Commack HS Student, Aspiring Neurosurgeon, Named Regeneron Finalist

COMMACK, NY — Ishana Chadha, a senior at Commack High School, is headed to Washington, D.C.

Chadha, a 17-year-old aspiring neurosurgeon, on Thursday was selected one of 40 finalists nationally in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the school district announced. Five other students from Long Island were named finalists, as well.

It marked the first time in a decade that Commack High School has produced a finalist in the prestigious competition. The last Commack High School finalist was Scott Massa, who graduated in 2015. He is now an ophthalmologist resident at NYU.

Chadha earned a $25K scholarship, on top of the $2K scholarship she previously earned for being named one of 300 Regeneron Scholars earlier this month.

The top 10 will be selected on March 11, at the conclusion of a week-long event in Washington. They are competing for more than $1.8 million in scholarships, with a top prize of $250K.

The contest originally had 2,471 entrants — the largest pool of applicants since 1967. Chadha's project was entitled, "Understanding Neuronal Migration in Brain Development: The Role of Oligophrenin1 in Modulating Radial Migration of Pyramidal Neurons by Interaction With Pacsin2." She researched a protein in a gene that affects cognitive disabilities.

Commack has a proud tradition of students achieving in the Regeneron competition under the leadership of Jeanette Collette, Daniel Kramer and Andrea Beatty.

The high school has produced 14 scholars in the past decade: Jonathan Zhang (2024), Soyoun "Ashley" Moon (2022), Kimberly Liao (2020), S. Shamtej Singh Rana (2020), Pragati Muthukumar (2019), Daniel Lee (2018), Anoop Singh (2018), Jordan Cooper (2017), Abby Cuomo (2017), David Li (2016), Mehtaab Sawhney (2016), Scott Massa (2015) and Matthew O’Connell (2015).