Monica Liu, a 12th-grader at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, won honorable mention in the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology at the California Institute of Technology over the weekend.
Liu, who lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, earned $1,000 for herself and $2,000 for her high school for research she presented relating to skin cancer. Liu’s research focuses on developing a method to sensitively detect melanoma cells circulating in the blood. Her research may eventually help predict cancer metastasis and enhance targeted cancer therapies, a competition spokesman said.
Liu is quickly building an impressive track record. She co-authored a paper on melanoma detection accepted for publication in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. She is currently a student researcher at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance. Liu excels in piano, flute, voice studies, ballet and modern jazz. Her audiences may be surprised, when she discusses her cancer research before her piano performances.
Liu plans to study neuroscience and molecular biology, along with public policy, and would like to work in public health.
She also currently represents 6.4 million students in California as a full-voting student member of the California State Board of Education.
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