Two Del Norte High School Students Named Among the Nation's Top Young Scientists

The Poway Unified School District is proud to announce that Del Norte High School seniors Jocelyn Zhang and Aarav Arora have been named among the top 300 high school scientists in the nation's oldest and most prestigious High School STEM Competition. As Regeneron Scholars, Jocelyn and Aarav will be awarded $2,000 each, and Del Norte High School will be awarded $2,000 for each scholar.
 
aarav and jocelyn regeneron scholars
Jocelyn submitted a research project titled, "Novel Photoluminescence Recovery Method of Porous Silicon Quantum Dots for Bioimaging Application." Aarav's submission was titled, "A Mechanistic Basis for the Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Severity." They will now move on in the competition to be considered for a finalist position. On January 24, 2024, 40 of the 300 scholars will be named Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists. The finalists will then compete for more than $1.8 million in awards during a week-long competition in Washington, D.C., taking place March 6-13, 2024.

Jocelyn and Aarav scholars were selected from 2,162 entrants from 712 high schools across 46 states, Puerto Rico and 10 other countries – the highest number of entrants since 1969 and an increase of over 200 from 2023. Scholars were chosen based on their outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and demonstration of exceptional promise as leaders in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through original, independent research projects, essays, and recommendations. The 300 scholars hail from 196 American and international high schools in 36 states and China.

The full list of scholars can be viewed here.

About the Regeneron Science Talent Search

The Regeneron Science Talent Search, a program of Society for Science since 1942, is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. Each year, more than 2,000 student entrants submit original research in critically important scientific fields of study and are judged by leading experts in their fields. Unique among high school competitions in the U.S. and around the world, the Regeneron Science Talent Search focuses on identifying, inspiring and engaging the nation’s most promising young scientists who are creating the ideas that could solve society’s most urgent challenges.

In 2017, Regeneron became only the third sponsor of the Science Talent Search to help reward and celebrate the best and brightest young minds and encourage them to pursue careers in STEM as a way to positively impact the world. Through its 10-year, $100 million commitment, Regeneron nearly doubled the overall award distribution to $3.1 million annually, increasing the top award to $250,000 and doubling the awards for the top 300 scholars to $2,000 and their schools to $2,000 for each enrolled scholar to inspire more young people to engage in science.

Learn more at https://www.societyforscience.org/regeneron-sts/.