NHP’s Megha Gopal wins research grant

Noah Manskar

New Hyde Park eighth-grader Megha Gopal’s research project is getting the boost she hoped for.

Gopal, 13, is one of 10 winners of the 2016 Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Cogito Research Award, netting her a $599 grant to fund her research on how microorganisms can decompose a harmful chemical.

Gopal in November started the project to determine what microorganism could most effectively decompose Bisphenol A, or BPA, an environmentally harmful industrial chemical found in many plastics.

She’s conducted the project in New Hyde Park Memorial’s science labs, she said last month, using two fungi, two protysts and two bacteria.

“There’s a lot of BPA-filled plastics in our landfills, and those are very harmful to the soil, the plants, all the little organisms living in the soil,” Gopal said. “So this will get rid of the BPA completely.”

Gopal got the idea for her project from the work of two Indian scientists who found a certain type of fungus feeds on BPA, she said.

She can use the grant money to buy equipment, rent lab space or cover other expenses related to her project, a statement from the Center for Talented Youth said. Award winners will blog about their projects, work with supervisors to finish them and write final reports, the statement said.

Gopal was chosen from among 25 semifinalists in the national competition for students between ages 13 and 18. More than 254 students entered and had their proposals judged by a panel of faculty.

She was the first eighth- or ninth-grader from New Hyde Park Memorial High School to ever seek out and get a research grant, science research teacher Alison Radonis has said.

“She’s a very special young mind with a lot of potential,” Radonis said last month. “She’s a really good blending of innate intelligence and a very strong work ethic, which is a good combination for success.”

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