It’s right in the name–The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science–so it’s no surprise that MSMS students excelled in the various science fairs held across the state of Mississippi this year.

Raeed Kabir and Vidhi Patel, Shanay Desai, Nicholas Djedjos, Victoria Callahan, Skylar Nguyen, Hailee Sexton and Madeline Raynor, Jessica Yan, Aaron Wan and Andrew Yu, Michael Lu, Hayden Anderson, Jackson Flowers and Maggie Buck all received awards for their research. Some of these students won the opportunity to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held virtually in May.

The students had varying thoughts about research and preparation for the fairs. Anderson commented on how grateful he was to have a school with the equipment and technology he needed to perform research on his chosen topic, studying cancer in plants. 

“I really did enjoy the process because of how serious everything is. This was the first time that I had done a real science project due to covid restricting me from going through with my science fair at my old school last year, so it was really enjoyable,” Anderson said. “Not only that, but doing this fair at a school that has all this equipment and has the opportunity for everything really made the experience satisfactory.”

While Raynor had a good experience with science fair, she expressed that preparation was a taxing time for her.

“The process of preparing for the fair was very stressful,” Raynor said. “I remember the due date for our final project was sandwiched in between a lot of tests that week, so the stress of placing the final touches on our presentation and studying for tests as well was nerve-racking to say the least. The relief of turning it in on time was astounding.”

Kabir and Patel won best of fair at the Region I fair, first place at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at the University of Southern Mississippi and several specific awards given for excellence in areas like mathematics and psychology.

“Vidhi [Patel] and I had been really anxious; our fair was one of the last to release decisions,” Kabir said. “I remember waking up to a notification that we had swept the fair, and I was immediately ecstatic. I felt as if the 40 hour research weeks were worth it.”

Both Anderson and Kabir plan on pursuing research in their future careers.

“I’ve always wanted to do some sort of science work in the future due to my love of science, preferably medicine,” Anderson said. “Especially doing a research project about medicine has made me want to go into research even more.”

Anderson and Raynor both emphasized that future researchers should avoid procrastination at all costs, and all three students encouraged others to participate in the science fair next year.

“It is absolutely wonderful seeing the final product and the amazed faces on adults’ faces when they realize a high schooler was able to do such meaningful work,” Kabir said. “Research is one of the most rewarding things I have done.”

Here is the full list of winners:

Region I

Raeed Kabir and Vidhi Patel: Analysis of the Differential Impact of Material and Social Stresses on Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• 1st Place in Behavioral and Social Science
• Best of Fair and will represent MSMS and state of Mississippi at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in May

Region II

Shanay Desai: Single-Cell Genomic Profiling of the Adult Human Heart and Transcriptomic Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) in Myocardial Pathophysiology

• 1st Place in Biomedical and Health Sciences
• Best of Fair and will represent MSMS and state of Mississippi at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in May

Nicholas Djedjos: Analyzing Global Factors Affecting the HIB Epidemic Utilizing Statistical Tools and Machine Learning

• 2nd Place in Mathematics and Systems Software

Victoria Callahan: Effect of Caffeine on Drosophila melanogaster’s Life Span and Reproductive Rate

• 3rd Place in Animal Sciences

Region III:

Skylar Nguyen: Development of Filter embedded with Silver Nanoparticles for Water Sanitation

• 1st Place in Earth and Environmental Science
• Best of Fair and will represent MSMS and state of Mississippi at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in May

Hailee Sexton and Madeline Raynor: Morgina’s Effect on Filtering Natural Bodies of Water

• 2nd Place in Earth and Environmental Science

Region V:

Jessica Yan: Reinforced Lignin Foams with Higher Adsorption Capabilities

• 1st Place in Earth and Environmental Science
• Best of Fair and will represent MSMS and state of Mississippi at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in May
• Special Awards: American Meteorological Society, Association for Women Geoscientists, NASA Earth System Science Award, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) Award, Ricoh USA Award, US Stockholm Junior Water Prize

Aaron Wan and Andrew Yu: Assessing the Efficacy of COVID-19 Policies Using Machine Learning

• 1st Place in Biomedical and Health Sciences
• Alternate 1: Best of Fair 
• Special Award: US Agency for International Development (USAID) Award

Michael Lu: A Novel Evolution-Based Technique for Generating Anticancer Peptides

• 1st Place in Mathematics and Systems Software
• Best of Fair and will represent MSMS and state of Mississippi at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in May
• Special Award: Mu Alpha Theta Award
• Science Talent Search top 300 finalist, Michael won $2000 and MSMS won $2000

Hayden Anderson: Apoptosis: A Study of the Effects of Agrobacterium Tumefaciens on Wisconsin Fast Plants

• 1st Place in Plant Sciences
• Alternate 2: Best of Fair

Region VII

Jackson Flowers: Using Geometric Algebra to Estimate the Sparsity of Data and the Size of the Minimal Overcomplete Basis for Data through Observations

• 1st Place in Mathematics and Systems Software

Maggie Buck: Investigating Growth Promotion and Soil Enrichment in Allium sativum

• 1st Place in Plant Science