With a discovery that advances the field of astronomy, Staples High School junior Antonella Lisanti took overall first place at the Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at the University of Connecticut last weekend.
She was a runner-up in the competition last year and attended the national competition. This year, Lisanti was invited to give an oral presentation of her project, which concerned galaxies that contain black holes.
Working at Yale University, Lisanti examined and categorized over 600 different galaxies. Her work has supported several controversial theories on the types of galaxies that contain super massive black holes. She also discovered something that may help astronomers understand how these super massive black holes are formed.
Lisanti received a $13,000 scholarship from UConn and a $2,000 scholarship and a $2,000 scholarship from the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.
She is the third consecutive Westport student to take first place in the state competition, and it is the fifth year in a row that a Staples student has been one of the top two in the state.
Lisanti will now present her work at the national competition in Huntsville, Ala. Last year, a Staples student took the top national spot.
Staples junior Zachery Weiner was also invited to give an oral presentation at the state symposium. His project, on a computer program he wrote to recognize faces, received an honorable mention.
Several other Staples students gave presentations in the symposium.
Senior Lindsay Kulkin gave a poster presentation on her completed project that involved a public health analysis of the eating disorder known as pica. She received an honorable mention in the poster presentation category.
Junior Katherine Carlson and sophomore Daniel Sellon presented their work as “Rising Stars” in a program that recognizes research projects that have great potential and are at an early stage of development.
Carlson’s project involves using very sophisticate measures of slow-moving ocean waves, known as Rosby Waves, to predict long term changes in climate.
Sellon’s project involves analyzing the factors that contribute to habitat degradation due to invasion of non-native plant species.
Sophomores Julia Backon, Kyle Beatty and Andrea Goodman and juniors Margaret Kaminski and Garrett West received invitations to participate in the symposium based on their interest in science and their potential to develop science projects in the future.
