This page will contain a running record of all the amazing efforts of our Science Research team.

Brookhaven Lab's Computational Science Initiative (CSI) excels at integrating computer science, applied mathematics, and computational science with broad domain expertise to tackle problems and advance knowledge impacting scientific discovery. CSI's newest program, CSI Spark, fosters students as they conduct hypothesis-driven research through collaborations with scientific experts at Brookhaven Lab. This experience enables students to actively contribute to the scientific community, obtain real research experience, and motivates students to consider careers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.  Commack junior Ishaan S. was accepted into this novel program and is being mentored by Dr. Mathew Carbone, Computational Scientist at BNL as he conducts his work on Machine Learning.

 

The Columbia University Science Honors Program (SHP) is a highly selective program for high school students who have a strong interest in the sciences and mathematics. Sophomore Mehek S. and Junior Sahaj P. were accepted into this rigorous program, committing to spending each Saturday during the academic year in classes with Columbia professors.  SHP instructors are scientists and mathematicians who are actively engaged in research, and Mehek and Sahaj have chosen to concentrate their program work on Chemistry. 

On October 15^th and 16th, Commack High School Science Research students had the opportunity to participate in the Harvard Science Research Conference (HSRC). HSRC is a two-day conference for exceptional high school students, hosted on Harvard’s campus that will entail a series of speakers, workshops, and mentoring sessions designed to encourage and promote interest in the natural sciences as well as research. Students are invited to apply to participate, and then are selected to be part of the HSRC cohort. This year, Commack was represented at the conference by the following students:
 

Lily A., Kenzie A., Juliette A., Saswati B., Amana G., Manya K., Abigail K., Shivani M., Sahaj P., Saharsh P., Amantej R., Anna R., Mehek S., Ishaan S., & Jonathan Z.

 

While at the conference, students have the opportunity to take part in the Innovation Challenge, a competition where students work collaboratively with other high school students from all over the country to design a solution to a real-world problem. This year, two of our students who chose to participate were honored as First Place winners for their projects. These recognized students are:

Sophomore research student, Akarsh C., is part of a team working under Dr. Hu at Stony Brook University, studying the dormancy cycles of the killifish. The goals of this program are to learn how to turn back, pause, and fast forward the clock of life, by studying the African killifish and its dormant state, known as Diapause. Apart from his in-school Research work, Akarsh will be part of a group including other students from across the country participating in this real world, authentic Science Research investigation. For more information about this research, check out the Dormant Biology Lab website.

 

Alumni students of the Research Program's StanMack class are being published for the work done in our in-house program, which collaborates with other high schools internationally as well as Stanford University. Students involved in our program over the 2020 to 2022 school years are represented in the paper, which will be published in the journal G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics. This is the second time Commack has been recognized with publication for their StanMack work. The article, An international scholastic network to generate LexA enhancer-trap lines for Drosophila, showcases the students' work over their time in the program, focusing on creating tools for scientists studying endocrine disorders, specifically Diabetes, through enhancer trapping. 

 

Commack continues to be the only public high school in the world contributing to this program. StanMack is ongoing with our current class, who continue this work as Junior and Senior Research students performing graduate level research in a high school setting.