Smithtown High School Students Win Nine of Ten Prizes in Brookhaven Lab's Essay Contest

June 4, 2010

UPTON, NY — Students from Smithtown High School won nine of ten prizes in the annual Science and Society Essay Contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Neema Patel and Aaron Rosenthal, students at Smithtown High School West, won first and second prizes of $500 and $300 respectively. John Dodaro, from Smithtown High School East, took home $200 as the third-place winner.

The winners of Brookhaven Lab’s Science and Society Essay Contest enlarge

The winners of Brookhaven Lab’s Science and Society Essay Contest are: (front row, from left) Alexandra McHale, Smithtown High School East (SHSE); Emily Mancini, Smithtown High School West (SHSW); first-place winner Neema Patel, SHSW; and Samantha Mellone, SHSE; (back row, from left) Daniel Wang, W.T. Clarke High School, Westbury; Peter Ren, SHSW; second-place winner Aaron Rosenthal, SHSW; third-place winner John Dodaro, SHSE; Tyler Terbush, SHSW; and Brian Ralph, SHSW.

Honorable mention prizes of $50 each were given to: Alexandra McHale and Samantha Mellone of Smithtown East; Emily Mancini, Brian Ralph, Peter Ren, and Tyler Terbush of Smithtown West; and Daniel Wang, a student at W.T. Clarke High School in Westbury.

The Science and Society Essay Contest challenges students to think and write about the purposes and social implications of scientific research. This year’s topic was reducing the carbon footprint of buildings. Sixty students from six Long Island high schools submitted essays for the contest. The students were asked to cite Brookhaven Lab research that addresses the challenges of climate change and the need for renewable/sustainable energy sources. The well-researched essays discussed several possible energy alternatives – from biofuels to solar energy – that might be used as a global solution to significantly reduce carbon emissions.

The Laboratory’s Office of Educational Programs manages the essay contest, and Brookhaven Science Associates, the company that runs the Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, sponsored the contest prizes. Friends of Brookhaven, an employee organization, started the contest 11 years ago.

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