Mehta Honored By AWSM

Herricks High School junior Setu Mehta was honored at the Advancing Women in Science and Medicine (AWSM) Annual Awards Breakfast held at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research on May 16. Mehta received the 2016 Susan Novick Advancing Women in Science and Medicine Girl Scout Award, which is presented annually to a girl scout who is interested in pursuing biomedical research.
Mehta was selected for a prestigious internship and will receive a $2,000 scholarship from AWSM. She will have the opportunity to study this summer under the guidance of Dr. Betsy Barnes, the Head Investigator of the Laboratory of Autoimmune and Cancer Research at the Center for Autoimmune and Musculoskeletal Diseases at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.
At the breakfast ceremony, Mehta was also congratulated by renowned researcher Dr. Jennifer Doudna, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley. Doudna discovered Crispr-Cas9, a genome editing technique which alters any organism’s DNA; her research is recognized worldwide. Additionally, North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth presented Mehta with a certificate commemorating her achievements in science.