GoMRI Presents Special Award at 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
– June 15, 2015
 Sahil Veeramoney (Middle) receives the GoMRI Special Award. Photo Credit: Consortium for Ocean Leadership. |
(From Spring 2015 Newsletter) GoMRI once again presented a Special Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), which was held in Pittsburgh, PA from May 10-15, 2015. Approximately 1500 projects were entered into the fair, 12 of which had an oil spill focus. The special award judges, who were from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and GoMRI, interviewed 9 of the 12 students whose projects had an oil spill focus in person. Sahil Veeramoney’s project, The Development of an Oleophilic and Hydrophobic Polystyrene Synthetic Polymer Coated Cotton for High Efficiency Marine Oil Spill Absorption, was selected as the winner of the $2000 award. Veeramoney is an incoming junior at the Oregon Episcopal School in Portlant, Oregon. His innovative project uses cotton, coated with polystyrene, as an oil absorbent which he hopes can one day be used commercially in large scale oil spill remediation.
The judges also identified three honorable mentions. Those students were Keiana Ashli Cave from Lusher Cater High School in New Orleans, LA for her project A Method for Identifying the Photoproducts, Mechanisms, and Toxicity of Petroleum from the Deepwaer Horizon by High-Performance Liquid Chromotography and DNPHi Derivation, Karan Jerath from Friendswood High School in Friendswood, TX for his project titled International Oil Spill Remediation: The Numerical Simulation of an in-situ Subsea Separator, Part II, and Dominique Marie Marchini from Sleepy Hollow High School in
Sleepy Hollow, NY for her project titled Recycling Hair: Investigating Flocculation as an Alternate Method of Assembling Hair Fibers for Oil Recovery. Karan Jerath’s project went on to win the $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist award! GoMRI would like to congratulate all the participants on their excellent projects!
