HOLMDEL – A Holmdel High School student has been recognized for completing the two-week Waksman Student Scholars Program at the Waksman Institute at Rutgers University.
Junior Bill Zhang spent part of his summer recess conducting research as part of the Waksman Student Scholars program, which according to the district’s Supervisor of Science and Math Alicia Killean, has been an integral part of Holmdel High School’s Honors Advanced Research class for many years.
“Our partnership with the Waksman Institute has been a tremendous asset within our Honors Advanced Research class over the years,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert McGarry said in a prepared statement. “In addition to the research opportunity, the summer institute provides an opportunity to cultivate student leaders who can then transfer their knowledge and skills to other students in this course.”
During the two-week workshop, Zhang learned the fundamentals of isolating, sequencing and analyzing segments of DNA of an organism never before analyzed.
Students in the program conduct original research, and when their research is successful, the results are published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
“When the scientific world goes to NCBI and references these clones they will write that our students are the first authors,” Holmdel High School teacher Dr. Josephine Blaha said in the statement.
Blaha said Zhang will serve as her teaching assistant when the Honors Advanced Research course gets underway at the high school this coming year.
“I’ve gone from having an abstract perspective of basic biology principles to developing a concrete ability of applying what I have learned to carry out experiments and produce publication-quality data,” Zhang said in the statement. “I am excited to pass on the knowledge and skills I have gained to students back at Holmdel High School this coming year.”