59th Annual STS (1999–2000)
Finalists
Joshua Michael Levy

MARYLAND
Joshua Michael Levy, 18, of Gaithersburg, has earned a slot as finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search for his research in the medicine and health category. The Quince Orchard High School senior has been a volunteer researcher in microbiology at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health after school and during the past several summers. His research project in the Intel competition examines a naturally occurring suicide in cells called apoptosis that automatically removes cells from the body before they become cancerous. His objective was to see if the process could be artificially induced. The research focused on the key roles that certain proteins and genes play and how they might be controlled in artificially inducing the cell-destroying process. Despite his daily chores as a volunteer researcher at NIH, which often keeps him busy until 6 p.m, he still finds time to be active in student government and sports. He hopes to attend Cornell and become a field virologist. Josh was honored as scholar athlete and has won more than a dozen academic awards including several for cancer research. He is the son of Harold and Jody Levy.