Staples Science Students Rock Their Research

Nolan Francis is one of just 300 Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars in the country. (Never heard of it? It used to be called the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. It’s one of the most prestigious high school honors in any field.)

Nolan Francis

That’s very cool. But Nolan is just one of many Staples High students to receive recognition this year.

He and his classmates have received a host of honors this year, in many science-related areas. For example:

Science Research Course

• 16 of 21 students (76%) were recognized at one or more science fairs this year. 
• Staples students submitted work to 7 different science fairs or competitions

High School Science & Humanities Symposium at UConn Health 

80 Staples students applied to present their research. 16 were selected to give an oral presentation.

• Nolan Francis earned special merit for his oral competition

Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair

• Sofia DiLeo took 3rd place in the Petit Family Foundation Women in Science and Engineering Awards, and won the University of Connecticut-Early College Experience Award
• Leah Dombrow won first honors (top 20% in life science) for her Life Sciences project, and placed in the top 20% in the Petit Family Foundation Women in Science
• Nolan Francis placed in the top 20% in the Jackson Laboratory Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Awards
• Jay Hari won first honors (top 20% in life science) for his Life Sciences project
• Ezra Schwartz won first honors (top 20% in life science) for his project in Life Sciences, and the JA Augustine and Glista Special Award
• Sienna Schwartz placed in the top 20% for the Petit Family Foundation Women in Science

Staples students, at the NCC Science Fair.

CT-STEM: virtual science fair 

Four students competed in completed projects, while 17 students competed in the proposal category.

• Nathaniel Armstrong, proposal, physical science, 3rd place
• Serena Diamond, completed project, physical science category, 2nd place
• Altay Erucar-Mathews, proposal, environmental category, 4th place
• Noa Katz, proposal, behavior category, 1st place
• Ishan Pasham, proposal, physical science, tied for 1st place
• William Kwong, proposal, environmental category, 1st place
• Jessica Willis, proposal, physical science, tied for 1st place

NCC Science Fair: live science fair 

• Nathaniel Armstrong won 2nd place overall
• Leah Dombrow received honorable mention (top 10%)
• Aanya Shrivastava received honorable mention (top 10%)

13th International Young Researchers’ Conference 2026

2 students were selected to orally present their research at a Virtual Conference:

• Hayley Epstein 
• Elise Yan

Southern Connecticut State University Research Day

• 5 second year dual-enrolled SCSU students (Nolan Francis, Jay Hari, William Kwong, Ezra Schwartz, Elise Yan) presented their research alongside undergraduates. Nolan won first place in the Honors College at the SCSU Undergraduate Student Research and Creativity Conference.

List of Projects 

Nate Armstrong: The Effect of Surface Texture on the Aerodynamic Drag of 3D-Printed Rocket Nose Cones

Lily Bottner: The Effect of Increased Temperature and Salinity on H. Exemplaris to Evaluate Tolerance Limits and Understand the Impact of Multiple Simultaneous Climate Changes

Serena Diamond: A Direct Comparison of Vision Transformers (ViT) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for Exoplanet Transit Classification

Sofia DiLeo: Therapeutic Potential of Curcumin in Improving Motor Neuron Health in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)

Leah Dombrow: The Effect of Coenzyme Q10 and Epigallocatechin Gallate on Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation in Caenorhabditis elegans to Treat Parkinson’s Disease

Hayley Epstein: Evaluating Caffeine and the Antioxidant Chlorogenic Acid (components of coffee) on Depression in a Drosophila Model

Altay Eruçar-Matthews: Reducing Algal Growth of Chlorella Vulgaris by Chemically Inhibiting the Absorption of Nutrients with Humic Acid

Alex Fetner: Effects of Probiotics Pediococcus acidilactici and Bifidobacterium longum on the Fat Accumulation in Caenorhabditis elegans with Induced Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Nolan Francis: Vitamin D3 Supplementation Ameliorates Muscle Degeneration through Calcium Regulation in a C. elegans Model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)

Jay Hari: Discovering Novel Targets for the FMN Riboswitch to Test the Utility of Computational RNA-folding Methods to Address Multidrug Antibiotic Resistance

Noa Katz: Intergenerational Effects of Isolation on Hsp70 Expression in Drosophila Melanogaster to Understand the Epigenetic Mechanisms of Stress Response

William Kwong: The activation of SKN-1 via the RNAi knockdown of wdr-23 to reduce oxidative stress from microplastics in Caenorhabditis elegans

Ana Losic: Evaluating the Neurobiological Effects Of Stevia in an Amyloid-β Based Drosophila model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Vani Punia: Evaluating Toxicity of Natural and Synthetic Dyes in Caenorhabditis elegans: Identifying Safer Options for Consumables

Ezra Schwartz: Using a novel Bidirectional Neural Network for advanced early detection of Black Cutworms on Bush Beans

Sienna Schwartz: Can Your Diet Protect Against Microplastics? Discovering the Impact of Probiotic E. coli Strains on Microplastic-Induced Toxicity in C. elegans

Aanya Shrivastava: Effect of Batch Emulsion Speed on Hydrogel Microparticle Size to Improve Bovine Serum Albumin Release Kinetics in a Simulated Bloodstream and Support Blood Supply Solutions

Jessica Willis: Classifying Cataclysmic Variable Candidates Through a Multi-Time Scale Analysis of AAVSO Photometric Light Curves

Elise Yan: Enhancing Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) stability by inserting it in Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSNs) in C. elegans to determine its Potential Role in Breast Cancer Treatment

List of Proposals

Sierra Denkin: Effect of Combined Intermittent Fasting and Curcumin Treatment on Colon Cancer in Drosophila Melanogaster

Ishan Pasham: Effect of innovative design using additive manufacturing on discreet body armor to improve EMS safety and cost efficiency 

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