Trio of Five Towns students are Regeneron semifinalists     

Hewlett High School seniors Alex Breslav and Alicia Hsu, and Priva Halpert, a senior from Stella K. Abraham High School in Hewlett Bay Park were named semifinalists in the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search for 2021.   

Breslav’s project is titled Evaluating the Specificity of Novel Monoclonal Antibodies for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Hsu’s project is : The Challenging Nature of Maternal Empathy: An Investigation of Maternal Empathy and Its Relationship to Self-Esteem and Halpert’s project is Harnessing the Colorimetric Changes due to the Antenna Effect for Detection of Aliphatic Alcohols in 2-HP-BETA-Cyclodextrin Solutions.

They were among the 300 semifinalists in what is the country’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. The students and their schools will be awarded $2,000 each.

The students were selected from 1,760 applications from 611 high schools across 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and 10 countries. Students were chosen based on their exceptional research skills, commitment to academics, innovative thinking and promise as scientists, and are from 198 American and international high schools in 37 states, Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipei and Singapore.

“The remarkable drive, creativity and intellectual curiosity that each one of these scholars possesses represents a hopeful outlook for our future and our collective wellbeing,” Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science, Publisher of Science News and 1985 Science Talent Search alum stated in a news release. “At a time when many students’ educational experiences are being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, I am incredibly humbled to see gifted young scientists and engineers eager to contribute fresh insights to solving the world’s most intractable problems.”

On Jan. 21, the field will be whittled to 40 finalists. From March 10 to 17 all 40 finalists will compete for more than $1.8 million in awards provided by Regeneron.