Leanne Fan was so sure she wouldn’t win at this week’s prestigious nationwide Regeneron Science Talent Search, she didn’t bother to do her lipstick before she hit the stage.
But to her shock, the Westview High School senior won sixth place at the finals near Washington on Tuesday — securing an $80,000 scholarship.
“So they got a really good reaction pic from me,” she said Friday.
Fan, 18, had built a device to simulate microgravity and examine how red light can help heal wounds, in order to study ways to help improve astronauts’ medical treatment in space.
She had first become interested in how light affects biological processes when her family used a blue-light device in an effort to disinfect groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her mom’s red-light therapy mask for skincare fueled a curiosity about the other end of the light spectrum.
Since worms can regenerate when cut into pieces, she used planarian worms as a stand-in for humans. She decapitated, fed and cared for the worms. They went inside the device she had built, known as a clinostat, to simulate microgravity, and she photographed them daily to measure the progress of their healing.
Later, she was also able to use a neighbor’s lab to study how human cells would interact.
Fan headed to Washington, D.C., this month as one of 40 finalists nationwide, out of more than 2,600 entrants. There, she faced two types of judging: six different 15-minute sessions to test the breadth of scientific knowledge and reasoning skills, plus the project judging.
At the event, she had the opportunity to meet with researchers in various scientific fields. She asked a lot of them what makes a good scientist. Some of their answers? The joy of discovery, and asking questions people haven’t asked before.
“The way they’re phrased kind of ingrained it in my mind,” she added.
Fan herself doesn’t know yet where she’ll go to college. She thinks that decision will influence what she majors in — and the Regeneron competition made her even less sure what she’ll ultimately choose to do.
“I’m too excited about all these different fields,” she said. “I want to do everything now.”
But she thinks she wants to do something in medicine — something like an M.D.-PhD. And winning the scholarship has eased her worries about how debt might restrain her ambitions.
“It makes me feel like I can be a lot more free and exploratory,” she said.
Seeing her fellow students passionate and so persevering in their work encouraged her and made her hopeful, especially in light of news about things like research funding and war.
“I’ve learned so, so much — not only about the science that these kids have done, but also the mindset that they take into life,” she said. “It’s just incredibly encouraging.”
The national competition ran from March 5 through Wednesday, as the finalists competed, met scientists and shared research with the public.
Each finalist won at least $25,000, and the first-place winner won a grand prize of $250,000 to pursue scientific education.
First place went to Connor Hill, a Pennsylvania student who discovered a way to identify all possible noble polyhedra — symmetrical shapes with straight edges and flat sides.