Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico - Last month, the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore presented the Global Young Scientists Summit 2014. Present at this prestigious event was Puerto Vallarta native and American School of Puerto Vallarta graduate, Jon Iker Etchegaray Langley.

The summit was an invitation-only event and was attended by 350 young scientists from prestigious universities around the world. Invited institutions had to select two to three of their top researchers to attend the summit. Attendees included researchers from the U.S., Germany, Britain, France, Israel, China, Australia, Japan, and various other universities from Asia Pacific. Singapore was chosen as the site for the summit because in recent years it has gained the reputation as an important hub for the development of new technologies in science.

Boston University was among the U.S. universities invited. They participated with two representatives, one of which was Jon Iker Etchegaray Langley. Jon is a Ph.D. student at BU in molecular biology and was the only Latin American present at the convention. His research looks into the degenerative processes that occur in the brain caused by Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. His work as primary researcher has appeared in publications such as Development published by The Company of Biologists. He had the opportunity of meeting Singapore's prime minister who requested to meet with BU scientists personally.

Jon Iker grew up spending his time on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta and the Malecón. He is a graduate of the American School of Puerto Vallarta, class of 2004.