Graham William Wakefield Van Schaik

SOUTH CAROLINA

Graham William Wakefield Van Schaik, 17, of Columbia, completed a two-year study of the long-term effects of exposure to pyrethroids, commonly found in household and agricultural pesticides, for his Intel Science Talent Search project in environmental science. Graham had become interested while helping his grandmother in her tomato garden, and subsequently designed two novel experiments to investigate the possible effect of pyrethroids on breast cancer and neurodegeneration. His work included plant cultivation, liquid-phase extraction, gas chromatography, tissue culture, cell viability assays, ANOVA testing and linear regression analysis. His findings showed that realistic levels of pyrethroids promote significant cellular proliferation in human breast cells, a sign of cancer, and neurite retraction in rat PC12 neurons, a sign of neurodegenerative disease, like Alzheimer's. He is first in his class of 421 at Spring Valley High School, and his honors include a Best in Category Grand Award at the Intel ISEF 2007. He has also founded and raised funding for a summer science camp for more than 300 at-risk grade school students. Graham is the son of Douglas and Joan Van Schaik.