March 14, 2012, 8:04 a.m.

First Bell starts this spring-like Wednesday morning with some good news: Mimi Yen, a student at Stuyvesant High School, was a top finalist in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search for her studies of microscopic worms.

Mimi, 17, who lives in Brooklyn, was awarded third-place honors and a $50,000 prize Tuesday night after the final round of the competition in Washington. In a news release, the Intel Science Talent Search folks, who call the annual event the nations most elite and demanding high school research competition, described her work as a study of evolution and genetics, which focuses on microscopic worms, specifically looking at their sex habits and hermaphrodite tendencies.

The news release goes on to say:

Mimi believes that through research such as hers, we may better understand the genes that contribute to behavioral variations in humans. Mimi was born in Honduras and is fluent in Cantonese. She plays French horn and volunteers to prepare and deliver meals to people with serious illnesses.

In January, SchoolBook profiled Mimi and the two other students from New York City who made the Intel finals Huihui Fan, 17, from Staten Island, also from Stuyvesant, who studied how to genetically improve the shape of crop plants roots; and Danielle Goldman, 17, of the Bronx High School of Science, who studied anxiety disorders among young people.

Mimi responded to an e-mail from Elbert Chu, the reporter for that profile, the day before the finals in Washington, saying: The week is winding down now were going to be meeting our senators tomorrow and then were headed to the gala for the awards ceremony.

She went on to say: Ive been making notes of the week thus far, just in case any future finalists from Stuyvesant need some guidance. Its been really fun all the other finalists are such interesting people. Although the judging interviews were pretty brutal, they were also incredibly humbling makes me realize just how much more there is to learn.

Congratulations to Mimi, as well as Huihui and Danielle. And kudos, as well, to a student from Westchester County, who took fifth place and was awarded $30,000 in the competition: Benjamin van Doren of White Plains, who investigated a poorly understood behavior of nocturnal migratory birds, called morning flight, which has potential implications for the growing wind power industry.

In other news this Wednesday, The Daily News reports that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is trying to drum up public support for the deal he brokered in January with the teachers unions that established the framework for a new teacher evaluation system.

Original post:
Brooklyn Student Takes Third Place in National Intel Competition