Oyster Bay High School junior earns top honors at New York State Science and Engineering Fair
Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District is proud to announce that Oyster Bay High School junior Chrysta Thomas has been awarded first place at the New York State Science and Engineering Fair (NYSSEF) and will now represent New York State on the international stage.
Chrysta's project, Shaped by Signals: Leveraging Breast Cancer Nuclear Morphology to Elucidate Regulatory Pathways as Therapeutic Targets, earned first place in the Biomedical and Health Sciences category, one of the most competitive divisions at the fair. Her research pinpoints a molecular mechanism that causes abnormal cell growth in breast cancer and identifies biological signals that could lead to new, more targeted treatments.
NYSSEF is a statewide competition open to student researchers in grades 6–12, drawing participants from public, private and parochial schools across New York. Projects are evaluated by a panel of STEM professionals and academics including scientists, researchers, engineers and medical professionals, and are judged on their originality, scientific rigor and real-world potential. This year's fair drew more than 400 student project submissions.
Earning top honors at NYSSEF carries significant weight beyond the state level. The fair serves as a qualifying pathway to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), widely considered the pinnacle of pre-college science competition. Students from around the world compete at ISEF for millions of dollars in prizes, and the experience is widely regarded as a launching pad for future careers in STEM.
Chrysta is one of just 16 NYSSEF finalists selected to advance to Regeneron ISEF, held in Phoenix, Arizona this May, where she will compete against the world's top young scientists.
I am so proud of Chrysta's accomplishments. She has more than earned this honor with the hours that she has put into her research, both inside and outside of the classroom. I could tell the morning after registration that she was locked-in and focused. I had a good feeling, and she knocked it out of the park, said Oyster Bay High School science teacher Daniel Moy.
Oyster Bay-East Norwich CSD congratulates Chrysta on this outstanding achievement and wishes her the very best as she competes in Phoenix this May.
