Gokul Kannan, a 12th grader at River Hill, has been involved in independent research and mentorship at River Hill High School, facilitated by Ms. Sasser. Gokul developed his research idea: "Triggering the brain to heal itself after traumatic brain injury: where glia, anesthesia and nanomedicine meet". With Ms. Sasser's help, he has worked with Dr. Sapna Kudchadkar at Johns Hopkins as his mentor. Gokul has discovered some striking results and will be filing a patent.  He has also published a peer-reviewed paper!

Even more significantly, Gokul recently won an award for his research work at the International Biodendrimer Conference in Copenhagen. His accomplishment surpassed graduate students and postdoctoral researchers!  Dr. Tomalia, the inventor of dendrimer nanoparticles and nominee for the Nobel Prize, attended Gokul's presentation and sent him a congratulatory note which said, "Gokul, I send my sincere congratulations to you upon winning the Bio-Dendrimer-5 (2016) Poster contest in Copenhagen. It is unprecedented to win such a contest while still a high school student."