Churchill Student Wins $1,500 Research Scholarship

A Potomac student has won the chance to present original research at a national sciences competition, and the opportunity to win thousands in college scholarships.

Daniel Liu, a student at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, was one of 200 competitors in this year’s Junior Science and Humanities Symposia regional program hosted at Georgetown University. The national program sponsored by the Academy of Applied Sciences and the U.S. Department of Defense is designed to engage students in science, technology, engineering and math through a scholarship competition and original research presentations. 

Liu won the regional JSHS $1,500 scholarship award for his paper, titled "PGC-1a Protects Cardiomyocytes from Antiretroviral Drug-induced Mitochondrial Toxicity,” about using cell proteins to protect human cardiovascular cells from damage caused by drugs commonly used to treat HIV.

A student at the Magnate Research Program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring was awarded the top JSHS regional scholarship award of $2,000, while a Virginia student won the third-place $1,000 scholarship.

All will go on to present their research at the National JSHS in Dayton, Ohio. During last year’s national competition in Bethesda, first place winners received a total of $12,000 in scholarships, second place winners received $8,000 and third place winners received $4,000.