Science News Online (5/15/99): Student standouts tackle ills, theorems

 The Weekly Newsmagazine of Science

 Volume 155, Number 20 (May 15, 1999)

 Student standouts tackle ills, theorems

 By P. Weiss

 Top winners Nisha Nagarkatti (top left), Feng Zhang (bottom left), and 
Jennifer Pelka (right) describe their projects. (Photos courtesy Intel Corp.)

 Studies of a cell-killing weapon that oozes out of tumors and of a way to foil 
the AIDS virus won two of the three top awards at the 1999 Intel International 
Science and Engineering Fair. A project by a young mathematician who proved 
five theorems also garnered highest honors.

"I've known many people who died of cancer, so I wondered why our bodies can't 
fight against cancer," says Nisha Nagarkatti, 17, of Blacksburg, Va., 
explaining why she pursued her cancer research. The work has now netted her a 
$40,000, 4-year college scholarship.

 Also receiving $40,000 scholarships are Feng Zhang, 17, of Des Moines, Iowa, 
for his AIDS-related investigation and Jennifer Pelka, 16, of Orlando, Fla., 
for her mathematics project, which is relevant to deciphering the human genome. 
In all, 753 projects won shares of the more than $2 million in travel, 
scholarships, and cash awards.

 This year's fair attracted 1,179 9th-to-12th-grade winners of regional 
competitions in about 40 nations. The contest ran May 2-8 in Philadelphia, the 
scene of the first such fair 50 years ago. Only 30 students competed in 1949.

 Increasing global communication among students through the Internet may help 
explain the fair's growing international popularity and rising level of project 
sophistication, says Eugene S. Meieran, a contest judge and scientist at Intel 
Corp. in Chandler, Ariz. Intel is the major funder of the fair, which is 
coordinated by Science Service, publisher of Science News.

 Besides immersing themselves in serious science and rubbing elbows with Nobel 
laureates, contestants socialized, played computer games, and scarfed down a 
215-foot-long dessert-billed as the world's largest strawberry 
shortcake-honoring the fair's 50th birthday.

 A second chance to hobnob with Nobel laureates awaits Nagarkatti and James 
Lawler, 16, of Greenwich, Conn. They were awarded trips to the Nobel ceremony 
in Stockholm this December. Lawler studied heat-generating reactions of gases. 
He had won a $40,000 scholarship in the 1998 fair (SN: 5/23/98, p. 327).

 Other students destined to travel include Nicole Young of Palm Bay, Fla., and 
Summer Acevedo of Grant, Fla., whose project on cancer diagnosis won them a 
trip to the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Greece. Bound for 
Brazil are John Keefner of Black Hawk, S.D., and Mark Hanhardt of Sturgis, 
S.D., who jointly studied superconductors and will visit the International Fair 
in South America.

 Judges also awarded 14 best-of-category honors, worth $5,000 each, to the top 
winners of $3,000 first-place prizes. In behavioral and social sciences, the 
accolades went to Derek Zanutto of Fresno, Calif., for a study of a chemical's 
effect on planarian behavior. In biochemistry, Zhang won for his AIDS-related 
research; in botany, John Korman of Greer, S.C., for a plant-tumor 
investigation; in chemistry, Lawler; in computer science, Gabor Bernath of 
Budapest, for devising a three-dimensional scanner; in Earth and space 
sciences, Jay Michaels of Cocoa, Fla., for a study of rotating winds linked to 
severe weather; in engineering, Jonathan Condit of Lake Charles, La., for a 
low-cost device to detect irregular atrial rhythm; and in environmental 
sciences, Sirisha Kalicheti of Chantilly, Va., for examining metal-ion 
contamination in fish.

 Other best-of-category winners were, in gerontology, Eric Stern of Great Neck, 
N.Y., for Alzheimer's disease research; in mathematics, Matthew Ong of 
Cheyenne, Wyo., for work on group theory; in medicine and health, 
Kapualokelanipomaika'I Katherine Medeiros of Honolulu for exploring a possible 
anti- cancer agent in papaya seeds; in microbiology, Jeremy Farris of Bonaire, 
Ga., for research on biological control of the kudzu vine; in physics, Han-Chih 
Chang of Chang-Hwa City, Taiwan, for a study of magnetic fluids; in zoology, 
AmyLyn Woolley of Bend, Ore., for shrimp research; and for a team project, 
Young and Acevedo.