Senior Wins Grand Prize at Regional Science Fair

Peter Mintun ’10 was honored for being one of the two Grand Prize Winners in the Northeast Ohio Science and Engineering Fair at an awards ceremony on Thursday, March 18 at Cleveland State University. As a grand prize winner, he qualifies for entry in the International Science and Engineering Fair to be held in San Jose, California in May.

Peter’s research project that was coordinated through Hawken School’s STEMM program, part of the school’s Readiness Initiative. Under the guidance of mentor Xuan Gao, PhD, of the Case Western Reserve Physics Department, Peter studied nanotechnology, testing three experimental methods of aligning nanowires to determine the most effective ways to manipulate them for use in electronic devices.

All nine Hawken students that entered the competition received recognition at the awards ceremony on Thursday. Junior Joe Soltzberg received first prize in biology and also received awards from CCF Lerner Research Institute and from the Office of Civic Education Initiative. Senior Randi Michel, senior Julia Bramante, and junior Catherine Blebea tied for 2nd place in Health and Medicine; Catherine also receive an award from the Society of In Vitro Biology. Other Hawken placers included sophomore Ani Dasarathy, who took 3rd place in physics and received an award from the Statistical Society; senior Spencer Hobson, who placed 2nd in engineering and received an award from ASM International; junior Hannah Kerman, who placed 3rd in biology and received an award from the Cleveland Clinic Cell Biology Department, and junior David Parker, who placed 3rd in biology.

Congratulations to all of our Hawken scientists!