‘Continuing the quest for knowledge and science’

Most people may imagine research scientists hunkered down in a laboratory, working endless hours. At Stony Brook University’s Garcia Summer Scholars Program, however, where Lawrence High School students Lee Blackburn and Arthur Chen spent two months before beginning their senior year, nonstop study is not part of the itinerary.
Fun activities, coupled with full work days Monday through Friday during the summer, and less intensive weekdays in September, helped Blackburn and Chen complete research projects that have earned them semifinalist status in the 2016 Intel Science Talent Search. Forty of the 300 semifinalists will be named finalists on Jan. 20.
The pair roomed on campus with peers from around the nation, not only conducting high-level research, but also canoeing, fishing and visiting the aquarium in Riverhead. “It’s more like summer camp,” Chen said. “It’s a lot of fun, and the research is interesting.”
Blackburn, Chen and Justin Lish, from the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway High School, were regional finalists in the 2014 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Blackburn, Chen and Lish also won a gold medal at the 2015 International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering and Environment Project competition in Pittsburgh.
“It’s really fun when people think my research is good,” Blackburn said.
What amuses Lawrence High chemistry teacher Rebecca Isseroff is when the professionals learn whom they are speaking with at the symposiums. “Everyone else is a graduate student or an investigator in the field, and they start asking the boys a question, then ask what university they attend, and find out they’re high school students,” said Isseroff, who mentors Lawrence and Five Towns science students. “They’re blown away.” Isseroff helps guide the students’ research, along with Dr. Miriam Rafailovich and Dr. Marcia Simon at Stony Brook’s Garcia Center.