Smithtown High School Students Win First and Second Place in Brookhaven Lab's Science and Society Essay Contest
May 5, 2005
UPTON, NY - Steve Benay, a Smithtown High School student, won the grand prize of $500 in the annual Science and Society Essay Contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. Daniel Kiridly, also a Smithtown High School student, won $300 as the second-place winner; and last year's second-place winner, Margaret Brown from Longwood High School, won $200 in third-place this year.
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(From left) Daniel Kiridly, Steve Benay, and Margaret Brown were the top three winners of Brookhaven Lab's Science and Society Essay Contest. (Click image to download hi-res version)
The top three winners were chosen from 105 entries from 21 Long Island school districts. Eight honorable-mention prizes of $50 each were also awarded in a ceremony at Brookhaven Lab. In celebration of the World Year of Physics 2005 - the 100th anniversary of Einstein's three seminal papers that revolutionized physics - the students were asked to choose a 20th century physicist and describe his/her work and impact on society. A panel of four independent judges chose the winning essays based on critical thinking, scientific accuracy, creativity, and organization.
Benay wrote about George Gamow, a physicist, professor, and writer who had a knack for simplifying physics and explaining both sides of a controversy, and who developed the big bang theory of the expanding universe, among other distinguished discoveries in both physics and biology. Kiridly wrote about J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atomic bomb who later opposed developing a more powerful hydrogen bomb, and Brown chose as her subject Patrick M.S. Blackett, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1948 for several important discoveries, and who condemned the use of the atomic bomb.
The honorable-mention winners were: Theresa Aponznanski, Smithtown High School; Anand Chandran, Smithtown High School; Javier Duarte, Longwood High School; Christine Johnson, Hicksville High School; Erica Lai, Smithtown High School; David McGarry, Hauppauge High School; Megna Raksi, Commack High School; and Allison Rapp, Smithtown High School.
Managed by the Laboratory's Office of Educational Programs, the annual essay contest was started six years ago by Friends of Brookhaven, a Brookhaven Lab employee organization. Brookhaven Science Associates, the company that runs the Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, sponsored the prizes for the contest.
2005-10315 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
