Baltimore, MD (May 28, 2015)
Valentina Lohr, a rising Junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA, worked with IMET Professor Allen Place to investigate her idea for controlling the toxic fresh-water alga Microcystis aeruginosa. Valentina’s novel approach was to use an inhibitor of the mycosporine amino acid shinorine to make Microcystis aeruginosa more prone to photo-oxidation (“sunburn”) in nature.
Valentina's work culminated in a paper titled: "Targeted Nonlethal Disruption of Ultraviolet Photoprotection in Microcystis aeruginosa". In the category Microbiology and Cell Biology, Valentina received the Ann M. Hancock Cellular Biology award for outstanding work in Cellular Biology, the Virginia Sea Grant Award for environmental research, the Virginia Academy of Sciences award for best research paper as determined by the senior members of VAS, and the Erle Thompson Memorial Endowment Fund Award to pay for presentation of her paper at a national conference in Washington DC in February. At the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, she received an award for outstanding work in environmental science.