around
campus
EHS Students Attend Howard Hughes Lecture Series “Exploring Biodiversity”
T
hree Episcopal students attended the December 2009 lecture series “Exploring Biodiversity – The Search for New Medicines,” presented at the annual Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Holiday Lectures on Science. This year’s presentation discussed the effects nature and biodiversity have had on medicinal research. Mark Herzog ’11, Lanier Olsson ’11, and Jun Wu ’10 represented EHS at the two-day lecture for high school biology students, listening to presentations from keynote speakers Baldomero M. Olivera, Ph.D., and Bonnie L. Bassler, Ph.D. “Attending the lectures was a very enriching experience for me and exposed me to many new aspects of biodiversity and biology,” Olsson said. “I was encouraged to think about the impact of biology on the world and the endless opportunities it presents for study in the future.” Olivera, a professor of biology and neuroscientist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, discussed the marine cone snail and the ways its venom is used in medical research and the treatment of neurological diseases. Bassler, who won a 2002 MacArthur Fellowship, spoke about bacterial communication and how its disruption can be used to develop new drugs. “Science is an ever-changing and progressing field. So it’s one thing to read from a textbook about things that happened in years past, but a whole new, exhilarating experience to learn about new developments that won’t even make it into our textbooks for years, especially when we’re being taught by the scientists at the forefront of these studies,” Herzog said. n
Mark Herzog ’11 (far left), Lanier Olsson ’11, and Jun Wu ’10, pictured with their science teacher, Joe Halm, attended the annual Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Holiday Lectures on Science.
EHS Students Receive Athletic Honors
T
he Alexandria Sportsman’s Club honored three EHS students as Athlete(s) of the Month during the school year’s first semester: Abby Halm ’13 (left), cross country, received the honor in October; Alex Smith ’10, soccer, in November; and Shantell Bingham ’11, track and field, in December.
This fall, Hunter deButts ’10 was named Player of the Year by the Fairfax County Football Hall of Fame. He also was ranked among DCSportsFan.com’s Super 60, a listing of the site’s picks for the top 60 football players in the Washington, D.C., area.
EHS The Magazine of Episcopal High School
5