Westhampton Beach High School Student Earns High Honors

A Westhampton Beach High School senior was recently honored for her groundbreaking research at Brookhaven National Laboratory studying the potential use of an invasive seaweed as a natural fertilizer.

Jessica Curran developed an idea to use dasysiphonia japonica — a red seaweed native to the Northwest Pacific that is spreading aggressively through Long Island waters, killing fish with its lethal toxins and damaging the region’s delicate ecosystem — to help Long Island’s $194.3 million agricultural industry

“Jessica has taken full advantage of all our district’s (resources) during her four years in Westhampton Beach,” says Principal Dr. Christopher Herr. “She has gone above and beyond.”

Curran’s work has earned her a prestigious honor — she has been named a Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar, an award given to only 300 high school students, from America’s oldest, and most prestigious, research competition.

“I was very excited,” says Curran. “It was very validating for all my research.”

Curran was awarded $2,000, and a chance to become a finalist in the competition, boasting a top prize of $250,000, by demonstrating her research skills, leadership, community involvement and commitment to academics through an application process.

Curran recently earned a perfect score on her AP Research exam, a feat that only 357 students in the world accomplished, and is a National Merit Scholar. Additionally, Curran is vice president of her school’s National Honor Society, a volunteer of the Westhampton junior ambulance and is a Girl Scout who earned her Gold Award, the highest award in the organization.

However, Curran is not the only Regeneron Scholarship recipient from Westhampton Beach High School.

“Westhampton Beach … (earning the honor) for the second year in a row is a point of pride for the district, and speaks volumes of the quality of work happening in the science research program,” says Superintendent Carolyn Probst.

Last year’s recipient was 18-year-old Jack C. Shultz.