Three Long Island students were named finalists in the 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Search–the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors – including Roslyn High School senior Jacob Gross.
“I’ve known Jacob since he entered high school,” Allyson Weseley, Roslyn School District’s coordinator of secondary research, said in a statement. “He is amazing! I was so impressed with him in 9th grade that I began keeping notes about the incredible things he did and said because I knew that one day I would be writing him a recommendation for something like this.”
Gross is among a class of 40 student finalists representing 36 schools from 19 states. Included are two other Long Island seniors – Natasha Kulviwat of Jericho High School and Vincent Huang of Syosset High School.
Finalists, who are awarded $25,000, will show their work to the public, meet with prestigious leaders in the science community in Washington, D.C. and compete for a variety of awards headlined by the $250,000 top prize in March.
Gross’ project “Investigating Synergistic Interactions Among SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies” studies COVID-19 monoclonal antibodies which are used to prevent and treat COVID-19 infection. His research studied the synergy that occurs when combining multiple antibodies, potentially increasing treatment efficacy.
“I was surprised and ecstatic to learn that I was a finalist,” Gross said in a statement. “I really hope that going forward, scientists look into interactions between antibodies, not just COVID, but other infections too.”
The competition, formerly sponsored by Westinghouse and then Intel before its current sponsor, pharmaceutical company Regeneron, is run each year by the Society for Science and the Public, with the goal of finding solutions to the world’s challenges from budding young scientists.
Earlier this month, the competition’s semifinalists were announced and included Roslyn High School’s Gross along with his fellow classmates Cayden Shen and Shayla Zheng. The semifinalists won $2,000 each.
Across the North Shore, two dozen high school seniors were named semifinalists.
Leading the North Shore schools during the semifinal round was Great Neck South High School with seven students honored. Following behind was Schreiber High School with five semifinalists and Herricks with four.
While 24 North Shore seniors were named Regeneron semifinalists, Gross was the only one to move to the final round.
“Kudos to Jacob for this significant achievement,” Superintendent Allison Brown said in a statement. “We take great pride in his success and are thrilled to see him receive the recognition he deserves for his research.”
