Magnet News: Fall 2009

The Magnet transitioned to its fourth coordinator in the late summer, but students continued to win awards:

• • June 23, 2009: Andrew Das Sarma '11, Anand Oza '10, and Rohan Puttagunta '10 were the top-scoring high school team at the Teragrid '09 Conference.

  • July 14, 2009: Michael Cohen '10 won a Silver Medal at the Central European Olympiad in Informatics.

  • July 19, 2009: Jonathan Gootenberg '09 won a Gold Medal at the 2009 International Biology Olympiad held in Tsukuba, Japan. Team USA won four gold medals, finishing in first place among all countries participating.

  • September 17, 2009: Montgomery Blair High School has 53 National Merit Semifinalists this year.

  • September 2009: Research papers submitted to the Yau High School Mathematics Award Competition by Jacob Hurwitz and the team of Nils Molina, Anand Oza and Rohan Puttagunta have been accepted for the second round of the competition. These Magnet seniors will travel to Los Angeles in October to make oral presentations about their projects. Winners from this round will be invited to a final round of presentations in Beijing in December.

There have been many transitions for the Magnet over the summer of 2009:

• • In June, Susan Ragan retired from the Magnet after more than 30 years of service in Montgomery County schools.

  • In July, Dennis Heidler resigned as Magnet Coordinator to pursue an Assistant Principal position at Barnsley Elementary School.

  • In August, Eileen Steinkraus returned to the Magnet to serve as the interim Magnet Coordinator.

  • In September, Peter Ostrander was named the new Magnet Coordinator.