M-W senior Shang Wang named semifinalist in national science competition

Central Valley - Monroe-Woodbury High School Senior Shang Wang, who is also the school’s student council president, has been named a semifinalist of the 70th annual Intel Science Talent Search competition. Wang, a Highland Mills resident, is one of 300 students — and only 14 within New York State — selected from 1,744 entrants representing 172 high schools nationwide who were named as semifinalists for this research competition for high school seniors. School officials said this pre-college science competition “brings together the best and brightest young scientific minds in America to compete for $1.25 million in awards.” Last year, as a junior, Wang received both high honors and a third place recognition in the Biomedical II category for his entry, “Activation of MAPK Pathways Causes Cytokine Induction in BEAS-2B Cells Exposed to WTC PM” at the 25th Annual Upstate New York Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at SUNY Albany, part of the Greater Capital Region Science and Engineering Fair and Science Congress, an affiliate of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. At the same time, Shang was also awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Excellence Award as well as the Albany College of Pharmacy Health and Science Biomedical Sciences Excellence Award. It was that same research that earned him the 2011 Intel honors. While Wang has previously said he’s still weighing a career path in law or biology, that same research was published in The Journal of Immunotoxicology. After spending two years working on that original research at a New York University laboratory in Sterling Forest, Wang said he “helped fill in the last pieces of the puzzle” about how the effects of dust from the World Trade Center disaster cause serious health problems.” In addition to serving as student council president, Wang is a member of the Latin Honor Society and vice president of the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society. He’s also a member of the varsity soccer team and plays saxophone for the school’s Wind Ensemble. Wang was also selected by American Legion Post 779 in Woodbury to attend the legion’s annual Boy’s State summer youth program last summer. Last month, Wang also had the distinction of representing not only the Monroe-Woodbury student body, but all high school students in Orange County during Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s first State of the State address in Albany. “It was an easy decision,” said Principal David Bernsley of selecting Wang to represent the school in Albany. “Shang is the best of what this school has to offer.” Shang remains hopeful about receiving acceptance letters from Harvard, Yale and Columbia universities. Since 1942, first in partnership with Westinghouse and beginning in 1998 with Intel, the program encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions and develop the skills to solve the problems of tomorrow, according to officials. Each Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist will be awarded $1,000. The semifinalist’s high school also will receive $1,000 to further support excellence in science, math and/or engineering education at the school. - Nancy Kriz