VDA MEMBERS SERVE AS JUDGES FOR ANNUAL EVENT

Dr. William Burston

The Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair, held March 25 at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, was another great success.  The Malbon prize, plaque and $1500 went to Shruti Anant, who is a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Alexandria), and also is performing research at NIH. Meanwhile, 13 other students were given Honorable Mentions, for a total of 10 projects, receiving a certificate and a $100 stipend. This year there were six judges representing the Virginia Dental Association.  They considered more than 170 projects in 17categories, presented by students from many different regions of the state. Doctors Mitchell Buzkin, William Burston, Clay Devening, Avi Gibberman, Jared Kleine, and Marcel Lambrechts gave freely of their time to evaluate the science and engineering projects of 250 students deemed to represent the best from regional science fairs. The dental profession in Virginia should be proud that the VDA is one of the major sponsors each a significant number of awards.

BELOW ARE LISTED THE HONORABLE MENTION RECIPIENTS AS WELL AS THE MALBON PRIZE WINNER:

Ellen Wood - Determining the Effect of Connexin - 43 mutations on Intercellular Communication

Dayana Jeizan - The Effect of Enzyme Inhibitors on High Blood Sugars in Diabetics

Mriganka Mandal - Necrosis of Lung Adenocarcinoma by Targeting a Gamete Specific Protein

Logan Apple -  Sight: A Mobile Gesture Recognition and Analysis Tool. Phase II

Emily He and Lydia You - Implantable Micro Bubble Pump for Drug Delivery and Biomedical Use

Hannah Steele - The Development of an Efficient Radiation Shielding Fabric

Sky Zoom - A Novel Sustainable Technique Using Magnetism to Clean Up Oil Spills

Jackson Riffee - Using Fractal Dimension to Differentiate Between Dysplastic and Healthy Cells

Kavya Kopparapu, Neeyanth Kopparapu and Justin Zhang  - Mobile Diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy Using Deep Learning

Sindhu Ranga - Interrupting Bacterial Conversations: Increasing Microbial Fuel Cell Conductivity

MALBON PRIZE WINNER

Shruti Anant - Identification of an Inhibitor of the T-cell p-38 Alternative Pathway

Thank you to the Virginia dentists who volunteered to make this event a success:

Dr Ryan Buckwalter

Dr Thomas Starkey

Dr David Swett

Dr Erika Anderson

Dr Melanie Hartman

Dr Farima Behnami

Dr Marie Coffelt

Dr Brenda Young

Dr John Howard

Dr William Burston

Dr Mitchell Bukzin

Dr Anas Zainul Abedeen

Dr Mark Armanious

Dr Russell Mullen

Dr Stuart Broth

Dr Avi Gibberman

Dr Michael Grosso

Dr Jared Kleine

Dr. Marcel Lambrechts

Dr. Poonum Bharal