The Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science hosted an awards celebration for its second edition of the biennial York University Biophysics Contest for high school students. The event, which took place June 15, was attended by 20 (of 24) of the award recipients along with their guests, several teachers and numerous undergraduate majors in biophysics. A team from Stratford, Ontario, even made the journey to the Keele Campus.
High school student Kira Teramoto is congratulated by Marshall McCall, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy
To participate in the contest, students produced an 8 ½” x 11” poster relating a concept in physics to an issue in biology or medicine. A total of 73 entries were received from teams of up to four students. The following first-prize awards were given:
- For Grades 9-10, first prize went to Abiali Badani of the Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute in Toronto, for the poster titled “The Phyics and Biology of Flight in Animals.”
- For Grades 11-12, first prize went to Kira Teramoto of St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton, for the poster “Waves > DNA?!”
Both students received $1,000, as well as $250 for their school’s science department. In addition to being treated to dinner, the attendees were entertained by a talk about the physics of bees by Professor Scott Menary of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
After the proceedings, undergraduate students took the guests on tours of the York Observatory and an antimatter physics laboratory. Professor Robert Tsushima, chair of the Department of Biology, guided them through various facilities in the Life Sciences Building.