Student STEM Symposium

A Look Back

Past Speakers

List of 8 items.

  • 2014: Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D.

    Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In addition to patient care, she is actively involved with medical education and research. Dr. Natterson-Horowitz also holds a professorship in the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and is Co-Director of the Evolutionary Medicine Program at UCLA.
    Read More
  • 2015: Dr. Cathy Olkin

    Dr. Cathy Olkin is a planetary scientist who studies icy outer solar system worlds. Her interests include spacecraft investigations of these worlds and, as a member of the New Horizons team, she is involved in a mission to capture our first close-up look at Pluto. Additional research interests include near-IR spectroscopy to study planetary surfaces and stellar occultation observations to investigate planetary atmospheres. She is also training to perform research aboard commercial suborbital vehicles.
    Read More
  • 2016: Dr. Gary Michelson, M.D.

    Dr. Michelson is a board certified orthopedic spinal surgeon. He is the sole named inventor of more than 950 patents issued worldwide. His inventions have made spinal surgery much safer, more effective and reliable, less invasive, have diminished surgical blood loss, shortened operating times, reduced anesthetic exposure, reduced surgical complications, have shortened hospital stays and recovery times, and have become the gold standard throughout the world.
    Read More
  • 2017: Tracy Drain

    Tracy Drain is a Flight Systems Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. She currently serves as the Deputy Chief Engineer for the Juno mission. She received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In her 16 years at JPL, she has participated in the development and operation of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Kepler mission and the Juno mission.
    Read More
  • 2018: Lauren Lyons '01

    After her time at Archer, Lauren graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a minor in bioengineering. She then went on to earn a master’s degree in Business and Government Policy from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    Read More
  • 2019: Dr. Belinda Tan

    Dr. Belinda Tan is a physician-scientist, educator, entrepreneur, and tinkerer at heart. As an entrepreneur, she is driven by the audacious goal of building a universal medical-scientific ecosystem that will connect all people to scientists. She is inspired by the potential for creativity, science, and technology together to catalyze the best ideas into healthier living for all humankind. 
    Read More
  • 2022: Dr. Patricia Gordon

    Dr. Patricia Gordon left her radiation oncology practice of 10 years to address the global epidemic of cervical cancer. She is the Founding Director and Board Chair for CureCervicalCancer, a 501(c)(3) devoted to early detection and prevention of cervical cancer mainly in developing countries, with goals to raise awareness worldwide.
    Read More
  • 2023: Dr. Christina Harris

    Dr. Christina Harris was appointed Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer for Cedars-Sinai Health System in July 2022. In this strategic leadership position, Dr. Harris guides Cedars-Sinai's ongoing efforts to advance health equity by addressing health disparities in clinical care, supporting equity-centered research and education and fostering meaningful partnerships across the organization and communities throughout Los Angeles. She attended the University of Southern California for college and completed her medical degree at Harvard Medical School. She then went on to complete an Internal Medicine residency at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. 

    Dr. Harris is currently a Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, she was on faculty at the Greater Los Angeles VA where she was an associate program director in the UCLA Internal Medicine Residency Program and the Associate Vice Chair of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the UCLA Department of Medicine. Dr. Harris has published and lectured locally and nationally on issues related to racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia and clinical medicine. Clinically, she is general internist and has spent the last 16 years providing primary care to patients across a variety of settings, including a federal qualified health center, academic medical centers, and the VA.

2022 Select Student Presentations

  • MisophoniAway: Developing and Testing a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-driven acute treatment for Misophonia and Hyperacusis
    Presenter: Quincy Gordon ’22 - Archer School For Girls
  • Reducing Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease in Fruit Flies
    Presenter: Anna Entin ’24- Archer School For Girls
  • Development of a Prosthetic Liner with Active Cooling to Enhance Amputee Comfort
    Presenter: Caitlin Cruz ’22 and Allison Risha ’22 - Flintridge Sacred Heart
  • The Connection Between Redlining and Water Quality
    Presenter: Alina Montalvan ’23 - Palos Verdes High School
  • Examining the effects of heart supplements on the differentiation process of human-induced pluripotent stem cells to cardiomyocytes
    Presenter: Mohuli Ganguly ’24 - La Salle High School
  • Protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids against oxidative stress-induced collagen degradation of Tilapia fish scale
    Presenter: Kate Chiang ’23 & Anjali Mani ’23 - Gretchen Whitney High School
  • What makes e-cigarettes taste so good and at what cost: finding the effects of flavoring agents on cellular respiration using Aliivibrio Fischeri bacteria.
    Presenter: Siena Guralnick ’23 - De Toledo High School
  • An Alternative for the Tenaculum Instrument in Women’s Medicine
    Presenter: Madison Wong ’23- Granada Hills Charter High School

2019 Select Student Presentations

  • Nitrogen Content on the Production of Antioxidants and β-methylamino-L-alanine in Arthrospira platensis
    Presenter: Lauren E. '20 - The Archer School for Girls
  • The role of isolation and socialization on food and drug addiction in Drosophila melanogaster
    Presenter: Amireh M. '20 - The Archer School for Girls
  • Light-Sensing Exposure Therapy Toy for Children with Darkness Phobia
    Presenter: Marie C. '19 - The Archer School for Girls
  • Are Microplastics Present in Sea Salts of Different Qualities?
    Presenter: Karen G. '23 - The Archer School for Girls and 2019 California State Science Fair winner 
  • Silencing Bacterial Communication: How One Glowing Flask Might Rescue Us from the Antibiotic Resistance Crisis
    Presenters: Winnie Cai and Samantha Covey - Flintridge Sacred Heart
  • Growing Plants in a Simulated Martian Environment
    Presenters: Sophia Anderson - Buckley 
  • Sustaining a Biodegradable Environment Through the Use of PolyLactic Acid and Compost
    Presenters: Aliza Arya and Leslie Almaraz - East College Prep
  • Fighting Carbon with Carbon: Effect of Carbon Supplementation and Reducing Agents on Growth and Lipid Productivity in Chlorella Sorokiniana 
    Presenters: Sophie Johnson and Julia Powers - Flintridge 
  • Determining the Ecological Interaction in Vertebrate Scat Using DNA Barcoding
    Presenters: Rebeca Castro and Caitlyn Ossa - Webb

2017 Select Student Presentations

  • How Glowing Bacteria Can Provide New Tools to Fight Antibiotic Resistance: Inhibition of Quorum Sensing in Vibrio harveyi Using Plant Extracts: Cinnamaldehyde, Tannic Acid, and Thymoquinone
    Presenters: Bridget Garrity, Camilla Homans, and Sarah Peterson – Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy
  • The Effect of Sodium Ascorbate on the Proliferation of Embryonic Mesenchymal Stem Cells on the Chick Chorioallantoic Membrane
    Presenters: Sidney V. '19 – The Archer School for Girls
  • Environmental Effects on Health and Behavior  of Nematodes
    Presenter: Emma Chusid – The Buckley School
  • How Intentional Fidgeting Can Benefit Students with Attention Disorders Including ADD and ADHD
    Presenter: Caroline Kester – Viewpoint
  • Utilizing the ELISA technique to analyze the presence of gamma globulin antigen in chicken
    Presenters: Anissa Medina and Skyler Rivera – Vivian Webb School

2018 Select Student Presentations

  • Shed the Lead: Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Growth and Phytoremediation Ability of Tomatoes in Pb/Cd Contaminated Soil
    Presenter: Aviva I. ’19 – The Archer School for Girls
  • Novel Apple Watch Application to Prevent and Report Sexual Harrassment and Assault
    Presenter: Sammy R. ’19 – The Archer School for Girls
  • The Detrimental Effects of Caffeine
    Presenters: Shayna B. ’23 and Violet J. ’23 – The Archer School for Girls
  • ADHD (ADHD Driver Helping Device): An Innovative App Designed for Driving Safer
    Presenter: Bella P. ’18 – The Archer School for Girls
  • Research and development of biodegradable, efficient and affordable sanitary napkin
    Presenters: Constance Chiang and Melissa Cerna – Granada Hills Charter High School
  • The Solution to Pollution is Substitution
    Presenters: Zabdi Gonzalez and Aliza Arya – USC East College Prep
  • Stop Stressing Out!
    Presenter: Ana Paula Gonzalez – The Buckley School

2016 Select Student Presentations

  • Assembly of an easy-to-modify photosynthetic bacterial chassis
    Presenters: V. Chen, L. Chen, E. Wang – Alverno High School
  • A Rapid Urinary Detector for Lyme Disease
    Presenter: M. Yamada, Archer
  • Effects of Ocean Acidification on Dimethylsulfide Production by Emiliania Huxleyi
    Presenter: L. Namazie, Archer
  • Small But Mighty: How Microalgae Can Generate New Transportation Fuel
    Presenter: D. Fradet, Flintridge Sacred heart Academy
  • Killer Combos: Cooperative Cytotoxicity of Plant Hormones with Known Chemotherapy
    Presenter: L. DiPietro & A. Carter – Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy
  • A Comparative Analysis of Chemiluminescence and Bioluminescence: Nature’s Light Show
    Presenter: E. Hupe & A. Delgado, The Webb School
The Archer School for Girls admits students of any race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or other legally protected status to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation or other legally protected status in its hiring or in the administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, financial aid programs or other school-administered programs. 

The Archer School for Girls’ mission is to educate students in an environment specifically designed for girls. As such, the school will consider any candidate for admission who identifies as a girl. Once admitted to Archer, all students in good academic standing who abide by Archer’s code of conduct and who meet requirements for graduation will be eligible to receive an Archer diploma, regardless of any change in sexual identity or other legally protected status.