Science Slugger

With a passion for research and a couple of sea slugs, San Marino High School senior Carrie Shilyansky, 15, won second place Monday in the 56th Westinghouse Science Talent Search.

First-place winner Adam Cohen, 17, of New York City developed a printing technique that creates tiny patterns on extremely small surfaces, according to an Associated Press story.

Shilyansky’s project was much harder to define.

“I’ll explain it to you, and see if you understand it, because I don’t,” said an overjoyed Marilyn Colyar, an assistant principal at San Marino High who slowly read a Westinghouse public relations description of Shilyansky’s work. “It’s the modulation of a learning pathway by information encoded during habituation of a gill withdrawal reflex in Aplysia Californica, a kind of sea slug.” Shilyansky was in Washington on Monday and could not be reached to provide a better explanation.

Even if she couldn’t understand Shilyansky’s project, Colyar said she supported the student’s efforts and applauded her victory.

In addition to media attention and a trip to Washington, where the winners were announced, Shilyansky received a $30,000 college scholarship for her project, $10,000 less than Cohen’s prize.

The money will probably be used to go to a California school, Colyar said. “She wants to stay close to home.”

A California native who has been sitting in on Caltech classes since junior high school, Shilyansky has taken to research “the way some kids take to sports or dance,” Colyar said.

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Having skipped a few grades, Shilyansky is a young senior--just a few weeks shy of her 16th birthday. But according to those who know her, she is independent and mature.

“She has a passion for research in a way that most kids would not think about, but she is also a delightful girl,” Colyar said. “She’s just effervescent . . . not at all a nerdy kid.”

Shilyansky’s journey to Washington began in an applicant pool of 1,652 high school seniors, and at each level of competition, she became increasingly amazed to have made the cut.

“She made the phone call from my office that told her she was [one of 40 finalists],” Colyar said. “She was just in awe. She’s very humble.”