This high school senior is a gifted scientist

Katherine Lynch, of Long Beach, a senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead, has been named a semifinalist in the 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Search. The biotechnology company announced her achievement on Jan. 10.

“I am beyond honored and grateful to be named a 2024 Regeneron semifinalist,” Lynch said in a Sacred Heart news release. “But it is not an altogether solo honor. This project, more than two years in the making, could not have been completed without the support of my classmates and teachers, especially Dr. Stephen Sullivan. The girls in Research inspire me to be a better student and a better person. Our bonds are a support and a lifeline.”

Each year, the prestigious contest names 300 semifinalist “scholars” from across the United States, China, Puerto Rico and four other countries. Each receive a $2,000 award for their accomplishment, and a matching grant for their school — in Lynch’s case, Sacred Heart’s Science Research Program.

The Regeneron program is the nation’s oldest science and math competition for high school seniors, dating back to 1942, when it was created by Westinghouse. It was the Intel Science Talent Search from 1998 to 2016, until Regeneron Pharmaceuticals became the sponsor.

Students are chosen based on their academic records and their research skills. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush called the competition the “Super Bowl of science” in remarks to that year’s finalists.

Lynch’s research project, which focused on academic performance in a single-sex educational environment, was titled “Mindset over Matter: Can Self-Reported Implicit Theories of Intelligence Regulate the Desire for Academic Rigor, Academic Achievement, and Motivation?” An earlier version of the project earned her a spot in the New York State Science Congress last May, and she was the first Long Island private school student to take part in that competition in over a quarter century. She was also one of just two high school juniors to present original research at the Association for Psychological Science Convention in Washington, D.C.

Stephen Sullivan, the director of research at Sacred Heart, has had Lynch in his science research class for the past three years. As he has gotten to know and teach Lynch, Sullivan said, he has seen her grow as a student and as a classmate.

“Katherine has really taken to behavioral science, because she has taken to the statistics, more than most of the girls,” he said. “She actually spends a lot of time teaching and tutoring the younger kids, and even the kids her own age, in inferential stats.”

Sacred Heart has a statistics program, but doesn’t offer a stats class at the Advanced Placement level. Sometimes, Sullivan said, he thinks “Katherine is the one who’s teaching it.”

“Dr. Sullivan has always encouraged me and advocated for my work,” Lynch said in the school’s news release. “I would not be the student I am today without his unconditional support.”

Lynch spent the summer in a chemistry lab at Hofstra, but “Mindset over Matter,” her project last year for AP research, was so good that she and Sullivan decided to hone it and continue it for Regeneron. “Clearly that was a good decision,” Sullivan said.

“This is absolutely wonderful,” Sullivan said. “You know the ‘nice guys finish last’ business? That is not true. She’s a truly, truly wonderful human being, and it could not have happened to a better kid.”

“The implications of my research have made a profound impact on my own mindset as a student and a researcher,” Lynch said. “I hope that this project can advance the conversation regarding support and equity throughout the American education system. If we can provide every student, regardless of identity or background, the opportunity to excel by focusing on the cultivation of positive intrinsic values and approaches, we will certainly set forth on an ever-better path.”