The 2013 NC Student Academy of Science Annual Meeting and State Competition was held Friday, March 15th. The keynote presentation was by Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, James B.Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University and a 2012 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For the 146 student researchers, their sponsors and families, it was an extraordinary opportunity to hear about science and research from a distinguished scientist in the tradition of other recent keynote speakers at the State Meeting, including Nobel Laureates Peter Agre and Oliver Smithies, plus JoAnn Burkholder, Joe DeSimone, Erich Jarvis and Mary Schweitzer.

 

Some of the papers presented by the students, as always, had more than one author, so that there were 113 presentations. First, second and third place in each category were awarded gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively. First place winners additionally received an invitation to travel expenses-paid to present their research at the American Junior Academy of Science meeting at Chicago. IL in February, 2014; and invitations to a dinner April 27th honoring them and other award-winning science students sponsored by the NC Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Center. Second place winners were invited to attend the NC Academy of Science Annual Meeting held April 5th and 6th. Other awards included U.S. Navy awards and the BioGeneius competition. In addition, the Charles Lytle Scholarship was presented to Asha Bethea. In addition, student papers presented at the State Competition were invited to appear in the first edition of the NCSAS Proceedings, to be available online in June 2013.

 

The competition was judged by 55 active and retired research professionals from state agencies, educational institutions, and businesses in the Triangle. Students were given the chance to meet with the judges over dinner after the competition to get additional feedback about their projects and learn about the science interests of the judges. Two teachers were recognized with NCSAS Teacher Recognition Awards: Jennifer Williams of Brevard High School and Pamela Pate of E.B. Frink Middle School.

 

Elections were held to choose student officers for 2012-13. High School President-elect Sam Christensen becomes President. Jenny Wang was chosen as High School President-elect, and the Middle School President is Rhea Bhagia.