More than 1,500 young scientists from 51 countries and territories gathered in Albuquerque, New Mexico on May 13-18 for the 2007 Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), the world's largest precollegiate science fair. These finalists were 9th- through 12-graders who earned the right to attend by winning a top prize at a local, regional, state or national science fair. The culmination of the week is the Grand Awards Ceremony, where awards valued at nearly $1 million in scholarships, tuition grants, scientific trips, and internships are announced.

The Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award

This award, which includes a $50,000 scholarship, is given to three finalists judged to be the "best of the best" in that year. The 2007 winners of this award were: Dayan Li, 17, from Greenbelt, Maryland; Philip Streich, 16, from Platteville, Wisconsin; and Dmitry Vaintrob, 18, from Eugene, Oregon.

• Dayan (Jack) Li, a high school senior, focused on angiogenesis, the growth of new capillaries from existing blood vessels, which is essential for tumor growth and metastasis. Thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) is one of the most powerful angiogenesis inhibitors and interacts with nitric oxide (NO), which can inhibit or stimulate angiogenesis. This study developed a quantitative, highly accurate and precise method to simultaneously monitor the expression of several tumor marker genes in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in response to TSP1 and NO. Li's project may be able to provide invaluable information on drug targets and their potential to be regulated for the treatment of cancer.
• Philip Streich's research has provided the first evidence that carbon nanotubes, which are among the strongest and most conductive materials in the world, are thermodynamically soluble. He further quantified this solubility and its limits by using static light scattering to measure a parameter called the second virial coefficient B. These findings may be the key to finally realizing the potential of nanotubes as a supermaterial. Streich is a homeschooled high school sophomore. (Read an interview with Philip about his project.)
• Dmitry Vaintrob's sophisticated mathematical investigation evaluated ways to associate algebraic structures to topological spaces. Vaintrob, a high school senior, proved that loop homology and Hochschild cohomology coincide for an important class of spaces. He also was the First-Place winner in the 2006-07 Siemens Science & Technology Competition and the Third-Place winner in the 2007 Intel Science Talent Search, which has often been called the "junior Nobel Prize."

You can listen to brief interviews with Vaintrob, Li, and Streich in this podcast from PodTech.net.

A Trip to the Nobel Prize Ceremonies

The Seaborg SIYSS Award is other most coveted award at ISEF — an all expense-paid trip awarded to three senior finalists to attend the Nobel Prize Ceremonies in December. This award is named for the late Glenn T. Seaborg, Nobel Laureate in chemistry and a Science Service trustee. Winners attend the Nobel lectures and press conferences and experience the extravaganza of the Nobel festivities. They also attend the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar (SIYSS), a multi-disciplinary seminar highlighting some of the most remarkable achievements by young scientists from around the world. The 2007 winners of the Seaborg SIYSS Award are:

• Temple Mu He, 18, Troy, Michigan. Project: "Period Analysis of Cataclysmic Variable X10 and Its Implications on the Origin of Low States"
• George Hotz, 17, Glen Rock, New Jersey. Project: "I Want a Holodeck"
• Dmitry Vaintrob, 18, Eugene, Oregon. Project: "The String Topology BV Algebra, Hochschild Cohomology and the Goldman Bracket on Surfaces"

"Winners Will Receive a Minor Planet"

Students who were awarded "Best of Category" in each of the 19 categories each receive a $5,000 Intel scholarship and an Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology-based notebook. The Best in Category winners are:

• Animal Sciences: Yihe Dong, 16, Athens, Georgia
• Behavioral Sciences: Mary Martha Ferrari Douglas, 18, Manhasset, New York
• Biochemistry: Mihika Pradhan, 16, South Hamilton, Massachusetts (read about it)
• Cellular and Molecular Biology: Dayan Li, 17, Greenbelt, Maryland
• Chemistry: Philip Streich, 16, Platteville, Wisconsin
• Computer Science: Raeez Lorgat, 16, Cape Town, South Africa
• Earth and Planetary Sciences: Hannah Wolf, 16, Allentown, Pennsylvania
• Electrical and Mechanical Engineering: George Hotz, 17, Glen Rock, New Jersey
• Energy and Transportation: Siyabulela Xuza, 18, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Environmental Management: Chan Ka Kin, 18, Hong Kong, China
• Environmental Sciences: Graham Wakefield Van Schaik, 17, Columbia, South Carolina
• Materials and Bioengineering: William Campbell Martin, 18, Saginaw, Michigan
• Mathematical Sciences: Dmitry Vaintrob, 18, Eugene, Oregon
• Medicine and Health Sciences: Patrick Ming Chen, 17, Portland, Oregon
• Microbiology: Eric Delgado, 17, Bayonne, New Jersey
• Physics and Astronomy: Temple Mu He, 18, Troy, Michigan
• Plant Sciences: Tanja Kellerman, 18, Citrusdal, South Africa
• Team Project in Life Sciences: Tsai-Ta Lai, 19, and Hung-Jen Chen, 18, Taipei, Taiwan
• Team Project in Physical Sciences: Jacob Loewenstein, 17, and Brienne Kugler, 18, Jericho, New York

Finalists awarded Best, First, or Second in their category will also have a special honor: an asteroid will be named for them. (The press release humorously phrased this "All Intel ISEF first place and second place category winners will receive a minor planet.") MIT's Lincoln Laboratory has partnered with Science Service in a program called the CERES Connection, which names asteroids after students in Science Service competitions, including the Intel ISEF. All asteroids named in the CERES Connection program have been discovered by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program, operated by the Lincoln Laboratory.

More Amazing Trips, Scholarships, and Internships

Other top ISEF awards enable recipients to travel to other international science events. These awards and their 2007 winners are:

• China Association for Science and Technology Award - Winners receive an all expense-paid trip to China for a week to attend the 22nd China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest, to be held in Kunning, Yunan Province in August 2007. The 2007 winners are:


• Jackson Beatty, 17, Indianapolis, Indiana. Project: "Magnetic Coil Gun"
• Rishin Behl, 17, Mumbai, India. Project: "A Novel Design for Magnetic Levitating Seismograph" (read about it)
• Midori Kanno, 16, Yamagata City, Japan. Project: "Topographic Features and Formation Process of Mamigasaki Alluvial Fan, Northern Japan, based on Field Observations and Flume Experiments"
• Simon Schmitt, 19, Bremen, Germany. Project: "Space Localization of Arbitrary Sound Signals in Real Time"
• Philip Streich, 16, Platteville, Wisconsin. Project: "Determining Carbon Nanotubes' Thermodynamic Solubility: The Missing Link to a Practical Supermaterial?"
• European Union Contest for Young Scientists - For a top team project, an all expense-paid trip to attend the European Union Contest for Young Scientists, to be held in Valencia, Spain in September 2007. The 2007 winners are:


• Natnaree Siriwon, 17, Korawich Niyomsatian, 18, and Nathaphon Supokaivanich, 18, Bangkok, Thailand. Project: "The Secret in Mimosa's Leaf Folding Pattern" (read about it)
• MILSET - For a top team project, an all expense-paid trip to the Expo Science International ESI 2007 to be held in Durban, South Africa, in July. The 2007 winners are:


• Jacob Loewenstein, 17, Cedarhurst, New York and Brienne Kugler, 18, Jericho, New York. Project: "Controlling Metal/Polymer Adhesion: The Enhancement of Microlithography and the Formation of Nanowires"
• National Taiwan Science Education Center Award - Winners receive an all expense-paid trip to Taiwan to attend the Taiwan International Science Fair in February 2008. The 2007 winners are:


• Alexandra Courtis, 17, Davis, California. Project: "Bright, Luminescent Silicon Nanoparticles for Biological Applications"
• Jarrett Renn Remsberg, 17, Middletown, Maryland. Project: "Synthetic Analogs of Smoothened Intracellular Loop as Potent Inhibitors of Cancer Cells Growth"

Some ISEF awards offer winners a summer internship.

• Agilent Technologies - Agilent offers eight paid summer internships at an Agilent site that aligns with the student and his/her background. Agilent is committed to award four of these summer internships at Agilent sites outside of the United States. The 2007 winners are:


• Holly Reid Batchelor, 17, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. "Cosmic Rain: Investigating Particles from Space" (see video interview, video project demo, and news story)
• Amelia Nong Shin Chang, 18, Singapore. "Development of a Novel Approach for Applications in Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy" (read about it)
• Abigail Groff, 18, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. "Heterologous Expression of a Bionanowire Subunit, PilA, in E. coli"
• Heng Jiao, 17, Shanghai, China. "A Novel Cyclodipeptide with a Significant Anti-tumor Activity from a Marine Bacillus"
• Jie Jin, 18, Beijing, China. "Alarm System for Drowning in Swimming Pools"
• Cameron Kruse, 17, Colorado Springs, Colorado. "The Dirt on Baseball: Standardizing the Baseball Mudding Process" (see video interview and Cameron Kruse's project website)
• Yuyang John Mei, 17, Danville, California. "A Novel Pathway for PTEN Chemosensitization"
• Katja Miller, 18, Hermannsburg, Germany. "Construction of Virtual Axonal and Dendritic Morphology Based on Properties Extracted from Classes of Neurons"
• American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science - An all expense-paid trip for five weeks and a scholarship to the Bessie Lawrence International Summer Science Institute at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. The 2007 winner is:


• Tanja Kellerman, 18, Citrusdal, South Africa. "Aloe - A Bitter Pill for Ticks to Swallow"

In all, more than 500 Intel ISEF participants received scholarships and prizes for their work. "These winners — and indeed, all 1,500 Intel ISEF participants — represent some of the most innovative thinking around the world," said Craig Barrett, Intel chairman. "Intel ISEF is part of our company's commitment to foster young innovators like these who will one day transform the world in ways we can hardly imagine. I want to congratulate them on their very meaningful scientific accomplishments."

For a complete list of award winners, see www.societyforscience.org/isef/results/index.asp

ISEF is sponsored by Intel and has been administered by the Society for Science & the Public (formerly called Science Service) since its inception in 1950. Society for Science & the Public is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the understanding and appreciation of science among people of all ages.

Watch It!

There were lots of video cameras at ISEF this year. Here are links to a few of the resulting videos:

• Intel ISEF Opens, Intel Video News Release (finalist interviews begin after a 1-minute introduction)
• Intel ISEF Awards Announced, Intel Video News Release
• Re-enactment of a judging session with Philip Streich (if you want to see how intense it is!)
• PodTech.net 2007 Intel ISEF videos
• ScienCentral News 2007 Intel ISEF videos