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Smithtown Central School District
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Congratulations, Jolene!

March 12, 2025

Congratulations to Smithtown High School East senior, Jolene Cao, who last night attended the Regeneron finalist award ceremony, held in Washington D.C.! Jolene was one of six Long Island high school seniors and 40 nationwide, to be named finalists in the country's most prestigious science research competition. Finalists were selected from 300 scholars and 2,471 entrants.

"It feels surreal being a finalist," Jolene stated.

Cao’s research project is titled, "Synthesis of Stable and Magnetically Responsive Magnetite/Cesium Lead Halide Perovskite Quantum Dots for Programmable Light Polarization."

Cao investigated perovskite quantum dots, tiny crystals at the quantum level used in the fields of energy, healthcare, and computers, that suffer from instability.

Congratulations to Jolene and High School East Science Research Coordinator, Maria Zeitlin, for their countless hours of hard and impressive work!

Jolene Cao

Jolene and Maria Zeitlin

Jolene, Maria Zeitlin and the Regeneron president

Maria Zeitlin, Jolene and Assistant Superintendent Kevin Simmons