Schools

Research on Stinkbugs Earns John Jay's Tess Woerner Tobin National Science Honor

Tobin is one of 300 semi-finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search contest.

John Jay High School issued the below press release detailing the efforts of student Tess Woerner Tobin, who, as Bedford-Katonah Patch reported, was named a semi-finalist this week in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search contest:

Tess Woerner Tobin likes pheromones.

“Pheromones are cool,” said the John Jay High School senior. “No one studies pheromones and no one knows what they are, so I knew right off the bat I wanted to study them.”

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Her interest and two years of science research paid off when she was named an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist on Wednesday.

“I was in a state of disbelief,” Tobin said. “I really didn’t expect to be chosen. I thought for sure there was a mistake and it wasn’t really me.”

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But after being congratulated by her peers and teachers, the news sunk in. She is one of just 300 honorees nationwide selected as a semifinalist in the pre-college science competition who will receive a $1,000 award from the Intel Foundation. An additional $1,000 will be awarded to John Jay High School.

Tobin’s research focused on a pest well known in New York and throughout the country — stinkbugs…specifically the brown marmorated stinkbug.

With guidance from science research teachers Jodi Riordan and Anne Marie Lipinski, Tobin connected with Dr. George Hamilton of Rutgers University, whose research includes the examination of pesticides and pest management.

In his laboratory, Tobin tested whether a stinkbug sex pheromone and aggregation pheromone would attract the insects, as well as whether lemongrass and clove essential oils would successfully deter the stinkbugs.

“The results were very encouraging,” she said. “I found that the lemongrass oil was significantly repellent.”

Tobin hopes to expanded upon her research using a larger sample size of stinkbugs and see if her findings can be applied to controlling the stinkbug population’s damaging effects on the nation’s crops.

The 40 Intel finalists will be named on Jan. 21.

Photo: John Jay High School 2015 Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist Tess Woerner Tobin (center) with her science research teachers Jodi Riordan (left) and Anne Marie Lipinsky. Photo credit: Contributed

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