2 GHS students earn national honor for science projects
GREENWICH — Two Greenwich High Schools seniors, Hannah Goldenberg and Edgar Sosa, were named two of 40 finalists in the 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a prestigious nationwide contest.
The students were selected from a pool of 1,760 applicants based on the scientific rigor and realworld impact of an intensive, multi-year research project.
Each finalist is awarded at least $25,000 and will have a chance to compete this March for a $250,000 grand prize.
“Being selected as a Regeneron Science Talent Search finalist places both Hannah and Edgar in similar company with many talented, young scientists that have become leaders in science and technology (including Nobel Prize winners), devising solutions to the many critical issues of our time,” said Andrew Bramante, who leads the researchbased science class at Greenwich High in which Goldenberg and Sosa each worked on their respective projects.
Sosa, 20, moved with his family from Guatemala to Greenwich in 2016 after coffee rust, or “la roya,” a deadly fungus, killed the crops on his family’s coffee farm. In conducting his research, Sosa focused on the fungus that forever changed his family’s fate. To great success, he used metal oxide nano-particles to suppress coffee rust’s fatal effect on coffee plants. His goal is to one day bring the crop-defending mechanism he has developed back to his hometown to aid farmers.
Goldenberg, 17, investigated the potentially hazardous health effects of e-cigarettes, or vaping, which many of her peers were using when she entered high school. To conduct her experiments, Goldenberg created a plastic model of a human lung and an apparatus made of cereal boxes that mimicked the human respiratory system. She also secured laboratory time at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was able to determine that e-cigarette smoke, like traditional cigarette smoke, produced genes linked to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“This year’s finalists represent many of our nation’s most promising young scientists who, even during a global pandemic, are using their ingenuity, resourcefulness and STEM skills to work toward a better future,” said Dr. George D. Yancopoulos,
co-founder, president and chief scientific officer of Regeneron and a winner of the 1976 Regeneron Talent Search.
According to Bramante, Greenwich High has had seven different finalists in the national competition. In the last 14 years, 37 Greenwich High students have been named Regeneron Scholars, a group of just 300 students annually. In addition to Goldenberg and Sosa, seniors Alexander Patti, 18, and Sofia Pronina, 17, were also named 2021 Regeneron Scholars.
“What Hannah and Edgar both share, and what is most commendable, is their true love for scientific discovery for the most profound reason ... to use their inherent gifts of creativity and imagination to help others,” Bramante said. “I'm so incredibly proud of them both.”