Two incoming Flinn Scholars were among 12 Arizona high school students to take top honors at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held in Phoenix last week.
Emily Ricq, a graduating senior at Chandler High School, won a $1,000 1st place award from the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, a $2,000 scholarship from Arizona State University, and a $1,000 3rd place grand award for her lunar geology project, “The Influence of Non-Synchronous Rotation on Patterns in the Orientation of Ice Fractures on the Surface of Europa II.” She will attend the University of Arizona next year.
Tyler Rosensteel, a Brophy senior who has been conducting neurogenomic research at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, translated some of that research into the 4th place grand award in the biochemistry division of ISEF for his project, “Identification of Promoter Elements Required for Transcriptional Induction of Motility Related Genes.” Rosensteel intends to enter Arizona State University in the fall.
Both Ricq and Rosensteel’s projects won their categories at the Central Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair earlier in the year to be eligible for ISEF, which attracted 1,400 students from around the world and $3 million in prize money and college scholarships.
But a penchant for science is not unique to the class of incoming scholars; indeed, scientific curiosity seems to run in the ‘Flinn Family.’ Nearly half of this year’s 18 graduating scholars are leaving Arizona’s universities with degrees in the sciences; five have plans to attend medical school.
Christopher Finney, an environmental sciences major from NAU, will return to the site of his environmental field study in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Eric Yip, who received his bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona, is headed to Cornell University in the fall, where he will expand on his studies of tropical spiders in an entomology Ph.D. program.
The other six science scholars in the graduating Flinn class all received degrees from UA in Molecular and Cellular Biology: Xuemei Cai, who also graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, will attend Harvard Medical School in the fall; Lauren Giesecke will pursue a joint M.D./M.P.H. program at Mayo Medical School Rochester and Tulane University upon her return from Bolivia; Caitlin Hall, a double major in philosophy, will attend Yale Law School in the fall; Mia Henderson, who was named a Medical Scientist Training scholar, will serve with Teach for America for two years in Los Angeles before attending medical school at Washington University, St. Louis; Lars Peterson, who is interested in the public’s engagement with science and science communication, will attend the University of Rochester Medical School; and molecular and cellular biologist Stephen Sosnicki will spend a year teaching English in Japan before returning to the U.S. to attend medical school.
Read more about the graduating Flinn scholars at 2005 Flinn Scholar Graduates.
For details on the entire 2005 Class of Flinn Scholars, see our press release.
More information:
“12 from state win at science fair,” Arizona Republic, 05/14/2005