Scientific Curiosity and Connection

A profile and photos by Dov Weinstein Elul ‘24

In our new student voices series, “Get to Know,” Dov Weinstein Elul ’24 introduces us to fellow Poly students he meets around campus.

I spoke to Reyhan Sanchez ’24 about some of his classes and interests at Poly. He’s got a great affinity for science and enjoys researching things he finds interesting and then sharing those findings with his science teacher. 

“I have Dr. [Gail] Horowitz this year for Environmental Chemistry and she’s just a great teacher and a great person. The class itself has taught me lots of valuable information about the world around me, but Dr. Horowitz and I have been setting up times to talk outside of class about different topics that I’m interested in that she knows about, as a sort of tangent off of the class. For example, recently we we talked about the creation of elements and how they formed. Were they on earth first? Or, were they already in space before that? We also talk about physics sometimes, which she doesn’t know so much about, so we’re both actually able to learn at the same time, which is pretty cool. I basically do research outside of class on specific science topics I’m interested in and then present what I’ve learned to her. I want to go into medicine so I’ve been thinking about doing an independent study on anatomy.”

“The sciences I’m most interested in are chemistry and particle physics, which thus far I’ve mostly researched on my own time. I’m also interested in epidemiology, neuroscience, or immunology because I like understanding how the human body works and interacts with the world around it. Similarly, my interest in chemistry stems from how cool it is to see the way everything interacts, how you can turn literally any object into a different element or substance in some way, shape, or form. For example, we could take this table, with bonds likely made out of some sort of metal, polymer, or plastic, and turn it into, say, an artificial sweetener or something.”

“I’ve been interested in medicine since I was about four or five years old. My grandfather was a doctor, and I used to spend a lot of time with him. When I was younger, I used to just draw red blood cells and other various things that I find interesting. As I’ve grown, my love for these different topics has developed and I really enjoy pursuing them on my own time and with Dr. Horowitz, so I can learn about things I’m truly interested in.”

The above profile was first published in May 2023 in the Poly People section of the website.