VCU news

By Malorie Burkett

Suravi Sircar, a 2003 alumni of the Governor's School for Medicine and Life Sciences-a partnership between Virginia Commonwealth University Life Sciences and Virginia Department of Education, has been selected as a semi-finalist in the 63rd Annual Intel Science Talent Search (STS).

A 17-year-old senior at Mills Godwin High School in Richmond, Va., Sircar was selected for her research titled "Japanese Medaka as an Alternative Vertebrae Model of Human Aging," which she also presented last summer during the Governor's School research symposium. The research was a collaboration with Shawn Holt, assistant professor of pathology and Patricia McChesney, postdoctoral fellow in VCU's Department of Pathology. In addition, Sircar worked with her Governor's School mentor, Ryan Templeton, a graduate of VCU's Department of Biology and a biology teacher at Chesterfield Mathematics and Science High School at Clover Hill.

More than 1,600 students applied for the competition, and 300 semi-finalists were selected. The semifinalists hail from 36 states and Washington, D.C., and their research projects cover biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, physics, social science and other sciences. As a semi-finalist, Sircar and Mills Godwin-High School each will receive a $1,000 award.

A group of 40 finalists will be chosen from the 300 students to attend the Science Talent Institute in Washington, D.C., March 11-16, for the final judging process. The top prize, a $100,000 scholarship, will be announced March 16 at a black-tie banquet and awards ceremony.

The Governor's School of Medicine and Life Sciences, a partnership with VCU Life Sciences, is a four-week program in which 30 rising high school juniors and seniors from across Virginia discover newly emerging fields and advancements that will revolutionize healthcare and life sciences in the 21st century. The program's curriculum is focused in three areas: academic exposure to medicine and life sciences, career exposure and social and cultural interaction through extracurricular activities and residential life. Activities at last summer's program included laboratory experiments, lectures, tours and trips to VCU's Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences on the James River.

Created in 1942, the Intel STS is America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition- often considered the "junior Nobel Prize." STS provides an incentive for students to develop their scientific interests at an early age and a forum for them to share their ideas with other young scientists around the country.