2011 California State Science Fair
Student of the Year

The award citation at the Awards Ceremony reads:

This award represents more than just academic excellence. The Student of the Year is a well-rounded high school senior who performs community service, has interests and hobbies outside of science, and is someone who shows leadership to their peers. This year’s winner embodies all of this and more.

Our Student of the Year has earned awards in math, science and overall academic excellence at the local, state and national levels. This student has shared the love of math by founding a county-wide Math Circle. With the success of the Math Circle, the recipient obtained a grant to start a Math Club in an underserved local community. The Math Club serves over 80 youth each weekend, and has an extensive core of volunteers. If possible, our recipient would like to take every child off the street and enroll them in Math Club.

Our recipient spends his spare time playing varsity soccer and golf, and is an accomplished cellist. All this is on top of maintaining a 4.54 grade point average, ranking first in his class.

Please join me in applauding our 2011 Student of the Year — from St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano — Jonathan Li!

His project:

S1420 — Third Place

Jonathan F. Li, Grade 12
Effects of Cell Compressibility, Motility, and Contact Inhibition on the Growth of Tumor Cell Clusters
Advisor: Dr. John Lowengrub
School: St. Margaret's Episcopal School, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County