Two students from Fairfax County Public Schools received the Grand Prize at the Virginia Science and Engineering Fair, held on April 11 at the Bolick Center on the campus of Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville. Fifty-seven FCPS students participated in this state-level competition.
The Grand Prize was awarded to Daniil Prokofev and Harshpreet Singh, both from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Prokofev won for his project titled “From SMILES to Synergy: Overcoming Drug Resistance in ER+ Breast Cancer,” while Singh earned recognition for his work on “Real-Time Magnetic Field Modeling using Physics Infused Neural Operators.” Both projects qualified these students for participation in the International Science and Engineering Festival scheduled to take place in Phoenix, Arizona, from May 10-15.
In addition to the grand prizes, several other FCPS students were recognized across various categories. Julia Hatcher of Madison High School took first place in Animal Sciences with her project examining lead effects from vape smoke on C. elegans. Alina Albeik of Marshall High School won first place in Behavioral and Social Sciences for her study into resveratrol’s impact on memory persistence.
Other notable achievements included first-place awards for Madeline Levorson (Microbiology) and additional honors or honorable mentions across fields such as Biomedical Sciences, Cell Biology, Environmental Sciences, Material Science, Microbiology, Physics, Robotics, and more. Special awards went to several participants: Albeik received the John Bercow Award; Prokofev earned the Citadel Securities Innovation Prize; Shiv Davay was honored by the Office of Naval Research; Aahan Sachdeva secured first place with Leidos Award for Excellence in Computational Science; Nivedita Gupta placed second with an award from the Virginia Section of American Water Works Association.
The strong showing by FCPS students highlights their engagement with scientific research at a high level and provides them opportunities to present their work nationally.
