Health, Physics, and Zoology.  They presented 842 individual and 172 team efforts in the hope of earning national recognition and a share of the $2.4 million awarded by ISEF’s chief sponsor, Intel, and the Fair’s sixty other affiliated societies, universities, and professional organizations. As in past years, the APS awarded cash prizes and student memberships to top participants whose projects fell within the broad definition of contemporary physiology. The APS was joined in the Special Awards category by the Andrus Foundation, Sigma Xi, the Endocrine Society, NASA, all branches of the Armed Forces, and many others.
     The on-site judging team included APS President-elect Barbara Horwitz and John Horowitz from the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior at University of California at Davis, as well as Stephen Flaim, Vice-President for Research and Development at Galileo Laboratories in Santa Clara, CA. Joining them in San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center were APS Education Committee members George Ordway, Department of Physiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and Andrew Lechner, Department of Pharmacological and Physiological Science at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Lechner served as APS lead judge and awards presenter. The judging team first identified 60 candidate projects based on scientific content, before selecting ten students for in-depth interviews at their poster displays. Based on the scientific rigor of each study and the students’ abilities to describe their work and answer questions from the team, the APS judges awarded First Place to Angela Catherine Lee for her project, “Group 1 Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors in Epilepsy”. Ms. Lee, a senior at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, NY, will use her $1,000 APS prize to pursue a Neuroscience major this fall at the University of Pennsylvania. To assist those undergraduate studies, she also earned an Intel ISEF 2^nd Place Award in Medicine and Health of $1,500. The APS judges were most impressed with Angela’s interpretation of her elegant electrophysiological recordings in hippocampal brain slices and their suppression with selective mGluR antagonists. 
    The APS Second Place Award of $500 went to Eugenia Chu, a senior at Evans High School in Evans, GA. Ms. Chu’s project, “Neuroprotection and Neurotransmitter Release by a Dopamine D3 Receptor Agonist: Potential Antiglaucoma Drugs” was conducted in rat PC12 pheochromocytoma cells in which D3 receptors were identified by immunocytochemistry and Western blot analysis. Gina’s other ISEF awards included Intel’s First Place Award and Best of Category Prize in Gerontology, together worth $8,000. She will attend the University of Georgia this fall to begin a curriculum in biology/preprofessional studies. Third and Fourth Place APS Awards of $500 each were earned respectively by Effie M. Wang, a junior at DuPont Manual Magnet High School in Louisville, KY, and Alan R. Stern, a sophomore at Great Neck South High School in Great Neck, NY. Ms. Wang’s project, “Improved Pulmonary Function by Hypoxic Preconditioning Involves Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase and MCT1”, demonstrated that exposing mice to brief periods of 6.5% O₂ increased expression of eNOS protein in the lung and enhanced intrapulmonary lactate utilization, while reducing edema formation. Mr. Stern’s study, “Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endproducts (RAGE) and Cellular Perturbation in Alzheimer’s Disease” involved crossbreeding strains of transgenic mice with targeted overexpression of either RAGE or a mutant form of amyloid precursor proteins. For his efforts Alan also was awarded an all-expenses paid trip to attend the upcoming World Congress of Gerontology in Vancouver, Canada.
     In addition to these four finalists, the APS also awarded each of the other six interviewed students a one-year complimentary APS membership and subscriptions to The Physiologist and to News in Physiological Sciences.  These additional students with projects of exceptional merit included: Katherine A. Brezina, a senior at Coral Reef Senior High School in Miami, FL (“Metabolic Changes in Hypercholesterolemic Rats Treated with Statin Type 3 HMG Reductase Inhibitors”); Lissette A. Casas-Galban, a senior at the American Military Academy in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico (“Inhibition of Vascular Endothelial Cell Proliferation by Filipin”); Tyler Davidson, a senior at William Henry Harrison High School in West Lafayette, IN (“Nitric Oxide Regulates Production of cGMP and GAP-43 Following Nerve Cord Damage in the Leech, Hirudo medicinalis”); Hui-Tzung Luh, a junior at Municipal Kaohsiung High School in Taiwan (“Search for Proteins Differentially Expressed during Tissue Regeneration of Tadpole Tail”); Kawika A. Mortensen, a senior at Kamehameha Secondary School in Honolulu, HI (“Microalgal Antioxidant Effects on an In Vitro Model of Atherosclerosis”); and Yu-Ting Yuan, a senior at the National Kaohsiung Normal University High School in Taiwan (“Effects of Capsaicin on Free Radicals and Telomerase Activity in the J5 Human Hepatoma Cell Line”). In addition, the high school science mentors of the ten student awardees received APS subscriptions, CD’s of K-12 lesson plans, and educational packets for use in their classrooms. 
    The 53^rd Annual ISEF is scheduled for May 5-10, 2002, in Louisville, KY. APS members wishing to volunteer to serve as local judges should contact Marsha Matyas [(301) 634-1732; or by e-mail: mmatyas@the-aps.org] in the APS education office. Providing recognition awards to these deserving high school students is only one of the many ways in which APS supports pre-college science education. The APS also supports K-12 science educators with programs designed to increase science teachers’ curriculum content and pedagogical skills. Among APS programs for such teachers are workshops and materials for K-4 teachers through the “My Health, My World” program coordinated with Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. Grant-funded programs, such as the “Frontiers in Physiology” and “Explorations in Biomedicine”, support middle school and high school teachers who work during the summer directly with APS members in their research laboratories.  “Explorations” is specifically designed for teachers in Montana who teach primarily Native American students.  “Frontiers”, which is offered to teachers nationwide, also supports local workshops on physiology topics for middle and high school science teachers.  For more information about APS education programs, send your e-mail to: education@the-aps.org or visit our website at http://www.the-aps.org/education.

Submitted by Dr. Andy Lechner on behalf of the APS Education Committee

Update. . .
 

APS 2001 ISEF Awardees – Continued Success Leads to Choice Academic Paths

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