Xiaolei Cong
During the TREES program, Xiaolei was a rising senior at Downingtown East High School. He enjoys examining scientific issues from a business perspective. During TREES, he tested whether or not biodegradable corn plastic could be used as disposable pipets. His near-future goal is to dual major in chemical engineering and economics. Xiaolei is hoping to save our environment one pipet at a time. He currently attends the University of Pennsylvania and plans to major in finance and systems engineering with an environmental focus.
Peter Durlacher
Peter was a rising sophomore at Haverford High School the summer he attended TREES. He is very interested in preserving the environment so that life can continue to exist on Earth. In the TREES Program, Peter tested whether a dog’s mouth was cleaner than a human’s mouth in an attempt to disprove the urban legend that dogs’ mouths are cleaner.
Hayden Dahmm
Hayden Dahmm was a rising senior at Springfield High School while he attended TREES. During his time at TREES, Hayden studied the presence of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in a local waterway with the use of a yeast assay. He performed this experiment as a continuation of a similar project that he did this past school year. Hayden hopes to pursue a career in environmental engineering or environmental policy. He currently attends Swarthmore College (Class of 2015) and plans to major in environmental engineering and public policy.
Tommy Pan Fang
During his time at TREES, Tommy was a rising senior at St. Stephen’s School in Rome, Italy. In his free time, he enjoys talking to Oxfam representatives, eating genuine Italian food, and jaywalking. He has interests in environmental engineering and developing alternative fuels to power the world, and worked on bioremediation of glycerol for his TREES project. However, he believes that his greatest contribution to the environment will be raising the awareness of the community of “green” issues. Tommy currently attends the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (Class of 2015) and plans to major in computer science or finance.
Joy Wang
Joy was a rising junior at Council Rock High School South when she attended the TREES program. When not spending time in the lab, Joy can be found practicing and performing her violin, competing on her school’s debate and math team, and coaching her middle school MathCounts team. Her project this summer focuses on the filtration of synthetic estrogen using activated charcoal. In the future, Joy hopes to find a career that combines her interest in alternative energy development with her passion for scientifically and environmentally-minded public policy. Joy also returned to coordinate the TREES program in the summer of 2012. She is now attending Harvard University (Class of 2016) and plans to major in physics and/or environmental science and public policy.
Jeremy Wortzel
Jeremy loves the outdoors, and is passionate about living a more sustainable life and wants to help his friends and school become “greener”. In addition to his environmental ambitions, he loves playing jazz drums as well as acting on stage. This summer his research focused on carbon sequestration. His project sequestered CO2 in lime water, and stored it in the form of calcium carbonate, which could then be used to make cement. The goal of this project is to lower CO2 emission from fossil fuel combustion, and then store the CO2 in a safe and practical manner. Hopefully, this concept can be applied to home heating systems to prevent residences from emitting excess CO2. Jeremy returned to coordinate the TREES program in the summer of 2011. He is now attending Brown University (Class of 2016) and plans to major in environmental engineering.
Rupali Singhal
Rupali was a rising senior at Springside School in Philadelphia when she attended the TREES program. She says, “I decided to apply to the TREES summer program because I plan to pursue biochemical engineering in college. My project in TREES ‘Detection of Melamine and Cyanuric Acid by the DC Protein Assay’ is very much related to biochemistry and allowed me to learn and experience what my work in the future will be like. TREES has really strengthened my resolve to dedicate my career to science.” She currently attends the University of Pennsylvania (Class of 2015) and plans to major in bioengineering.
