WATERLOO, Ontario, Canada, October 2010 - Markham, Ontario's Romina Abachi is the 2011 winner of the Luke Santi Memorial Award for Student Achievement presented by Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI). The award honours Luke Santi, a student at Resurrection High School in Kitchener who volunteered with PI’s Outreach department and attended Perimeter’s International Summer School for Young Physicists (ISSYP) in 2007. Later that year, he passed away at the age of 16 from a form of brain cancer. The award is presented annually to a Canadian student who demonstrates Luke’s many qualities – academic performance, interest in science, extra-curricular activities and volunteering – and has begun post-secondary education in a physical sciences program at a Canadian university.
This year’s recipient, Romina Abachi, is a former student of Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Toronto, now attending the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Along with the Luke Santi Memorial Award, Romina’s academic accomplishments include the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Innovation Award and two gold medals at the Toronto Regional Sci-Tech Fair, most recently for her project “Using Photonic Crystals to Enhance the Efficiency of Solar Cells”. She has also received numerous awards for having top marks at her high school, as well as in the Fermat and Fryer national math contests.
In addition to her academic achievements, Romina has been involved in her high school’s Nature Studies Club as co-founder and vice-president, the Eco-Team, and multiple athletic teams. In her community, Romina won the Identify N Impact Award for youth achievers for her work founding the Youth Sarcoma Initiative (YSI). Along with two friends, she founded this for-youth by-youth group and acquired multiple grants to help organize city-wide fundraising projects across Toronto. The funds raised by YSI go directly to research at Toronto’s SickKids hospital.
Since the fall of 2009, Romina has been involved in the University of Toronto’s Mentorship Program. Under the supervision of Professor Andreas Mandelis, she has worked on multiple experiments analyzing methods of solar-cell testing in the mechanical engineering department’s Centre for Advanced Diffusion-Wave Technologies (CADFIT). She has most recently been working on experiments testing the emissivity of metallic surfaces as a function of the degree of oxidation.
Romina’s many accomplishments will be recognized on stage at the November 2 PI Public Lecture featuring Dr. Fay Dowker. Following the public lecture, Romina and her family will enjoy a special celebratory dinner with the Santi family and Dr. Dowker.
For more information about the Luke Santi Memorial Award for Student Achievement, please visit http://www.lukesantiaward.ca/.
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Romina Abachi, recipient of the 2011 Luke Santi Memorial Award for Student Achievement.
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About Perimeter Institute
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) is an independent, non-profit, scientific research organization working to advance our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. Located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, PI also provides a wide array of research training and educational outreach activities to nurture scientific talent and share the importance of discovery and innovation among students, teachers and the general public. In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, PI is a successful example of public-private collaboration in scientific research, training and outreach.
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/ | | |
