Teen scientist's cancer research earns $40,000 prize

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1928719,CST-NWS-bioprize09.article

December 9, 2009

BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA Staff Reporter [e-mail]

Is this kid for real?

That's the first reaction when you read 17-year-old Marissa Suchyta's dossier.

Marissa, of South Barrington, is a senior at the University of Chicago lab school, who just crowned that dossier with a third-place win in the nation's premier high school science contest.

And third place in the Siemens Competition national finals isn't bad.

Not when it comes with $40,000 -- and not when you began the competition up against 1,500 of the nation's top teen scientists, whittled down to six who met in New York.

"I feel great. I'm very excited to have had such a wonderful opportunity to share my research with the scientific community," a very professional Marissa said Tuesday.

The honor she earned this week for her research into how a protein called geminin blocks DNA from replicating -- which has implications in developing new treatments for diseases like cancer -- is only one of her many accomplishments.

This straight-A student is taking three college courses at the University of Chicago. At the lab school, she's a peer leader, president of the Gavel Club, captain of the Forensics Team, captain of the Mock Trial Team and a member of the Model United Nations team. This year, she placed second at nationals in the National History Day Competition.

[coffeenap]

1. I know this girl--she has been this way since kindergarten! :)

nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Damnit, I hate this.

People like this makes all us lazy underachievers look like lazy underachievers.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. Yeah, really.

Hell, I have busted ass my whole life in school -- 12 years of grade school and 12 years of college, earned three degrees, including a Juris Doctor (law degree). Hell, I feel like a lazy underachiever -- because I've never had a job where my two degrees were being used or were part of the qualifications.

And I felt stupid because I was not smart eough to go to med school.

[Greyhound]

4. $40K is almost enough for a whole semester at a top-tier university.

Where's the Gates foundation support for this obviously exceptional woman? Isn't this the kind of thing they are always advertising their mission?

Where's the full ride at MIT for her?

[Odin2005]

5. +1 for smart women!

:D :evilgrin: