Local high school student wins $75,000
LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWSNOW) — Grace Sun, a junior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, won $75,000 when she received the George D. Yancopoulos Award.
“I essentially developed a new chemical strategy to improve the performance of these bioelectronic devices which can be implanted in the human body, or worn as clothing, for easier and more accurate disease diagnostics, as well as treating certain disorders like organ failure by stimulating artificial brain impulses or heartbeats,” Sun said.
After seven months of intensive research and countless hours in the lab, she showed judges at the International Science and Engineering Fair what she created.
“These devices are called n-Type organic electrochemical transistors,” she said. “I developed a novel and cost-effective approach using chemical doping to improve these already made transistors.”
She adds that the commercialization of these devices could revolutionize medical diagnostics and treatment.
“They’re compatible with the human body because they’re made of organic materials – like how our bodies are also made of organic materials,” she said. “[This] allows for it to reduce a lot of tissue damage and toxicity to the body.”
She did all of this while still being a full-time high school student. Sun says the Math Science Technology Center Program at her school helped give her the time to conduct her research.
“They actually promote us to do research by allowing us to have one block every other day to be able to leave the school to go do research,” she said.
When asked about her future plans, Sun says first on the list is getting into college.
“I would love to start a business to push these into industries so they could impact real people, in real settings, and real time,” she said.
She says she could not have done any of this without the support of her parents, friends, and those who stayed extra hours with her in the lab.
“It’s never too early to start research, it’s never too early to figure out a problem in the world that you want to see solved, and to actively push into that direction,” Sun said.
