3 Kings Park Students Named Intel Semifinalists

Three students are semi finalists in the most competitive high school contest in the nation, the Society for Science and the Public announced yesterday.

Amelia Natalie Morales, 17, Eric Scott Parigoris, 17 and Shannon Phelan Wetzler, 17, are among 300 students chosen from a pool of 1,839 young minds competing in the Intel Science Talent Search.

The semifinalist positions will earn them each $1,000 as well as $3,000 to Kings Park High School to support further excellence in science, math and/or engineering education.

Morales was chosen for her project entitled, “Monoamine Oxidase A Genotype Associated with Negative Emotions in Cocaine Addicted Individuals: A Gene by Disease Interaction.

Parigoris was chosen for his projected titled, “Low-Intensity Vibration as a Potential Treatment for Wound Healing through Modulation of the Inflammatory Response and the Differentiation of Macrophage Progenitor Cells Under the Challenge of a Bacterial Endotoxin.

Wetzler was chosen for her project titled, “Novel Determination of the Stopping Power and Other Characteristics of the Quark Gluon Plasma Based on Several Jet Modification Measurements.

Last year the high school had one semifinalist, who was chosen for her project in robotics. Ananthabhotla, last year's class Salutatorian, went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The three teens will now move on to the next round of the competition, in which 40 finalists will be chosen to attend the Intel Science Talent Institute in Washington, D.C. and compete for the change to win a grand prize of $100,000.

The 40 Intel STS 2012 finalists will be announced on January 25.