High school students earned notable awards at the 2020 Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair (VSSEF), conducted virtually on April 18, 2020, as a result of precautions necessary due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
PWCS winners at the VSSEF include:
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Shan Lateef (TJHSST*) and Delaney Walts (Charles J. Colgan Sr. High School), one of two grand prize winners at the 2020 regional fair, earned first place in the cellular and molecular biology category. Lateef and Walts also received first place, the Mark Licata Award for Biotechnology, from the Virginia Bioscience Foundation;
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Eleanor Sigrest (The Governor's School @ Innovation Park and Forest Park High School), one of two grand prize winners at the 2020 regional fair, earned first place in the physics and astronomy category. Sigrest was named a VSSEF grand prize winner, second place, and received the Leidos Young VA Researcher special award ($2,500) and a special award from the Office of Naval Research.
Additionally:
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Solomon Ralston (Charles J. Colgan Sr. High School) received third place in the mathematics category; and
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Iqra Ahmad, Soneha Datta, and Thu Luong (Osbourn Park High School) received third place in the plant sciences category.
In special awards:
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Mikayla Carter and Celia Calabria (Osbourn Park High School) received an honorable mention from Leidos, a biomedical research company, in the mathematics category; and
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Anish Pothireddy and Vishnu Lakshmanan (The Governor's School @ Innovation Park and Osbourn Park High School), and Samyak Thapa (The Governor's School @ Innovation Park and Charles J. Colgan Sr. High School) received an honorable mention in the biomedical engineering and translation medical sciences category from Leidos.
"These results are outstanding, and I would even say historic for PWCS and the Prince William-Manassas Regional Science and Engineering Fair!" said Julia Renberg, PWCS supervisor of science and family life education and director for the Prince William-Manassas Regional Science and Engineering Fair.
View the complete list of 2020 VSSEF winners is posted on the VSSEF website: *Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is a full-time regional Governor's School that serves other school districts, including Arlington, Loudoun, and Prince William counties. Lateef is a resident of Prince William County and attended Benton Middle School in PWCS.