Huihui (Angela) Fan
New York
Stuyvesant High School
Huihui (Angela) Fan, 17, of Staten Island, studied the root systems of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana to better
understand how plants react to changes in environmental nitrogen for her Intel Science Talent Search project in plant science.
Through a combination of molecular biology/genomics, botany and computer science, Angela compared species ecotypes
(geographically separated genetic variants) that have evolved in either nitrogen-rich or nitrogen-poor environments, and was
able to determine a role for the previously uncharacterized gene “SUR1-like.” She believes that altering the expression of
this gene in man-made plant strains would be the first step in modifying crop plants to increase agricultural productivity,
while reducing problems resulting from the use of fertilizers. Angela is captain of the policy debate team at Stuyvesant
High School in New York, and a debate coach with the Urban Debate League in the Bronx, where she teaches debating skills
to students dealing with socioeconomic challenges. She also volunteers with the Red Cross and teaches beginning piano in
her home. Angela was born in China and is the daughter of Dapeng Fan and Yan Xu. She speaks both Chinese and Spanish.
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