Jared Mayron joined others from across the globe to conduct experiment and learn from top scientific minds
Whether it’s fuel for cars, home heating or electricity, scientists the world over are researching ways to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels by investigating alternative energy sources.
This summer, recent Bethlehem Central High School grad Jared Mayron had a chance to make his own contribution to this expanding body of work during a monthlong stay at a prestigious science program.
Mayron traveled to Israel for the month of July to attend the Dr. Bessie Lawrence International Summer Science Institute, an annual program run out of the Weizmann Institute of Science. It’s a rather exclusive gig only 79 students altogether attended, just 19 of whom were from the United States.
That translated into a rigorous application process, which started with an essay and a telephone interview. The selection procedure is fairly rigorous, said Mayron, since the Weizmann Institute pays the cost of attendance for the students.
For Mayron, his experience last summer doing research with fungus at the state’s Wadsworth Labs put him in the running for consideration. Once he arrived at the program, he was selected to continue along a similar line by working on a biofuel research project that aimed to identify the best species of algae from which to extract fuels.
While Mayron’s group produced interesting results, their experiments didn’t leave them with a clear-cut choice.
We can’t exactly be sure which one was the best without more data,` he said.
Other students spent their time working in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and computer science. Though they spoke the international language of science, they hailed from all corners of the globe.
`It was interesting meeting people from other cultures,` Mayron said. `They all pretty much know about America, but we don’t really know a lot about what they do.`
Mayron spent about a week-and-a-half in the lab, and during the rest of his time at the institute, he had the opportunity to sit in on lectures with some of the world’s top scientific minds, including a Nobel prize winner.
While the weekdays were for research and scientific pursuits, the weekends were left open for students to explore the rich history of the area. Mayron toured Jerusalem, including the city’s religious landmarks like the Western Wall.
He also climbed up to the site of the Masada Fortress, which overlooks the Dead Sea, to see the sunrise.
For many Americans, the Middle East is a place that mostly enters our consciousness through incidents of conflict or disaster. Despite the political and military turmoil in the region, Mayron said, only native Israelis in his group really noticed the subtle signs of conflict.
`For them, it’s kind of like a part of their daily lives,` he said. `We knew it was there, but it wasn’t a big part of our trip. We were too busy talking with each other and going to see the sights to really see the conflict.`
Mayron will soon be leaving Bethlehem to attend Washington University in St. Louis, where he will major in biomedical engineering with hopes of exploring a career in the medical sciences.“
