Thirteen Indian American students from across the U.S. named Regeneron Science Talent Search Finalists. In addition, Vivek Gopalakrishnan and Veda Murthy of Lexington High School, Lexington, MA were among the 300 students named 2017 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and the Society for Science and the Public Jan. 24 recognized 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, with Indian American students comprising nearly one-third of those honored.

The finalists of what is considered one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competitions for high school seniors - in its 76^th event - were selected based on the scientific rigor and world-changing potential of their research projects.

“These 40 young scientists, engineers and mathematicians are poised to be the next generation of leaders in business and academia,” said Society for Science and the Public president and chief executive and publisher of Science News Maya Ajmera in a statement. “Science breeds curiosity, enabling innovators to develop solutions that will help solve our world’s most pressing challenges,” she said.

“We are proud to celebrate 75 years of recognizing new innovations and research demonstrating the outstanding capabilities of young minds,” Ajmera said. The Society for Science & the Public has produced and organized the Science Talent Search since it was founded in 1942.

Among the 40 finalists, 13 are Indian American students from across the U.S.

Chattopadhyay, Sambuddha
Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD
On T-Reflection via Analytic Continuation in Quantum Mechanics

Dalvi, Rohan
Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD
Kinetic Trapping and Structural Determination of Native-State Biomolecules in the Gas Phase

Das, Indrani
Academy for Medical Science Technology, Hackensack, NJ
Exosomal miR-124a: Novel Translational Astrocyte Repair in Reactive Astrogliosis in vitro

Edupuganti, Vineet
Oregon Episcopal School, Portland, OR
Development of a High-Performance Biodegradable Battery for Transient Electronics

Iyer, Krithika
Plano East Senior High School, Plano, TX
Bayesian Knowledge Trace for Mind Theoretic Applications

Khandelwal, Apoorv
Tesla STEM High School, Redmond, WA
Molecular Dynamics Simulation and Experimental Fabrication of Nanoporous Graphene Membranes for Optimal Water Permeability in Reverse Osmosis Desalination

Madan, Vrinda
Lake Highland Preparatory School, Orlando, FL
Identification of Highly Selective Anti-malarial Compounds and Characterization of Mechanisms of Action

Naidu, Prathik
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA
DNALoopR: A Novel High-Performance Machine Learning Predictor to Identify Genome-wide 3D DNA Interactions in Cancer

Radiya-Dixit, Evani
The Harker School, San Jose, CA
Identification of Diagnostic Biomarkers and Therapeutic Cancer Targets Across Adenocarcinomas Using Genome-wide DNA Methylation Analyses

Ramani, Arjun Srinivasan
West Lafayette Junior-Senior High School, West Lafayette, IN
Fast Sampling of Stochastic Kronecker Graphs

Shah, Manan Ajay
The Harker School, San Jose, CA
Deep Learning Assessment of Tumor Proliferation in Histopathological Images for Categorical and Molecular Breast Cancer Severity Diagnosis

Subramaniam, Arjun
The Harker School, San Jose, CA
CadML: A New, Computational Approach to Optimizing Antibody Affinity for Design of Antibody Therapeutics

Verma, Archana
Jericho Senior High School, Jericho, NY
Spin-orbit Coupling Induced Heterogeneous Excited State Dynamics in 6-coordinate Transition Metal Protodyes

The 40 finalists will convene in Washington, D.C., March 9 through March 15 to undergo a rigorous judging process to determine the top 10 winners, competing for more than $1.8 million in top awards.

“Regeneron is proud to recognize the top 40 Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists. These talented young scientists are already exploring life-changing solutions for the world’s problems and are poised to lead innovation for future generations,” said Regeneron chief scientific officer Dr. George D. Yancopoulos in a statement.

Regeneron is the new sponsor, taking over for Intel, which has sponsored the event in years past. Regeneron, which is committed to 10 years of the program, is only the third sponsor in the program's history.

“I’ve had the opportunity to meet many of my fellow Science Talent Search alumni who have gone on to become notable scientists and entrepreneurs, underscoring the critical role the program can play in launching a prominent scientific career,” added Yancopoulos.

The finalists come from 34 schools in 17 states. They were chosen from a group of 300 scholars named earlier in the month, of which at least 75 were Indian American or South Asian American students. In addition,

Gopalakrishnan, Vivek, 17
Lexington High School, Lexington, MA
Reduced Body Fat Accumulation and Decreased Viability: The Effects of Epigallocatechin Gallate on Caenorhabditis elegans

Murthy, Veda, 17
Lexington High School, Lexington, MA
Towards a More Accurate Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to Classify Glioma Nuclear Images

were named 2017 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars.

While at the finals, the students will also have the opportunity to meet with national leaders and share their projects with the public at the National Geographic Society.

The top 10 awards, ranging in prizes from $40,000 to $250,000, will be announced at an event at the National Building Museum.

In addition, congratulation to the following who were named 2017 Scholars.

Sathish, Sanjeev-Kumar Mamallapuram, 17
Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT
The Optimization of Nanoparticle-based Drug Delivery of Melittin in a Colloidal Suspension as a Selective Method to Target HIV Structural Antigen p24

Agarwal, Aakshi, 17
Hamden High School, Hamden, CT
CRISPR Based Gene Editing Confers Resistance to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Mudholkar, Jay Mandar, 17
Staples High School, Westport, CT
Oscillation and Decay in Interfacial Dnamics of a Bubble-laden Viscous Drop

Gopalakrishnan, Vivek, 17
Lexington High School, Lexington, MA
Reduced Body Fat Accumulation and Decreased Viability: The Effects of Epigallocatechin Gallate on Caenorhabditis elegans

Murthy, Veda, 17
Lexington High School, Lexington, MA
Towards a More Accurate Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to Classify Glioma Nuclear Images

Chowdhury, Shoumik, 17
Aditya Birla World Academy, Mumbai, India
Comparing Weak and Projective Measurements for Single-qubit Quantum State Tomography

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