Pictured left to right, North High School research teachers Maya Lerner and Christopher Bambino, Regeneron STS Scholars Emma Wen and Johnathan Ahdout, senior research teacher/advisor/science department chair Jessica York, and research teacher Alison Widawsky
Great Neck Public Schools
Five students from the Great Neck Public Schools have been named 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars. John L. Miller-Great Neck North High School seniors Johnathan Ahdout and Emma Wen, and William A. Shine-Great Neck South High School seniors Anant Gupta, Tiffany Liu and Sarah Sun are among the top 300 Scholars in the nation’s most prestigious science competition.
“We are proud to celebrate the achievements of our five Scholars and their faculty advisors,” Superintendent Kenneth R. Bossert said. “Recognition through this prestigious competition represents countless hours of work and a passion for discovery. I am certain these aspiring researchers will continue to make significant contributions in their selected areas of interest.”
Great Neck’s five Scholars are among 300 semifinalists nationwide, selected from an applicant pool of nearly 2,500 entrants. Each scholar will receive $2,000 with a matching amount for their school.
Scholars and their project titles are:
- Johnathan Ahdout, North High: “Contextualizing Data-Sparse QSPR Property Prediction With Categorical Representations Built from Variational Autoencoders”
- Anant Gupta, South High: “Assessing the Impact of Human Inhibition Factors on Wildfire Risk Prediction Using Deep Learning”
- Tiffany Liu, South High: “Vulnerability of DNN Architectures to Inversion Attacks During Edge Computing and Collaborative Inference”
- Sarah Sun, South High: “Cognitive, Socioeconomic and Institutional Impact on Entrepreneurial Intention in Latent Entrepreneurs: A Cross-Country Comparison”
- Emma Wen, North High: “AUM-302, A Novel Triple PIM/PI3K/mTOR Inhibitor, Offers Promising Potential in Reducing the Growth of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Spheroids and Organoids”
North High science research faculty members are Christopher Bambino, Maya Lerner, Alison Widawsky and senior research advisor/science department chair Jessica York. South High science research faculty members are Loriana Demirciyan and senior
research advisors Nicole Spinelli and James Truglio.
Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science and Executive Publisher of Science News, extended her congratulations to this year’s Regeneron STS Scholars.
“With a record-breaking number of applications, these exceptional young scientists and engineers represent the best in the nation,” she said. “We are thrilled to celebrate their ingenuity, hard work, and passion for STEM.”
The Regeneron competition is the former Westinghouse and then the Intel Science Talent Search. The Talent Search, begun in 1942, is the nation’s oldest, and often considered its most prestigious, science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. It is owned and produced by Society for Science. On Jan. 23, 40 of the top 300 scholars will be announced as Finalists and will advance in the national competition.