Ward Melville Senior Becomes First LI Student to Win Siemens Competition
America’s brightest minds and the innovators of tomorrow took on revolutionary research in biophysics and mathematics during this year’s Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Hundreds of applications were submitted to this year’s contest but only one individual and one team were named winners during the National Finals held at New York University in early December. As a result of his hard work and determination, Ward Melville High School senior Ruoyi Jiang has been named the $100,000 Grand Prize winner of the competition in the individual category, which makes him the first Long Island student to win the competition since its creation in 1998.
Ruoyi won the $100,000 scholarship in the individual category for his research on chemotherapy drug resistance. His project used state-of-the-art computational techniques to develop a more complete understanding of how Taxol functions kill tumor cells. Ruoyi’s project, entitled Targeting Loop Dynamics in BI/BIII Isotype Tubulin: The Application of In Silico Techniques in Combating Chemotherapy Drug Resistance, addresses very important outstanding questions surrounding Taxol; the understanding of such questions can help develop better chemotherapeutics for treating cancer. Ruoyi worked on this project with his mentor, Dr. Carlos Simmerling, Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook University, as well as Dr. George J. Baldo, Director of Ward Melville’s science research class, InSTAR.
In addition to this honor, Ruoyi has received honors during a variety of science competitions, including the National Science Bowl, the Toshiba ExploraVision Competition, and has been recognized for his involvement with the school’s Science Olympiad team. He is editor of Ward Melville’s school newspaper, Kaleidoscope, and a member of the Science Bowl Team.
The prestigious Siemens Competition is a signature program of the Siemens Foundation and is administered by the College Board.
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