The Home of Midwood Science Research

On February 4th 2017, the 22nd Annual High School Poster Session was held at St. Joseph’s College in Fort Green, Brooklyn. 22 midwood students presented their research findings at the event to multiple judges. Midwood faced strong competition from many schools including Union City, which had twice as many students as Midwood. Midwood students took away all first and second place awards as well as 4 honorable mentions.

1. Jennifer Phu and Elizabeth Skapley
   "Synthesis of trifluorinated alkynes as intermediates to catechol synthesis." Jennifer and Elizabeth worked under the supervision of Dr. Wayne F.K. Schnatter in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Long Island University.
1. Marco Ramirez
   "Alkyl chain length influence on conductivity and activation energy of pyrrolidinium-based RTILs." Marco worked under the supervision of Dr. Sophia Suarez and Mr. Domenec Paterno in the Department of Physics at Brooklyn College.

2. Amna Aslam
   "Role of nucleolar stress factors in DNA damage response." Amna worked under the supervision of Dr. Anjana D. Saxena in the Department of Biology at Brooklyn College.
2. Mahmoud Abouelkheir
   "Intra-microcolony spatial positioning affects antibiotic susceptibility in Neisseria gonorrhoeae." Mahmoud worked under the supervision of Dr. Nicolas Biais in the Department of Biology at Brooklyn College.

8. Erica Levin
   "Determining the mercury concentrations in the atmosphere using a biotracker." Erica worked under the supervision of Dr. Anthony Carpi and Dr. Erin Mann in the Department of Sciences at John Jay College.
8. Vivian Luu
   "A variable temperature study of the conductivity and activation energy of aqueous solutions of VOSO₄ in 1 M TFSA." Vivian worked under the supervision of Dr. Sophia Suarez and Mr. Domenec Paterno in the Department of Physics at Brooklyn College.
8. Jasleen Kaur
   "Evaluating efficient methods for determining bioaccessible lead." Jasleen worked under the supervision of Dr. Zhongqi (Joshua) Cheng and Ms. Sara Perl Egendorf in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Brooklyn College.
8. Whitney Wong and Yang Fan (Angel) Zou
   "Inducement of LEA proteins from Ramazzottius varieornatus for desiccation tolerant Escherichia coli." Whitney and Angel worked under the supervision of Dr. Ellen Jorgensen and Mr. William Shindel at Genspace NYC.

All 10 award winners from Midwood High School, left to right: Vivian Luu, Jasleen Kaur, Mahmoud Abouelkheir, Marco Ramirez, Elizabeth Skapley, Jennifer Phu, Whitney Wong, Amna Aslam, Yang Fan Angel Zou, Erica Levin

Written by Noor Asif and Pauletta Lazarevskiy (Class of 2017).