{"id":71172,"date":"2017-04-21T14:08:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T08:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paisawapas.com\/student-stories\/?p=71172"},"modified":"2017-04-22T21:48:39","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T16:18:39","slug":"the-story-of-indrani-das-genius-scientist-winner-of-250000-at-science-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paisawapas.com\/student-stories\/the-story-of-indrani-das-genius-scientist-winner-of-250000-at-science-award\/","title":{"rendered":"You Would’nt Want To Skip The Story Of This 17 Year Old Genius Scientist, Winner of Rs. 1.63 Crores At A Top Science Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet Indrani Das,<\/strong> the winner of the \u00a076th Regeneron Science Talent Search competition<\/strong>. 17 year old, Indrani Das emerged as the\u00a0top prize winner of $2,50,000 <\/strong>nearly Rs. 1.63 crore<\/strong> in this Science Talent Search competition held in the U.S. Indrani Das worked on treating neurodegenerative disease and brain injury.<\/p>\n

This science competition is the oldest US science competition for students and is now sponsored by the medical company, Regeneron, in association with the Society for Science and the Public (SSP). Nicknamed the “Junior Nobel Prize”,<\/strong> it was originally sponsored by Westinghouse in 1942 and Intel took it up from 1998 till last year. Indrani is also a\u00a0Research Intern – Center for Abnormal Placentation at Hackensack University Medical Center<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Emergency medical technician at New Milford Volunteer Ambulance Corps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her other awards and achievements are living proofs of her talent and her immeasurable love for Science and Technology :<\/p>\n

1- Winner of the \u201cNorth Jersey State Spelling Bee\u201d and contestant in \u201c2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee\u201d, Washington DC. Ranked 43rd among 280 contestants representing 12 nations.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2- Top 15 National Finalist in 2016-17 American Academy of Neurology Research Competition. o 1st Place in Cell and Molecular Biology at the 2016 New Jersey Academy of Sciences.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

3- 2nd Place Poster Presentation at 2016 Regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

4- \u00a0Honorable Mention in 2015 and 2016 North Jersey Regional Science Fairs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

5- Winner (1st Place) of 2016 Science Olympiad Regional Tournament in Protein Modeling.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

6- Finalist (4th Place) in 2015 Science Olympiad Regional Tournament in Anatomy & Physiology.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

7- Finalist (5th Place) in 2016 Invitational Science Olympiad Tournament in Cell Biology.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

8- \u201cUSA Biology Olympiad Semifinalist\u201d (2015).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

9- National Finalist (5th place) in HOSA Biotechnology in both 2014 and 2015.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

10- Finalist in the \u201cNational French Contest\u201d: 2014 bronze (level II), 2015 silver medalist (level III).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

11- Inducted into BCA\u2019s Chapter of \u201cNational Honor Society\u201d (2015) and \u201cFrench Honor Society\u201d (2015).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

12- Recognized with a special Letter of Commendation (November 2015) from our Principal, for voluntarily maintaining the upkeep of the Cell Biology Lab and mentoring younger students in the absence of lab\u2019s research assistant.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Indrani lives in New Jersey and has an excellent profile, bundled with huge honours and academic laurels at such a young age. Have a look at\u00a0Indrani’s Resume<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In conversation with Indrani Das:<\/p>\n

Q: Tell us something more about yourself?<\/h3>\n

I am a high school student in New Jersey, in the US \u2013 soon to graduate and attend university. I live with my parents and my pet fish. I\u2019m a coffee addict, I collect pens and pencils, and I enjoy video games.<\/p>\n

Q: What are your favorite subjects? What do you aspire to be?<\/h3>\n

I love biochemistry. It\u2019s a subject where chemistry and physics come together to explain what we describe in biology. I aspire to be a physician-scientist, so that I can conduct research as well as treat patients in my career.<\/p>\n

\"indrani<\/p>\n

Q: How did this idea strike you? How does it feel after winning the Junior Nobel Prize award?<\/h3>\n

I came to the major ideas of my research project through a process of reading scientific literature and running small experiments over the course of several years. Over time, I gained experience in the subject of neuroscience, and it became easier for me to come up with ideas to test and interpret the results.<\/p>\n

I really feel blessed to have won this award. The competition itself was a very humbling experience<\/strong> \u2013 the judging process was extremely rigorous, and my fellow finalists were brilliant in every possible way. I still can\u2019t really believe I won, but I understand the award is both an honour and a responsibility to keep pushing myself in my research and academic work.<\/p>\n

Q: Tell us something more about your project? How does this project works?<\/h3>\n

My project proposes a new method of repairing astrocytes<\/strong> (supporting brain cells) that contribute to the damage of neurons (the main, signal conducting brain cells). By treating these astrocytes with a certain complex, I was able to decrease a toxic chemical buildup, which prevented neuron damage.<\/p>\n