Esther Chai, Townsend Harris High School, New York

Esther Chai is a junior at Townsend Harris High School in Flushing, New York. She is an experienced member of Townsend Harris High School’s Science Olympiad team, having competed in Disease Detectives, Anatomy and Physiology, Microbe Mission, and other biology related events over the past two years. She also serves as a biology captain and resource liaison in Science Olympiad. Her love for science prompted her to enroll in Townsend Harris High School’s three year science research program, in which she applied fundamental principles of scientific research to her own experiments. Esther also pursued her interest outside of school and is truly grateful for the opportunity she received to conduct research at Memorial Sloan Kettering over this past summer, where she developed a passion for cellular and molecular biology research. The dedication and excitement that all the scientists had shown throughout her summer there inspired her to pursue research as a potential profession in the future. Watching patients walk in and out of MSK also served as a source of inspiration, as she connects the impact of research to the everyday lives of people. Esther feels that the most satisfying and rewarding part of research is finding the answers to your own questions and utilizing your findings for real-world applications. She believes that the implications of research are never ending - everything in life revolves around our health and biology. Esther’s ultimate dream is to become a physician-scientist in the field of biomedicine, where she can direct the goals of her research to the betterment of society.