This year, Jefferson took home two grand prize winners at the 57th annual Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair. Senior Cynthia Li won for her project regarding Cellular and Molecular Biology, while Daniel Jang, Hansen Qian, and Matthew Rudin took home the team prize in Energy and Transportation.

Jim Jarvis, Jefferson’s lead coordinator, attributes the students’ successes to depth of their topic and the quality of their presentations. “If you get a student who does a very good job and can’t explain it well, it’s not going to go very far,” said Jarvis.

Li’s project sponsor, Andrea Cobb, also associates Li’s victory with her dedication to the topic. Cobb told us that Li had attended Cobb’s three week summer research session prior to competition and was thus able to complete her project, “CSC Characterization at 50 percent and 100 percent Confluency” far in advance.

“She understood everything about her project so she was able to explain it well,” said Cobb.

“I already had an intense interest in the field, so that already motivated me,” Li said of her project. “This was something I wanted to do, so I was pretty eager to get results.”

From here, Li as well as the team winners are immediately eligible for the international competition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 13-18.

The full regional competition results are posted here.