Congrats to Jyotishka and Shalom, and a special thanks to the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt for sharing the following news release with us!

Students at the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt land first publication Two members of the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt will be seeing their names in print as lead authors on their first scientific manuscript. Jyotishka Biswas and Shalom Rottman-Yang, seniors at the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt have just reached a milestone that most scientists don’t achieve until they are well into graduate school. . . having chief authorship on their first publication in a scientific journal. In most universities, this accomplishment is a fundamental requirement in order to be awarded a PhD in a scientific discipline. But, as they are finishing up their senior years in high school, Jyotishka and Shalom have their sights set on a much more humble experience of starting their undergraduate education. Jyotishka has his sights set on Georgia Tech and Shalom is looking to head off to Princeton next fall. Both have stated that they would like to continue working in a lab during their undergraduate years. Their work which was recently published in the Journal of Electrochemical Society http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/2.095204jes represents a substantial contribution to the electrophoretic deposition research community on par with the contributions that have been made by other professional scientists in the community. Their findings could facilitate the production of intact, but ultra-thin carbon nanotube films at an industrial scale, which could have implications in applications, such as flexible electronics, ballistic protection, and ultra-light fabrics. In addition to their time spent at Hume-Fogg High School, Jyotiska and Shalom have been coming to Vanderbilt University for one day a week for the last four years. The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV) is a joint venture between Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and offers high school students an interdisciplinary, research-centered learning experience that culminates with students entering laboratories of Vanderbilt Researchers for a year-long internship. Students write up these projects to submit to national competitions such as the Siemens Science Competition where Jyotiska and Shalom were recently named regional finalists. The SSMV has received funding from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, the Nashville Alliance for Public Education, the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health, and other generous donors.