Herbert Mason Hedberg is Nation's Top High School Scientist; Intel Awards $100,000 First-Place Scholarship, $530,000 in Total Prizes

Business Wire, March 16, 2004

Business Editors/Science Writers/High-Tech Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2004

Intel Corporation today awarded Herbert Mason Hedberg of North Attleboro, Mass. a $100,000 scholarship and top honors in the Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS), America's oldest and most prestigious high school science competition that is often called the "junior Nobel Prize."

Hedberg, 17, of North Attleboro High School, developed a faster, more efficient method to diagnose cancer by screening for telomerase inhibitors and ranking their potency as potential tumor suppressors. Hedberg, an aspiring physician-scientist, is a competitive swimmer and founder of "Exciting Elementary Science," a program to encourage scientific curiosity in young students.

The second-place prize, a $75,000 scholarship, went to Boris Alexeev, 17, of Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, Ga. His research deals with the theory of automata, a simple model of computation that is the mathematical basis for pattern matching and can be used in fields such as genetics and speech recognition. In addition to his love of research, Alexeev enjoys the outdoors and is an avid rock climber.

Ryna Karnik, 17, of Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Ore. won the third-place $50,000 scholarship for her patent-pending design method for constructing microchips which may save developers time and money when creating and testing prototype semiconductor chips. Karnik enjoys tutoring elementary school students and is a Junior Olympics competitor in saber fencing.

"The Intel STS finalists serve as a reminder that many U.S. schools, teachers and students are excelling in science and math," said Craig Barrett, Intel chief executive officer. "These exceptional young scientists are already producing the kind of innovative thinking and solid results that this country absolutely must have to keep America the center of innovation."

Rounding out the Top 10 Winners:

-- Fourth place: A $25,000 scholarship was awarded to Linda Brown

Westrick, 18, of Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in

Richmond, Va., for her mathematics project,

"Investigations of the Number Derivative."

-- Fifth place: A $25,000 scholarship was awarded to Eduard

Reznik, 17, of Ward Melville High School in East Setauket,

N.Y., for his physics project, "New Exact Solutions to

Einstein's Equations."

-- Sixth place: A $25,000 scholarship was awarded to Jayne

Wolfson, 18, of Byram Hills High School in Armonk, N.Y., for

her behavior and social sciences project, "An Exposition of

the Cognitive Development in Toddlers Using Pretend Play."

-- Seventh place: A $20,000 scholarship was awarded to Qilei

Hang, 18, of Allegany High School in Cumberland, Md., for her

engineering project, "Optimization of the Location for Two

Drawpoint Holes in Conical Stockpiles."

-- Eighth place: A $20,000 scholarship was awarded to Ann Chi,

17, of Terre Haute South Vigo High School in Terre Haute,

Ind., for her chemistry project, "H2 and C2H4 Elimination

Pathways in the Y C2H6 Reaction."

-- Ninth place: A $20,000 scholarship was awarded to Andrei

Munteanu, 18, of Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington,

D.C., for his earth and space sciences project, "A Novel

Algorithm for Computing the Minimum Distance Between Two

Elliptical Orbits."

-- Tenth place: A $20,000 scholarship was awarded to Gordon L.

Su, 18, of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md.,

for his behavioral and social sciences project, "The Effects

of Economic Globalization on Income Inequality in Post-Mao

China."

The remaining 30 finalists will each receive a $5,000 scholarship and all students will receive an Intel(R) Centrino(TM) Mobile Technology-based notebook computer.

Washington, D.C., Highlights

While the week in Washington is highly competitive, there is more to this experience than judging. Finalists have met President George W. Bush, interacted with leading scientists and Nobel Laureates, and visited places of historical and political importance. In addition, the finalists are provided a chance to present their research at the National Academy of Science and most importantly, build friendships that will last a lifetime.

Judging

Students were judged by an independent committee, selected by Science Service, administrator of the competition since 1942. Winners were chosen based on their research ability, scientific originality, creative thinking and ability to apply science to the world around them. Chairing the committee was Dr. Andrew M. Yeager, director of Stem Cell Transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

"The Intel STS is an excellent way to discover America's future leaders in science and technology," Dr. Yeager said. "The judging committee selected these 10 students based on their overall knowledge of the sciences, ability to apply science to problem solving, ability to think creatively and uniquely, and passion for scientific research."

Background

Over the past 63 years, STS alumni have been recipients of the world's most coveted science and math honors, including five Nobel Prizes, three National Medals of Science, ten MacArthur Foundation Fellowships and two Fields Medals.