Schools

Huntington Senior Named Intel Semifinalist

Huntington senior Juli Coraor named an Intel Science semifinalist three months after being honored by Siemens.

Some moments just seem destined.

That was the case Wednesday when senior Juli Coraor was named an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist. 

There’s booksmart and then there’s a genetic expectation of brilliance. No doubt Coraor is both studious and genetically gifted. After all, her mother is a professor at Stony Brook University and older brother was also an Intel semifinalist.

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Coraor was one of 300 students nationwide chosen from among 1,839 entrants with her research paper, “The Impact of Compressive Misfit Strain on Improper Ferroelectricity in Lead Titanate/Strontium Titanate Superlattices.”

Coraor took freshman honors physics at Stony Brook University as a high school junior. She was a Simons Summer Research fellow and made the daily trip to the college campus over the summer to work on her project under the guidance of Physics Professor Matthew Dawber.

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“I wanted to see if strain – warping the materials – would have an effect on this improper ferroelectricity that we found in these specific materials,” Coraor explained as if breaking down an episode of the Jersey Shore. “I found it actually did have a strong effect.” 

Ferroelectric capacitors, for example, are used in medical ultrasound machines. Read Juli Coraor's research paper: PDF attached. 

Coraor, who carries a 105 weighted average and is in the top 5 percent of her class, is considering University of Chicago, Northwestern, Cornell, Princeton and Stony Brook. Her mother, Hanna Nekvasil, is a geochemistry professor at Stony Brook.

“Things the kids are doing right now I didn’t do until I had my masters and was working at a lab,” Huntington Honors Biology Teacher Lori Kenny said. “I never thought a [high school] student could do this caliber of work. Juli has done, in my opinion, post-doc work.”

The announcement came as Coraor was headed to a Quiz Bowl competition against Harborfields. Huntington also won Quiz Bowl.

When Coraor returned to Huntington High School Wednesday evening, Superintendent Jim Polansky – himself a former science teacher – along with Principal Carmela Leonardi and Kenny were on hand to greet and congratulate their star student.

It’s been a memorable year for the Huntington science department. was a Siemens Foundation Competition finalist in November. Coraor was named a Siemens semifinalist on Oct. 21. 

The last Intel semifinalist from Huntington was Everett Coraor in 2010. And before that? The year 2000.

The work earned Coraor a $1,000 award from Intel. The school also receives $1,000. Intel will announce 40 finalists on Jan. 25.  


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