Senior Re-I Chin was named a semi-finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search, making her one of 300 students selected nationwide. She sent a 20-page research paper and five short essays for judges to evaluate.


Chin won a $1,000 scholarship grant and $1,000 for the WJ Science Olympiad team. Chin’s research helps to further the understanding of anti-cancer drugs.

“My project would be useful because researchers can inject the radiopharmaceutical that I synthesized into mice and use Positron Emission Tomography to trace the drug in living systems, thus learning about its drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination,” said Chin. “Learning about the drug’s characteristics is important because many drugs fail in clinical trials due our lack of understanding of their activities in living bodies, so this information from PET scans would hopefully reduce failure rates, contain costs and expedite drug development.”

Chin hopes to pursue a major that will allow her to continue her research in science.