Laurels and laureates at 48th science fair - the International Science and Engineering Fair

Science News, May 24, 1997 by Christine Mlot

Each year at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the two high school students who accumulate the most points during the week-long science competition win a trip to Stockholm for the next Nobel prize ceremony.

Last week, the Glenn T. Seaborg Nobel Prize Visit Award went to Anne Jarvis Jefferson, 18, from Winona (Minn.) Senior High School and Logan Joseph Kleinwaks, 17, of Thomas Jefferson H.S. for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va. Jefferson took top honors among the earth and space sciences projects for her study of sediment movement in the upper Mississippi River. Kleinwaks received the top physics honors for his X-ray analysis of a material used in nanotechnology and optics.

For the students who wouldn't be making the trip, Stockholm had a few emissaries on hand. Six Nobel laureates attended this year's Intel ISEF in Louisville, Ky., along with 1,089 students from 23 countries.

Joseph Murray of Harvard University, who won the 1990 Nobel prize in medicine, remarked on the variety and "freshness" of the projects, taking particular note of studies of simple organisms for their therapeutic value. Joining him were physics laureates Norman F. Ramsey (1989) and Sheldon L. Glashow (1979) of Harvard and chemistry laureates Mario Molina (1995) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Robert F. Curl Jr. (1996) of Rice University in Houston, and Dudley R. Herschbach (1986) of Harvard.

Herschbach is chairman of the board of Science Service, which publishes SCIENCE NEws and administers the Intel ISEF. Intel and other corporate, federal, and educational sponsors awarded $2 million in scholarships and prizes to two-thirds of the students, based on judging by 967 science professionals.

Intel judges awarded $40,000 scholarships "for outstanding research" to three students: Kleinwaks, who was also a finalist in this year's Westinghouse Science Talent Search (STS) (SN: 2/1/97, p. 69); Scott Nicholas Sanders, 17, of Ely H.S. in Pompano Beach, Fla.; and Karen Mendelson, 15, of Doherty Memorial H.S. in Worcester, Mass. Sanders wrote a mathematics paper on edge detection in image processing. Mendelson devised an optical method to measure carbon monoxide in blood.

For their design of a submersible robot probe, Renee Jeanne Filion, 16, and Stefane Robert Filion, 18, of Ecole Secondaire Algonquin in North Bay, Ontario, won top honors among team projects and a trip to the European Union Contest for Young Scientists. Students from Saint Louis School in Honolulu--Chi-Fai Law, 18, Allen Winn Yoo, 18, and Preston Wing-Kwong Ma, 17--won a trip to the 12th International Fair of South America in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, for their mountain bike design.

The top projects in each of 15 categories received $8,000 awards: in behavioral and social sciences, Jan Renee Linkenhoker, 17, of Lincoln H.S. in Vincennes, Ind.; in biochemistry, Adam Goon Wai Matthews, 18, of Punahou School in Honolulu; in botany, Joseph Robert Hastings, 17, of North Attleboro (Mass.) H.S.; in chemistry, Stuart Duncan Ibsen, 17, of Hanford H.S. in Richland, Wash.; in computer science, Benjamin John Schmidel, 17, of Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Kamuela; in engineering, Carl Mangus Samuelsson, 18, of Danderyds Gymnasium in Bankeryds, Sweden; in environmental sciences, Vishal Primal Grover, 18, of Miami (Fla.) Coral Park Senior H.S.; in gerontology, Deepta Shankar Atre, 17, of Nelson Snider H.S. in Fort Wayne, Ind.; in mathematics, STS winner (SN: 3/15/97, p. 159) Davesh Maulik, 17, of Roslyn H.S. in Roslyn Heights, N.Y.; in medicine and health, Jona Ashok Hattangadi, 18, of University H.S. in Orlando, Fla.; in microbiology, Merri Carole Moken, 17, of Morristown (N.J.) H.S.; and in zoology, Melissa Chak, 17, of John F. Kennedy H.S. in Bellmore, N.Y.