66th Annual STS (2006-2007)
Finalists
Sarah Elizabeth Marzen

VIRGINIA
Sarah Elizabeth Marzen, 17, of McLean, submitted an Intel Science Talent Search project in chemistry that developed an improved theory and physical model for organic solvation (the process of swelling, gelling or dissolving a material by a solvent). Sarah used statistical mechanics, incorporating pressure-volume effects, to generate more accurate thermodynamic properties of free energy and heat energy during solvation. In her model, she represented the placement of water around the solute as a probability distribution as opposed to a uniform distribution. These improvements suggest that hydrogen bond reordering may assist in understanding hydrophobic hydration of larger complex molecules as proteins in water. Sarah is the first female captain of the physics team at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, and is also co-president of the Tomorrow's Women in Science and Technology club. She has earned awards for her achievements in math, science, Latin and varsity cross country. The daughter of Stephen Marzen and Louise Epstein, she plays viola and piano. Sarah plans to major in physics and math in college and become a physics professor.