The Society for Science’s Regeneron Science Talent Search is one of America’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competitions. This year, their announcement of the top scholars features Nitya Sunkad (‘21), one of 300 winners total chosen from over 1,760 applicants.

The application process is open from June to November to any high school senior  looking to pursue a project in math or science.

“I was initially kind of scared to start my project because I had heard that most people who submit to STS(Science Talent Search) worked for a really long time on their projects. It was already August of senior year and I thought it was too late for me to start, but I ended up going through it anyway,” said Sunkad (‘21).

Her project was titled “Effects of Spaceflight on Gene Expression Patterns in Dermal Tissue” and focused on how space biology affects human genetics.

“Basically, the idea was that living things undergo a lot of genetic changes in space because the physical environment out there is really different. For my project, I looked at the skin and hair and how those genes change in an outer space environment,” explained Sunkad (‘21).

This research could have large scientific implications and contribute greatly to our knowledge of space flight.

“It’s important to understand these biological changes because they could have pretty big physiological effects on the astronauts we plan to send to the space station and the moon, and we want to find ways to prevent some of the negative changes from happening,” said Sunkad (‘21).

Nitya found inspiration for her project in an unlikely place: Amador’s Career Day, a day where job workers set up stalls to showcase their respective jobs.

“Space biology is a pretty niche topic, and to be completely honest, I never would have heard of it if it hadn’t been for [that]. The guy at the NASA booth told me about NASA’s GeneLab for space biology, and I went home and Googled it and applied to their summer program for high schoolers. They taught us a lot there, and the whole experience of learning about space biology gave me the tools and skills I used in my individual project for STS. So the stuff we did at NASA was separate from my STS research, but it was my biggest inspiration,” Sunkad (‘21) explained.

The Talent Search provides students like Nitya with not only prize money, but also a national audience for them to present their research to. This year, COVID-19 has halted a lot of activities, so the competition is a double boon in helping students maintain their academic curiosity about the solutions to unsolved questions.