Biophysical Society Newsletter | July 2017

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BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 23
JULY 2017
Science Fairs
This year BPS funded 43 awards at regional and
state level science fairs in 20 US states — more
than in any other year — raising the total number
of awards to over 200 since this program began
in 2009. These awards are given for outstanding
biophysics-related projects by high school stu-
dents. Society members volunteered to be judges
for fairs near them, and BPS hopes to have even
more judges next year! Science fairs are a great
opportunity for students who are interested in
science to interact with biophysicists. This initia-
tive, sponsored by the Public Affairs Committee,
encourages the teaching and learning of STEM
subjects, and raises awareness of biophysics among
high school students and teachers.
One of the awardees, Erika Yang, sent an email to
thank BPS for the award. She said, in part,
"I am so incredibly grateful to have won this
award and this opportunity. It also greatly encour-
ages me to further my path as a scientist in this
world and make a lasting contribution. For the
past couple of years, I have been working on my
science project of developing a flexible MoS2 bio-
sensor in order to detect lower concentrated areas
of biological molecules. This research is specifi-
cally targeted towards cancerous cells… Again,
thanks to Biophysical Society for selecting me for
the Biophysics Award and supporting me in my
efforts."
Another awardee, Shiker Nair, wrote to thank the
Society for the award, saying that he plans to use
the funds to continue his research. Three Bio-
physics Award winners were also selected by their
fairs to represent their area at the Intel Interna-
tional Science and Engineering Fair. Two of those
students went on to win Special Awards at this
international competition, which is the largest
pre-college scientific research
event in the world.
The judges enjoyed the time
they spent volunteering. Viksita
Vijayvergia, pictured, wrote
that she enjoyed going to the
science fair and seeing the prog-
ress of young minds, calling it a
“remarkable experience.”
Thank you to the Society
members who volunteered to
judge at their local science fairs
this year! Didn’t get a chance to
volunteer? More information
will be online this fall about
the 2018 science fair season at
GetInvolved/ScienceFairs/.
Questions? Email
From left to right: Judge Kyle McClary, awardee
Rohan Mehrotra, and judge Viksita Vijayvergiya.
They are pictured with Rohan’s project “Novel
Nanoscale Approach to Combat Disease: Electri-
cally Stimulated Drug Release from Biodegrad-
able PCL Nanofilms.”