64th Annual STS (2004-2005)
Finalists
David Lawrence Vigliarolo Bauer

NEW YORK
David Lawrence Vigliarolo Bauer, 17, of the Bronx, entered the Intel Science Talent Search with a materials science project that he believes has the potential to save thousands of lives by rapidly detecting and evaluating individual exposure to biochemical agents. Based on an understanding of the fundamental properties of fluorescent nanocrystals, known as quantum dots (QDs), David designed a new type of universal sensor for neurotoxins that recreates their actual effect in the body. His detection assembly uses QDs as a kind of "battery," while AChE or acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that nearly all neurotoxins inhibit, functions like a "dimmer switch." The amount of energy transferred to an AChE-dye conjugate is used to determine if a neurotoxin is present. David is president of the science club at Hunter College High School in New York and twice a recipient of the Coach's Award in varsity fencing. He is co-author of a paper submitted to the Physical Review B, of the American Physical Society, and founder of a nonprofit organization that works for social justice in Liberia. He is the son of Lawrence Bauer and Diane Vigliarolo and hopes to continue his studies at the CUNY Honors College.