Young Investigator Prize
Young Investigator Prize ($3,000 in 2012)
University of Washington / Friday Harbor Laboratories
The UW / FHL Young Investigator’s Prize is awarded every year to a high school junior or senior showing exceptional promise in the fields of Science and Mathematics. Regional students submit high school transcripts, two Letters of Recommendation (from teachers or scientists the applicant has previously worked with), and an essay describing their background and career goals. The winner is selected by a committee of University of Washington professors and is awarded a cash prize ($3000 in 2012). The winner will spend the summer (8 weeks) as a full time research assistant in a UW / FHL Laboratory.
For more information, click on the image above.
2011 Winner (Full-time Internship) : Ms. Audrey Olshefsky, junior, Friday Harbor High School.
Audrey maintains a 3.99 GPA (ranked first in her class) at FHHS while actively participating in her school and community. She has participated in a variety of clubs including Key Club, LEO Club, beach clean-ups, Operation Christmas Child, Rotary International’s Youth Adventures in Leadership seminar and has volunteered as a youth soccer referee. She also enjoys playing soccer, basketball, and is a member of the Friday Harbor High School Sailing Club. Audrey spent a semester of her sophomore year in Argentina as an AFS foreign exchange student. Since here freshman year, Audrey has been on the 1st place winning Orca Bowl team (preliminary competition for the National Ocean Science Bowl) for the last two years and hopes to major in an area related to Oceanography in college. As a Young Investigator Prize winner, Audrey worked in the subtidal community ecology lab of Dr. Kenneth Sebens. Assisting with a number of ongoing projects she analyzed photo surveys of large mobile invertebrates and fish in San Juan channel to track long-term changes in distribution and abundance, identified and processed organisms obtained from rocky habitats to study impacts of predators on benthic organisms, and served as surface support for diving operations.
2011 Winner (Part-time Internship): Mr. Shaughn Anderson, junior, Friday Harbor High.
Shaughn holds a 3.9 GPA at FHHS while taking a variety of difficult science courses including AP classes. He’s focused and motivated in his studies and hopes for a future career in science. In addition to his passion for science, Shaughn has also been involved with drama, tennis, and track. He’s a member of ASB, the LEO Club and the Environmental Club. During the summer of 2010, Shaughn participated in an Independent Study at Friday Harbor Laboratories with Sandy Wyllie-Echeveria including analyzing seagrass leaf and seed tissue. Shaughn also contributed towards writing scientific papers co-authored by Sandy Wyllie-Echeveria and Adam Summers. As the Young Investigator Prize winner, Shaughn played a key role in summer research. He assisted Christina Bonsell, the REU mentored by Dr. Peter Swarzrnski and Sandy Wyllie-Echeveria, in a project to assess Ground Water Discharge in the San Juan Archipelago. His work included the deployment of sensors, setting up tanks for controlled experiments and collecting and analyzing samples for nitrate analysis. Also using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) he continues to characterize fine structure in the three species of seagrass (Zostera marina, Z. japonica and Phyllospadix scouleri) that are the focus of investigation by the Seagrass Lab at FHL.
2011 Winner (Part-time Internship): Mr. Robin Gropp, junior, Orcas Island High School.
A diligent student at Orcas Island High School, Robin has a 3.78 GPA while taking a variety of challenging courses including AP courses. He has been interested in the natural world since he was young and continues to explore areas of science. During the summer of 2009, Robin participated in a Farm Education and Sustainability course where he propagated pollutant-filtering oyster mushrooms near areas of high oil run-off. He also spent time with a school group in Costa Rica participating in tropical studies and environmental science at the La Selva Biological Research Station. There he studied behavioral patterns of leaf-cutter ants and symbiotic relations of Bromeliads with tropical trees. As a Young Investigator Prize Winner, Robin worked in the subtidal community ecology lab of Dr. Kenneth Sebens. Using digital photo analysis techniques and photos from the 1970s and 2000s, he tracked birth, growth and death rates of the native cold-water cup coral Balanophyllia elegans to explore effects of climate change on these organisms. Additionally, he served as surface support for diving operations and assisted with a lab experiment addressing cup coral growth rates.
2010 Winner: Mr. Stephen Chadwick, junior, Friday Harbor High School.
A high achieving student at Friday Harbor High School, Stephen Chadwick has taken almost every rigorous math and science class his school offers, ranging from AP Physics to AP Calculus, while still achieving a 3.96 GPA. He spends his time outside school working with friends to create science and electrical projects and is in the process of creating a “Physics and Engineering Club” at his school. In the summer of 2009, Stephen received an internship under Dr. Mike Kaill. He worked to monitor levels of surfactants in storm water run-off going into Friday Harbor. For his future, he plans to pursue a PhD and to work as a research scientist in one of the scientific fields he finds so interesting. As the Young Investigator Prize winner, Stephen spent the summer working on a wide variety of projects in the Spatial Subsidies Lab (Drs. David Duggins and Kevin Britton-Simmons). This research addressed the importance of seaweed biomass in "fueling" the entire nearshore ecosystem.
2009 Winner: Ms. Hannah Snow, junior, Friday Harbor High School.
As a 4.0 student at Friday Harbor High School, Hannah has maintained making the Principal’s Honor Roll since the start of her high school years while taking four Advanced Placement courses. She has spent several years participating on Washington State’s Ocean Sciences “Orca Bowl” team. A well-rounded student, Hannah plays the alto sax in her school’s Jazz and Concert band, she is the captain of the varsity soccer team, enjoys playing doubles tennis and is a member of the hiking club. She also greatly contributes to her community through various volunteer projects such as Relay for Life, Kicks for Breast Cancer, and by coaching soccer camp for local elementary school students. Hannah has also had the opportunity to work as a research assistant for Russel Barsh, a local scientist at Friday Harbor Labs and head of the KWIAHT Organization. This included testing water quality for surfactant levels, doing bioassays, and doing wetland entomology. As a Young Investigator Prize winner, Hannah worked with Emily Carrington during the summer of 2009. She helped with research on the effect of temperature shifts on species interactions. Specifically, Hannah helped with field and laboratory studies of the foraging patterns of intertidal whelks on their barnacle prey.
2008 Winner: Mr. Peter Duggins, junior, Spring Street International School.
Mr. Duggins is a 4.0 student at the Spring Street International School and a graduate of their unique program in Biotechnology and Immunology. In the summer of 2007, Mr. Duggins worked as a research assistant in Neurophysiology for Dr. A.O.D. Willows (Professor Biology, UW). This work on geomagnetic perception in Tritonia diomedia is part of an ongoing research program elucidating the neurophysiology and neural anatomy of this model marine invertebrate. In 2008, Mr. Duggins worked with Dr Pedro Verdugo (Professor Bioengineering, UW) on carbon cycles in the ocean, particularly the biochemistry and microbial utilization of aquatic gels. Mr. Duggins spent winter quarter (2008) studying in Southeast Asia and working on service projects including: construction of a micro-hydro power generator in a Karen refugee village (northern Thailand), and procurement of fire detection systems for Buddhist temples and monasteries (Bhutan).