Magnet News - Summer 2013

Many Blair students won competitions and other honors at the end of the school year:

• • Sam Zbarsky '13 won a Silver Medal as a member of the United States Physics Team at the International Physics Olympiad in Copenhagen, Denmark on July 7-15. Michael Winer '15 also qualified for the team and attended the U.S. Physics Team Training Camp.

  • At the 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Jinhie Skarda '13 received the First Place Grand Award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and a third-place award in physics and astronomy for her project: Analysis of Jovian Decametric Emission Using the Long Wavelength Array Station 1. Neil Davey '14 and his partner, Katie Barufka from Langley High School, won a third-place award in microbiology and a fifth-place award from the American Society for Microbiology, for their project Deletion of Endonuclease G Disrupts Mitochondrial Homeostasis and Leads to Reduced Virulence in the Human Protozoan Parasite Leishmania Mexicana.

  • Neil Davey '14 won a third place award at the 2013 National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.

  • At the 2013 GENIUS Olympiad, Shubham Chattopadhyay '15 received ‘Honorable Mention’ in the GENIUS-Science category for his project entitled “A trend analysis for effect of urbanization on changes in climate and public health in Washington D.C. Metropolitan area over years.”

  • Ashutosh Nanda '14 won first place and $500 in the University of Maryland Department of Economics High School Challenge Essay Competition for his essay on the topic, “Should individuals be required to purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act?”

The computer team, math team, physics team, and academic team also won awards at several competitions:

• • A team from Blair won first place in the Senior Division of the ACSL All-Star Contest! A second Blair team won seventh place in the Intermediate Division. The members of the Senior team were Jason Hyun, Kiyoon Ko, Eric Neyman, Scott Wu, and Victor Xu. The Intermediate team members were Eric Lu, Ishaan Parikh, Soumya Pattanayak Justin Shen, and Kathleen Ruan. (pdf)

  • The Montgomery County ARML Team won 7th place internationally at the 2013 American Regions Mathematics League competition on June 1st. The members of this winning team were Blair Magnet students Bob Ma (captain), Diwakaran Ilangovan, Dennis Zhao, Alexander Bourzutschky, Alexander Zhang, Adam Busis, Jason Hyun, Gabriella Studt, Eric Lu, Eric Neyman, Michelle Noh, Sachin Pandey, Jessica Shi, and Victor Xu; and Alexander Smith of Charles County.

  • Michael Winer '15 had the highest individual score in Division 1 at 2013 AAPT Physics Bowl! Alexander Bourzutschky '14 had the seventh highest score in Division 2. The Blair team finished in 5th place in Division 1. (pdf)

  • Blair's Academic Team finished in 5th place at the National Academic Quiz Tournament (NAQT) 2013 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) in Atlanta, GA. The members of the team were Thomas Gaddy, Ian Ozeroff, Adam Kadir, and Sam Zbarsky.

  • The computer team also brought home prizes in several other competitions recently, including 2nd in the 2013 Philadelphia Classic (team: Ashutosh Nanda (captain), Alan Du, Victoria Tsai, and Sam Zbarsky), 1st in the 18th Annual Bloomsburg High School Programming Contest (team: Avikar Periwal (captain), Megan Chao, Ashutosh Nanda, and Alexander Zhang), and 1st in the 2013 Thomas Jefferson Invitational Open in Informatics (team: Ashutosh Nanda (captain), Alexander Bourzutschky, Matthew Das Sarma, and Victoria Tsai).

Check out photos of the Entomology Field Trip, Lake Needwood, and PuzzlePalooza on Flickr.

A new school year starts on Monday, August 26!